Ferris State Hires 17 Year Old For Radio Play-By-Play

You read that right, a 17 year old kid will do play-by-play on the radio broadcasts for Ferris State hockey. And he'll do it for free.

The story is here, but you have to be a paid subscriber read it so out of respect to the newspaper I won't be quoting any of the text here. I have seen the story, both on message boards and in an e-mail, and have since been given a heads up on how the deal really went down (something the article only glosses over) and I have to say that I have mixed feelings about this.

First, its great that a young kid, Dominic Hennig (younger brother of FSU player Nate) is getting this chance. And he's surprisingly experienced too (2 years of play-by-play in the NAHL, published writer, CCHA intern, etc.). I have no doubt that he'll do a great job at this.

But the problem is how this came about. It's not like FSU found this talented kid that'll work for free when they had an opening. They created the opening, as a cost cutting measure, because they knew they could get the kid for free. The university decided to replace longtime play-by-play announcer Bill Beckwith with the young Mr. Hennig just to pinch some pennies.

To Beckwith's credit he took the news, at least publicly, with grace and good spirits. And it's not like part time play-by-play guys in the college hockey ranks get paid a ton of money so Beckwith isn't out a lot of income. But to take a long time paid professional out of this position over what to the university is such a tiny amount of money is just plain petty.

I have nothing against Dominic Hennig, I'm sure he's a great kid. All he's accomplished at such a young age is incredibly impressive and even inspiring. But I do have something against the Ferris State athletic administration. They took a job away from someone for nothing more then an insignificant portion of their budget only to give the job away for free. Such a low paying job should rightly still be a paid position regardless of how good the person waiting in the wings is. Whoever made this decision needs to have their head examined.

Could Broncos Lose Connauton?

The rumors are flying, in fact they started even before the recent NHL draft. Kevin Connauton may bolt WMU for Canadian Major Juniors.

Yep, that's right. The Broncos may lose out on the next three years of one of the most promising young players in the Broncos' line-up to the Canadian development model. His rights are owned by the Vancouver Giants of the WHL, a club with a solid reputation of developing quality prospects and right in the back yard of Kevin's NHL club, the Vancouver Canucks.

The first thing that must be asked when such rumors surface is; how valid are they? Sadly for Bronco fans they seem to be quite valid. Connauton and his father William, an Edmonton business man and savior of the Alaska travel disaster last season, are on record as having spoken to the Giants brass this summer. In fact Giants Director of Player Personal Jason Ripplinger said after that pre-draft meeting that "they were very interested."

Kevin is also quoted as saying "I'll wait until after I speak with the Canucks before deciding where to play next year." Uh Oh. The Canucks are making moves to have more control over their prospects, and a move to the Giants could easily fit into those plans.

The flip side to all of this, however, is that if Connauton sticks with WMU then he has 3 more years of eligibility left to develop, including far more practice and weight room time then he'd ever see in Major Juniors, all at no cost to the Canucks.

We'll have to wait and see how this plays out. In the mean time I'll be sitting here with my fingers crossed, holding my breath, and knocking on wood.

On A Related Note:

I have finally found a Canucks prospect camp roster, and it includes Kevin Connauton as one of the attendees.

Szczechura Interview

Eric Fish over at It's Just Sports has a good interview with former Bronco Paul Szczechura posted.

More Prospect Development Camp News

Matt Clackson, a 7th round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, is attending the Flyers' prospect camp again this year after his first full season as a professional last season with the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL.

Future Bronco Luke Witkowski is in attendance at the Tampa Bay Lightning Young Guns Camp this week. The Holland, MI native was a 6th round pick of the Lightning in the 2008 draft and will begin his college career this fall with the Broncos.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have not released any info on their camp so I have no idea if Mark Letestu is attending or not. The Vancouver Canucks have a couple releases about their camp, but no roster listed so I don't know whether or not Kevin Connauton is there. The Phoenix Coyotes did not invite Chris Frank to their camp, though their camp roster is rather small compared to most teams' camps.

Max Campbell at Rangers Camp

Bronco hockey player Max Campbell is in New York this week for the Rangers Prospect Camp. Campbell is one of 16 players at the camp, and the only one from the 2007 draft class.

'09-'10 Roster Released

WMU has released the roster for the upcoming college hockey season. As far as the freshmen are concerned there are no surprises, everyone expected to join the team in fact has. And new additional early departures from the rest of the roster either. In other words, no news is good news.

The Broncos will have a 28 man roster next season made up of: 6 seniors, 8 juniors, 7 sophomores, and 7 freshmen; or looked at another way: 3 goalies, 8 defensemen, and 17 forwards.

