UMass Lowell recently has added three new recruits to its future cupboard, including a former prep school goal scorer.
2002 birth-year left wing Nick Rheaume has committed to the River Hawks for either the 2022-23 or 2023-24 season. The Sherbrooke, Quebec, native played for Cushing during the 2019-20 season. He posted 10 goals and 25 assists in 34 games with Steve Jacobs’ Penguins.
Rheaume moved on to the Prince George Spruce Kings in the BCHL for this season, scoring six goals and eight assists in 20 games. Rheaume sees the ice well and can make plays or finish by using his hockey sense, being heavy on pucks, and with his hard shot. The one area of his game that will need to continue getting better before getting to Hockey East is his skating.
Over the weekend, Norm Bazin’s program added a 2000-born forward for next season. Stefan Owens is currently in his second season with the Maine Nordiques in the NAHL. Wearing a letter, an ‘A’, in 2020-21, Owens scored 24 goals and 27 assists during 56 regular-season games. He has added two goals and three helpers in five postseason games to date. Owens and his teammates begin their second-round series this weekend at home against the Maryland Black Bears.
The River Hawks have secured goaltending depth for the future in ’01 Edvard Nordlund, a Stockholm, Sweden, native. He just completed his first season in North America, registering a .902 save percentage in 17 games with the NAHL’s Danbury Junior Hat Tricks. Previously, Nordlund played for AIK in his native country.
UNH lands Russian playmaker
Nordlund isn’t the only European to recently commit to a Hockey East program. New Hampshire recently committed ’03 left-shot forward Stiven Sardaryan. From St. Petersburg, Russia, Sardaryan has played the past three seasons for CSKA Moskva.
Sardaryan often has put up well over a point per game with the Russian organization. He made the jump to the MHL midway through this season. In 50 games with Krasnaya Armiya Moskva, he posted nine goals and 21 assists.
According to an NHL scout who makes frequent trips to Europe, Sardaryan is a very good player who is a big commit for the Wildcats. He’s the 73rd-ranked player among international skaters, according to NHL Central Scouting in the organization’s final rankings.
Spitserov switches allegiances
Culver Military Academy wing Timofey Spitserov has opted to change his commitment from UMass to Vermont. The ’02 from St. Petersburg, Russia, decided to do so after the Catamounts allowed him to matriculate this fall. The Minutemen were expecting him to play a year of junior hockey before coming to Amherst in 2022-23.
Spitserov, as I’ve detailed in this space numerous times, is a legit goal scorer. He scored 16 goals and 10 assists in 12 games for Culver, an Indiana-based prep school, in 2020-21. He racked up 49 goals in 40 games the year prior.
The seventh-round pick of the San Jose Sharks in the 2020 draft certainly would have benefited from a year of junior hockey. However, he was anxious to begin his college career, and Todd Woodcroft’s program obliged.
It is a troubling trend that players are looking to make the jump straight from prep to college. The programs that have enjoyed the most success over the past decade have relied on older players. It rarely works for college programs to take players in at a young age.
Bentley lands grad transfer
Bentley has received a commitment from Miami left wing Phil Knies. The ’98 from Bratislava, Slovakia, is a dual citizen who served as captain of the Red Hawks in 2020-21. He concluded his career at Miami with 23 goals and 26 assists in 126 games over four seasons. He’ll bring a wealth of experience that also includes 120 USHL games to Bentley. His skating has been an issue, but he’s heavy on pucks and should add some offensive punch around the goal for Ryan Soderquist’s team.
Providence adds one, loses another
USA Hockey NTDP U-18 left wing Liam Gilmartin will no longer enroll at Providence. The Falls Church, Va., native will instead head north and play for the London Knights in the OHL. The ’03 scored 13 goals and 22 assists in 50 games with the NTDP this season. Gilmartin is the 126th-rated North American skater in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings.
Providence has added Austin Cain to serve as a backup goalie for the 2021-22 season. Cain, a ’96 from Ottawa, Ontario, played four seasons at Western Michigan and will be a grad transfer with the Friars. In 28 appearances during his four years in Kalamazoo, Cain posted an .859 save percentage while going 7-15-2.
Recruiting dead period lifted
Tuesday was the first day that NCAA Division 1 coaches could be in the rinks in more than 14 months. The governing body of collegiate athletics lifted the moratorium on off-campus recruiting, as of June 1.
Coincidentally, there will be a ton of showcases going on across New England this weekend. Sixty Development Camp, Prep Cup, Battle of Boston and War at the Well are just a few of the events that college coaches will be present at over the course of the weekend.
