UMass picked up a commitment, likely for fall of 2016, from defenseman Jake Massie.  Massie played this past season for prep school Kimball Union Academy where he was coached by former Maine coach Tim Whitehead.  Massie’s commitment comes on the heels of that of Brian Scoville, another strong prep defenseman who played for Cushing.

Massie is a 6’2” Quebec native who had 5 goals and 15 assists in 34 games for KUA this past season.  There’s a very good chance he’ll be drafted in this upcoming June’s NHL Draft as he’s ranked as the 81st best North American skater by Central Scouting.

Over The Boards had the following to say about Massie following his commitment:

This is another solid commitment for Micheletto and his staff.  With Massie, Scoville, and William Lagesson there seems to be an emphasis on shoring up the defense in future classes.  Massie becomes the third player from KUA to come to the Minutemen.  Steve Mastalerz and Dennis Kravchenko won a prep championship there with now UMass assistant Ryan Miller as coach.

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In other news yesterday senior defenseman Oleg Yevenko signed an ATO with the Adirondack Flames of the AHL.  Yevenko has been on NHL team’s radar already, spending each of the last three summers at NHL Prospect camps for the Islanders, Devils, and Bruins.  Hockey’s Future recently featured him as one of the top NCAA free agents.  I think Yevenko will do very well in the pros.  He has improved his skating while at UMass and certainly his size will probably serve him better at the pro level than college.  He’ll probably be asked to do something he did quite a bit in juniors too, which is dropping the gloves.  Good luck to Oleg in the next state of his career!

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Here’s the latest on the athletic director search from Matt Vautour.  Sounds like a decision could be made soon.