Men’s Ice Hockey: 22 Cadets Named to NEHC All-Academic Team
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NORTHFIELD, Vt.- The New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) announced its 2024–25 All-Academic Team selections on Wednesday, with 22 Norwich University men’s ice hockey student-athletes earning recognition for their academic achievements. To be eligible, student-athletes must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 and have completed at least one full academic […]
NORTHFIELD, Vt.- The New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) announced its 2024–25 All-Academic Team selections on Wednesday, with 22 Norwich University men’s ice hockey student-athletes earning recognition for their academic achievements.
To be eligible, student-athletes must maintain a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 and have completed at least one full academic year at their institution. Norwich’s 22 honorees reflect the program’s strong commitment to educational excellence and leadership development, tying the Cadets with New England College and Salve Regina for the most representatives.
Name
Hometown
Class
Major
Cooper Bertrand
Caledon, On.
So.
Management
Jed Brazo
Homer, N.Y.
So.
Management
Nick Cordeiro
Mississauga, On.
Jr.
Management
Holden Doggett
Oakville, On.
Sr.
Management
Colin Elliott
Peterborough, On.
So.
Management
Nick Foster
Amherst, Mass.
So.
Computer Security – Info Assurance
Jason Galotti
Hanover, Mass.
Sr.
Management
Owen Hains
Lebanon, Pa.
Jr.
Accounting
Brady Harroun
St. Albert, Alb.
So.
Management
Matt Harvey
Fort Covington, N.Y.
Jr.
Construction Management
Hayden Heinrich
Richmond Hill, On.
So.
Management
Harris Hilfiker
Middletown, N.J.
So.
Management
Johnny Johnson
Naperville, Ill.
Jr.
Management
Clark Kerner
Kansas City, Kan.
Sr.
Management
Alex Lewis
Moncton, N.B.
Sr.
Management
Sami Molu
Toronto, On.
So.
Health Science
Zach Ophoven
Burlington, On.
So.
Accounting
Joe Schubert
Oconomowoc, Wis.
So.
Accounting
Owen Scisizzi
Milton, On.
So.
Management
Adam Shuchart
Marietta, Ga.
Jr.
Management
Devon Thibodeau
Pelham, On.
Jr.
Architectural Studies
Ben van Waterschoot
Whitby, On.
So.
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Eleven cadets make their first appearance on the list as sophomores, while Kerner, Lewis, Doggett, and Galotti each make their third appearance during their senior years.
In the final season of NEHC competition, the Cadets finished with a berth in the conference title game. The maroon and gold look to continue their excellent tradition in the Little East Conference (LEC) under new Head Coach Dominick Dawes.
Fights over transit, skill games, and overall spending mean the Pa. budget will again be late
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state budget is going to be late for the fourth year in a row. It’s relatively common in Harrisburg for deals to be delayed a week or two as lawmakers hash out final details. But the depth of the current disagreements could make this impasse longer. And as past deadlocks have […]
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state budget is going to be late for the fourth year in a row.
It’s relatively common in Harrisburg for deals to be delayed a week or two as lawmakers hash out final details. But the depth of the current disagreements could make this impasse longer. And as past deadlocks have shown, delays can have real consequences for publicly funded services, from libraries to schools to child welfare programs.
Top lawmakers and staff for Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, state House Democrats, and state Senate Republicans have been meeting behind closed doors. But to reach a deal for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1, they will have to navigate “very deep philosophical differences,” Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) told reporters last week.
“It is slow-moving, and it is tedious work,” Pittman added.
Pennsylvania currently has a budget surplus — about $11 billion — but has been steadily spending through it, in large part because the state has a longstanding structural deficit, which means it spends more every year than it takes in.
Shapiro and fellow Democrats, who control the state House, want to use $5 billion from the surplus to fund what they see as bedrock needs, including increasing funding for K-12 education, bailing out struggling public transit agencies, and maintaining health coverage for low-income people.
Republicans in charge of the state Senate want to reduce — or at least slow the growth of — this spending, which they say will prevent the need for future tax increases.
There are few revenue proposals on the table. One viable option is regulating and taxing skill games, the slot-like terminals that have popped up in bodegas, taverns, and VFWs across the commonwealth. But a messy fight between state Senate Republicans and the game’s producers and purveyors has cast doubt on the possibility of a deal.
All of these competing visions make it likely a deal won’t be finalized for days, if not weeks, despite a ticking clock for transit agencies like Philadelphia’s SEPTA to forestall deep service cuts, along with growing uncertainty for human service providers.
That delay, top policymakers in both parties say, is the cost of doing business.
“We would love to have that deal done on June 30,” said state Rep. Jordan Harris (D., Philadelphia), who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. “But if that deal is, you know, a few days after June 30, but it reflects our priorities, I think that is a win for all of Pennsylvania.”
Added Pittman: “We have seen this movie before, and on July 1, the sun will come up, and I don’t think the good people of Pennsylvania will see any notable difference in their daily lives.”
While the state has a constitutional obligation to pass a balanced budget by June 30 each year, missing that deadline by a few weeks typically doesn’t interrupt operations much.
There are two major parts of the budget. One is a spending plan that provides a blueprint for the commonwealth’s financial outlays and revenue collections for the fiscal year. The other consists of one or more code bills, pieces of legislation that specify how money is spent, and can include dozens of policy tweaks.
Even without a spending plan, the commonwealth must pay its employees and debts, and cover its share of federal programs like Medicaid, among other obligations.
