Tag Archives: ncaa

Canucks sign Thatcher Demko

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Vancouver, B.C. – Vancouver Canucks General Manager Jim Benning announced today that the club has signed goaltender Thatcher Demko to a three-year entry-level contract.

Demko, 20, completed his third season with Boston College, leading the Eagles to the Hockey East regular season championship and a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four. Demko posted a 27-8-4 record along with a .935 save percentage and a 1.88 goals-against average in 39 games with the Eagles this season. His 10 shutouts on the year set a new Boston College school record and ranks as the second most in college hockey history for a single season.

The 6-4, 195-pound goaltender was awarded the 2016 Mike Richter Award as the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA men’s hockey. He was also a finalist for the 2016 Hobey Baker Award.

In three seasons at Boston College, Demko has posted a 62-26-10 record, along with a 2.08 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage. A native of San Diego, California, Demko was originally selected by Vancouver in the second round, 36th overall, at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

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Source: Canucks sign Thatcher Demko – Vancouver Canucks – News

Signing Troy Stecher was no slam dunk for Canucks

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JASON BOTCHFORD

Published on: April 16, 2016

If you were ever looking to find out what a 22-year-old gets up to on the Friday after signing his first pro contract, look no further than Troy Stecher.

The North Dakota communications major was in school, late into Friday afternoon, as committed to finishing his college education as he is to the Canucks.

Stecher signed a two-year entry-level contract with Vancouver this week, and is a promising right-shot defenceman whose presence in the organization should alleviate some of the residual angst over the Canucks pointlessly losing Frankie Corrado in the fall.

Stecher was supposed to be the Canucks slam-dunk college free-agent this spring. He’s from here, and grew up in Richmond. His parents live here, and there was a time when his dad, Peter, had Canucks season tickets. He even was a part of a Canucks development camp in 2014.

But despite any perceived advantages, the Canucks got a big win in signing Stecher, and it was far closer to not happening than most people have assumed.

“It was really close at the end,” Stecher admitted. “We had it down to five, and we narrowed it down to Vancouver after that. It was a long process.

“Being my hometown, it was an added benefit.”

The hometown kid signed by the hometown team makes for a wonderful story, and an easy one too. But don’t be naive. It’s not the entire reason he signed.

Stecher, who is bright, mature, thoughtful and impressively serious, understands math and the situation in Vancouver. Would the signing have happened with the right-shot 22-year-old Corrado in the organization still?

Maybe, but, maybe not.

“Obviously you’re going to do your due diligence and your homework,” he said.

Anyone could have assessed the Canucks as a team desperately in need of a young, right-shot defenceman who has an NHL shot, can make a power-play dance and someone who can skate.

And, boy, can Stecher skate.

For that, he credits his father for pointing out he had short, choppy strides when he was a young teen, and for a Tsawwassen hockey school, where he worked out with Brendan Gallagher and turned those short, choppy strides into something that, at times, made him look like a running antelope in the NCAA this season.

Watching some of his games, there’s Yannik Weber in him. Stecher is grittier and faster, but has that same dynamic offensive potential. And, at 5-foot-10-and-a-half is essentially the same size.

Generally, defencemen under six-feet are thought to be undersized. But Stecher counters that by pointing out the three defencemen he models his game after, Dan Boyle, Duncan Keith and the Minnesota Wild’s Jared Spurgeon, who are all successful NHL blueliners and all on the smaller side of the league.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, every player has obstacles they have to overcome,” Stecher said.

It has provided a nice incentive for him, as he said part of the reason trained those long hours to improve his skating was because of that label he wasn’t big enough.

Stecher’s breakout season for North Dakota saw him go from 13 points to 29. He was the sixth-most productive defenceman in college hockey, and that was like chum in the water for NHL teams.

There had been rumours even last year the NHL was interested in him after passing him over in three consecutive drafts because of his size, and output, which wasn’t impressive until this season.

