By Scott McLaughlin/DFP Staff
Junior defenseman and captain Kevin Shattenkirk is expected to sign with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche within the next week, according to BU coach Jack Parker.
Shattenkirk finished this season with career highs in assists (22) and points (29). Those totals were good for second and fifth, respectively, on the team. However, Shattenkirk’s defense regressed. Last season, he placed second in the country with a plus-28 rating, but that number dropped to minus-2 this season.
Shattenkirk finishes his BU career with 18 goals and 60 assists for 78 points. He was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team in 2007-08 and the Hockey East Second Team and East Second Team All-America in 2008-09. He was drafted in the first round (14th overall) by Colorado in the 2007 NHL draft.
The Colby Cohen Dilemma
Parker said that junior defenseman Colby Cohen will “probably” sign with the Avalanche as well, but that there’s a chance he’ll return for his senior season “because of his hip and because of other things that play into his signing.”
Cohen had surgery on his hip last summer, but it bothered him throughout the season. He went home for a shot to help ease the pain in November, and although that helped for a little while, the pain came back in the second half.
“It really bothered him the last month,” Parker said. “I don’t think he’s going to need surgery for it, but we don’t know that for sure. What should’ve happened is we should’ve kept him out longer, and maybe it would’ve healed better. He felt so good in September, and he wanted to get back in the lineup. We should’ve been much more cautious.
“It was all too good. It held up for a while, but then it started to go downhill. If we held him out until November or something, it might’ve been completely healed, and it might not have been re-aggravated.”
If Cohen, who was drafted in the second round (45th overall) by Colorado in 2007, does leave, BU would be left with just six defensemen on the roster for next season.
“We weren’t quite sure we’d lose both Shattenkirk and Cohen,” Parker said. “We have a contingency plan for one, but if we lose both, we’re still looking to figure out how we’re going to do that. We have a couple guys on the line that we can get that are good players. It’s not as if we’ll be left holding the bag if Colby leaves.”
One possibility would be bumping Alexx Privitera, a 2011 defense recruit, up to 2010, but that isn’t very likely considering that he won’t turn 18 until January. There are no age restrictions regarding incoming freshmen, but Privitera would have to complete his remaining high-school work and SATs this summer.
Cohen finished this season second on the Terriers with 14 goals and tied for third with 30 points. His awards include Hockey East First Team honors this season and Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player honors last season after he scored the national championship-winning goal.
Yasin Cisse not coming next season
Forward Yasin Cisse will be coming to BU in 2011, not 2010 as originally planned, because of an ankle injury, Parker said. Cisse recorded 13 goals and 19 points in 18 games this season with the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL before having his season ended when an opponent’s skate blade cut his ankle.
“We want to make sure that he’s completely healthy,” Parker said. “We don’t want him to rehab it here and lose half a year here, so it was a pretty easy decision.”
Forward Charlie Coyle, who was originally scheduled to come in 2011, is expected to come in 2010 instead.
Parker expects to land a goalie for 2011
With backup goalie Adam Kraus set to graduate after next season, Parker said he expects to bring in at least one goalie for 2011. Netminders Kieran Millan and Grant Rollheiser would both be seniors then.
“We have a couple guys we’re talking to already,” Parker said. “We have a long list of guys we kind of have to sift through. Starting in August, we’ll probably have a better idea of the two guys we’re really going to hone in on.”
Players won’t get to pick next year’s captains
After being disappointed with his team’s attitude and leadership both on and off the ice all season, Parker said the players will not get to choose next year’s captains like they usually do.
“It doesn’t mean that next year’s team won’t pick the captains for the year after, or the two of us might do it together,” Parker said. “This year’s team usually votes for next year’s captains, but that’s not going to happen this year.”
The captains for the next season are usually announced at the Friends of Hockey Banquet in April, but Parker said that might not happen this year.
Man, I thought we had a lot of shakeups coming off of last season, but this is nuts. Props to all the guys who are going off to the NHL, of course, but let’s hope our underclassmen step up into bigger roles soon.
Shattenkirk said he was likely to leave before this season even began so that is no surprise. Colby would be wise to stay another year. His defensive ability is suspect – hip or no hip issue. He consistently makes bad decisions. His NHL slap shot is his game. Good Luck to them both. This year’s team missed Brian Strait as much as anyone else.
If Colby goes, though, he’ll most likely be working with Quinn in Lake Erie, who Colby said has done wonders for his game.
Although I’m excited to see what Coyle can bring, I’m disappointed that Cisse will be unavailable next year. I wonder if his injury is worse than originally diagnosed?
forget the players who leave who comes!!!
have been following bu hockey since 1960!!!!!!
i want to see jack parker work the bench
during games,instead of standing there with
his arms crossed, showing no emotion. bu
won ncaa last year because of player leadership
jack just rode the wave. time for a change
if jack names players in press then i will
name coaches.can’t stand bc,but i respect
jerry york!!!!!! toot cahoon, good karma with
his players. respect goes both ways and i sense
a lack of respect at bu. the intangables are
missing here. sitting players,favorites,lack
of esprit de corp. coaches need to encourage
not discourage players.need for discipline,yes
but,this job requires a people person, and the
following from coco wellington. “motivation,
mental toughness,concentration,deal with pressure
commitment,desire,determination,attitude,heart
self-motivation.self control,overcome mistakes
pushing to your highest ability.” this all leads
to the zone.that level which leads to the
winning edge!!!! last year we saw the zone.
pucks bounced our way, but a corp of players
dediicated themselves to be the best and then some. it is highly unlikely that we will ever
see a performance that occured on 4/11/2009 ever
again.
so where are we? beautiful arena,parker
rink,and a shaky program.
bu has had a long and storied history
of ncaa college hockey. walk the corriders
above the seats.look at all accomplished
players who have achieved recognition for their
careers at bu.IMPRESSIVE!!!!
as alumnus, we expect a continuation
of this level of excellence!!!!!!
if we falter now, the president,board
of trustees, will be notified that future
support,gifts and attendance will suffer
a period of mediocrity until changes are
made to bring us back to the level of
expected excellence.
corps-not corp on comment posted april 1,2010
9:34pm. i did not vote for obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hopefully Coyle is big-time and the NTDP guys step up immediately. David is the only “star player” who is returning, and while he is an absolute joy to watch, there’s no way he can carry a team.
I have been following b u hockey from 1965 on. There is something wrong here. Why can’t we keep our asst coaches???? After the last two champ seasons we lost our asst coaches, why? Are we not paying enough??? Recruiting has been, except when Quinn was here, very poor. Why has BC constantly beat us to Mass kids?? Our current asst coaches are very poor managers along bench. Why are we considering going with only six D men next year? Crazy. Next year could be a disaster!!!!!!!
That’s part of the risk of having a class consisting of Shattenkirk, Cohen, Bonino, and Wilson. They are all quality NHL prospects and you have to accept they won’t be there for their senior year. All the midgets at BC stay for 4 years because the NHL doesn’t want them and it has worked out for them recently
BU has more ex-players in the NHL, had five players sign in the last two weeks, won everything there was to win last year … and it’s all Jack Parker’s fault.
Right!
Maybe Alzheimer’s is inflicting the posters that go back to ’60 and ’65. Maybe an ax to grind with Jack?
Assistant coaches leave because they are ready to move up, and there is no place for them to move up to here right now.
Yes, the 2009-10 Terriers underachieved. They reverted back to getting out of the gate slowly (Parker has to shoulder some of the blame there) and never got it cranked up when it counted most at the end.
So is Parking living off his reputation? A lot of coaches get by on quite a bit less.
The game hasn’t passed him by.
Keep the faith.