Schools and county services, like child welfare offices and mental health and drug treatment, will face a crunch only if a spending plan delay stretches into a weekslong impasse. A smaller pool of funding recipients can suffer if certain code bills are late — in the past, these have included libraries and community colleges.
All of this depends, however, on the particulars of the budget talks.
The last time the state got a real taste of late budget consequences was in 2023 — Shapiro’s first year negotiating a deal — when talks broke down over whether to fund private school vouchers with taxpayer money. Lawmakers didn’t pass a spending plan until early August.
In the meantime, the state missed tens of millions of dollars in payments to public universities, community colleges, special education programs, and day care and preschool programs.
These programs, along with other recipients of state funding, such as county child welfare offices, typically have some reserves that allow them to weather a missed state payment or two. But longer delays can cause them to start cutting services or taking out loans.
In 2023, most didn’t have to wait that long. The bulk of the state’s regular spending resumed when the spending plan passed in August.
However, lawmakers that year remained bitterly deadlocked over key code bills that were needed to authorize more than a billion dollars’ worth of spending. The stalled items included money for community colleges, libraries, poor school districts, public defense, and a popular home repair program.
These unlucky organizations had to tighten their belts while they waited for the legislature to compromise. A community college administrator told Spotlight PA at the time that colleges either had to dig into reserves or take on loans. A library director in the Poconos said she had to cut programming.
Tensions finally thawed in November, and Shapiro authorized a few of the stalled spending items, including a measure increasing reimbursements to ambulance services. But the deal wasn’t totally finalized until mid-December — six-and-a-half months after the deadline.
A history of impasses
Budgets like that one aren’t the norm, but they also aren’t unheard of.
In the past 20 years, the state has passed 13 late budgets. This year’s budget will likely be the 14th.
(For this count, Spotlight PA is considering a budget to be passed when lawmakers have approved an entire spending plan and enabled most state money to keep flowing — even though, as in 2023, the entire deal might not be sewn up.)
Most of those spending plan delays were short, but two, in 2009 and 2015, went for more than 100 days. Those long impasses left a lasting mark on relationships in Harrisburg, and in the case of the 2009 deadlock, on state law.
In 2009, Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democratic-controlled state House, and a Republican-led state Senate received national attention for a 101-day impasse as the state struggled to deal with a revenue shortfall amid the Great Recession. Rendell wanted to raise taxes. Republicans wanted to slash spending. And for months, neither side wavered as the state missed payments to K-12 schools, social services, and many other programs.
State employees also missed paychecks and agencies essentially shut down in July, leading to protests in the Capitol, before Rendell signed a partial plan that allowed them to resume operations.
That interruption led to a sea change in the commonwealth — the state Supreme Court ruled that the federal Fair Labor Standards Act overrode state constitutional language that said most state funds couldn’t be spent without an enacted budget. In other words, an impasse no longer meant state workers going unpaid.
It was a relief for state workers, but had the side effect of getting rid of one of the most potent disincentives for a late deal.
The 2009 impasse wasn’t Harrisburg’s worst in recent memory, though. In 2015, former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who was then in his first term and working with a fully Republican-controlled legislature, presided over a record nine-month standoff.
That year’s impasse resembled 2009’s in a few ways. Pennsylvania was still struggling for revenue, and Wolf wanted to raise taxes while Republicans adamantly refused. While state workers still got their paychecks, other government-funded services were hard hit.
Among them were schools. Some had to cancel tutoring, electives, and extracurriculars. State-subsidized pre-K programs had to temporarily shut down, and domestic violence centers also dealt with short-term closures.
Wolf’s approval ratings also took a temporary hit, and the experience shaped state politics for the rest of his tenure. Despite a chronic structural deficit, across two terms Wolf never convinced the legislature to raise sales or income taxes, and there haven’t been serious attempts to do so since.
This year, few in Harrisburg predict another record-setting impasse, though concerns about a deadlock running into fall are on many lobbyists’ minds.
Whatever the end date, the process is frustrating for rank-and-file lawmakers, who have to wait for leaders to come to a deal in closed-door talks, then quickly weigh and vote on that proposal, often in a matter of hours.
“I wish we’d start the process a lot sooner,” state Rep. Jason Ortitay (R., Washington) told Spotlight PA.
Because while “everybody knows” the legislature won’t make the deadline, Ortitay added, “nobody says it.”
BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.
Taking Stock 2025: How Arizona Wildcats gymnastics is looking under John Court
The offseason is here, with all of Arizona’s sports done for 2024-25 season and the 2025-26 campaigns still a little ways away. Which makes this a great time to step back and see how all of the Wildcats’ programs are doing and how they’ve handled the move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12 Over […]
The offseason is here, with all of Arizona’s sports done for 2024-25 season and the 2025-26 campaigns still a little ways away.
Which makes this a great time to step back and see how all of the Wildcats’ programs are doing and how they’ve handled the move from the Pac-12 to the Big 12
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a look at each of the UA’s men’s and women’s athletic programs to see what shape they’re in and what prospects they have for the near future. We’ll break down each team and evaluate how it is performing under its current coaching staff, looking at the state of the program before he/she arrived and comparing it to now while also evaluating how that program fits into its new conference.
Next up: John Court and the Arizona GymCats
How it looked before
Court came to Arizona ahead of the 1999 season as an assistant coach under second-year head coach Bill Ryden.
