Michigan junior forward J.T. Compher will serve as the Wolverines’ captain for the 2015-16 season. (Photo: University of Michigan)
While this blog has been somewhat dry since the end of the regular season, the mothership site at is producing new content regularly.
In addition to Sunday NHL columns, videos and mailbag items, we have posted player capsules daily over the last two weeks and the 10th was filed Wednesday on . The editors and online producers like to call them “evaluations” but Terry Frei and I prefer “season-in-review capsules” or something without a “grading” connotation. Teacher, professors and coaches have the ability the grade — not sports writers.
About that headline: J.T. Compher, who was acquired from Buffalo in the Ryan O’Reilly trade last summer, and will forego his senior year at Michigan. The high-scoring forward was a second-team West All-American with Denver defenseman Will Butcher, an Avalanche draftee. Both juniors, Compher and Butcher played together for two years at the U.S. National Development Program and for the 2015 U.S. World Junior team.
Butcher will remain at DU for his senior season. He might be more likely to have his rights traded or become a free agent in 2017 than sign with the Avalanche. Just have to sit back and see how this one plays out, but the 5-foot-10 Butcher is certainly an . We’ll have more on Butcher, Compher and the Avalanche’s general stance on NCAA players in Sunday’s NHL column. Here’s a teaser:
Going back 5 years, 28 out of 30 NHL teams have signed at least one undrafted college free agent. Colorado & Dallas only teams that haven’t.
— Mike McMahon (@MikeMcMahonCHN)
I requested a comment from GM Joe Sakic on the firing of Dean Chynoweth, head coach of the Avs’ AHL affiliate in San Antonio. But I haven’t heard back yet and I’m going on short-term disability Thursday morning. Knee-replacement surgery. Out 2-3 weeks for the job. But I’ll be back on the ice in 3-6 months.
