The 6’1, 200 lbs, Harms is from Pelham, New York. He played for the Valley Jr. Warriors in the EJHL this season with Northeastern recruit Jake Schechter. He finished with 21 points in 42 games for the Warriors, as well as 2 assists in their 6 playoff games. His season ended earlier this month when the Warriors were knocked out in the semifinals.

Harms played for the Berkshire School in 2011-2012, winning the Large-School NESPAC title. He had 16 points in 31 games, and scored a goal in the championship game.

Harms will be the 10th member of the 2013 recruiting class for Northeastern and the 4th from the EJHL, joining his teammate Schechter, Will Messa (Jr. Bruins) and Mike Jamieson (Islanders).  He is also the 6th member of the class to have played Prep hockey joining Schechter (Lawrence Academy), Messa (Lawrence Academy), Jamieson (Lawrence Academy), Nathan Ferriero (Governor’s), and John Stevens (Salisbury).

The Huskies are bringing in three defenseman (Harms, Benning, Schechter) to replace two departures (Ellement and Oskroba), which will give them a total of 11 for next year. That figure rises to 12 for the ’14-’15 season.  This means that one of three things is going on here:

1. Madigan was not happy with the defense last year, and he is bringing in replacement players for the guys that played last year.

2. Madigan is expecting (or preparing) for some early departures by defenseman

3. Madigan is planning on revolutionizing the game by switching to a 3 defenseman-2 forward lineup.

My money is #2, but we will see how the summer goes.

THIS IS TENTATIVE

Here is the Northeastern schedule so far, based on the Hockey East Tentative Schedule that was released this weekend and Alabama Huntsville’s schedule release which came a few weeks ago. The Huskies have room for 6 more non-conference games that have not been announced yet. One of those games is rumored to be at Minnesota.

Hockey East

With Notre Dame joining Hockey East, the entire league format is changing. The old format was 27 games (3 against each team). The new format is 22 games (2 against each team). That will go to 24 games when UConn joins in 2014. The Huskies are playing a home and home with everyone besides Maine and Notre Dame. The Huskies will travel to Notre Dame for both games this season and they will host Maine for both games this season. Those two series will flip next season. Technically, this makes the schedule a bit unbalanced, but it will save money because teams will only have to fly to Indiana every other year and they will never have to go all the way there for one game.  All of Notre Dame’s Hockey East series are set up like this. An 11 team conference also leads to inevitable byes during the season. Those byes will be eliminated when UConn joins the league.

Hockey East Playoffs

Northeastern will finally make them next year. Everyone will. This is another product of the new Hockey East. Hockey East was the only conference that kept teams out of the playoffs. The coaches believe that has actually created a disadvantage for bubble teams in the Pairwise.  This new setup will hopefully allow bubble teams to get an easy first round series and boost their Pairwise.  I’ll believe that when I see it. This move seems like a way to make more money, but even that seems unlikely.  Had Notre Dame been in the league this year, the opening round matchups likely would have been: 6) New Hampshire v 11) Northeastern, 7) Merrimack v 10) UMass, 8) Vermont vs 9) Maine. That’s not helping anyone out in the Pairwise. New Hampshire was already a lock before the HE tournament and 2 wins over a team with an RPI of 53 is not going to move the needle. Merrimack was nowhere near the bubble. And I can’t imagine attendance would be very high for these games. But this is the new system and its here to stay. The playoffs will continue as they have in the past after this new opening round.

Non-Conference Tournaments

The Huskies will be competing in two holiday tournaments this season, but they could end up facing a conference opponent in both of them.

They will be playing in Notre Dame’s Thanksgiving Tournament. This might be a new tournament or it could be a recreation of Notre Dame’s Shillelagh Tournament with a new date. That tournament was not played last year. This tournament will feature Alabama Huntsville, Northeastern, Notre Dame and Western Michigan, according to a release from Hunstville. Northeastern will likely matchup with Western Michigan in the first round instead of playing against conference foe Notre Dame or a team they already played, Alabama Hunstville. A matchup with Western would be very intriguing since the Broncos have several former Northeastern recruits.