His best line this week after signing was when he essentially said that if he were a Canucks fan he’d be jacked about the progress of his North Dakota teammate Brock Boeser.

He wasn’t talking about how many goals Boeser scored, which was pretty remarkable. Instead, he was speaking to how Boeser handles himself off the ice.

Thing is, Stecher is much like Boeser, the Canucks’ 2015 first-round pick. They are both dedicated, clean-living kids who, if they can make it, have the character to fit right into an organization currently led by two of the classiest players in the league, the Sedin twins.

For an example, Stecher is passing on an opportunity to play in Utica this season, something Ben Hutton did at the end of last year on an amateur tryout deal which didn’t impact his contract situation.

Stecher is staying in school in part because he doesn’t want to lower his grades, which would negatively impact North Dakota’s score in the NCAA’s academic progress rate program.

Low APR scores can result in NCAA penalties such as scholarship reductions and postseason bans.

“I never want a situation where something I did leads the coach to tell someone ‘Sorry, you can’t be a part of this’ because there was a cut,” Stecher said. “You need to leave the program in good standing if you leave early. I didn’t want to jeopardize the programs.”

It does sound like something a Sedin would say, doesn’t it?

jbotchford@postmedia.com

twitter.com/botchford

Source: Signing Troy Stecher was no slam dunk for Canucks | Vancouver Sun

Jocks on strike? Congress looks at unions organizing athletes

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By Eric Schulzke, Deseret News National Edition

Monday, May 19 2014

With the National Labor Relations Board deliberating whether to clear the way for Northwestern’s football team to unionize, a congressional panel met last week to debate how to respond to charges that college atheletes are exploited labor.

Whatever comes of the current dispute at Northwestern, the controversy puts pressure on the NCAA to change how it treats atheletes. Some changes appear to be in the likely result, whichever way the unionization fight goes.

“For its part,” the Chronicle of Higher Education notes, “the NCAA has stepped up efforts to help athletes. Last month its Division I Board of Directors approved a measure allowing colleges to provide more meals for players. The board also endorsed changes in the Division I governance structure that are expected to provide wealthy colleges with more autonomy, setting the stage for big-time athletics programs to increase the value of scholarships and to provide new health and welfare benefits.”

Many of the lawmakers at the hearing doubted that unionization was a real answer. “Can the NCAA and institutions do more to protect students? Absolutely,” said Rep. John P. Kline Jr., a Minnesota Republican and chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee in prepared remarks.

“They could start by giving students a greater role in shaping policies that govern college athletics. They could also work to help ensure a sports injury doesn’t end a student’s academic career and find a responsible solution that will deliver the health care injured players may need. While promoting change is often difficult, student athletes deserve a determined effort to address these concerns,” Kline added.

Prior to the hearing, union organizers, including a former UCLA linebacker, expressed fears that Congress would consider legislation that would head off the unionization effort.

“CAPA is concerned that this hearing has been called in an attempt to legitimize the NCAA’s illegitimate effort to eliminate college athletes’ rights,” Ramogi Huma, president of the College Athletes Players Association, told the Associated Press.

Northwestern’s football players voted last month on whether to unionize, but the results of the vote will not be made known until after the National Labor Relations Board makes a final determination on whether they are allowed to do so.

ESPN noted that “the ballots will not be opened until after the national NLRB body rules on whether to accept the ruling of its regional director in Chicago that players are employees. But the 76 eligible voters — those scholarship players with remaining NCAA eligibility — are under significant pressure to vote no.”

“Head football coach Pat Fitzgerald has led the defensive effort,” Slate noted, “which seems befitting for a former linebacker. A generally beloved figure in the locker room and on campus, he has been meeting with players to ‘educate’ them about the apparently dreadful repercussions of bringing union reps onto campus. Publicly, he’s simply argued that the school can address athletes’ concerns, like better medical care, without collective bargaining.”