Since a large chunk of my favorite college hockey players have now embarked on the professional portions of their careers, I present to you the first edition of “The Alumni Association,” a regular look at what some of the memorable college hockey players of the past five years are up to now.
Marblehead to Lynnfield, MA is a short distance geographically, but Marblehead native Cory Schnieder and Lynnfield’s Chris Higgins couldn’t be farther apart in their professional hockey careers this week.
For Higgins, the starting left wing for BU last year (and the LW in my most favorite line ever – Higgins, Wilson, Lawrence), Labor Day weekend will bring about his first NHL rookie camp with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Higgins, who is expected to spend the start of the season in Syracuse with the AHL Crunch, has the opportunity to be a part of a unique NHL training camp experience.
As Yahoo Sports’ Puck Daddy detailed on Wednesday, the Blue Jackets have made the beginning of their training camp a “fantasy tournament.” Owners of the franschise get to assemble their own teams for use in a two day tournament from the actual roster of the Blue Jackets training camp. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Higgins was selected by majority owner John P. McDonnell for his tournament team. Considering he had little buzz around him as he was about to enter BU in the summer of 2005, Higgins has made the best of every opportunity during his college hockey career, and it will be interesting to watch how he does in training camp.
For Cory Schneider, on the other hand, discouragement must be the primary feeling this week. Schneider, a goalie for the Vancouver Canucks, and the college hockey example of Bill Simmons’ Ewing Theory (“he’s so talented, he’s so wonderful, oh, BC will win it all this year…”, and then they finally win the national championship the year he leaves college early to go pro), is now the backup to a goaltender with a new 12 year long contract. Once goalie-extraordinaire Roberto Luongo signed an over-decade long contract this week with the Canucks, with the earliest escape clause being five years in according to the Canwest News Service, Schneider became somewhat dispensable. Not that Schneider isn’t used to being thought of by dispensable by the Canucks organization – he was frustratingly name-dropped as trade bait nearly all last season.
The Canucks also enter training camp with Andrew Raycroft on the roster, leaving a real possibility that Schneider could be sent back to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose to start the season again. Schneider told the Salem News on Thursday that he’s not taking Luongo’s mega-deal as a death knell for his career in Vancouver. “It really doesn’t make a lot of difference as far as my situation goes; (Luongo) was still going to be here even if he hadn’t signed an extension,” said Schneider to the paper. “If you’re always striving just to be a backup goalie, you’ll never be a No. 1.”
Schneider’s lessons in hard work and humility might be needed by his former Eagles teammate, Buffalo Sabre and Portland Pirate Nathan Gerbe. According to an interview with HockeyBuzz.com, Gerbe thinks he has done all he can in the AHL, and is out for a full-time call up to the Buffalo Sabres. “I’m not going back there ( to Portland ). It’s not going to happen. I’ll play whatever position they want me to play. I’m not going down.”
As much as I root for the little guy, and as much as I like to see young players with determination, one might want to tell Gerbe that one season in the AHL doesn’t necessarily make one a full-time NHL forward. Especially when he spent a portion of the season injured, and was relatively quiet during the small amount of time he was called up to Buffalo. Gerbe may want to prepare to spend at least the first few weeks in Portland with the Pirates, given that there are a few centers ahead of him on the Sabres depth chart. And anyway, Portland’s not that bad of a city. Sure, it doesn’t have buffalo wings, but it still has Tim Hortons.
But then again, I’m a BU fan – I’m biased against Gerbe. Maybe he will crack the Sabres roster full-time….
For more hockey news, stay tuned later this weekend, as I kick off another regular series, one sure to rival my always popular, “Everyone’s Favorite Goalie” updates. Yes, it might have to do with Kane’s Donuts, Kowloon, the giant orange dinosaur, and the Hilltop Steakhouse (or the “Hilop Seakhos,” as its dying lightup catcus sign on Route 1 likes to call it.) Stay tuned.