College season ending ... and signings to begin?

[fzusher]

As I recall, last year around mid March undrafted college grads were being signed by various teams as free agents. No reason to think this won\'t happen again this year. The question is - who among them we should look out for as promising prospects with potential to be fantasy steals?

If names jump at you, fire away. I\'ll try to compile lists of productive undrafted collegers by league and post them on this thread. Thoughts for or against individuals on this list would be welcome, and likely not just by me

[Sin Bin]

Okposo is already signed. Turris is surely right behind. Who else?

[VintageVibe]

TJ Oshie

[goavsgo]

I think he means unsigned guys like Penner

[Sin Bin]

goavsgo wrote:

I think he means unsigned guys like Penner

He\'s not talking about RFA in the NHL.

He is asking about players that will sign from the college ranks once their season is over whether they are FA or property of an NHL team via the draft.

[duballstar014]

Sin Bin wrote:
He\'s not talking about RFA in the NHL.

He is asking about players that will sign from the college ranks once their season is over whether they are FA or property of an NHL team via the draft.

I think goavsgo is trying to refer to Penner when he skated at the University of Maine but was undrafted (also unsigned), but picked up a deal with the Ducks.

[Sin Bin]

duballstar014 wrote:

Sin Bin wrote:
He\'s not talking about RFA in the NHL.

He is asking about players that will sign from the college ranks once their season is over whether they are FA or property of an NHL team via the draft.

I think goavsgo is trying to refer to Penner when he skated at the University of Maine but was undrafted (also unsigned), but picked up a deal with the Ducks.

Gotcha. That makes sense. I thought he was referring to the deal with the Oilers.

[Sin Bin]

fzusher has reported that Ben Bishop from maine is forgoing his Senior season and has been signed by the Blues and will make his way to the AHL.

[fzusher]

ECAC:

First round of the playoff is done there and 4 teams have already been eliminated: St. Lawrence, Dartmouth, Rensselaer and Brown have already been eliminated. These 4 teams have 3 drafted prospects who were seniors and will for sure be graduating and will need to be signed by their teams by the summer or their rights are forfeited. LA\'s Paul Baier was already signed by the Manchester Monarchs. The other two, both of whom produced over a PPG clip for Dartmouth, are Pittsburgh\'s Nick Johnson and Montreal\'s J T Wyman (I came across a raving report about him in a Francophone paper earlier this season and as a result have snatched him in both my keeper pools - they touted him as potentially their next big power forward).

Undrafted forward seniors with good numbers (age, position, team, points+assists in games played, height/weight) :

Seniors (graduate this year)

Tyler Burton (23, C, Colgate, 21+18 in 37, 5\'9\'\'/180)
Jesse Winchester (24, C, Colgate, 8+28 in 36, 6\'1\'\'/200)
Jamie Bates (23, RW, Quinnipiac, 9+22 in 31, 6\'3\'\'/195)
Ben Nelson (24, C, Quinnipiac, 13+16 in 36, 5\'10\'\'/195)

No unsigned ECAC senior Ds jump at me with their numbers

also of note (but note the small size of the first 2):

Lee Jubinville (almost 23, C, Princeton, junior, 11+26 in 28, 5\'10\'\'/165)
Brandon Wong (21, C, Quinnipiac, sophomore, 13+23 in 36, 5\'10\'\'/175)
Evan Stephens (20, D, Dartmouth, freshman, 5+17 in 32, 6\'0\'\'/181, top D in the league in terms of points per game)

any of these worth keeping an eye on?

[fzusher]

goavsgo wrote:

I think he means unsigned guys like Penner

Yeah, that\'s what I meant. In the keepers i\'m in, most drafted college players are already taken. Looking for undrafted steals - like, indeed, almost every second player aged 25-30 on Anaheim edit - on a serious note, I kinda want to have a sense in advance, when I see an NCAA with great numbers signed in a few days, whether they\'re being signed as future NHLers or to provide steady offence to the ECHL affiliate ...

I do note, when I go over the leagues, those drafted players who are seniors and thus teams have to make a decision on them in the summer, but that\'s just an FYI.

[fzusher]

Sin Bin wrote:

fzusher has reported that Ben Bishop from maine is forgoing his Senior season and has been signed by the Blues and will make his way to the AHL.

nhl.com reported it; I was just passing it along :laugh:

[Sin Bin]

You reported it on Dobberhockey.com. That means you broke the story.

[fzusher]

Hockey East -

Already eliminated - Merrimack and Maine.