The Huskies will also compete in a Christmas tournament: the Ledyard Bank Classic hosted by Dartmouth. The last time Northeastern was in this tournament was the 2009-2010 season. The Huskies won that tournament, beating Lowell in the finals on a Jake Newton goal. This year’s tournament will feature Dartmouth, Northeastern, Providence, and a 4th team that has yet to be announced. Northeastern will not play Providence in the first round, so it will be either Dartmouth or the unnamed team.

Non-Conference

The only 2 non-conference games that have been announced are two home games against Alabama Huntsville. Hunstville played twice at Matthews last year and drew meager crowds on a holiday weekend. This series will likely be the home opener, so that should boost attendance a little. It will also give Northeastern the best chance they are going to get to end the home winless streak.

That leaves Northeastern with six games left to get to the 34 game limit. There has been speculation that Northeastern will travel to Minnesota this season as a multi-year scheduling agreement. I don’t have the exact details of the arrangement, but I believe BC and Northeastern will travel to Minnesota this season and Minnesota will come east next season to return both games. With conference realignment increasing the amount of non-conference games across the board, expect to see a lot of this type of deal with Hockey East teams and western powers. NU was also in talks of partnering with BU to create another deal like this with a different western team, but I’m not sure if that has been finalized yet.

If Northeastern does play at Minnesota, they would likely play another game while they are out there to make the trip more cost effective.  MSU-Mankato and St. Cloud State are both in the area and have open spots, so I’d bet one of those teams ends up on Northeastern’s schedule.

That leaves Northeastern with four spots.  Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna discussed the possibility of a challenge series with a major conference, mentioning the Big 10 specifically. If it is with the Big Ten, Northeastern will probably not be involved.  The Big Ten has only 6 teams, so either every Big Ten team will play two Hockey East teams or half of Hockey East will not be included.  If it is the latter, I would expect Northeastern to be part of that group that is left out.

With a trip to Minnesota and multiple trips to Indiana, Northeastern will likely be looking to limit travel with these final four slots. Northeastern may have to return a game to St. Lawrence, but based on Madigan’s philosophy and the amount of travel already planned, I’d expect at least three of the remaining four spots to be home games, if not all four. The final four spots could be filled with nearby ECAC and Atlantic Hockey teams. Or maybe Northeastern could get a mid-range western team to come to Matthews in exchange for a return game next season.

We should know more in a a month or two and we will make sure to update this post with any news that comes out.

Roy had 11 goals and 9 assists in 22 Hockey East games this season before having his season cut short by a shoulder injury. His 20 Hockey East points tied him for the team lead this season with senior Vinny Saponari. Roy’s 20 Hockey East points also tie him with Ludwig Karlsson for the 2nd most conference points for a Northeastern freshman since Hockey East moved to a 27-game schedule. Wade MacLeod hold the record with 25 in 2007-2008. Roy was second in the conference for freshman scoring and freshman points per game behind BU’s Danny O’Regan.

Roy was one of the three unanimous selection’s along with BC’s Mike Matheson and Lowell’s Connor Hellebuyck. The six man team was rounded out by O’Regan, his teammate Matt Grzelcyk and PC’s Jon Gillies.

Roy becomes the second current Northeastern player to a unanimous selection to the All-Rookie team, joining Karlsson, who accomplished it last year. Anthony Bitetto, Brodie Reid, Chris Rawlings, Jake Newton, and Steve Quailer have represented Northeastern on the All-Rookie team in recent years.

Northeastern was shut out in the rest of the awards, but some of their former recruits went home with some hardware.  Jon Gillies was named Hockey East Rookie of the Year and he became just the third freshman ever to be named a Hockey East 1st Team All Star, joining Brian Leetch and Paul Kariya.  Johnny Gaudreau was named the Hockey East Player of the Year, in addition to being a 1st Team All Star, beating out Gillies and Merrimack’s Mike Collins.

Oskroba appeared in 22 games this season, spending time at his natural position of defense and filling in as an injury cover at forward. He led the team in +/- with a plus-2 rating.  He is also scored his first career goal earlier this year against New Hampshire.  The Arizona native will finish his Northeastern career with 31 games played.

