Thursday, May 6, 2010

In Case You've Missed It...

The Record's Ed Weaver has written a blog entry which seems to definitively put to rest most of the remaining questions about next year's coaching staff and recruit class.

Here's the quick and dirty recap.
* Nolan Graham will indeed be the next assistant coach at RPI, replacing Jim Montgomery.
* Jacob Laliberté doesn't appear to be coming in - and it's a maturity issue. His status for 2011 is up in the air, but he would have to return to junior A hockey, whether in the CJHL or elsewhere, in order to remain eligible.
* Patrick Koudys is indeed coming in a year earlier than initially expected, as we reported earlier this week.

* Johnny Rogic is coming - not that we doubted it per se, it's just that Weaver provides the first independent confirmation of his commitment.

Since we haven't had a solid discussion on Rogic yet, here are a couple of highlight videos to show some of his stuff.

Rogic is apparently something of a fan favorite at Alberni Valley. He has his own fan club on Facebook based out of Port Alberni. Here's an isolation shot of him scoring a goal from down low.


This one shows off some of his solid speed - the relevant segment begins about 40 seconds in.


* RPI may be close to a commitment from Penticton defenseman Bo Dolan. He's a 1990 birth year, which means he still has another year left to play junior A. Whether he would be incoming this year or next year is unknown. The defensive corps needs to at least replace Erik Burgdoerfer, Peter Merth, and Christian Jensen, that's accomplished by bringing in Leboeuf, Koudys, and Bailen. Mark Zarbo, who appeared in one game last year, may be functionally replaced by Kevin Beauregard, who we understand practiced on the blueline in the latter half of the season. Whether Dolan would come in this year or next year depends on whether Appert wants a replacement for Bryan Brutlag (who's now a forward) this year or wants Dolan to come in for 2011-12 with Curadi and Quinn to replace Brutlag, Kennedy, and Foss all at once.

Thinking long and hard about it, if RPI can land Dolan, 2010 might make the most sense. Dolan's addition would give the Engineers a total of seven defensemen, eight if you include Brutlag, nine if you include Beauregard. In that sense, Dolan would replace Brutlag as a primary defenseman, Brutlag would be semi-replacing Mark Zarbo as an emergency backup, and Beauregard would be semi-replacing Garett Vassel as a forward who was available for duty on the blueline when absolutely needed. That's the depth at defense that the Engineers need going into 2010-11, considering that they seem to be all set in the scoring and goaltending arenas.

But it's all moot until Chris Heisenberg lets us know that Dolan will be an Engineer.

Like Bailen and Curadi, Dolan likes to scrap. He won't be able to do that in college, but fighters in juniors generally translate into tough hitters in the NCAA. In this clip, Dolan (#22) takes down a guy who's got a couple of inches on him, hanging in there even though he's getting wailed on:


Another Dolan fight, this one another back and forth affair until Dolan (#4) puts the guy on his backside:

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