It's mailbag time.
Before the New England prep hockey playoffs get underway and the MIAA tournaments get too deep, we decided to answer your questions, which we accepted through Subtext.
We got questions on various topics. If you like this, let us know and we'll certainly do more going forward.
Let's dive in.
Note: Questions have been edited for length and clarity.Â
Will the new NCAA ruling regarding CHL players have an impact on more New England kids getting opportunities in the OHL and QMJHL?Â
Marinofsky: For starters, only the QMJHL can draft players from New England due to regional eligibility. The OHL can pick from players living in New York and New Jersey (as well as other places). Now that's out of the way, the answer to your question is yes, more locals will have opportunities to play Canadian junior hockey. I've seen several QMJHL scouts at prep games and I would presume that a good number of local prospects opt to try things out up north. I'm very curious if there will be prep and pre-18U full-season players who normally would've stayed with their programs that will now try things out in the QMJHL. We won't know how that will play out until the spring.
Are we seeing a change in college recruiting with the availability of CHL players being eligible for the college ranks?Â
Marinofsky: Players are still committing to schools. As Providence College men's assistant Joel Beal said to me for my CHL ruling story, "If we see a good player, I don't care where he's from." What has changed is where these colleges are going to recruit. The college coaches I've talked to feel they have a good grasp on the '05-'07 birth years around here given they've been watching them for two to three years. They're still watching them, but they're also getting to know the talent pool in Canadian junior leagues. We'll see more former CHL players committing, but we should still see local prospects getting commitments, too.
How many Canadians previously unavailable to the NCAA have been committed so far to Division 1?Â
Marinofsky: Sir, it's your lucky day. While I didn't major in math at UMass, I can still count. There are 74 CHL players now committed to Division 1 programs. The local schools with the highest CHL commitments are UMass Lowell and Quinnipiac with four apiece. Elsewhere, the most is Bowling Green with 10 and Michigan Tech with six. I know many people's next question will be, "Does this impact the number of spots for players previously eligible for the NCAA." Yes, it does.
CHL RULING STORIES: How it could impact prep and academy hockey | Impact on Division 1, Division 3 and junior hockey
Who are the most underrated players in the MIAA?Â
Marinofsky: This is a great question. I'll let Pat handle the girls. For boys, I haven't seen every team and I mostly watch the top teams in Division 1. So I'm leaving out a lot of teams here. One player who I loved watching this season was Arlington senior defenseman Bobby Nigro. He's not big or overly offensive — he just gets the job done. He hits everybody, he gets down to block shots and he moves pucks well. While he's not regularly on the scoresheet, he's the kind of senior leader you want playing for your team come the tournament.
Donnelly: There are a handful of players that come to mind. Hingham center Addy Garrity is one. Caroline Doherty gets the headlines, naturally, but Garrity has been her partner in crime on the top line. Garrity plays a good, detailed 200-foot game, and she reads the ice really well in the offensive zone. She also recently passed 100 points for her career. Another that comes to mind is HPNA defender Paige Nottingham. I didn't realize how dynamic and fast she was on the blue line until I saw HPNA live for the first time. That whole group flew under the radar for me a lot this year, even for a top-10 team in our rankings. Duxbury's juniors and seniors get a lot of the attention, but freshman Ceci Tremante has been a good factor for them, too.
Can Salisbury still win it all? What do you think about Avon Old Farms' struggles of late?
Marinofsky: Yes, Salisbury can very much still win it all. As I said on RinkWise earlier this week, I don't have a favorite to win the Elite 8 on the boys side. The Crimson Knights were my preseason No. 1 team and while they've struggled at points of the season, they're dangerous. So long as they get some secondary scorers going, they're going to be a pain to be matched up with in the Elite 8 tournament (assuming they make it). As for Avon Old Farms, it's a young team that lost a lot of talent from last season. That typically spells some inconsistency and after a great start that included winning their own Christmas tournament, they fell on hard times at the start of February. They should be a hard matchup in the Large School Tournament and an Elite 8 contender next season.
How is St. Mark's boys so good given how few students it has and tough entrance standards?Â
Marinofsky: On the boys side, head coach Carl Corazzini has done a remarkable job. I was looking back at older St. Mark's seasons and the Lions were brutal in the late 2000s. Scott Young took over right after and stabilized things and Corazzini took the program to the next level. Corazzini is very good at player development. He has guys at the NHL and the U.S. National Team Development Program, but he has been great at developing talent for Division 1 and 3. He's also someone players want to play for and he's constantly working the phones to get his players to junior and college. Said one former St. Mark's standout to me: "Dedication and care for people is the name of his game and he is the best at it. Outside of my family, he probably has had the biggest impact on my life. Such an amazing guy."
Who are you tracking for the girls Large School tournament?
Donnelly: A lot can change between now and the brackets coming out on Sunday. As of Thursday afternoon, Thayer, Deerfield, Berkshire, Phillips Exeter, Tabor, St. Paul's, Kent and Milton make up Nos. 1-8. I'd give an inside track to any combination of Thayer, Deerfield and BB&N (currently in the Elite 8) that ends up in the Large School bracket. But there are a lot of interesting teams behind them. Exeter was fantastic to start the year, but tapered off in January. They've got an excellent first line and a good goaltender in Allie Bell. Berkshire is interesting, especially with Julia Echavarria in net. Tabor has played a gauntlet of a schedule this year. They've had close games and given a lot of Elite 8 contenders fits. Watch out for the battle-tested Seawolves. St. Paul's has come on strong these last two weeks, too. You always want to be playing your best hockey going into the playoffs.
