Wings prospect Nyquist adjusts to life as a college hockey player

Red Wings prospect Gustav Nyquist has begun his North American hockey odyssey with the University of Maine Black Bears, and he spoke to the Portland Press Herald's Rachel Lenzi about his decision to take an unconventional route to professional hockey via the NCAA:

October 9, Portland Press Herald: "I've always had the dream, and everyone's dream is to play in the NHL," Nyquist said. "I was really excited to come over here. The rink's much smaller here, and I wanted to come over and find out what it was like (to play hockey). I want to see how the game is here and how much it takes to get to the NHL."

Maine's roster includes 13 American-born players and 12 Canadian-born players. But NCAA Division I academic eligibility rules require that foreign students must meet high school graduation and core curriculum requirements, have a GPA of 2.0 (on a 4.0 scale) and meet minimum scores on the ACT or the SAT (taken in English; the NCAA has different test score requirements for each country).

"It's very challenging to recruit in Europe, and it takes a lot of work in helping (Europeans) get eligible academically, simply because they did not grow up planning to go to college here," Maine coach Tim Whitehead said. "The NCAA clearinghouse has very strict regulations and does not give any special treatment to foreign players. It's very difficult to qualify academically, no matter how good you are. Europe is not an area where we think we'll get a lot of players every year, but this opens the door for a couple more prospects. And we're pleased with the two we have."

One of the main reasons that Nyquist was chosen by the Red Wings was his decision to head to Maine as it gives him four years of development time while Detroit retains his rights, and both he and fellow Swedish import Theo Andersson know that their freshman seasons will require significant adjustments to the North American style of play and the dimensions of a 200'x85' rink:

"You have a little bit more time with the puck [in Europe] and we don't hit as much as they do here," Nyquist said. "They go harder to the net here, and in Sweden we search for a nice play or a nice pass. Here, there's more shooting and going right to the net."

The Detroit Red Wings took Nyquist in the fourth round (121st overall) of this year's NHL entry draft after he scored 11 goals and 20 assists in 24 games with Malmo, a team in Sweden's top junior hockey league, despite missing six weeks with a shoulder injury. But he felt needed to hone his game and become more physical against bigger, stronger college players.

Black Bears senior Matt Duffy tells Lenzi that he and his teammates plan to assist Nyquist and Andersson adjust to life as a collegiate hockey player in the U.S., but he admits that he's not sure whether he could match their linguistic moxie:

"If I went to Sweden, I guarantee I couldn't understand half the things that were being said," Duffy said. "I'd be at a loss."

Disturbing Trend in the WCHA?

The word has always been that the WCHA is an upperclassmen's league. For years common wisdom has predicted and statistics have confirmed that the teams with large junior and senior classes were the teams to succeed. The league has had it's share of "phenoms" or "one year wonders" and those great players have helped their teams succeed of course. But those players have been the exception. More often than not freshman in the WCHA require some seasoning time before they step up. But this year an early trend looks to me as if it could possibly upset the upperclassmen apple-cart. Granted that for some teams only 6 games have passed but the majority of WCHA teams have played 8 games. For this fan, one statistic specifically jumps out at me.

Of the 222 goals scored this season 112 of them have come from freshmen and sophomores. More than 50 percent? After just 8 games? What happened to the "seasoning time"? Did nobody tell these kids they're supposed to simmer for a while? Here's a team-by-team breakdown:

• DU - 23 of 25 for 92 percent
• UAA - 22 of 27 for 81 percent
• UW - 19 of 28 - for 68 percent
• SCSU- 18 of 30 for 60 percent
• MSUM - 9 of 16 for 56 percent
• UMTC - 6 of 17 for 35 percent
• CC - 4 of 16 for 25 percent
• UND - 4 of 16 for 25 percent
• MTU - 4 of 24 for 17 percent
• UND - 3 of 23 for 13 percent

The biggest effect of this youth trend are being seen primarily at 4 schools and like any good bell curve there are 4 schools on the other end of the spectrum. But more than 50% league-wide? Is that really out of line? I calculated last season for comparisons sake:

• UND - 117 of 153 for 76 percent
• UMD - 73 of 103 for 70 percent
• UMTC - 105 of 161 for 65 percent
• DU - 63 of 107 for 58 percent
• MSUM - 61 of 106 for 57 percent
• UAA - 44 of 90 for 48 percent
• UW - 43 of 93 for 46 percent
• CC - 48 of 111 for 43 percent
• MTU - 41 of 90 for 42 percent
• SCSU - 46 of 127 for 36 percent

The season totals were 641 of 1147 for 56 percent. Well that certainly didn't confirm the "wow" factor in my mind for this year. Of course it's still early and I'd imagine that plenty of youngsters will begin contributing more as the season goes on.

All this spurred my curiosity and so I calculated the six years. In 05-06 the league-wide average was 48 percent (599 of 1245). In 04-05 the average was 46 percent (591 of 1283). In 03-04 the average was 49 percent (680 of 1381). In 02-03 the average was 50 percent (702 of 1394). In 01-02 the average was 43 percent (591 of 1372). In 00-01 the average was 41 percent (550 of 1325). So all this indicates two trends. Scoring is declining slightly but underclassmen seem to be providing more and more of it as time goes on.

Considering all this information begins to leave me with the impression that the quality of the WCHA product could actually be declining slightly. I doubt the top three teams this season would fare very well against the top three team from 00-01 or 01-02. This is all due of course to the last NHL collective bargaining agreement. Gee thanks NHL. I'm not saying here that the WCHA is less competitive or exciting than it was 5 or 6 years ago but the trend is a concern. The NHL's new tendency to try to sign players before they've used their eligibility is slowly turning Division 1 hockey into not much more than an NHL farm system. It's disturbing. Thoughts? Should I have looked at older stats? Are my conclusions reasonable? Will the teams that succeed be the ones that can keep most of their players for 4 years?