LoVecchio, Ludwig at Bruins' Camp

Western Michigan senior Tyler Ludwig is attending the Boston Bruins' rookie development camp along with former Bronco Jeff LoVecchio, who has apparently recovered enough concussion related injuries to rejoin the Bruins' corps of prospects.

For LoVecchio, this has to be an exciting return after an entire season off. While there was never any official word from the Bruins or their AHL affiliate in Providence, the word was he had a career ending concussion related injury.

For Ludwig, this is a giant step towards becoming a legit NHL prospect after not being drafted. What the future holds for him is still very unclear, but he at least has his foot in the door at this point.

Dwyer Signs New Contract

WMU hockey alum Pat Dwyer agreed to terms with the Carolina Hurricanes on a new two-way contract. Dwyer was an occasional injury call-up for the 'Canes and performed well in a defensive roll that saw him receive significant penalty kill time as a fourth liner. This new contract means Dwyer's NHL hopes are still alive and he has at least one more shot at a regular shift in "the show."

2009-10 Schedule (UPDATE 8)

WMU still hasn't officially announced the schedule for next season, but a tentative schedule came with the marketing materials for season ticket renewals.

Cluster mates: Ferris State, Miami, and Ohio State

Oct. 16 MERCYHURST
Oct. 17 MERCYHURST
Oct. 23 @ Alabama-Huntsville
Oct. 24 @ Alabama-Huntsville
Oct. 30 @ Michigan State
Oct. 31 MICHIGAN STATE
Nov. 6 LAKE SUPERIOR STATE
Nov. 7 LAKE SUPERIOR STATE
Nov. 13 @ Ohio State
Nov. 14 @ Ohio State
Nov. 20 MIAMI
Nov. 21 MIAMI
Nov. 27 @ Nebraska-Omaha
Nov. 28 @ Nebraska-Omaha
Dec. 4 ALASKA-FAIRBANKS
Dec. 5 ALASKA-FAIRBANKS
Dec. 11 FERRIS STATE
Dec. 12 @ Ferris State
Jan. 2 BEMIDJI STATE*
Jan. 3 BEMIDJI STATE*
Jan. 8 MICHIGAN
Jan. 9 @ Michigan
Jan. 22 @ Bowling Green
Jan. 23 @ Bowling Green
Jan. 29 @ Miami
Jan. 30 @ Miami
Feb. 5 NOTRE DAME
Feb. 6 NOTRE DAME
Feb. 12 @ Northern Michigan
Feb. 13 @ Northern Michigan
Feb. 19 OHIO STATE
Feb. 20 OHIO STATE
Feb. 26 At Ferris State
Feb. 27 FERRIS STATE

* As of this tentative schedule the Texas College Hockey Showcase will apparently not happen as originally scheduled (featuring WMU, Lake Superior, Bemidji St., and Robert Morris) and will be replaced with a home series with Bemidji St. Independent sources are still inconsistent on whether this is true or not, but enough are saying it is true that I feel confident in saying this is most likely WMU's finalized schedule.

Connauton Drafted

Sorry about the late post, I've been busy the last week or so.

So in news that you already know, WMU sophomore to be Kevin Connauton was drafted in the third round of the NHL Entry Draft this weekend by the Vancouver Canucks. Not bad for a kid that was brought in to the college game a year earlier then originally expected after being under-scouted and under-recruited by the major programs in the college hockey world.

In the WMU press release Connauton says: "It was pretty surreal. I wasn’t expecting to go this high but it was really exciting to see my name up there." And honestly not many "draft experts" were expecting him to go this high either. Pegged as a solid late round pick (which would still have been a great honor) his draft stock clearly rose far more then anyone, besides the Canucks, really knew.

Congrats to Kevin, and best of luck in pursuit of a NHL career.

Galivan signs AHL Contract

Not a huge surprise. Patrick Galivan will get his first shot at professional hockey with the AHL's Chicago Wolves. Best of luck to him.

Connauton Stock on the Rise?

With apologies for being a bit late in posting this (just got back from a vacation), I came across this article on Hockey's Future about the top 10 college prospects for the upcoming NHL Draft. Scroll down to number 8 and you'll see Western Michigan defenseman Kevin Connauton listed.

This is somewhat high praise for a player ranked in the 200s among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. I say somewhat because, with some obvious exceptions, most of the top hockey talent that take the college route are drafted before they even enter college and this list is only players who have already played a year of college hockey. Not a huge talent pool to pull from for that list. But, still better praise then I might have expected, especially being ranked a spot ahead of a goaltender who just backstopped his team to a national championship.

All season I thought Connauton was slightly under-ranked by Central Scouting, maybe because he plays for a struggling program or maybe because he was relatively unheard of before entering college. Regardless, I am putting myself on the line as saying he WILL be drafted despite a ranking that puts him anywhere between a wild card and unlikely to be drafted. He is strong in two areas scouts put a premium on: his skating and his hands; and he is strong in an area general managers put a premium on: work ethic.