Oskroba came to Northeastern from the Lincoln Stars (USHL) after he decommitted from Bentley.  He was recruited Greg Cronin and the previous staff, but all three coaches were gone by the time he arrived on campus. Under new coach Jim Madigan, his opportunities have been limited. He played in just 9 games as a freshman. In the offseason, he attended Toronto Maple Leafs prospect camp, finally getting the chance to work with Coach Cronin.

This season Oskroba got off to a good start, playing in three of Northeastern’s first five games. He looked like a much improved player in the early months.  His performance against New Hampshire was probably his best in a Huskies uniform.  He scored his first career goal (and point) and finished the game with a plus-2 rating on the olympic sized ice. But his stay in the lineup would not last long as he played just three of the final 10 games of 2012.  With Mike Gunn returning from injury, Oskroba was taken out of the mix on defense.

He was moved to forward after the Huskies lost players to midseason departures and injuries, but he was placed on the 4th line and saw little to no ice time when he dressed.  He returned to defense late in the year, but still got very limited playing time.

The move is likely the first of several for Coach Madigan this offseason as he tries to rebuild a team that has yet to make the playoffs in his two seasons at the helm. There will be just six Huskies that were recruited by the previous staff on next year’s roster (Pimm, Ferriero, Reid, Karlsson, Witt, Stone).

Oskroba will be missed by his teammates, though.  Despite his lack of playing time, he is a popular player on the team and one of the hardest workers.  He was also named to Hockey East Academic Team last season with a 3.83 GPA, which was the 5th highest mark in all of Hockey East.  He was just the 6th Husky ever to earn that honor. He has worked hard during his time here and made himself a better player.  A new coach is always going to want “his guys” on the team, but it gets to the point where that just becomes a cop-out.  Players like Oskroba may not play 30 minutes a night for you, but they have value and they are good to have around.  In a time where it seems like no one wants to play for your program, you probably shouldn’t jettison the kids that do.

Good luck Ben in your future endeavors and thank you for your contributions to Northeastern hockey.

“It’s not anything against Northeastern or the coaching staff, it was just a decision based on what I wanted personally,” Willett said, “It’s a great school but it just wasn’t for me.”

Willett, who just turned 17, has been playing in the USHL for the Lincoln Stars this season.  Despite being young and undersized (5’7) for the league, he has played in 35 of the 53 games for the Stars.  He has 11 points and a plus-5 rating in those games.

He was just the 4th ’96 birth year to commit to a Division 1 school when he committed back in September 2011 and is considered one of the best defensemen in his age group.

The fact that Willett made one a contending USHL teams as a 16 year old says a lot about his quality. He was selected in the Futures Draft, so Lincoln could have had him play in a lesser league while retaining his rights. Instead, he made the team right out of camp.

Numbers-wise, this will not be a huge loss for Northeastern.  Defenseman Josh Couturier and Garret Cockerill are also slated to come in the fall of 2014. As of right now, Northeastern projects to have 12 defenseman on the roster for the 2014-2015 season, even without Willett.

Updated Recruiting Grid

For a look at next year’s roster and years beyond, we have created a Google Doc with all of then info you need.

Note: These are educated (or not so educated, maybe) guesses

Players Graduating

Hit on most of these guys in Dump and Chase last week, but here is the full rundown. If these players do get deals, they will likely report immediately and return to finish their degree in the summer.

Vinny Saponari (Winnipeg): Saponari was a 4th round pick in 2008. He has attended their rookie camps every year since being drafted. The Jets have the room to sign him to an Entry Level Contract. Saponari will likely sign with the them next week and report to their AHL team, the St. Johns Ice Caps. Saponari is the only member of this class with a serious NHL chance. His vision and two-way game could eventually make him a 3rd line guy in the NHL. I truly believe he will be the next Husky to make it to the NHL.

Chris Rawlings (Undrafted): Rawlings is free to sign with any team once the season ends, but he may have trouble finding a suitable offer.  He has attended prospect camps for the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils and Phoenix Coyotes and done pretty well at them by most accounts.  But he returned to school this year after he was unable to get any offer last season. His play this season has definitely brought his stock down, but someone will take a chance due to his size. An ECHL deal is probably the best he will do.