Maine has 2 drafted players graduating and needing to be signed by their NHL teams in the summer - Flyers\' Rob Bellamy and Rangers\' Billy Ryan, both forwards whose numbers I find unimpressive. Goalie Ben Bishop, a junior this year, has already signed with St. Louis.

Merrimac has no drafted players.

Side note: Buffalo\'s Nathan Gerbe, a junior on Boston C, dominated this league with 24+24 in 35. Unless he is bent on finishing school to get a degree, he may very well bail for the AHL.

Undrafted seniors with good numbers:

Matt Fornataro (22, RW, New Hampshire, 14+27 in 34, 6\'0\'\'/190)
Mike Radja (23, C, New Hampshire, 19+21 in 32, 6\'0\'\'/180)
Pete MacArthur (22, LW, Boston U, 17+23 in 36, 5\'10\'\'/180)
Bryan Ewing (23, RW, Boston U, 17+22 in 35, 5\'10\'\'/165, notable jump in numbers this year)
Mike Kostka (22, D, Massachusetts, 9+12 in 34, 6\'2\'\'/210, notable jump in goals scored this year, but drop in assists)
Tyler Sims (22, G, Providence, 2.30 GAA .916 save %, 6\'0\'\'/190)

Other players of note:

Rob Ricci (23, C, Merrimack, junior, 13+21 in 34, 5\'9\'\'/165)
Ben Smith (19, RW, Boston C, sophomore, 18+20 in 36, 5\'11\'/195, still eligible for this year\'s draft)
Joe Whitney (20, LW, Boston C, freshman, 7+34 in 36, 5\'6\'\'/165, still eligible for this year\'s draft)
Colin Wilson (18, C, Boston U, freshman, 12+22 in 34, 6\'1\'\'/215, already touted as a possible top-15 pick in this year\'s draft)

any of these merit keeping an eye on? Except Colin Wilson, that is.

[fzusher]

BTW, just checked the CBA and drafted graduating seniors need to be signed by August 15th by their teams. Just an FYI.

[fzusher]

CCHA:

Already eliminated - Alaska, Lake Superior, Ohio State, Western Michigan. Of these, only Ohio State had drafted seniors - Colorado\'s Tom Fritsche and Ottawa\'s Matt McIlvane, both forwards with unimpressive numbers and a horrid -18 (only one other skater, a senior D, has a worse +/-.

Note, however, that Alaska\'s junior Tyler Eckford, a Devils D prospect, led all Ds in the CCHA in points (8+23 in 35), and was 2nd in points on his team. He may bail.

Undrafted seniors with good numbers:

Bryan Marshall (25, C?, Nebraska-Omaha, 13+30 in 30, 6\'0\'\'/170)
Mick Lawrence (25, RW, Nebraska-Omaha, 21+19 in 36, 5\'10\'\'/205)
Derek Whitmore (23, LW, Bowling Green, 27+9 in 36 [selfless bugger, ain\'t he?], 5\'11\'\'/185)
Tommy Goebel (23, RW, Ohio State, 21+15 in 39, 5\'8\'\'/170)
Bryan Lerg (22, C, Michigan State, 18+17 in 37, 5\'10\'\'/180)
Brandon Scero (21, LW, Nebraska-Omaha, 16+17 in 35, 6\'00\'\'/190)

Notable others:

Jordan Pearce (21, G, Notre Dame, junior, 1.94 GAA 0.916 save %; his GAA is 2nd in the CCHa but save % is 7th [in a 12 team league], so he may be an average goalie on a good defensive team, 6\'1\'\'/205)
Nick Sirota (24, LW, Northern Michigan, junior, 18+16 in 38, 5\'11\'\'/190)
Mark Olver (20, C, Northern Michigan, freshman, 18+17 in 34, 5\'11\'\'/160; leading all CCHA freshmen in points and goals, and that includes highly touted and drafted Palushaj and Pacioretty; still eligible for this year\'s draft - but just barely: born Jan. 1st 1988)
Carter Camper (19, C, Miami, freshman, 13+20 in 27, 5\'9\'\'/173, still eligible for this year\'s draft)
Jacob Cepis (20, LW, Bowling Green, freshman, 15+16 in 36, 5\'8\'\'/165; no longer draft eligible - born in December 87)

Quick comment - all of these seem to either be quite overage or have size issue. The only exception is Pearce, but I wasn\'t impressed by his save percentage. Still, just based on the numbers, if Olver is drafted this year he\'d be on my radar screen. I think that\'s a big if by now, though.