The Massachusetts hockey program picked up a commitment for next fall from Austin Plevy.  Plevy currently plays for the….wait for it….Brooks Bandits.  The Bandits are of course also the team where future Minutemen Shane Bear and Kylie Nachtigall are playing and where current freshmen Patrick Lee and Maddison Smiley had much success.  Plevy has five goals and 10 assists in 10 games for a team leading 15 points for Brooks.  He was just named AJHL Player of the Week.  Plevy has been playing junior hockey north of the border since 2009 with his best statistical season a 30 goal, 43 assist effort while appearing in 54 games with the Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCHL in 2012-13.

Plevy started the year at Merrimack where he was their top offensive recruit.  However, for unreported reasons Plevy left North Andover just days into the semester and returned to Canada.  Because Plevy signed a NLI with Merrimack and was enrolled in the school, it could complicate exactly when he’d be eligible to play for the Minutemen.  Mike McMahon has reported that Warrior coach Mark Dennehy plans on holding Plevy to his NLI and will not grant him a waiver.  Though these rules are never simple, McMahon contends that Plevy would have to sit a year at his new school and would only have three years of eligibility starting in fall of 2016.  That is my understanding of the rules as well.  However, there are always appeals to be heard, forms to be filled out, and red tape to unwind.  The UMass staff will certainly do what they can do to have Plevy in uniform next year so it should not be ruled out.

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Let’s add Plevy to the recruit list and see how next year shapes up with his addition.

Brandon Montour – D – Waterloo Blackhawks (USHL) – Dec 2014
3 GP / 0 G / 4 A / 4 Pts / 2 PIM / +1
Montour had a couple two assist games last week.

Brandon Egli – D – Victoria Grizzlies (BCHL) – 2015
2 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts / 0 PIM
Egli did not play this past week so he may be battling an injury.

Jake McCarthy – D – South Shore Kings (USPHL) – 2015 or 2016
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts / 0 PIM
McCarthy was reported to have joined the Kings for the season but it doesn’t appear that he’s played any games yet.

Kurt Keats – C – Powell River Kings (BCHL) – 2015
6 GP / 4 G /4 A / 8 Pts / 2 PIM
Keats had a two assist game this past week.

Austin Plevy – C – Powell River Kings (BCHL) – 2015
10 GP / 5 G /10 A / 15 Pts / 18 PIM
Aside from the offensive production mentioned earlier, 18 PIM in 10 games is certainly eye catching.

Troy Conzo – RW – Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) – 2016 or 2017
1 GP / 0 G /0 A /0 Pts / 0 PIM
Conzo did not play last week

Kyler Nachtigall – LW – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2016
10 GP / 1 G / 2 A / 3 Pts / 23 PIM
Nachtigall had a game misconduct in the one game he played in this past week.

Shane Bear – D – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2016
10 GP / 0 G / 5 A / 5 Pts / 10 PIM
Bear had an assist the past week.

Ty Pelton-Byce – C – Team Wisconsin U18 (Elite)/Madison Memorial (WI HS) – 2016
12 GP / 9 G / 9 A / 18 Pts / 8 PIM  Team Wisconsin U18
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts  Madison Memorial
A couple readers were nice enough to pass along that Pelton-Byce plays for Team Wisconsin U18 before the HS hockey season.  Last year he helped Team Wisconsin U16 to a national championship.  He’s currently the leading scorer for the U18 team.

John Leonard – F – Springfield Cathedral (MA HS) – 2017
0 GP / 0 G / 0 A / 0 Pts
Leonard might be playing junior hockey until HS hockey starts as well like Pelton-Byce.  But if that’s the case I haven’t been able to track down where.

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Captain Troy Power’s latest installment of his blog covers last week’s exhibition game and the typical game day routine.

Speaking of commitments, decommitments, and NLIs, Mike McMahon wrote a must read piece on the “gentleman’s agreement” in college hockey.  The gentleman’s agreement is was the promise that coaches would stop recruiting a player once he had verbally committed to another school.  I say was because some schools have chosen to abandon the agreement and will pursue other players right up until they sign their NLI.  Now if those schools were UAH and Robert Morris it would be a huge issue.   But the coaches who have publicly said they’re no longer honoring the agreement are Jerry York of Boston College, Don Lucia of Minnesota, and Mike Eaves of Wisconsin.  Obviously if those elite schools are recruiting kids beyond their commitment to another school there’s a good chance they’ll be successful.

Coach Micheletto is quoted in the article, saying the agreement “has become difficult”.  I agree.  I think the agreement is a positive for all schools in the small community that is college hockey.  However it needs 100% adherence to be effective.  And to have the top teams in DI not abiding by it, the rest of the schools who are are artificially handcuffing themselves in the process.  Teams like BC and Minnesota have enough ingrained advantages in college hockey as it is.  They don’t need to poach the recruits of schools who have agreed not to reciprocate.  So in my opinion if York and Lucia are going to play by a different set of rules, I say hell with the agreement.