Court had already been a head coach at Vermont for three years, but the Catamounts discontinued their intercollegiate women’s gymnastics program after the 1998 season, demoting it to club sport status. Prior to that, he was an assistant for two years at Vermont and two years at Brown, where he coached under his mother, Jackie Court.
Arizona was a strong gymnastics program under both Ryden and previous head coach Jim Gault. Both men led the program for over 15 years before retiring.
Gault was conference coach of the year eight times and took the team to eight national championship meets. Two of his gymnasts won national titles, 10 won Pac-10 titles, and 27 were named All-Americans.
Ryden took the team to regionals every year of his tenure and advanced multiple gymnasts to the national championships. The team went to the national championship meet as a group in 2002. It was Arizona’s first appearance since 1996. His teams finished as high as No. 2 in the Pac-10/12, tying the best in program history.
When Ryden retired in 2015, Arizona AD Greg Byrne brought in Stanford alumna Tabitha Yim to lead the program. Court stayed at Arizona as an assistant coach under Yim until she left just two years after taking over the program to head back to her alma mater.
Court took over as interim head coach for the 2017-18 season since Yim left just weeks before the beginning of the school year. The interim tag was removed in March 2018 by former Arizona AD Dave Heeke.
Court and his staff have built the program back from the point where it once had just two gymnasts compete on vault in a meet at Oregon State to one that has sent athletes to the national championships twice in recent years.
Where things stand now
Court and his staff had the best year of his tenure in 2025. Arizona had the Big 12 co-Specialist of the Year, the Big 12 Coach of the Year, and the WCGA Regional Assistant Coaches of the Year for the South Central Region.
The GymCats got there by going 5-1 in Big 12 competition, losing only to Utah. Despite having the second-best record, they were the No. 3 seed at the Big 12 Championships because Denver had a higher NQS. Once again, they defeated Denver and everyone else in the Big 12 except Utah to finish second.
The team went to regionals in Seattle and pulled off the upset to advance to regional finals for the first time since the new format was adopted in 2019. That is the equivalent of reaching the Sweet 16 in college basketball.
Big 12 vs. Pac-12
The Pac-12 was a difficult gymnastics league to compete in. Two of the eight teams (UCLA and Utah) had multiple athletes with international (including Olympic) experience starring for their teams. Oregon State, Stanford, and California got their share of those from the elite ranks, too. That left only Arizona, Arizona State, and Washington regularly competing with entire rosters of former Level 10 gymnasts.
The Big 12 is an entirely different animal. Only Utah regularly brings in the very top-level recruits. Denver is a very good program, too, but it doesn’t have the overwhelming advantage that Utah does.
What that meant for the GymCats is that they were immediately in the thick of things as soon as they moved leagues. The seven-team league presented a much more level playing field for Arizona. That meant the gymnasts got more recognition and the team got more wins. They also got to compete in the second session of their conference championships, which typically means higher scores.
As far as travel, there really wasn’t a huge change for gymnastics. Gymnastics teams compete mostly in quad meets outside the conference season. Those are held in the same places every year.
Once Big 12 competition started, there still wasn’t a huge change. Five of the seven gymnastics teams in the Big 12 are clustered in the states of Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. Only Iowa State and West Virginia sponsor the sport in the eastern part of the league’s footprint.
Next year will be an odd season. Oregon State will join Denver as Big 12 affiliates in gymnastics, but the Beavers will only be involved for one season until the new Pac-12 starts competing. That could cause Arizona to take a step back as far as conference wins and awards. There will probably be a battle for the third and fourth spots in the late session of the conference championships with Arizona, Denver, BYU, and Arizona State fighting it out to join Utah and Oregon State.
One big question
Can the program maintain the upward trajectory after the loss of a strong senior class?
Arizona lost three critical athletes after the season when Alysen Fears, Elena Deets, and Emily Mueller exhausted their eligibility. The trio typically competed 10 of the 24 routines at each meet with both Fears and Mueller performing all-around. Deets was the Big 12 co-Specialist of the Year.
The GymCats did return their fourth senior, Elizabeth LaRusso. She had to sit out her true junior season with an injury, so she will have a redshirt senior year. The vault and floor specialist competes two critical events for the team, so her return was a big boost for 2026.
Joining LaRusso in the 2025-26 senior class is Emma Strom, who has career highs of 9.925 on balance beam and floor exercise. She also competes on vault, where her career high is 9.875.
They also return juniors-to-be Abigayle Martin and Sophie Derr. Both have been big contributors in their first two years in the program.
Martin is an all-arounder who has scored a 9.900 or better on everything except vault. Her career high on vault is 9.875. Her career high in all-around is 39.450.
Derr has competed everything except balance beam at Arizona. She has scores of 9.800 or better on floor exercise, vault, and bars. Bars is typically her strongest event.
The GymCats bring in a freshman class of five, four of whom were rated as three-star or above by College Gym News. The group is headlined by four-star recruit Hillary Puleo out of Phoenix. She is joined by another four-star in Delaney Mead, while Lily Tisdale and Ella Bragga were both rated as three-star athletes. The team also added Arkansas transfer Sadie Smith to the sophomore class.
Can this group replace the numbers if Fears, Mueller, and Deets? Can the team maintain its place near the top of the league?
