One of the criticisms of the John Micheletto era at UMass was that he did not seem to make much of an effort to lure Bay State recruits to the state’s flagship university.  New coach Greg Carvel  talked about targeting local talented players when he was hired and just a few months into his regime he has landed his first in-state commitment.  Defenseman Jayson Dobay, who this past season played for BC High, announced his commitment on Twitter last night:

https://twitter.com/jdobay5/status/750481484717359104

A number of sources indicated that Dobay was one of the top uncommitted blueliners in Massachusetts/New England.  It sounds like the plan for the 5’11”, 165lb Weymouth native is to play next year at Thayer Academy in Braintree, then play a year with Cedar Rapids in the USHL before arriving in Amherst in 2018.  Dobay is a 1999 birth year.

This past year for BC High Dobay had 15 goals and 18 assists in 24 games and for that was named to the Boston Herald’s Dream Team.  Dobay is reported to be an excellent skater with strong offensive skills.

This article by Jeff Cox of ESPNBoston has a lot of interesting information.  Carvel and assistant coach Jared DeMichiel were recruiting Dobay back when they were at Saint Lawrence, but the task became easier when they landed their roles at UMass.  Another factor in UMass’ favor is the fact that one of the assistant coaches for BC High is former Minuteman Jordan Virtue.  Virtue has been one of the more active player alumni when it comes to the program so I’m sure he talked up the school as often as he could.

Lots of positive opinions of Dobay and his commitment on social media:

Here are some video highlights of Dobay from this past season.

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The Frozen Fenway game, January 7th against Boston University, is official.

UMass had seven players named to the Hockey East All-Academic team; Brennan Baxandall, Carmine Buono, Ben Gallacher, Marc Hetnik, Jake Horton, Patrick Lee, Evan Stack, and Alex Wakaluk.  Wakaluk earned a place on the All-Academic All-Star Team as one of the top 7 academic achievers in the conference.

It’s free agent season in the NHL and Mike Kostka re-signed with the Ottawa Senators while Matt Irwin signed a deal with the Nashville Predators.

It’s also development camp season.  Draftees Ivan Chukarov and William Lagesson are with the Sabres and Oilers camps respectively.  Former Minuteman Dennis Kravchenko earned an invite to the Calgary Flames’ camp.

The Hampshire Gazette had this story on Frank Vatrano’s offseason program which includes a local summer league.