Scott Wheeler NHL Entry Draft Midterm Ranking Excerpts

 

 Macklin Celebrini #1

What he accomplished to date would be impressive even if he were on the older side of 2024 draft eligibles. It’s even more impressive because of his June birthday.His profile has it all, too. He’s a natural center. He plays with confidence and presence that is rare in a player his age, consistently looking to attack and dictate with the puck. He’s also an intelligent off-puck player who understands timing, routes and how to get open and make himself available without the puck in his hands. He’s a plus-level skater and excellent transition puck transporter who has an impressive ability to giddy up and drive the middle third. He's quick and hard to track on turns. He’s a hardworking player defensively, and into battles and races for pucks. He’s got dynamic puck skills that allow him to break down opponents and coverage at speed. He’s a tactile shooter and finisher who can get pucks off in a variety of ways, from a variety of stances, and without needing to tunnel vision for it (plus he has a hard and comfortable one-timer). He’s consistent in approach. He sees and executes through seams with a lot of crispness. He is sturdy and thick for his age and absorbs and plays through bumps extremely effectively, staying over pucks and extending sequences through a strong lower half. Those tools, combined with excellent puck-protection skills and an aggressive approach, allow him to play a heavy-skill game.

Cole Eiserman #3

A dynamic goal scorer in the truest sense, Eiserman possesses an exhilarating ability to cleanly pick his spots in the net and beat defenders and goalies one-on-one when the shot isn’t there. He can score in every way: long range, midrange, jam plays, rush plays, quick hands in tight, the one-timer, a lethal catch and release (there isn't a pass he can't take and get off). Last year, he showed one of the better shots and sets of hands I’ve seen in a player that age. This year, he's on track to break or challenge Cole Caufield's NTDP goal-scoring record. He’s actually two and a half months younger than Celebrini, too, with a late-August birthday that makes him one of the youngest players in the draft.

I actually think he's a better skater than he has been given credit for in conversations I’ve had with folks about him, too, but it’s his puck skill, quick release, shot variety (he can rip it in motion, off catch and releases, standing still and from a one-timer, and he’ll make goalies guess wrong in alone because of how fast his hands are) and sneaky strength (when he uses it, which he has started to do more of) that allows him to create at will against his peers. 

He can frustrate, though, too, and scouts desperately want to see him round out his game. He can be a little careless and selfish with the puck. He can get carried away trying to do too much, stickhandling into trouble or shooting into shin pads. The play selection and habits definitely need some work, and have led to many understandably lowering him outside the top-three range I still have him in (though I am less sure about it than I thought I'd be). He doesn’t miss when he’s got an opportunity, though, and it's so, so hard to find goal scorers like him outside of the very top of the draft. 

Cole Hutson #30

Here I am, once more, ready to bet that a Hutson will grow a couple of inches and emerge as the best of the bunch from his NTDP class (seeing as teammate Logan Hensler, who is a different animal, is in the 2025 draft class). Cole’s point-per-game U17 season (and well above point-per-game U18 team production) at the program last year was actually more prolific than Lane’s was, and he did it while four and a half months younger than his brother was at the same age (Cole has a summer birthday). He was the most talented defenseman on either of the NTDP’s teams last year. This year, though the points haven't come quite as easily for him, it's clear Cole is trying to really dial in his game defensively, and the play creation has still been ther.

Cole's got more of a physical element to his game than Lane does and plays opponents really hard so that his size is less noticeable, gluing himself to them in order to be as disruptive as possible. He was the most impressive 2024 defenseman at the U18 worlds for me, too, playing 17 to 19 minutes per game as an underager. He quickly identifies second and third options, often a step ahead of opposing structures. The way he shows one thing and does another is pretty unique. His little hesitations in control into quick, decisive attacking moments grab your attention and allow him to make plays past the first layer. He has the puck on a string at times. I think he’s a better skater than his big brother was at the same age.

Kamil Bednarik  #45

Bednarik's an easy player to like and is well-liked by scouts for his consistency and his know-how. He's a heady, methodical player who makes little plays all over the ice and does everything well without having the dynamic quality you'd see in a first-rounder. He's got well-rounded skill and has shown he can stir the drink and make a play, depending on what's called for. He also plays to his linemates' strengths, which has made him a natural fit with different players at the program. His skating isn't a strength and it can be a little stilted at times, but I'd say his speed is average. I think we're going to see more offense out of him in college, too. He hasn't shown the flash of some of the other 2006s at the program, but there's some talent there and he reads and anticipates play quite well.