Jack Ivankovic selected No. 58 overall by Nashville Predators in the second round of the NHL Draft
As the Michigan hockey team continued to add new players from the CHL, the Wolverines list of NHL Draft prospects continued to grow. When Wolverines coach Brandon Nauarato went searching for a goaltender, he found another player on the list of pro-level prospects. With the No. 58 pick, Nashville Predators selected goaltender Jack Ivankovic in […]
As the Michigan hockey team continued to add new players from the CHL, the Wolverines list of NHL Draft prospects continued to grow. When Wolverines coach Brandon Nauarato went searching for a goaltender, he found another player on the list of pro-level prospects.
With the No. 58 pick, Nashville Predators selected goaltender Jack Ivankovic in the second round of the NHL Draft. Ivankovic will be making the jump from CHL to collegiate hockey alongside Malcolm Spence who was drafted to the New York Rangers.
Naurato added Ivankovic to the roster at the end of May to bring a little clarity to the new goaltending room. With former goaltender Cameron Korpi heading to Union College via the portal, incoming freshman Stephen Peck and newly committed Julian Molinaro, Ivankovic will round out the position.
He spent the past two years with Mississauga Steelheads and stayed with the Steelheads as they relocated to Brampton for the 2024-2025 season. Ivankovic posted consistent numbers sitting at a .907 save percentage and 2.93 goals allowed average over his 68 regular season appearances.
Ivankovic’s name earned more of a reputation for the NHL Draft after his performance on Canada’s under-18 team this year. His 28 saves led to a 7-0 shutout against Sweden for Canada to grab the gold medal at U18 Men’s Worlds and notching Best Goaltender award from the tournament. Ivankovic joined Canada’s World Juniors team in the winter earning one start.
As the third goaltender drafted in this year’s draft, Ivankovic will also be a part of a brand new goaltending room at Michigan in the fall. And Ivankovic will have a chance to fight for the number one spot between the pipes for the Wolverines.
Boston College commit William Moore headlines Bruins’ Day 2 picks
All seven picks, including one each from Sweden, Czechia, and Russia, are expected to be on the ice Monday in Brighton for the start of the club’s four-day development camp at Warrior Arena. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. “It’s been a long time […]
All seven picks, including one each from Sweden, Czechia, and Russia, are expected to be on the ice Monday in Brighton for the start of the club’s four-day development camp at Warrior Arena.
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“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a little bit of volume,” said general manager Don Sweeney. “It didn’t stop us from trying to move back or up in the draft to target some players we felt we might be in position to take rather than just the volume of things. But the excitement’s there. You could tell our scouting staff in general, with such a disappointing season, there was energy in realizing that we have to take advantage of the missteps the club had.”
A lanky (180 pounds) center with smooth hands, Moore played last season with the US National Team Development Program.
“Over the past couple of years, I gained a lot of strength,” Moore told the Globe Saturday. “I still have a lot of room to grow, but I think overall that’s translated to puck protection, more power in my stride — just going to keep going, keep building and hopefully develop into the player that I know I can be.”
An accomplished piano player, Moore won the Little Mozarts International Competition, playing “Polonaise in G Minor.”
Is there a correlation between hockey and piano?
“I think there is,” said Moore, noting he played piano for years before taking up pucks. “It brings a lot of creativity to my game. I think hands-wise, I am very skilled with the puck. And I think I have a lot of finesse, and have that on the keys, too.”
As a toddler, an acute lymph node infection rendered Moore temporarily deaf.
“It makes it seem like I was dealing with severe adversity, when I don’t even remember it — I was like 2 or 3,” Moore told the Athletic this spring. “I was deaf at some point but that got fixed pretty quickly.”
“I’m so excited,” added Moore, noting the idea of going to BC was his reason to choose college as a path to the NHL. “I’m sure, as you know, the BC campus is next level, the coaching staff is unbelievable. The players, the whole group there in general is next to none, and their development plan is perfect for me. I’m just going to be happier. Awesome.”
With their second pick in Round 2, No. 61 overall, the Bruins grabbed Liam Pettersson, a free-wheeling Swedish defenseman (6-2/175) whose game is centered on the puck.
“A treat to watch when he has the puck on his stick,” per eliteprospects.com. Played junior (Vaxjo Lakers) last season, with a line of 6-15–21 in 39 games.
Pettersson, talking with the Globe by phone from Sweden, said he was unaware the Bruins had interest in him, adding that he was thrilled to be coming to Boston. He is also an avid golfer, with a four handicap.
After dishing their No. 69 slot to the Canadiens, for picks 79 and 108, the Bruins used the first of those choices to take Minnesota high schooler Cooper Simpson, a left wing who split last season with between his hometown Shakopee High School and USHL Tri-Cty.
Simpson is an “explosive skater” with strong stick skills, according to eliteprospects.com. As a senior, he led the Sabers with better than 2 points per game (49-34–83 in 31 games).
Vashek Blanar, a 6-4 defenseman who played last season in Sweden, was the Bruins pick at No. 100.
Blanar, who originally used the family name Richards (his mother’s maiden name), played junior hockey the last two seasons in Sweden, most recently with Troja-Ljungby. He was born in Eagle, Colo., and moved to Czechia at age 4, his parents eager to return to family and friends.
Blanar, who has committed to play at least one more season in Sweden, will fly to Boston on Sunday. Growing up, he was a big Milan Lucic fan.
“Loved his game … power forward, and you know, kind of rat,” said Blanar, speaking to the Globe from home via phone.
He said the Bruins played in the first NHL game he ever watched and remain his favorite team.
“Pretty sure I still have a Bruins hat,” he said, “from when I was 4 years old.
