I've been looking around the preseason blogs and everything seems to be ragging on Colorado College. They had one of the worst seasons in the history of their program last year. After an offseason that features quite a few new faces, I've decided to focus on 4 of the members of the incoming class.
First, I should mention I love the goalie position. I'm a firm believer that a program should work it's talent from the goalie forward. Placing special emphasis on defense and shot blocking.
Coach Haviland of Colorado College did just that with the incoming crew. Though not drafted (at least yet) Jacob Nehama brings a spark to my eye. Standing at 6'0 tall, he's not a Jon Gillies type of netminder but his stats speak for themselves.
He finished the season with 29 wins, 13 losses and 4 ties. Kick in his .913 save percentage and this guy appears to be on track to do some serious damage. To put this into perspective, take Joe Howe (current volunteer goalie coach at Denver) during his time in the USHL. He finished his first season with his best record of 13-5-1 with a .915 save percentage. I liked Howe in net and I think I'll like this guy too. If you compare Jacob to similar goalies in stature, I think you will find he is a top notch goaltender. His size makes him not as marketable as current CC netminder Tyler Marble. Either way, in net CC will have the ability to have dueling goaltenders. MN State - Mankato has had the same issue for the past 2 years and it's produced wonderful dividends.
Next, let's look a bit at Trey Bradley. He's a very small player. Based on size alone, I wouldn't expect too much from him given how large CC's ice surface is. However taking a look at his USHL stats, I would have no problem looking at Trey as a serious set up man on any line.
Next up is Nathan Kwiecinski. He's no Jacob Slavin, and he has quite a bit of growth to do. I'm not sure where he will fit in the scheme of things. His offensive side stats are not very good, which leads me to believe he is a stay at home defense man - my favorite kind (as a goalie of course). If Kwiecinski can keep opposing players off Marble or whoever is in net, the tigers can do their job in the front.
The show stopper of all of these should be considered Mason Bergh. He's an absolute monster of a player. Not the tallest forward at 6'0, but his stats are oh so good. I would wonder how Bergh and Bradley would do on the same line. Either way, Bergh is an incredibly gifted player. He's going to make the rounds at CC.
CC has reason to believe in it's incoming class. In 2 years, people may be talking about how good this crop of recruits was. Maybe they will all break out this season. Just maybe.
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