Any new prep or high school coaching changes?Â
Marinofsky: For boys prep, the two that I know of right now are Nobles and Phillips Exeter, which are two highly coveted jobs. Those will be fun searches to track in the spring. For boys MIAA, all I know of is longtime Franklin bench boss Chris Spillane plans to retire at the end of the season and assistant Jake Brightbill will become the head coach. The two have been co-coaching the team this season.
Donnelly: It's not a change, but the only news I know of right now between girls prep and girls MIAA is Tom Resor deciding to stay on one more year at Nobles. There's no doubt that'll be a highly sought after job when the time comes, to say the least. As for anything else, I'm sure there may be more news cropping up with the end of the season near.
LATEST PREP RANKINGS: Final boys top 10 ahead of playoffs | Final girls top 10 ahead of playoffs
What should a family look for in a solid hockey program at a prep school?Â
Marinofsky: I never played prep hockey so I can't speak from playing experience. But from covering prep for three years, it's about two things. The first is it's what you make of it. Almost any situation can be turned into a good one if you're willing to put everything you have into it. The second is what's the set-up like around hockey? Part of succeeding at hockey is having a great social and educational experience around workouts, practices and games. They all feed each other.
Donnelly: Like Evan, I can't speak from experience. I'll echo the second part of his answer. One thing I've heard from players multiple times about the college recruiting process could apply to looking at prep schools. If you take hockey out of it, will you still enjoy yourself and find a fit at that school and in that community? That's just a big a part of it because there's so much more that goes into the experience of those four years than just hockey. On the hockey side, the same can apply. Everyone's different, so what's the best fit for you? Once you're there, it's on you to put in the work and make what you can of the opportunity.
Which system is the best for refereeing: 2-man, two referees and one linesman, one referee and two linesmen, or two referees and two linesmen?Â
Marinofsky:Â I was talking with Kimball Union boys coach Tim Whitehead back on Jan. 26 and he mentioned an interesting thing regarding this issue. At the time, he had five players get concussions in three weeks and four of the five hits that led to concussions weren't called penalties. Here's what he said: "Contact to the head is a major issue in the prep game. NEPSAC officials and athletic directors need to crack down on this dangerous trend. For starters, they need to adopt a two-referee, two-linesmen system. We're the only competitive league that I know of that uses the two-referee, one-linesman system, which is very difficult for the referees and distracts them from calling penalties. We need more eyes out there and strict enforcement of contact to the head. With no video review in the NEPSAC, we need to address contact to the head with the same razor-focus and strict punishments we did with hitting from behind years ago. That's the only way to cut down on these dangerous hits."
Donnelly: In a perfect world, you have two referees and two linesmen, especially in prep games where it's even closer to the collegiate level. This is not, however, a perfect world. What I can say from my experiences watching games, the absolute bare minimum needs to be either one referee and two linesmen or two referees and one linesman. Most regular season MIAA games I see have just two officials. Often, that means they could miss plenty of things over the course of the game, and that makes it hard to maintain consistency throughout. I don't want that to come across as critical of any officials, either. They catch way too much flack from spectators, coaches, players, etc. They're human. It's a fast game. With only two people out there, they are bound to miss things. The easier you can make it for them, the better. The caveat is, it's easier said than done to add more officials, given logistics, costs, etc.
MIAA BRACKETS: Division 1 girls | Division 2 girls | Division 1 boys | Division 2 boys | Division 3 boys | Division 4 boys
Which do you guys enjoy reporting on most: prep, MIAA or college?Â
Marinofsky:Â I hate them all! I'm kidding of course. I don't have a favorite. Each has very cool things about it. I played in the MIAA so that will always be special to me. The student sections and passion of playing for your hometown is unmatched. With prep, many schools have great student sections, too, and it's a higher-end game. College has a similar fervor behind it and the game has improved immensely in recent years. The thread through all three is the people. Getting to know players, coaches and their families, and watching them grow and develop as people and hockey players is the coolest part.
Donnelly: I'm not sure I have a favorite either. The MIAA has a lot of really cool storylines, whether it's middle-schoolers playing and excelling in key spots on the varsity (look no further than sixth-grader Emma Doucette at St. Mary's), Cinderella runs in the tournaments and more. You simply can't beat the atmosphere at a lot of the games, either. Prep is a ton of fun because of the talent that's all in one place at any given game. It's pretty cool to see the potential from a younger player who stacks up against elite Division 1 commits. With those commits, it's fun to be able to watch them before they hit the big-time at the collegiate and potentially professional and international levels. With college, I'll always have a soft spot for that because of my days covering the men's and women's teams at Boston University. It's where I started to love writing about hockey. I'm not as invested now that basically all of the players I covered have graduated or moved on, but it's still always fun to cover things like the Beanpot. It's such a fun event. Any serious hockey fan needs to see a Beanpot championship game at least once. The emotion and the pace are hard to beat.