Garrett Vermeersch (Undrafted): Vermeersch’s situation is a little different as he recovers from a high ankle sprain. He attended development camp with the Chicago Blackhawks after his freshman season. His health will likely determine when he signs. If his ankle isn’t fully healed, he will probably finish school and begin his pro career next year. Vermeersch never had impressive stats during his career here, but I think he could end up as an AHL guy. He is unlikely to get an ATO with an AHL team this season, so he may have to start his pro career in the ECHL.

Robbie Vrolyk (Undrafted): Vrolyk’s speed will likely earn him some interest at the ECHL level.  At the same time, he has dealt with injuries his entire Northeastern career and there is always the chance that he chooses to hang up the skates. Last year’s captain Mike McLaughlin could have played minor league hockey, but choose to give it up and get his masters instead.  Vrolyk could also look overseas, where former Huskies Dennis McCauley, Louis Liotti and Ryan Ginand have found success in recent years.

Drew Ellement (Undrafted): Like Vrolyk, Ellement will be able to find a team if he wants to continue his career.  The ECHL is littered with Hockey East alums and former Huskies. Justin Daniels, Alex Tuckerman and Chris Donovan are all playing there right now.

Steve Morra (Undrafted): Morra’s hockey career is likely over. He will finish his career with over 50 games played.  According to his GoNU bio, he hopes to become a state police officer.

Drafted Player and Others Who Could Leave Early

Kevin Roy (Anaheim): Nothing scares Northeastern fans more than the thought of Roy leaving early.  Its not likely this year, but it obviously could happen. He still needs to add some muscle and refine his defensive game, plus his brother is here.  Also the Ducks don’t seem likely to push him too hard since they were prepared to let him play at Brown, if he wanted to. Another major factor is that the Ducks are at 49 contracts, so they may not have the room to sign him due to the 50 contract limit. On the flip side, he is turning 20 soon and he has proved himself at this level. He could handle the AHL next year, but he could also use at least 1 more year in college. My guess is that he stays next year.

Josh Manson (Anaheim): Drafted players are always a flight risk, but Manson leaving would be a real shock.  He is still learning how to play defense and he couldn’t possibly get more ice time anywhere else. The Ducks don’t have the room to sign him and there is really no reason for them to rush him along.

Cody Ferriero (San Jose): Ferriero has had a great year but its hard to see him leaving this summer, especially with his brother set to join the team in the fall. Ferriero’s older brother, Benn, stayed all four years at BC before signing with the Sharks. The Sharks are at 47 contracts, but own the rights to a lot of NCAA players, including BU’s Matt Nieto. Like Manson, Ferriero should be back next year.

Braden Pimm (Undrafted): Pimm is undrafted but did attend San Jose’s rookie camp with Ferriero last year. He is one year away from his degree, but he is also 23 years old already. He doesn’t have the huge goal numbers that would get him a big money contract, but his overall game will draw some interest. I expect Pimm to return next year, but an AHL offer would obviously be tempting for anyone.

Ludwig Karlsson (Undrafted): Karlsson got a ton of interest last summer and was rumored to have multiple contract offers. He attended Anaheim’s rookie camp with Manson and Roy, but did not sign. His injury, and the drop in production before the injury, probably eliminated any chance he had of leaving. He too should be back next season, but he is the most likely to leave early.

Final Notes

At first glance, this summer looks to be a lot less painful for Northeastern, but you really never know.  No one expected guys like Brodie Reid or Jake Newton leave when they did, but sometimes players just want to cash in while they can or they just don’t want to deal with going to classes anymore. With Madigan and his staff still relatively new, there is also a chance that players who are unhappy with the new regime will sign early or transfer away from the program.

We will be posting incomings/outgoings for all of Hockey East and previewing Northeastern’s recruits throughout the summer. But in the meantime, no news is good news during the offseason.

The Huskies 3-1 loss to Vermont was the latest disappointing effort from the team picked to finish 6th by Hockey East coaches.  The loss extends the home winless streak to 9 games, which is the longest in 15 years. It also gives the Catamounts their first ever weekend sweep on the road against NU.  And it gives them a sweep of the season series for just the second time since they joined Hockey East in 2005.  But more importantly, it leaves Northeastern in last place, needing to make up a 4 point game and jump 2 teams in the final 7 games of the season.

