The Massachusetts hockey program got it’s second commitment in two days.  Yesterday it was forward Ryan Badger.  Today it was defenseman Carmine Buono.  Buono, a 1997 birth year, played this past season for Powell River of the BCHL where he was teammates with fellow UMass recruit Kurt Keats.  He and Keats also played together for Canada West in the Junior B Challenge this past winter.

Buono, a native of Burnaby, British Columbia has decent size at 6’2”, 190 lbs.  This season as a rookie he had 2 goals, 24 assists, and 91 PIM in 48 games.  Buono is ranked 188th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting, meaning he has the chance to be a late round draft pick.  Over The Boards, which has provided some quality insight into recent UMass recruits, had the following tweets about Buono:

There’s no official word on when Buono is due in Amherst, but it seems that it could be for this coming season.  UMass likely needs at least one more defenseman lined up for next year and while Buono has only played one year in the BCHL, he seems like he adjusted pretty well.  Buono is just the latest of a string of high profile commits for coach John Micheletto and his staff.  The recent defensive commits have all been high quality prospects as Buono and Jake Massie could be NHL draft picks this summer and William Lagesson was picked by the Oilers last June.

I hearby call trademark rights for “Buono Y Sano”.  (That’s how copyright law works, right?  You just have to call it?)

Buono had this to say on Twitter:

Here’s a highlight of his from this past season:

▲

UMass got another addition today.  Well, not exactly.  Michael Iovanna, who starred at Malden Catholic, committed to UMass in April of 2012 when Toot Cahoon was still coach.  I tracked him regularly in my Recruit Updates but at some point in time Iovanna’s name dropped off UMass’ commitment list, most notably on the Chris Heisenberg site.  I assumed at the time that Iovanna had decommitted or the new coaching staff decided to go another direction.  Apparently that’s not the case.  Not only is Iovanna slated to suit up for UMass next fall, he’s already enrolled in school.

Iovanna scored a game winning goal to win a Super 8 championship for Malden Catholic in 2012.  He had 26 goals and 50 assists in 45 games for MC over two years before heading west to play in the BCHL.  He ended up jumping around between two different BCHL teams and one AJHL team in his first year in juniors, finding success with his final team, the Bonnyville Pontiacs, where he had 6 goals and 8 assists in 27 games.  He returned to Bonnyville at the beginning of last season, but a family matter led him to return to Massachusetts shortly after the season started.  He played for the Junior Bruins of the USPHL before enrolling at UMass this semester.  It’s been long and winding road for Iovanna but it’s good to hear he’s back in the fold for UMass.  Or maybe he never actually was out of it.  Such is the challenge of tracking college hockey recruiting.

▲

Tomorrow, besides being Tax Day, is the beginning of the Spring signing period.  Right now UMass has signed National Letter of Intents from Austin Plevy, Kurt Keats, Kyler Nachtigall, and Ty Pelton-Byce.  Plevy and Keats are due to arrive next season while Nachtiall and Pelton-Byce are likely due in the following season.  That means it’s likely that UMass will be announcing a slew of signings in the coming days.  Nic Renyard, Ivan Chuckarov, William Lagesson, Joe Widmar, and Buono are among some of the players who will likely send in NLIs.  Maybe even some of the 2016 recruits, like Massie, could sign as well.  Some players who are not receiving a scholarship would not need to sign a NLI and therefore wouldn’t be announced by the team until next fall.

With all that, let’s take a look at how all the future Minutemen are doing.  I will add Iovanna, Buono, and Badger to this list next week.

▲

Jake McCarthy – D – South Shore Kings (USPHL) – 2015 or 2016
10 GP / 0 G /2 A / 2 Pts / 11 PIM
McCarthy had a tough season, held out of the lineup for most of the year due to injuries.  I have to assume that his arrival in Amherst will be pushed back to 2016

Kurt Keats – C – Powell River Kings (BCHL) – 2015 (NLI signed)
52 GP / 31 G / 34 A / 65 Pts / 79 PIM
Keats finished the regular season 9th in the league in goals and 11th in points.  Keats had a hell of a series in the second round of the BCHL playoffs, grabbing seven points in the seven game series.  For that he was named the BCHL Player of the Week.  But unfortunately it wasn’t enough to keep his team alive as Powell River ultimately fell.  He finished the playoffs with four goals and six assists in 13 games.