The Bruins opted to wheel their No. 108 pick, gained in the swap with the Habs, to Tampa Bay for the Lightning’s fourth-round pick next June.
Cole Chandler was the Bruins pick at No. 133. A left-shot center, (6-2/176), from Bedford, Nova Scotia, he played last season in the Quebec League (Shawinigan) and figures he’ll return there for at least one more season.
“I’m just trying to live in the moment,” said Chandler, asked what he felt was a reasonable career path in his pursuit to play in the NHL. “Stay present and get better each day — I don’t think there is a certain time I expect to make that jump.”
Nova Scotia in recent years has delivered a number of elite players to the NHL, including the likes of Sidney Crosby, Brad Marchand, and Nathan MacKinnon.
“I think it’s just being a kid from the Maritimes,” Chandler offered when asked about Nova Scotia developing such elite talent. “We’re a different breed over here.”
The Bruins’ final pick (No. 165) was another left-shot center, Kirill Yemelyanov, from the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv junior team. Yemelyanov collected 13 goals and 23 points in 35 games last season.
Jim McBride of the Globe Staff contributed to this report from Los Angeles.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.
After years of sacrificing first- and second-round draft picks in pursuit of the elusive Stanley Cup, the Bruins believe they’ve now taken a big step toward replenishing their prospect coffers in this weekend’s NHL draft, in which the haul was four centers, a pair of defensemen, and a left wing. It’s been a long time […]
After years of sacrificing first- and second-round draft picks in pursuit of the elusive Stanley Cup, the Bruins believe they’ve now taken a big step toward replenishing their prospect coffers in this weekend’s NHL draft, in which the haul was four centers, a pair of defensemen, and a left wing.
It’s been a long time coming, but after the team finally slipped out of contention for the first time in nine years, it had to be done. While GM Don Sweeney explored using some picks to pick up a roster player, they kept their No. 7 pick, choosing James Hagens on Friday, and then used both their second-round picks on center William Moore and defenseman Liam Pettersson.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve gone with a little bit of volume,” said Sweeney. “It didn’t stop us from trying to move back or going up in the draft to target some players we felt we might get in position to take rather that just the volume aspect of things. But the excitement is there. You get that with our scouting staff in general, with the disappointing season we had, there was energy in realizing we have to take advantage of missteps the club had.”
There was also an emphasis on high-end skill and competitiveness, which was made possible by their better drafting positions, according to director of amateur scouting Ryan Nadeau.
“I think having more picks and some higher picks allowed us to probably look at some players with a little more offensive ability and upside that sometimes in the areas that we tended to be picking, we didn’t have some of those players available, or some of those players that were (available), there’s a lot of risk associated sometimes with that player, whether they’re undersized or there’s a major lack of detail in their game, where there are other players sitting at the same spot that you really appreciate their attention to detail, their heaviness, their hardness,” said Nadeau. “We didn’t shy away from that, but I just think we ended up in a spot where we could really take some swings at some higher-upside offensive players that maybe in the past we hadn’t had as many swings on that style of player.”
To start the day on Saturday, the Bruins added another prospect into the Chestnut Hill-to-Causeway Street pipeline with the 51st pick.
In the second round, the B’s selected Moore, a 6-2, 175-pound center who played for the U.S. National Team Development program. From Mississauga, Ontario, he is a dual citizen of the Canada and the U.S. and will be headed to Boston College in the fall.
Moore is known for his intelligence, on and off the ice. If there’s such a thing as an 18-year-old Renaissance man, Moore is that. He is also an accomplished pianist and violinist while, in the athletic realm, he’s played soccer (thanks in part to his Brazilian mother), tennis and lacrosse before zeroing on his hockey.
“(Piano) was the first thing I tried, hockey was one of the last,” said the personable Moore. “It brings a lot of creativity to my game. Hands-wise, I think I’m very skilled with the puck and I think I have a lot of finesse and I have that on the keys, too. I think there’s a lot of translation. I played a lot earlier on but nowadays its more of a leisure thing. It’s tough to fit into a busy hockey schedule. But it’s been a big part of my life and I’ve still got it.”
Moore called being selected by the Bruins “incredible” after he had already chosen Boston for his college choice. Moore, whose family moved around a lot before laying down some roots in the hockey-mad Toronto area, gave his own self-scout.
“I think I have a very unique play-style,” said Moore, the first person in his family to play hockey. “I have a big frame that’s still filling out but I think I have a sort of high IQ and a creative aspect to my game, a lot of offensive skill and creativity and a lot of finesse. Big frame, very dynamic offensively and I’m just looking to bring that 200-foot game but also my offensive game. I’m super-excited.”
He joins Hagens, Dean Letourneau Oskar Jellvik, Andre Gasseau and Kristian Kostadinski, selected by the B’s last year, and will be an incoming freshman, as current or future Eagles in the B’s prospect pool.
Moore posted 27-32-59 totals in 54 games.
With their second pick in the second round (61st), the B’s chose Swedish defenseman Pettersson. At 6-2, 170 pounds, Pettersson clearly needs to fill out a bit and, as a left shot, he doesn’t address an organizational need at right D, though Sweeney pointed out that many left shots can play the right side. While he may not project to be a high-end prospect, his strength is in his transition game. He had 6-15-21 totals for the Vaxjo Lakers junior team.
The B’s then moved their third-round pick (69th) to Montreal for the 79th and 108th picks.