Arena Talk Rears It's Ugly Head Again

And this time a member of the Western Michigan Board of Trustees is the one with diarrhea of the mouth. Ken Miller is on record in the Kalamazoo Gazette today suggesting, scratch that, blabbering that WMU would consider moving men's basketball and hockey to a new downtown arena should it be built. Oy Vey!!!

Graham Couch, WMU beat writer for the Gazette, has a nice blog entry going over the pros and cons of such a move here.

And before I go on let me say that the replacement or renovation of Wings Stadium is LONG overdue... especially now that the K-Wings have announced that they are leaving the IHL to move up a level in minor hockey to the ECHL.

But now let me list some cons Mr. Couch didn't list.

First of all, one major reason Kalamazoo lost so much convention and concert business is because Grand Rapids built the Van Andel arena. If Kalamazoo wants some of that back they will have to out due Grand Rapids in that area and the Kalamazoo market simply can't support that size of an arena (which would need to be much bigger then what is currently proposed). Kalamazoo won't be able to fill the seats or handle to additional taxes needed to pay for it.

Second, scheduling would be impossible with WMU hockey and men's basketball in the mix. Yes, I know Ohio State and Wisconsin (and many other schools) do just fine with those two sports sharing an arena. But here we're also talking about the local minor league hockey team being the primary tenant and that'll make scheduling downright impossible (even if WMU's hockey team is the only one to make the move).

Third, let me re-emphasis Couch's point about student support. A lot of students walk from their dorm to Lawson and the UA for games and these same students (aside from the die-hard fans) are not going to drive downtown and deal with parking even if admission is still included in their enrollment fees (which may not be feasible anyway).

And let's face it, in college hockey student sections are foundational to the college hockey experience and student support at WMU hockey has been great right from the program's start. Also in basketball the student section has seen a resurgence in the last 5 or 8 years after taking about a decade off. In either sport I have to ask, why risk killing that core of fans?

And finally, WMU just can't afford to be involved with a downtown arena. No one knows what kind of deal would be struck between WMU and the arena, and there are a lot of creative ways those kind of deals can be made, but the bottom line is it will cost WMU something (even lost revenue in a revenue sharing deal). And it's not like WMU will save any money by not having games at UA or Lawson as both facilities would have to remain open, and staffed, for practices and other sports.

Kalamazoo should build it's new arena, the K-Wings need it, but WMU should stay away from this and keep what little money they do have coming in and stay in their current arenas. And Kalamazoo can lose this delusion that they are going to win back concert and convention business lost to Grand Rapids, they can't support an arena big enough and the sized arena they can support is going to attract a different level of shows and events (though to be fair it would attract a lot more then the current Wings Stadium does).

Corvo Scores

Former Bronco Joe Corvo scored in the Carolina Hurricanes' come-back attempt last night with just 1:26 remaining in the game. The 'Canes lost game 1, as they have in each of their previous series, as Corvo tries to reach his second career Stanley Cup Finals (Ottawa lost to Anaheim in 2007 cup finals).

TSN Video Recap

If Corvo and the Hurricanes can find a way to win the Stanley Cup he would be only the fourth former Bronco to win it joining Glenn Healy (Rangers '94), Neil Smith (Rangers '94) and David Gove (Hurricanes '06).

Some Recruiting News (Updated)

The Chris Heisenberg site has confirmed that transfer goalie Nick Pisellini and incoming forward Jordan Gidaro will not join the Bronco hockey team until the fall of 2010.

Pisellini's situation just makes perfect sense for all parties involved. He isn't eligible until January of 2010 and if he were to start playing college hockey then he would play that half season plus two more. But if he waits until the fall of 2010 he can use all 3 years of his eligibility on 3 full seasons, and not beginning until after Riley Gill graduates.

Gidaro's situation is a bit different, but makes for an equally good decision. After a wild summer last year that saw him switch teams in Ontario before having no team and finally landing with Westside of the BCHL after the season had already started Gidaro had a terribly inconsistent year. He joined an already established team, had trouble finding a niche within that team, got injured for much of the season, and finished with disappointing scoring numbers. With an extra year in juniors Gidaro will hopefully get that point per game season he was projected to have instead of the half a point per game season he did have.

UPDATE: Also for the 2009 class the Broncos have added physical forward Dane Walters of the Sioux Falls Stampede (USHL). The native of St. Paul, MN stands 5'11" and 181#. In 54 games last season he had a 9-17-26 line with 94 PIM and a +2 rating. And of most importance for fans and his future teammates... his nickname is D-Dub.