For the second night in a row, the Huskies scored first.  Cody Ferriero’s 9th goal of the year came on a Northeastern power play minutes into the 2nd period. But Vermont would answer soon after when Chris McCarthy beat Bryan Mountain with a wrist shot.

McCarthy would give Vermont the lead in the 3rd period on a weak shot that trickled through the five hole of Mountain.  Like Rawlings on Friday, Mountain played well enough to win, despite allowing some questionable goals.  The senior finished with 26 saves, but remains winless through his 7 starts.

The Huskies would come close to a tying goal several times in the final minutes, but Vermont goalie Brody Hoffman turned in another stellar performance. The comical streak of opponents picking up weekly awards after facing the Huskies will likely continue this week with Hoffman, who was excellent for the Catamounts all weekend.

Brett Bruneteau’s empty net goal with 30 seconds left would seal the 3-1 win for Vermont.

The Huskies now find themselves a long shot to make the playoffs (playoffstatus.com puts it at 11%) and frankly, this isn’t a team deserving of making the playoffs.  Blame injuries, turnover from the new coaching staff, or just plain bad luck if you want, but Northeastern should not be in this position, especially after the events of last season.

The Huskies have had problems with defensive breakdowns and poor goaltending all season, but this weekend they finally figured it out on that end.  Unfortunately, the offense once again disappeared.  At no point this season (not even the Hunstville weekend) has this team got solid play on both ends of the ice in a series.  It seems that when one group steps up, another steps back.  The result is a team that has been massively underwhelming and a record that reflects that.

Last year, it seemed like the team just quit on the coaching staff as the season came to an end.  Signs of that are beginning to pop again this year.  With their backs against the wall, the Huskies could have come out this weekend and grinded out a win or two against a team with less skill than them.  But they didn’t do that.  They came out flat in the biggest series of the season.  Their response to Vermont’s physicality and intensity was to shut down and stop working and they got the result they deserved.

The Huskies will travel to Amherst on Tuesday to make up the game against UMass that was postponed by the blizzard.  I’m sure there will be a line shake up or some other sort of cosmetic changes, but unless there is a full blown attitude change and a renewed focus, you can write off the rest of this season.

Hoffman had kept Northeastern at bay for most of the game, including making a couple crucial saves in a goalmouth scramble with 14 seconds left, sealing a 2-1 win for the visiting Vermont Catamounts in a huge Hockey East game for both teams.

But the Huskies could have no complaints.  They didn’t play like a team fighting for a playoff spot. They didn’t play like a team fighting for anything really.

Adam Reid’s power play goal in the first period would give the Huskies an early lead. Reid banged home his own rebound after Hoffman stopped his first attempt. But the goal could not hide the fact that the Huskies failed to match the Catamounts’ intensity.

4 minutes later, Vermont would answer on their own power play when Jake Fallon beat Chris Rawlings’ five hole. It was a weak goal for Rawlings to let up and Jim Madigan said as much in his post game comments.

Ben Albertson’s first career goal would give Vermont a 2-1 lead in the second period.

The Huskies picked up their play in the third, but it wasn’t enough to beat Hoffman, who made 9 saves in the final period and 26 on the night.  Rawlings finished with 32 saves.

The Huskies haven’t won at home since they played a glorified club team. Their last Hockey East win at home was in October.  They will once again try to break that streak tonight against this same Vermont team.

The Catamounts are currently clinging onto the eighth and final playoff spot in Hockey East, up three conference points on Northeastern (11 to 8).  With four points at stake the Huskies have a huge opportunity to get back a playoff spot and control their own destiny down the stretch.

At this point in the season, to fall behind by more than a weekend’s worth of points would be perilous for NU.  With both games being played at Matthews Arena, the Huskies cannot let this weekend slip away due to lack of discipline.  The Northeastern team that defeated BU in the Beanpot semifinals is certainly capable of taking four points from Vermont this weekend.