With the 79th pick, the B’s chose American left wing Cooper Simpson, who played Minnesota high school hockey, ripping it up for Shakopee High with 49 goals and 34 assists in 31 games. His shoot-first mindset was apparent with the Tri-City Storm of the USHL, when he had seven goals and one assist in nine games.
“I think I’m a very offensively talented guy. I think I make plays other people can’t see and I shoot the puck very well,” said Simpson. “I stayed at Shakopee because I’m born and raised here. I had a goal of making the state tournament and winning it all and I came up a little short. But I think I left Shakopee a better place than I found it, so that’s the ultimate goal there. At Tri-City, I knew a lot of the guys going there so I had a confidence boost there, and being able to score goals at a high level helps you be confident and it went well there, so it’s good.”
The 6-1, 179-pound Simpson is committed to go to North Dakota, though it sounded like the B’s want him to do another year of development in junior before going to Grand Forks after the club had watched last year’s first-rounder Letourneau struggle in taking a big leap from Canadian prep school St. Andrew’s and going directly to BC.
With the 100th pick, the B’s took 6-foot-4, 183-pound left shot defenseman Vashek Blanar, a Czechia-produced player who played in Sweden, and then traded the 108th pick to the Lightning for a fourth-rounder in 2026.
The B’s selected center Cole Chandler, a 6-foot-2, 176-pound center who had 13-19-32 totals in 64 games for Shawinigan of the QMJHL, with the 133rd pick. Chandler’s regular season totals were modest but he then heated up in the Q playoffs, notching 5-7-12 totals in 16 games.
Finally, with the 165th pick, the B’s chose 6-foot, 170-pound Russian centerman Kirill Yemelyanov, billed by Elite Prospects as a smart two-way centerman.
Who did the Chicago Blackhawks select? Meet the class.
Whenever you get ready to take a red marker to the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2025 draft sheet, just remember defenseman Sam Rinzel. Rinzel was labeled a first-round “reach” in 2022 but has been praised as a probable keeper after his nine-game NHL debut late last season. “You really feel you get your chest out a little […]
Whenever you get ready to take a red marker to the Chicago Blackhawks’ 2025 draft sheet, just remember defenseman Sam Rinzel.
Rinzel was labeled a first-round “reach” in 2022 but has been praised as a probable keeper after his nine-game NHL debut late last season.
“You really feel you get your chest out a little bit, especially when you’re part of it,” Hawks amateur scouting director Mike Doneghey said Saturday at Fifth Third Arena. “And I read all the same stuff. No one ever says, ‘Geez, let’s give him an A-plus now for Sam Rinzel.’ No one ever does that.”
Yet the Hawks have another batch of potential head-scratchers after the two-day draft.
A first-round forward who doubles as a quarterback.
A fourth-round forward who seems to be allergic to goals.
A defenseman whose main trait seems to be punching people.
“If (Minnesota high school QB) Mason West was just a hockey player coming out of Fargo, he’s gone by (No.) 20,” Doneghey shot back about the forward whom the Hawks traded back into the first round to select 29th.
This draft, the Hawks decided to do things a little differently. They surveyed their pipeline, full of smallish, skilled players such as Frank Nazar and Oliver Moore, and realized they have deficits in other areas.
“You start seeing them come through the door here and how they play, then you can be like, ‘OK, we need a little bit bigger wingers, we need a little bit more hardness,’” Doneghey said. “Skating has always been a trait of ours. So maybe we don’t need a burner as much. We need a powerful skater but a different skater.”
“We want to get harder and usually the harder guys are the bigger guys.”—Blackhawks scouting chief Mike Doneghey on the majority of the Hawks’ draft picks standing between 6-foot-2 and 6-6
— Phil Thompson (@philthompsontrib.bsky.social) 2025-06-28T22:51:33.347Z
The Hawks made three first-round selections Friday. They drafted the top-ranked international player, Swedish forward Anton Frondell, with the No. 3 pick and selected Czech winger Vaclav Nestrasil at No. 25.
Shortly after choosing Nestrasil, the Hawks traded with the Carolina Hurricanes to acquire the No. 29 pick they used on West. They gave up two second-round picks, Nos. 34 and 62, plus a fifth-rounder in 2027.
All told, the Hawks have had 11 first-round picks over the last four years. General manager Kyle Davidson said that’s intentional.
“The more you pick early … you’re more likely to succeed,” Davidson said. “And so we’ve taken that philosophy and tried to hit it with volume.
“But I also believe that some of these players are getting to the NHL, some of them are on their path. But from our assessment, an objective assessment, we feel their development so far, we are ahead of the odds in some way. I think we are beating the odds and getting a few more players out of drafts than the odds may dictate.”
The Hawks made five more picks on Day 2 of the draft Saturday, trading the No. 197 pick in the seventh round to the Florida Panthers for a 2026 seventh-rounder. Here’s a look at all eight of their selections.
2025 Blackhawks draft picks
No. 3 (first round): Forward Anton Frondell
No. 25 (first): Forward Vaclav Nestrasil
No. 29 (first): Forward Mason West
No. 66 (third): Forward Nathan Behm
No. 98 (fourth): Forward Julius Sumpf
No. 107 (fourth): Forward Parker Holmes
No. 162 (sixth): Defenseman Ashton Cumby
No. 194 (seventh): Goalie Ilya Kanarsky
No. 3: Forward Anton Frondell
An image of Anton Frondell and his parents being interviewed on ESPN after the Blackhawks selected Frondell with the No. 3 pick in the NHL draft is cast on a screen at the team’s official watch party Friday, June 27, 2025, at Recess in Chicago. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
It all started with a pair of pink figure skates.