Austin Plevy – C – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2015 (NLI signed)
56 GP / 29 G / 63 A / 92 Pts / 93 PIM
Plevy finished the regular season as the league scoring champion and was 3rd in goals.  He’s taken up right where he left off in the playoffs, leading the league in goals with 10 and points with 28 in 18 games.  However things are dire for Plevy, Shane Bear, and Nachtigall.  The Bandits are down 0-3 in the AJHL Finals and in fact are losing Game 4 1-0 as I type this.

Nic Renyard – G – Okotoks Oilers (AJHL) – 2015
30-8-3 / .924 save % / 2.19 GAA / 5 shutouts
Renyard finished the year first in the league in wins and third in both save percentage and goals against average.  Unfortunately the regular season MVP had a tough playoffs where he was 3-4-0 with a .868 save percentage and 3.97 goals against average.  His Oilers were swept by the Brooks Bandits in the second round.  He was named his team’s MVP in addition to the league awards he won.

Ivan Chukarov – D – Minnesota Wilderness (NAHL) – 2015
55 GP / 12 G / 31 A / 43 Pts / 63  PIM / +38
Chukarov had the 4th most points for defensemen in the league during the regular season.  The Wilderness are currently down 0-2 to the Coulee Chill in the first round of the playoffs.  Chukarov has two assists in those two games.

William Lagesson – D – Dubuque Fighting Saints (USHL) – 2015
52 GP / 2 G / 14 A / 16 Pts / 79 PIM/ +18
The playoffs have started in the USHL tonight and Dubuque made it in.

Joe Widmar – RW – Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL) – 2015
60 GP / 19 G / 22 A / 41 Pts / 46 PIM/ –10
Widmar finished the regular season second on Des Moines in total points.  Unfortunately his Bucs did not make the playoffs.

Shane Bear – D – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2016
60 GP / 8 G / 35 A / 43 Pts / 77 PIM
Bear has four goals and seven assists in 18 playoffs games.  His playoff performance was enough to get the attention of the Calgary Herald.

Troy Conzo – RW – Wenatchee Wild (NAHL) – 2016 or 2017
3 GP / 0 G / 0 A /0 Pts / 0 PIM / –2  Des Moines (USHL)
44 GP/ 4 G/ 5 A / 9 Pts /  20PIM / -4 Wenatchee (NAHL)
The Wild are down 0-2 in their first round game after winning the play-in round.  Conzo has not had any points in three playoff games.

Kyler Nachtigall – LW – Brooks Bandits (AJHL) – 2016 (NLI Signed)
60 GP / 13 G / 12 A / 25 Pts / 67 PIM
Nachtigall has six goals and four assists in 18 playoff games so far for Brooks.  He had two goals in the deciding game 7 of the conference finals.

Jake Massie – D – Kimball Union Academy (NE Prep) – 2016
34 GP / 5 G / 15 A / 20 Pts
Massie was ranked as the 8oth best North American skater in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings.  He’s likely to be drafted in one of the middle rounds of June’s NHL draft.  He is the top ranked defenseman in prep hockey.

Ty Pelton-Byce – C – Team WI U18 (Elite)/Madison Memorial (WI HS) – 2016 (NLI signed)
21 GP / 12 G / 12 A / 24 Pts / 8 PIM  Team Wisconsin U18
24 GP /35 G / 39 A /74 pts  Madison Memorial
Pelton-Byce’s season ended with a state tournament semifinal loss.  He was held to only two assists in the two state tournament games.  He was named his conference’s Player of the Year.  He was also named first team All-State.  He was recently the All-Area Player of the Year.

John Leonard – F – Spfld Rifles (Mass Selects)/Springfield Cathedral (MA HS) – 2017
14 GP / 21 G / 11 A / 32 Pts  Springfield Rifles
23 GP / 43 G / 27 A /70 Pts  Springfield Cathedral
Leonard’s season is over as Cathedral was upset in the Super Eight semifinals.  Leonard did have two goals in that game though.  SB Nation College Hockey named him their High School Player of the Year.  They also named him to their All-State team.  ESPN Boston named him their “Mr. Hockey”.  This week the Herald named him to their Dream Team.  Masslive named him their WMass Player of the Year.

Brian Scoville – D – Cushing Academy (NE Prep) – 2018
33 GP / 0 G / 1 A / 1 Pts
Cushing bowed out of the prep playoffs in the quarterfinals. Over The Boards reported that Scoville will be transferring to Winchendon next year.

▲

The athletic department continued their spotlight of hockey alumni.  The latest profile is of Bob Jefferson who played in the 70s and still follows the team closely today (I believe he’s even a FTT reader).