BU 3 UNH 0: defkit's Terrier Takeaway

 

- It's always satisfying to come away with 3 points in a league game, especially against a team that beat you earlier in the season. That said, the outcome of the game could have been very different had Caron not had his best game as a Terrier. His saves during the 5 on 3 were especially important of course.

- For much of the game, BU played very sloppy: many weak passes intercepted; several whiffs of the puck at our own blue line, including by our WJC participants - Hutson and Willander. Also too much standing around on our Power Play, and forcing the puck into the covered "bumper/slot" to Greene.

- It seemed that often we would make a pass that wasn't the clear easiest pass to make. I don't know if the coaches felt we needed to change it up against UNH, but I noticed a lot less d-to-d passing once we were moving up ice, which led to a lot of the sloppy play, especially in the neutral zone.

- Really not a smart play by Quinn Hutson that got him ejected. While I think the Wildcat helped sell the call, Quinn had already given the player a bit of an elbow/shove to give the typical "get away from my goalie" message. To then go at him with a stick to his chest - not what I would expect from an older sophomore. I am sure the coaches will talk to him.

- It was kind of crazy the way the first goal just came out of nowhere, given how hard it had been to generate opportunities throughout. Peterson's deke at the blue line was the key, and of course a great shot by Stevens.

- Tuch played a strong game, and the second goal was a perfect example. He played aggressively without taking penalties. We got lucky with the bounce of the puck right out into the slot, but that wouldn't have happened without Luke's hustle.

- I was very impressed with UNH, even more so than when they beat us earlier on the season. They were strong on their sticks with crisp passing and great breakouts. And their goalie looks like a keeper too.

- Good crowd on hand and a great job by the 90-member Alumni-only band, who had to play many songs since the PA and sound system were down.

How did a Boston University law student, a Boston College law professor and a Cornell alum play a role in leading to Jack Parker becoming Boston University’s head hockey coach in December 1973?

 

By slik4

Boston Hockey Blog’s Belle Fraser has written an excellent article about how Jack Parker became BU’s head hockey coach 50 years ago last month following the firing of Leon Abbott.

There’s a small part of the story that Ms. Fraser didn’t know about.

In just over one season, Abbott’s BU teams won 26 of the 34 games with him behind the bench, but that record came with an asterisk. Eleven of those victories during the 1972-73 season became forfeits when the NCAA and ECAC found BU’s freshman forward Dick Decloe to have been ineligible to play in those games.

Decloe’s eligibility to play at BU was taken away due to his having received subsidies from his amateur club in Canada while he was playing junior hockey and living away from his home. Neither Decloe nor his family knew that his club had paid for those expenses, but the NCAA didn’t care. The NCAA considered those subsidies to have been an illegal impediment to playing college hockey at an NCAA school.

Decloe left BU after scoring 12 goals, eight assists and 20 points in the 14 games he played for the Terriers. He might’ve been on the way to setting scoring records and becoming an All-American at BU. 

Abbott had recruited Decloe and two other Canadians to BU, Bill Buckton and Peter Marzo, both of whom faced a predicament similar to what Decloe faced. As Ms. Fraser describes, Buckton and Marzo, sophomores at BU who’d played for BU’s freshman team were declared ineligible to play for BU’s varsity during the 1973-74 season.

In the Spring of 1973 an announcement was posted in the elevator lobby of BU’s law school building. During that semester, BU and BC law students could take elective courses in each other’s schools at no extra cost. BC was offering a course in Sports Law, the first of its kind to be taught at an American law school.

BC’s Sports Law course appealed to one BU second-year law student. He was an avid sports fan. As a high school student in northern New Jersey, he’d been a soccer and tennis player and an editor of the sports page of his school’s student newspaper. He subscribed to Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News and always turned to the sports pages before reading the rest of the daily newspaper.

When he enrolled as an undergraduate at BU in the fall of 1967, he knew nothing about college hockey, but by January 1973 he’d already attended dozens of BU hockey games including the Beanpot and ECAC tournaments and the 1971 and 1972 NCAA tournaments won by the Terriers. During the 1970-71 season, he’d been the Sports Director of BU’s student radio station, WTBU where Howard Stern later would get his first taste of being a radio DJ.  During his law school years, he’d also worked as the public address announcer for BU hockey games at Walter Brown Arena. He also enrolled in the Sports Law course being taught at the other end of the MTA Green Line in Chestnut Hill.

