Was able to keep an eye a couple future ND defensemen the other night watching a ushl game. Tory Dello and Bobby Nardella are both playing for the Tri-City Storm, and am guessing that both of them will be in South Bend this summer getting ready for the 2015 season. ND needs a right and left handed d-man this upcoming season
Let's start with Nardella, Bobby is part of the new ND trend of small, quick d-men. He is listed at 5 '9 and probably a generous 175 pounds, he is a left handed shot who moves pretty well. Sorta reminds me of TJ Tynan, except TJ was an undersized center, not an undersized defenseman. He got knocked down a few times, but wasn't afraid to play along the boards, although with his quicks is going to be the puck mover and potential QB of the PP. He scored a goal on a nice wrister from the high slot and added a couple assists.
Will be interesting to see how he is used as a frosh, ND lost a left handed shot in Eric Johnson to graduation and Nardella is a totally different player than Johnson, much more offensive minded.
Now we get to Tory Dello, like Nardella he was a Chicago Mission kid, but that is about all the two have in common. While Nardella will score a few goals and add a good amount of helpers, Dello is the type of defenseman that is D first.
He is listed at 6' 1 and 190, a right handed shot and from what I have noticed, in looking up his career, the kid has had a full fricking beard since he was about 16. Very vocal on the ice, always communicating during play and on the bench with his teammates, trying to make sure everybody is in their place or on board with the situation at hand. Plays an honest game, which means he seldom is out of position or has to cheat with his stick or by grabbing too much, just plays right on the edge without going over it. He can move well and because he was pretty much always in the right place, he was able to show enough patience to muscle or persuade oncoming forward towards the boards without them having much of a choice or option.
At this stage of his career, Dello is not the type that will fill up the stats sheets, but is a pretty smart, solid, skilled player that does every thing so well, you don't notice how good he is,,,,and every team needs a few kids like this. Heard he is a pretty good egg off the ice as well
Really like this kid, is eligible for the nhl draft later this summer...am certainly not a scout, but would think he gets a call.
Nardella and Dello were paired together quite a bit during the game....after watching Dello play, it was no surprised the Tri-City coach pretty much left him out there the last couple minutes of the game while holding off a helluva rally from the sioux falls team. Am hopeful this spring will allow me to see another future ND kid or two during the playoff season. Think there were something like 35 or so players in that game that are ncaa commits, so the talent on ice is pretty good.
One of the crappiest things about being a ND hockey fan is how long it takes until the final schedule is released. It makes it tough to plan trips....well the schedule isn't finalized.....probably won't be until late summer, but if you want to double dip football and hockey weekends, there will be an exhibition game during the Navy weekend (probably on Friday night) and northeastern will play two (probably thursday friday) during the Senior's last game, which is wake forest weekend.
Let's start with Nardella, Bobby is part of the new ND trend of small, quick d-men. He is listed at 5 '9 and probably a generous 175 pounds, he is a left handed shot who moves pretty well. Sorta reminds me of TJ Tynan, except TJ was an undersized center, not an undersized defenseman. He got knocked down a few times, but wasn't afraid to play along the boards, although with his quicks is going to be the puck mover and potential QB of the PP. He scored a goal on a nice wrister from the high slot and added a couple assists.
Will be interesting to see how he is used as a frosh, ND lost a left handed shot in Eric Johnson to graduation and Nardella is a totally different player than Johnson, much more offensive minded.
Now we get to Tory Dello, like Nardella he was a Chicago Mission kid, but that is about all the two have in common. While Nardella will score a few goals and add a good amount of helpers, Dello is the type of defenseman that is D first.
He is listed at 6' 1 and 190, a right handed shot and from what I have noticed, in looking up his career, the kid has had a full fricking beard since he was about 16. Very vocal on the ice, always communicating during play and on the bench with his teammates, trying to make sure everybody is in their place or on board with the situation at hand. Plays an honest game, which means he seldom is out of position or has to cheat with his stick or by grabbing too much, just plays right on the edge without going over it. He can move well and because he was pretty much always in the right place, he was able to show enough patience to muscle or persuade oncoming forward towards the boards without them having much of a choice or option.
At this stage of his career, Dello is not the type that will fill up the stats sheets, but is a pretty smart, solid, skilled player that does every thing so well, you don't notice how good he is,,,,and every team needs a few kids like this. Heard he is a pretty good egg off the ice as well
Really like this kid, is eligible for the nhl draft later this summer...am certainly not a scout, but would think he gets a call.
Nardella and Dello were paired together quite a bit during the game....after watching Dello play, it was no surprised the Tri-City coach pretty much left him out there the last couple minutes of the game while holding off a helluva rally from the sioux falls team. Am hopeful this spring will allow me to see another future ND kid or two during the playoff season. Think there were something like 35 or so players in that game that are ncaa commits, so the talent on ice is pretty good.
One of the crappiest things about being a ND hockey fan is how long it takes until the final schedule is released. It makes it tough to plan trips....well the schedule isn't finalized.....probably won't be until late summer, but if you want to double dip football and hockey weekends, there will be an exhibition game during the Navy weekend (probably on Friday night) and northeastern will play two (probably thursday friday) during the Senior's last game, which is wake forest weekend.
