Oh ho ho, this is a beautiful sight. Owen Power, Matty Beniers, AND Kent Johnson are all headed back to Michigan for one more run at a National Championship and I. am. ecstatic. All 3 of those players were just drafted within the first 5 picks at the NHL Entry Draft. Powers went 1st, Beniers went 2nd, and Johnson went 5th – I wrote more about that here.
Michigan is about to shit kick the league and you may quote me on that. Their roster is stacked. I’m trembling looking at it. We have the obvious stars of those three up above but there’s also Brendan Brisson, John Beecher, Philippe Lapointe, Erik Portillo, and Jacob Truscott. All of them are bound to play some great hockey this year, I liked them all a lot last season.
Their entire forward group is hype worthy, take a look:
A lot of these forwards were great last season and I’m excited to see them out there again. We do have some new kids on the block though: Dylan Duke is coming over from the USNTDP and those kids do not disappoint. Mackie Samoskevich is just coming off a Championship season with the Chicago Steel in the USHL and he picked up some decent points so he’ll be fun to watch. Then Mark Estapa is also coming over from the USHL. I also can’t wait to see Garrett VanWyhe and Eric Ciccolini out there again, I liked them a lot last season.
As I said Owen Power and Jacob Truscott are coming back to lead the defensive core. Then mix in some of the new kids like Luke Hughes and Ethan Edwards. Luke is coming from the USNDTP and Ethan is also coming from the USHL. The Wolverines will be missing Cam York, who went off to the Flyers, but they’ve still got a steady d-core. I am so damn excited to see Luke Hughes out there.
20-year-old goalie Erik Portillo will be taking over in net following Strauss Mann’s departure. Mann will be dearly missed but I trust Portillo in net. He’ll have 23-year-old Jack Leavy to back him up. Leavy has been at Michigan for 3 seasons already but according to Elite Prospects he hasn’t played a game. The team also picked up Noah West from Robert Morris University since they lost their hockey program. I’m excited to see the latter two in net. Hopefully they’ll be good for Portillo to rely upon.
I know keep saying excited but that is all I feel right now. Michigan had their up and downs last season and that was rough. They went 18-14-4 and couldn’t play in the NCAA Championship because of a COVID outbreak but I have a great feeling about this season. They’ll have some old faces and some new and I wholeheartedly believe in them. We have a while to wait for the season but come Hell or high water, I am cheering this team on until the end. I also have to find a way up to Michigan for at least one game this season because you bet your ass I am going to see all these stellar players on the ice at the same time. Let’s go Wolverines.
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Featured Image: Michigan Photography
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