“It was the first time I stepped on the ice,” Frondell, 18, said on Friday’s ESPN broadcast. “Dad just found some pink figure skating skates. I actually skated with them for a year until he (found) out (and said): ‘Oh, Anton, he loves the sport. He wants this.’
“Then he bought me my real first skates. He really wanted me to be a tennis player when I was younger. But I didn’t fall for the sport.”
NHL Central Scouting regards Frondell as a skilled player with strong legs and a quick stick.
“(He) has a nifty wrist shot and his release is solid and accurate. His hockey IQ shines with intelligent moves, with or without the puck. Likes to set up teammates using small moves and tricky passes.”
Frondell said he’d like to play in the NHL next season, but it’s more likely he’ll return to Sweden to play in the men’s league. However, Davidson said Frondell will be able to participate in Hawks training camp.
“He’s a really smart hockey player,” Davidson said. “He uses his body very effectively, especially in battles along the wall. He just has a really projectable game to the NHL.”
Down the road, Frondell’s arrival in Chicago may beg the question of whether he’ll push Connor Bedard to the wing.
“He doesn’t consider himself a center (or a) wing anyway,” Hawks director of amateur scouting Mike Doneghey said of Frondell.
Doneghey said he asked Frondell at the scouting combine which position he preferred, “and he said, ‘Whatever Connor doesn’t play, I’ll play.’ He’s got a real confidence about him.”
“Barkov’s probably a few inches taller. … I would say he’s probably between a Barkov and an Anton Lundell … he’s a big, detail-oriented center with a brain.”—Blackhawks scouting director Mike Doneghey on Anton Frondell and comparisons to Aleksander Barkov
— Phil Thompson (@philthompsontrib.bsky.social) 2025-06-28T04:16:41.753Z
Marcus Krüger, a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Hawks, is Frondell’s teammate on Djurgårdens IF. Frondell said Krüger told him: “That’s the best team in the league. If you want to win, go to Chicago.”
Davidson said Krüger supplied Frondell with a lot of information, but Frondell is naturally inquisitive.
“This kid called Johnny Oduya out of the blue just to go meet with him to learn about his breathing exercises that he does,” Davidson said.
No. 25: Forward Vaclav Nestrasil
Nestrasil is a 6-foot-5, 187-pound native of Praha, Czechia, who produced 19 goals and 23 assists in 61 games for Muskegon of the USHL en route to this year’s Clark Cup championship.
NHL Central Scouting calls the 18-year-old “a very skilled power forward. Has a nose for the net and when he uses his size, he’s tough to handle. (He) possesses a hard shot and quick release, making him a scoring threat every time he enters the offensive zone.”
Said Davidson: “You like the physical attributes where (he’s a) big, athletic guy that can really move. He’s got some talent and some really good hockey sense. And again, a raw package.”
No. 29: Forward Mason West
Mason West, left, stands with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman after being drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks during the NHL hockey draft Friday, June 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
West is a 6-6, 220-pound rising senior at Edina (Minn.) High School. A Division I college football recruit, he has committed to play college hockey at Michigan State — but not until he finishes his final season as a high school quarterback.
“He’s behind the curve; he’s not quite dedicated himself 100% to hockey,” Davidson said of West, who will turn 18 in August and was one of the youngest players eligible for the 2025 NHL draft.
“But at that size, that athleticism, that skating ability, that talent, the sky is the limit. … I just really wanted to get back into the first round and take what I thought was a grand slam hack. I was swinging for the fences and figured, why not?”
West said he felt “ready right now” to start his Hawks career after hearing his name called.
“It was just super special,” he said. “I have family down in Chicago (an uncle and cousin), and I had a really good relationship with Chicago from the start.”
In actuality, West is far from “ready right now.” He has designs on a championship — in high school football. Last year Edina’s postseason ended in the Class 6A quarterfinals in a rout by Maple Grove, and West considers the matter unfinished business.
Edina quarterback Mason West gets a first down and draws a roughing call on Centennial’s Caden Coppersmith during the Minnesota Class 6A championship game Nov. 24, 2023, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. (Matt Blewett/Special to the St. Paul Pioneer Press)
“I really owed it to my community,” he said. “I really think they need me, and the chance to be able to go back and try to win a state championship would be super special.”
After that, West will play hockey for the USHL’s Fargo Force this season and for Michigan State the following season. Despite the long runway to the NHL, he insists he’s committed to hockey.
“I chose before to play hockey,” West said. “I kind of knew after the first game after Fargo, having that experience, and (I) looked into the next step and the path for me.”
Doneghey added, “He was one of the highest risers in the rankings once he went to Fargo and started playing hockey more than training for football.”
Mason West reacts after being drafted by the Blackhawks with the 29th pick during the first round of the NHL draft Friday, June 27, 2025 in Los Angeles. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
West likened his playing style to rangy Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson.
“Just because of how big he is,” he said. “I try to implement my game from him a ton, just the way he shoots the puck and passes the puck and plays the game.”
Doneghey said West isn’t just big and athletic. He brings another element as a two-sport star.
“He brings that quarterback mentality to the ice when he’s entering the zone,” he said. “He’s always scanning the zone on what plays to make. And he’s comfortable with contact.
