The Shark Tank has just become Mullins-West. Dick Baker is reporting that both James Marcou and Matt Irwin have signed with the San Jose Sharks.
Next to sign with the Sharks will be Justin Braun, who was drafted by the Sharks. Cory Quirk currently plays with Worcester, the Sharks’ AHL affiliate. There are a number of other Hockey East players in the San Jose system, including Nick Petrecki, Matt Jones, and the recently signed Nick Schaus.
Posted by rocks22 on March 19, 2010
https://fearthetriangle.com/2010/03/19/marcou-and-irwin-sign-with-san-jose/
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Fear The Triangle - UMass Hockey Blog 
Minutemen Nation
/ March 19, 2010thanks guys. next year will be tough. we had our chance this year with the HE Powerhouses having down years.
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Max
/ March 19, 2010Between all the UMass guys and Joe Thornton (who I’ll always be a fan of), the Sharks might be new favorite non-Bruins NHL team.
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Jason W.
/ March 19, 2010Well that sucks.
Hope the younger players and the new recruits are ready to go next year.
Hope Toot is up for the challenge. If not, he better resign soon.
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Mel
/ March 19, 2010Looking forward to a new year and a bunch of new players — hopefully some who will surprise us and leave their marks on UMass hockey. Good luck to Jimmy and Matt. And who knows, maybe some recruits will change their minds in terms of what schools they have committed to, and come to UMass because there is going to be plenty of ice time available!
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rocks22
/ March 19, 2010I like the defensemen coming in, but they’ll have to get up to speed damn quick for UMass to have success.
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George
/ March 19, 2010The Irwin loss will be bigger than most realize.
I love Doug Kublin and you saw the difference he made when he came back from mono, but right now he is the top returning defensemen on this team. Him and Michael Marcou are the veterans.
Big Trouble.
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Adam
/ March 21, 2010Am i allowed to be angry with them? I feel that way right now. It seems as though the program that has come so far is falling apart before our eyes.
@ George: I couldn’t agree more.
Kublin is great, and i think Kessler is good (though i didn’t do my homework on him and don’t know what his deal is). Rowe shouldn’t be a defenseman, personally i think Mikey Marcou shouldn’t be either. He is plainly just not good at defense.
If this class isn’t more than we hope, I feel like we are screwed. And thats only on D. thats not bringing up the fact that we are loosing the only three players (marcou, wellman, ortiz)that atleast for most of the season we could count on to perform. Please Czepiel. be awesome. Olczek, be your dad.
Holy Crap. Im scared
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George
/ March 21, 2010Adam,
Yeah I was only addressing the D. I didn’t dare look at the O. Between the 3 leaving and graduation, 70 of the 105 goals scored last year just exited west on route 9.
Even if a top notch incoming class were to get 70% of that back, those missing 20 some odd goals are HUGE.
Two with Wisconsin, two with Minnesota, good year for the slightly more difficult out of conference schedule. Looking more like 2001 than 2010.
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Umass Hockey
/ March 21, 2010All these players leaving may actually say alot about our program. We are recruiting much better players and though our record has been up and down the quality of player is much better. Quick, Marcou, Carlson, Wellman, Kostka, Matheson, Braun and Irwin. We never had players of this magnitude in the past.
The free agent signee’s are a sign of the times. Let’s look closely at Irwin leaving. He’s 23 years old. He had moderate sucess as a freshman. He started strong this year, but his second half was sub-par. Does he remind you alot of Nolet? Strong 1st year, moderate second year and struggled greatly his Jr and Sr. year. You dont see the Kings bringing Nolet up or even putting him in the minors. Irwin may have saw himself in the mirror and did the right thing and took the deal today because the way he was tracking he may not have gotten a deal in 2 years. Good for Irwin he did the right thing.
Marcou, nobody was surpised the Marcou left. He had 3 very consistent years, improving his game every year. With Wellman leaving and the lack of proven goal scorers( we could have a few next year but not proven) it was in Marcou’s best interest( professionally) to leave and turn pro. He may play in the minors for sometime but he’s a gamer and will make the show.
Again, the quality of player continues to get better at Umass, Carzo, Syner, Guzzo, Perreria, Walsh,Allen ect..Im sure some of these players may leave early, but thats life in college hockey. If the NCAA wants to step in , they should say 18-22 years old( no juniors, no 21 year old freshman) only and all this stuff of leaving will cease .
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rocks22
/ March 22, 2010Good thoughts, UMass hockey. I’ll likely be writing a post about my general thoughts on players leaving sometime later this week.
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George
/ March 22, 2010I like the post, too, UMass hockey and we have to accept this system because until someone screams and changes it, it is what it is.
But dealing with the way it is now, we have to reload and our track record for doing that is not as good or quick as many in this league.
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