Freshman Kevin Roy has scored seven goals in NU’s last five games and the Huskies will continue to rely on the rookie star who became the first player in 40 years to score five goals in a single Beanpot.  With 32 points in 25 games, Roy leads all freshman in the nation in scoring, goals and is second in Hockey East, scoring at a 1.28 points per game clip, trailing only BC’s John Gaudreau.

There are lineup questions heading into this weekend series.  Josh Manson was injured during the Beanpot Championship and Garrett Vermeesch was reportedly seen on crutches as recently as Tuesday.  Their status as well as that of Ludwig Karlsson who re-aggravated his injury two weeks ago against New Hampshire is in jeopardy for this slate.  Defenseman Drew Ellement will not dress tonight, dealing with a lower body injury.

Northeastern will not be able to sustain another injury, offensively or defensively if nobody comes back.  The Huskies’ best chance to win will be to continue to play with the same motivation they had for the Beanpot.  Forecheck Vermont and don’t be afraid to be creative offensively.  Getting the puck to Roy in space will also be critical as the Catamounts will have their eye on him both games.

While Vermont is dangerous, they are not the BC Eagles and if Northeastern plays with the focus they had for BC, they should fare well, not having to deal with the excessive talent of a Jerry York-developed quad.

Game time Friday and Saturday night is 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena in Boston.

With history stacked heavily against them, the Huskies will take on Boston College tonight for the Beanpot Championship.  BC has won the last 3 Beanpots, they are nationally ranked, and they are the model college hockey program with the greatest college hockey coach of all time behind their bench. Northeastern is in last place. They sport an infamous Beanpot drought and the majority of their offensive production comes from one line. On paper, this is a mismatch of epic proportions.

On the ice, it’s a different story.  The Huskies were underdogs last week and they won anyways.  The Huskies were heavy underdogs in 2011 when they faced a talented BC squad in the Beanpot Championship.  Those Huskies took the eventual national champions to overtime before losing one of the best college hockey games of the past 10 years.  It’s not likely, but it is possible.  This is a Northeastern team that, despite its struggles, has played its best games against the toughest teams on its schedule.

The margin for error is razor thin though.  The Huskies outplayed Boston University last week in their semifinal win, but the performance was nowhere near perfect.  The Eagles aren’t going to be in a giving mood, unlike BU’s Ben Rosen.  And this is a BC team that makes opponents pay for mistakes, something BU was unable to do last week.  If the Huskies go into the defensive shell they used to try to close out last week’s game, they will get eaten alive.  The Terriers couldn’t cash in on extended stretches in the offensive zone in the third period and that is one of the reasons they are playing at 4:30 today.  BC has much better shooters, they move the puck better than anyone and their power play is deadly.  Hanging out in the defensive zone is simply not an option for the Huskies, unless they expect Chris Rawlings to bail them out for 60 minutes.

The best chance Northeastern has in this game is to clog the neutral zone, which is not an easy task against a good skating team like BC.  But the Eagles, much like Northeastern, have a young and inexperienced defense.  They will create chances for the Huskies.  Pressuring them will be key for Northeastern.  All 3 of their goals last week were the result of pressure.  The first goal came as result of the Huskies forcing a neutral zone turnover. The second came via the forecheck.  And the third was the product of winning a puck battle and crashing the net.

It’s pretty simple actually: don’t let BC have the puck, get the best performance of Chris Rawlings’ career and capitalize on whatever chances BC give you. Should be no problem…

Two years ago, the Huskies left it all on the ice and they were a bounce or two away from finally bringing the Beanpot back to Huntington Ave.  If you can keep it close, there is always that chance.

This isn’t the best Northeastern team to get to this stage, far from it.  But that hasn’t really mattered in the past.  The highly regarded 2008-2009 team was blown out in the Finals. The 2004-2005 team that lost in overtime finished .500 in Hockey East. The 2010-2011 team, another OT loser, finished 6th in Hockey East.  For one night, you can throw the records and the stats out the window.  The Huskies are one great game away from a Beanpot.  The last six Northeastern teams in this situation have come up short, but maybe this is the one to finally end the years of Beanpot misery for Northeastern.