“It’ll be a longer road with both him and Nestrasil, but they’re just starting in their process. Three years and then we’ll see where it goes with those.”
No. 66: Forward Nathan Behm
Nathan Behm poses after being drafted by the Blackhawks with the 66th pick of the NHL draft Saturday, June 28, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The 6-2, 202-pound winger finished his season with 31 goals and 35 assists, good for fifth in scoring in the WHL.
Doneghey said that like last year’s third-round picks, “we knew there was a value (but) we weren’t going to chase (it) in the second round. But if he was there, it was worth a shot.”
Behm isn’t as strong a skater as, say, Oliver Moore, but “he can score — that’s his calling card,” Doneghey said. “I wouldn’t’ be surprised if he gets 45, 50 (goals) in Kamloops this year. He’s got a brain, so he can play with smart players. Sometimes it goes in and out a little bit. That’s why he was in the third round.”
Like West, Behm stands out in another sport. In August, he won the under-17 division at the Amateur Long Drive Canadian Championships in Edmonton at 327.9 yards.
“I guess (it) translated pretty good (to hockey) with the power aspect,” Behm told Chicago reporters via Zoom on Saturday. “I’m not really too into it. It’s just something I do on the side and don’t really train for it. But I’m just naturally gifted at that part.”
NHL Central Scouting said Behm’s “skating has improved over last year (and he) carries the puck more than a season ago and shows some speed and quickness to elude checkers. … The puck follows him around, particularly close to the net where he manufactures chances.”
Behm sees himself as a smart, skilled winger, though he plans to work on being more explosive.
“I bring a dual threat, goal scoring and playmaking,” he said. “So I have a lot of offensive upside, and I’m big as well.”
No. 98: Forward Julius Sumpf
The Moncton Wildcats’ Julius Sumpf dives for the puck during a Memorial Cup semifinal against the London Knights on May 30, 2025, in Rimouski, Quebec. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
The Hawks went for size again early in the fourth round with the 6-1, 190-pound German. Sumpf, 20, was No. 4 pick Caleb Desnoyers’ linemate with the Moncton Wildcats and played center for Germany in the world juniors.
“Big guy, can skate well,” Doneghey said.
Sumpf put up 26 goals and 39 assists in the regular season for Moncton and exploded for 10 goals and six assists in six playoff games to help the Wildcats win the QMJHL championship, ending a 15-year drought.
“He just plays a power, hard game,” Doneghey said. “I love the fact that he’s going to Providence (College). The way Nate Leaman coaches, they’re a match made in heaven. He plays that direct, hard game.”
No. 98: Forward Parker Holmes
Rinse and repeat: The Hawks picked up a winger who checks in at 6-3 and 222 pounds from the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs, where he’s a teammate of Hawks prospect Nick Lardis.
Holmes, 18, is a left-handed shot with a scant resume. He had just one goal and no assists and a minus-8 rating in 21 games for the Bulldogs and just three goals and seven assists in 51 games the previous season with the Central Canada Hockey League’s Kemptville 73’s.
“It still goes back to our traits, right? … I say it till I’m blue in the face, guys are sick of hearing it: ‘Stick to the traits, stick to the traits, stick to the traits.’”—Blackhawks Mike Doneghey on some of the drafts picks being raw in terms of development
— Phil Thompson (@philthompsontrib.bsky.social) 2025-06-28T23:01:53.825Z
“We set the world on fire, I guess, because everyone was looking at his stat line,” Doneghey joked. “He had a shoulder surgery in November, same surgery that (Hawks prospects Roman) Kantserov and (Marek) Vanacker had.”
The Hawks won’t be looking for Holmes to light the net ablaze as long as he brings the heat in other ways.
“We wanted to continue to get bigger and we wanted some guys who had an element — hardness, toughness — and Parker certainly fills that role,” Doneghey said.
No. 162: Defenseman Ashton Cumby
The 6-5, 216-pound native of Bonnyville, Alberta, has the markings of an enforcer from the back end. He had 102 penalty minutes in 68 regular-season games for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds and averaged 2.2 penalties in the playoffs.
He totaled three goals and 11 assists in the regular season and postseason and didn’t score a goal in three previous WHL seasons with three teams.
Doneghey said Cumby had nine fights this past season and 13 the season before. During a fight in March, Cumby knocked Tri-City Americans defenseman Terrell Goldsmith unconscious, causing the game to be suspended and Goldsmith to be hospitalized, then released.
Doneghey acknowledged that Cumby “has holes” in his games, but asked, “Did you watch him on video?”
“We felt the need to get a little bit harder, tougher, maybe to protect some of our skill guys,” he continued. “You ask a couple of players, ‘Who’s the toughest guy in the Western Hockey League?’ … Every kid in the Western League was, ‘Cumby, Cumby, Cumby.’”
No. 194: Goalie Ilya Kanarsky
The 20-year-old Russian checks in at 6-3, 192 pounds and had a 22-8-1 record, .938 save percentage, 2.24 goals-against average and four shutouts in 34 games for AKM Tula.
Hawks goaltending scout Dan Ellis kept watch of Kirill Zarubin, a 2024 third-round pick by the Calgary Flames and Kanarsky’s competition, and noticed that “Kanarsky kept outplaying him this year.”
“Again, with the Russian, you have his rights forever,” Doneghey said. “So a 6-3 goalie, that size, just kind of see where it falls.”
