Monday
July 17, 2006
sports.michigandaily.com
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SPORTS
13
SICE HOCKEY
Top recruit leaves for NHL
without playing for Icers
By H. Jose Bosch
Daily Sports Editor
Trevor Lewis, the crown jewel of
the Michigan hockey team's incom-
ing 2006-07 freshman class, prompt-
ly ended his Wolverine career before
it even started.
On Friday after-
noon the Murray, "I'm very di
Utah, native signed in the L.A. i
with the Los Ange- for thinkin
les Kings after he whrteverre
was selected as the whatever re
team's first round would signl
draft choice (No. not let him
17 overall) in the at Michigan
NHL Entry draft-
on June 24. coach Re
Ra
h
d
n.
d
RODRIGO GAYA/Daly
Michigan coach Tommy Amaker helped bring is shooting guard Manny Harris to Michigan.
Harris verbally
commits toCagers
By Scott Bell No. 45-ranked player in his class by
Daily Sports Editor Rivals.com, would be the highest-
rated guard since Dion Harris (No.
After a spring filled with near- 28) to join the team.
misses and decommitments, the Harris replaces Alex Legion as the
Michigan men's basketball team secondplayerwithaverbalcommitment
finally received some good news from to the team. Legion, a four-star recruit
a big-time recruit. himself, originally verbally commit-
Shooting guard Manny Harris ted to Michigan, only to decommit this
verbally committed to Michigan on spring and reopen his recruitment. He
Monday, joining East Grand Rapids has since eliminated Michigan from
senior-to-be Kelvin Grady as the sec- his potential choices for 2007.
ond member of the 2007 recruiting Though Michigan has had bad luck
class for the Wolverines. recently with recruits backing out,
The Detroit native, whose stock has Harris is firm that his verbal commit-
been rising after a great performance ment will be binding.
at the Nike All-American Camp, chose "When I made my decision, I took
Michigan over Indiana, Iowa, Mar- my time and thought about it a lot,"
quette and Miami (FL). Harris said. "There (won't) be any
"Michigan has some really good decommiting by me."
coaches," Harris said. "It's a great The senior-to-be at Detroit Redford
school, and it's somewhere I can come expects to see a lot of playing time as
right in and play." a freshman, but knows he has areas of
Letters of intent can't be signed until his game to work on next year before
the winter. Until that time, members of entering the collegiateranks. He'll have
the Michigan coaching staff can't com- that opportunity next year at Redford,
ment on verbal commitments. where he averaged more than 22 points
Harris's performance at the Nike and seven rebounds per game last year
All-American camp brought him more as an All-State 1st team member.
attention. While there, he was named "I still need to get stronger," Har-
the camp's No. 4 shooting guard. ris said. "I've gained 10 or 12 pounds
"I was just being myself there," Har- since last year, but I still think I need
ris said. "I tried to do it all - rebound, to get stronger.
play defense and hit open shots." Harris said his ideal weight down
Dave Telet, a recruiting analyst for the line would be 190 or 200 pounds.
Scout.com who saw Harris perform at He also listed long-range shooting as a
the camp in Indianapolis, agreed that targeted area of improvement.
Harris could be something special. He said he was excited to get to
"He consistently was making his play with DeShawn Sims, the highly
jump shots," Telet said. "If he contin- touted forward who will be joining
ues making his shots and plays with the team this season.
the energy that he did on both ends of "I've played with DeShawn before,
the court, he's going to be a huge help and he's a great player," Harris said. "I
to Michigan." really like his game, I think we can do
Harris, currently listed as the big things together."
Michigan is no
stranger to players
leaving early, but
unlike last year when former play-
ers Jeff Tambellini and Al Montoya
bolted for the NHL before their
senior seasons, Lewis is attempting
to make a jump to the professional
ranks without ever skating for the
Wolverines.
Even though this appears to be a
major blow to the program, Michi-
gan coach Red Berenson doesn't
appear to be phased by the sudden
loss of such a highly touted recruit.
"This is not a one-player pro-
gram," Berenson said. "We've had
to deal with this sort of thing in the
past. Now, we're very disappointed
that Trevor Lewis decided to turn
pro, and I'm very disappointed in
the L.A. Kings for thinking that for
whatever reason, they would sign
him and not let him develop at Mich-
igan. But it's not going to devastate
our program ... The person that is
missing out on everything is Trevor
Lewis. Our team is still going to be
a good team."
Even though Berenson can't
discuss particular recruits during
the summer, he did acknowledge
that there are players out there
who remain unsigned. He did not
rule out the possibility that anoth-
er player would be brought in to
replace Lewis.'
One player that has been looked
at by Michigan is Patrick Kane, a
forward for the U.S. National Team
Development Program based in
Ann Arbor. Kane had expressed
interest in the Wolverines before,
but he wouldn't be able to graduate
from high school
before the season
aointed begins. The earli-
appos est possible time
tha fo Kane could join the
that for team is mid-sea-
rson, they son. Still, Berenson
M and isconfident in the
levelop team's depth and
-" doesn't feel that the
Michigan Wolverines have
I Berenson been caught short
handed.
But the Lewis
signing also brings
to light a situation other than just
losing a top recruit, a situation
that college coaches like Berenson
hadn't dealt with in the past - the
possibility of losing a player to the
NHL before they play a game of col-
lege hockey.
Just a year following the NHL's
new collective bargaining agree-
ment, a rash of draft picks are being
signed as early as possible - a low-
risk, high-reward move if a team
only pays a player the entry level
salary at signing.
With the exception of the few
teams in a given draft who pick up
a special player like a Sidney Cros-
by or a Wayne Gretzkey - play-
ers that could compete in the NHL
younger than age 20 - teams aren't
expecting immediate help from it's
draft picks at the pro level, even
though the teams are signing them
early. Berenson finds this new trend
alarming and not in the best inter-
est of the player.
"I think (the Kings) took advan-
tage of a kid who wasn't getting
good advice and signed him so that
they own him, and they can do what-
ever they want," Berenson said.
In his 26 years of coaching at
Michigan, Berenson has seen NHL
general managers promise immedi-
ate playing time to players, only to
see those promises go unfulfilled.
Unlike at Michigan, Berenson says
that NHL teams are not concerned
with whether a player has a college
education to fall back on if his
hockey career is cut short, either
by injury or if the player doesn't
pan out.
"College hockey has been a per-
fect fit for so many players," Beren-
son said. "They have a chance to
play hockey, develop and get an edu-
cation at the same time. So that when
they're ready to turn pro, they're
ready. They're more ready than they
would've been had they left when
they were 19."
Even after three years of college
experience, some players find it dif-
ficult to break into the NHL.
Former Wolverine Jeff Tambel-
lini, a superstar for Michigan dur-
ing his three years in college, met
the harsh realities of professional
hockey with the same team that
drafted Lewis.
Despite his position as arguably
one of the mosttalented players in the
nation while at Michigan, he played
in just four games with the Kings
before being sent to the Islanders,
in which he appeared in 21 games
for the team (in an 82-game season).
Montoya, another superstar from the
same class, has yet to appear in an
NHL game with his organization,
the New York Rangers.
Whether the current trend of NHL
teams signing players earlier is going
to continue remains to be seen, butit
is unquestionably a period of insta-
bility for the NHL, a period that
could have long-lasting effects for
players and their families, coaches
and college hockey programs.
Berenson paints this picture for
future hockey recruits.
"Are you ready to compete in the
NHL?" Berenson said. "Are you
ready to compete with men for a
job? You're not given a job. They're
not handing you a jersey and saying,
'You're going to be in our power
play just because we signed you.' It's
a whole different world."
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