News & Notes From Around Pioneer Nation

DU recruits Nick Shore & Jason Zucker play for the USNDT-Under 18 Program. Team USA-U18 plays a schedule consisting of exhibitions against D-I & D-III universities and the USHL. Shore is the team's leading scorer and has 19 of his 21 points against college teams. Zucker has 17 of his 20 points against college teams. Despite all the players being just 17 years-old, their team has defeated Bowling Green and only lost by one to Boston University and two to Michigan this season. Looks like Shore and Zucker will be able to step in and contribute next season for the Pioneers.
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Next Summer the 2010 NHL Draft will be held in Los Angeles. DU should have four players or recruits that have a shot at being drafted, according to the NHL Central Scouting Service. The Pioneers newest recruit, goaltender Sam Brittain has been graded as a "A" player. Recruit Beau Bennett is rated "B" and Freshman playmaker Shawn Ostrow is rated a "C" by Central Scouting. Incoming recruit Jason Zucker was graded as one of the Top 20 players playing Junior hockey in the USA.

The preliminary listing is comprised of players who have been identified by NHL Central Scouting using the following criteria: A Rating: A must-see player who is predicted to be a potential first- or second-round draft selection in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft; B Rating: A player to note if a scout is in the area, a potential selection in the third-to-fifth round; C Rating: A player that Central Scouting is tracking, a potential late-round selection in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft.
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Despite a somewhat topsy-turvy start to the season, DU is ranked #3 in the Pairwise Rankings. Denver's record against the Top 25 teams in the country (T.U.C.) is an NCAA best 9-4-1. DU also has played the third most difficult schedule in the country. DU's match-up with Boston College (#2 Pairwise) in the Denver Cup on Jan. 2 will have huge ramifications during the NCAA Seeding and Selection Process.

3 comments:

pessimisticfan said...

Lets also not forget Jason Zucker who was ranked 18th among USHL/USNTDP players. His stock will be up when the full rankings come out in January. After doing some research yesterday I found out that Nick Shore is ineligible for this summer's draft and has to wait until 2011 to be picked, much like Paul Stastny did. Birthday cutoff is 9/15/92 and Nick's birthday is 9/26/92. Most likely we'll have Zucker, Brittain, and Bennett selected this summer. Also, Adam Murray is eligible but will almost certainly be passed over.

Aluuum said...

Pair wise ranking above 10( 12 will mostly work but 10 just to be certain) is the "be all and end all". Gold pan ,silverpan, toilet pan--Mcnaughton cup .hooligans cup ,jock strap cup, mean nothing when it comes to winning the national championship. Also, seeding in the 16 team tournament is of little value.
Only two things are important:
Being 10-12 or lower in the PWR and a team being at the top of it's game in March with no key injuries. Book Detroit!

dggoddard said...

Thanks for the reminder on Zucker. I'll add him to the article.

While its true that the Pairwise Rankings could be very random this season, defeating BC is very important. Its possible that DU & BC could be the #2 & #3 seeds in the Tournament. That means that they could meet in the semi-finals of the Frozen Four. The #2 overall seed would be the "home" team and have the last shift change on faceoffs.