November 10, 2022
by Mike McMahon/Staff Writer (@MikeMcMahonCHN)
The initial signing period for the National Letter of Intent opened this week. Not only are many recruits going to paper their commitments over the next few weeks, but several have also found themselves back on the open market.
Typically this occurs when a player believes he should sign an NLI and then arrive at the school the following season. However, that doesn’t always work out. Sometimes for various reasons the schools will try to push a player off for another year, usually because the coach doesn’t believe the player is ready for college hockey or there could be an issue with a school going over its maximum allowed number of scholarships (18).
However, now the NLI is good for two years, which helps in these situations and will generally keep the number of decommits that the NLI period stirs up to a minimum. But there’s still going to be a handful of good players that end up back on the market because they didn’t receive an NLI.
In fact, while I’m not sure if these were related to the NLI or not, there were three decommits just this past week.
Defenseman C.J. Foley, who was committed to Holy Cross, is back on the market. Foley is from Hanover, Mass. and he has seven points (1g, 6a) in 15 games for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks of the BCHL this season. Before juniors, he played at Thayer Academy.
One of the bigger decommits is forward Andon Cerbone, who is no longer committed to Michigan. He has seven points (3g, 4a) in 12 games for the Omaha Lancers (USHL) this season. Cerbone is also New England based, originally from Stamford, Conn.
Finally, forward Dave Andreychuk decommitted from St. Lawrence. Andreychuk has been in the NAHL with the Northeast Generals since 2020. This season he has appeared in 20 games and has 27 points (7g, 20a).
And, those players might not be the last.
There were also some bigger commitments this past week.
Nicholas Moldenhauer, who just committed to Michigan, was one of the top players in his age group available. He was drafted in the first round by the Ottawa 67’s in the OHL Priority Selection and was already selected in last July’s NHL Draft, in the third round. Originally from Ontario, he has 18 points (10g, 8a) in 13 games for the Chicago Steel this season.
Mass.-Lowell also found its goalie of the future in 6-foot-2 goalie Karlis Mezsargs, who is…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at College Hockey News from CHN…