NHL.com Profiles Brock Trotter

(left) Brock Trotter

From: NHL.com

Former DU player Brock Trotter, 21, is an interesting pickup for the Montreal Canadiens organization and a player whose size and ability to rebound from serious injury was questioned by teams and scouts when he went undrafted in 2005 and 2006. He was a star for the Dauphin Kings of the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League and then had a strong 2004-05 season for the Lincoln Stars of the United States Hockey League. That got him into the University of Denver, where he played only five games his freshman season after severing his Achilles tendon in a game against North Dakota.

Trotter had 16 goals and 40 points in 40 games for Denver as a sophomore and moved into a leadership role last year. But after posting a team-high 13 goals and 31 points in 24 games, he left the Pioneers for reasons never explained. He first tried to return to Lincoln, then signed with Montreal and was assigned to Hamilton, where he had three goals and nine points in 21 games.

"Brock was a free agent who has really come along," Timmins said. "He was one of the most improved players at development camp. He has added some size and strength and has bettered his shot. Like Ben Maxwell, Brock is a smart play-maker. He's also a good person who comes from a good family. Brock was on our draft list and our scout visited his family before the draft. We knew the player and the person. When he indicated he was coming out of college and turning pro, we were Johnny-On-The-Spot."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know the real reason Trotter left DU?

dggoddard said...

Its never been published other than an "off the ice incident" and the fact that DU was considering suspending its leading scorer for the rest of the season tells you that it was pretty major.

On the otherhand it wasn't career ending, because DU was willing to welcome him back this season and the Montreal Canadiens signed him after doing a background check.

Trotter said several weeks after the incident, "It was some personal stuff that came up at the time that made me look at my options. I wasn't kicked off the team but I wasn't able to play for the rest of the year. I'm not sure what to call it," he explained.

Trotter said his situation is not at all like that of collegian Kevin Quick, who was suspended by the University of Michigan hockey team and has signed an ATO (amateur tryout) contract with Norfolk. It's recently surfaced that Quick allegedly stole a teammate's credit card at Michigan and ran up considerable charges.

"I'm not going to jail or anything like that," Trotter added. "I could have gone back to the school team next year."

Rather than go back, however, Trotter and his agent decided what was best for his development as a player was to begin his pro career.

Anonymous said...

The Michigan player that Quick allegedly stole from was Carl Hagelin.

Anonymous said...

From my sources, I don't believe that Trotter did anything that would be considered illegal like Quick did at Michigan.

I think Trotter's suspension would been more along the lines of the student conduct transgression of Cody Lampl at CC.