BC’s Sports Law class was taught by Professor Robert Berry and held one night a week in a somewhat informal setting – once at the professor’s home. There was no textbook.  Berry had served as a consultant on salary arbitration issues with Major League Baseball and advisor to such big-name sports figures as Larry Bird.

Among the BC Law students was Joe Cavanagh who had been an All-American hockey player at Harvard for three seasons. Discussions were lively. There was no exam. Grades would be based on research papers for which students could choose the topic, subject to Professor Berry’s approval.

Because of his connections to the BU hockey program, the BU law student was thinking of how the NCAA’s actions against Decloe might have been unconstitutional discrimination against foreign athletes. After all, if American students who had chosen to play hockey at prep schools away from their homes while receiving some financial aid for the room, board and educational expenses would be eligible to play for NCAA schools, then why shouldn’t those Canadian players who, like Decloe, had received substantially less in aid than they might have received at an American prep school be eligible to play for NCAA schools?

The BU law student dove into his research more enthusiastically than for any other legal research he’d done for his other law courses. He delivered his paper to Professor Berry.

He also gave a copy of his research paper to Charlie Luce who was BU’s Assistant Director of Athletics. At the time, he didn’t know that BU was facing an eligibility issue with Buckton and Marzo.

Weeks later, he received a letter from a Boston civil rights lawyer who’d also received a copy of his research paper about the Decloe case. He was representing Buckton and Marzo who had been declared ineligible to play by the ECAC due to monies that their amateur clubs had paid for their expenses while living away from home to play Canadian junior hockey.  He offered the BU law student the opportunity to work on the case.

                                    

     Bill Buckton (left), Gordon Martin (middle) and Peter Marzo (right). Photo courtesy of Bill Buckton.

The lawyer was Gordon A. Martin, Jr., who, early in his career, worked for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

For the BU law student, it was his first exposure to federal litigation beyond the case studies and lectures in his regular courses. He learned there’s much more to a trial than what plays out in court. Litigators often say that they can spend at least ten times as much time preparing for a trial as they spend during the trial. That was true of the Buckton-Marzo case.

One part of the trial preparation involved finding an expert witness who could testify for Buckton and Marzo about the disparity between how the NCAA and ECAC treated foreign athletes and American athletes. The BU law student thought of one person who might have the knowledge and credibility to help.

Art Kaminsky, a Cornell alum who graduated from Yale Law School in 1971, had written articles in a college hockey newsletter. Kaminsky covered collegiate hockey for The Yale Daily News when he was in law school and his articles about college hockey had been featured in The New York Times.

In 1972-73, Kaminsky helped his friend from undergraduate days, Ken Dryden, negotiate a contract with the Montreal Canadiens. His connections with Dryden led to his cultivating relationships with American college players who were top prospects for the National Hockey League. He knew as much about American college hockey as anyone, so the BU law student recommended Kaminsky to Martin.

Kaminsky agreed that that the NCAA’s policy concerning Buckton and Marzo discriminated against Canadian athletes who’d received modest stipends for playing away from their homes with junior hockey teams. He knew that the NCAA had no limit on the amount of funds that students could receive while playing hockey at American prep schools where tuition, room and board, books and materials vastly exceeded the amounts that Buckton and Marzo (and Decloe) had received.

Knowing that Cornell, Kaminsky’s alma mater, had been the school that reported questions about Decloe’s eligibility to the NCAA would lend Kaminsky an air of credibility to the court.

On November 27, 1973 federal district court Judge Joseph Tauro issued an injunction against BU from declaring Buckton and Marzo ineligible and against the NCAA from sanctioning BU for allowing Buckton and Marzo to play for BU’s hockey team.

Professor Robert Berry died in November 2011. Art Kaminsky who’d become a successful sports and entertainment lawyer died in December 2013. Gordon Martin died in November 2016. Judge Tauro, coincidentally a Cornell Law School alumnus, died in November 2018.

And that BU law student? I’m still around and lucky to still be able to attend BU hockey games and catch the Terriers on TV thanks to ESPN+.