Now or Never for UND?

In this week’s 30 thoughts by Elliotte Friedman and Damien Cox, we find this little nugget. Yeah, I know… This is after the Canucks GM had said that Brock Boeser would stay another year at UND.

If you missed it during the Los Angeles/Vancouver broadcast Monday night, John Shannon reported Vancouver’s position on Brock Boeser’s future has evolved. Boeser, who the Canucks selected 23rd overall last June, goes to this weekend’s NCAA Frozen Four on a high. The North Dakota freshman has 54 points in 40 games, with his play elevating to new levels as the games’ importance increased. If the forward chooses to go pro, Canucks GM Jim Benning will not stand in his way.

On the same broadcast, Billy Jaffe added the Canucks are pursuing UND free-agents Drake Caggiula (a forward) and Troy Stecher (a defenceman). Caggiula is hot property, with several suitors. Last week, I mentioned Ottawa and Philadelphia among them. The Senators are still very much a part of this, but a few sources indicated the Flyers may not be. Stecher, a local boy who attended Vancouver’s development camp in 2014, told reporters his father had season tickets to the Canucks and he “dreamed” of playing there.

If you haven’t seen this, here’s another clueless comment about the NCAA development route. I would wonder if this person has actually watched college hockey or not. Especially, when roughly 30% of the players in the NHL took the college hockey route.

While bringing him along slowly is important, leaving him in college for another year is not the right thing to do either — Boeser seems ready for the AHL. (Janik Beichler, Fansided)

I am not sure who this author is, but the UND coaching staff is good at developing players. If you don’t believe me talk to some of the great hockey minds around college hockey. All you have to do is look at some of the players that have gone through the program. UND runs their hockey program similar to a professional organization.

Chew on this, the Philadelphia Flyers thought so highly of former UND head coach Dave Hakstol they hired him to coach their NHL team. The reason They hired him; because they like the way he developed young players. Hak’s team is on the cusp of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs.