Locked And Loaded

Earlier this afternoon Columbus Blue Jackets beat writer Aaron Potzline reported that Jeremy Bracco had decommited from Boston College and would sign with the Kitchener Rangers. However, no more than an hour later, Bracco himself refuted the report with this tweet.....

Since this unique turn of events, I have been able to confirm with very reliable sources that Bracco, along with his parents, called Coach York today and informed him that Jeremy would 100% be attending Boston College in the fall. From what I am told, Jeremy and his family are excited to become part of the BC community and all the noise about what he is going to do has just been greatly exaggerated because Kitchener has not stopped trying to get ahold of him over the course of the past several weeks. Everyone out there is talking about Milano and how Bracco could just be following in his steps but Milano didn't call Coach York and reaffirm his commitment, he didn't confirm anything on Twitter which everyone in the world sees these days, and Toronto is totally different organization than Columbus.

Let's take a couple minutes here and talk about this recruiting win for the staff. Like usual, the college hockey media machine made it seem like there was no way he would end up here but Coach York and his crew went out there and landed the most talented freshman in the country. Awesome work by Coach Brown and Coach Ayers. I know he is young and maybe isn't the biggest guy but I think this kid has a chance to win Hockey East player of the year next year and maybe even the Hobey Baker because of how many points he gets on a nightly basis. I think he will love it here at BC because if you ask me, it's the best school in the world and Coach York's track record with younger forwards speaks for itself.

Now let's look at this from a hockey perspective and how it affects BC's lineup. They're going to be very deep and talented at pretty much every position, especially on the wings. I don't know if they're going to keep last years top line together but I think they probably should just to start things out. However, the power play is going to be a huge question mark because they have so many first unit type guys but you can only put 5 out there obviously. I think Tuch and Bracco would be a deadly combination but I also love Sanford and Gilmour on that top line because they're probably better in the defensive end than any of BC's other top 9 forwards with the exception of maybe Cangelosi. Whatever the staff decides to do, they will have three lines that will probably be better than anyone else's first line. Here is just a random guess....

Sanford-Gilmour-Tuch

Fitz-White-Bracco

Wood-Cangelosi-Calnan

Gaudreau-Brown-Dudek/Silk

I think that is probably the third or fourth best forward lineup of the Coach York era with the potential to be the best if everyone pans out. You all know how good I think this team can be so I won't repeat it but they have a chance to do things no college hockey team has ever done, they're that good. 

In other, unrelated news, Thatcher Demko hit the ice today for the first time since his surgery which just goes to show how hard he has worked to get back because he wasn't expected to be ready for the season opener. 

What a day in BC Hockey world, now all we need to close out the summer is a Phil win @ Whistling Straits. 

GO EAGLES !!!!!