T.J. Hughes, Karsen Dorwart among NCAA free agents worth keeping an eye on in the NHL
As the college hockey season is coming to an end for some teams, some players are starting to make their toward the NHL ranks.
With some teams’ campaigns ending in March, and even those who make it all the way to the Frozen Four in April, players have the ability to join teams either for the final days of the regular season, or even jump onto rosters that are heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The more intriguing conversations with some of these collegiate athletes are undrafted free agents who are either finishing out their eligibility or feel like they can make the jump to the pros before their four years are up.
On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, draft expert Steven Ellis joined Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk to talk about a couple of undrafted free agents who might be hopping onto NHL rosters soon.
Steven Ellis: I’ll start with Karsen Dorwart out of Michigan State. This guy is probably the best two-way center of any of the college free agents there. He really controls the puck well. I saw him a couple times in person this year, and it felt like he was just involved at both ends of the ice. He’s not going to be a high-end producer, pretty much at any level, but I think he’s got the hockey sense and that defensive responsibility that you can plug and play him in different spots, and he’s going to perform.
Then you look at T.J. Hughes out of the University of Michigan. This guy was one that I think a lot of people expected to be one of the top free agents last year … with Hughes, he’s been very productive at Michigan. He’s been doing it at a time where he wasn’t playing with Adam Fantilli. He doesn’t have Kent Johnson or those guys to kind of rely on, like some other Michigan players last couple years. He’s had to go out there and do a lot of the work. Very good in the power play, very good in open space. I have to imagine, there’s a lot of teams excited about him.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…