’00 D Kyle Gudme to St. Thomas for 2021
- NZ Rankings: #52 in NAHL, #283 Nationally
St. Thomas hasn’t yet hired a head coach, but the Tommies have been busy recruiting players for their Division I launch next year. St. Clair, Minn. native Kyle Gudme is the latest player to commit, announcing last week that he was headed to St. Thomas.
Gudme has excellent size (6-foot-5) and has appeared in six games for Danbury in the NAHL this season, posting a pair of assists. He’s had a long NAHL career, appearing in 63 games for the Corpus Christi IceRays, 28 games for the Springfield Jr. Blues and a pair of games for the Austin Bruins dating back to 2018.
NZ Scouts: “He was able to make plays under pressure and used his reach to create passing lanes. He also used the wall well. He doesn’t hesitate to move the puck and gets it up ice quickly. He played a mature, versatile style. He missed sticks and shin pads and fired lots of shots on goal. He showed good mobility along the offensive blue line. He is not the type who will put up a lot of points but he clogs lanes well in the defensive zone, keeps tight gaps from in the neutral zone, hides his poke and closes well on loose pucks. Interesting player with lots of upside. Big guys take longer he can play any situation, top or bottom pair at the next level.“
’00 F Braiden Dorfman to Dartmouth for 2021
- NZ Rankings: #112 in NAHL, #429 Nationally
Dorfman’s offensive totals have really blossomed the last two seasons in the NAHL. He’s a Tennessee native who played AAA and T1EHL hockey for the TPH Thunder and then moved to the NAHL in 2018.
This season he has 28 points (9g-19a) in2 5 games for Shreveport, which has already topped his 26-point season in Chippewa last season.
NZ Scouts: ” Dorfman is a solid forward with a decent shot, and with a bit of time can place pucks on net with great accuracy. He excels at getting pucks to the net and has a shoot first mentality when he has the puck in the offensive zone. He scored a nice goal this weekend placing a shot that was perfectly just over the goalies leg pad and inside the post giving him almost no chance to save it. He has some good zip on his shot and showed that he has the ability to be a solid goal scorer when he has the time and space in the offensive zone.”
’03 F Ethan Begg to Vermont for 2022 or 2023
- NZ Rankings: N/A
Begg is a Colorado-born forward who has a strong reputation as a hard worker. He’s shined for Shattuck St. Mary’s since his 14U season, and this season he has posted 18 points in 19 games for the 18U Prep team.
NZ Scouts: “Begg is making the jump from U16 to the prep squad and looks to be seamless from his performance so far in the Elite League with a 2-2-4 line in 3 games. The ‘03 has good speed on the rush, can accelerate from a standstill and win races to pucks and has a quick, deceptive release that tricks goalies. He doesn’t shy away from the dirty areas as he was digging pucks out of the corners and winning 50/50 pucks along the wall. He uses change of speed to his advantage in the neutral zone to trick defenders gaps and he can hit another gear on zone entries to go wide around defenders and cut in towards the goal.”
’01 D Isack Bandu to Northern Michigan for 2021
- NZ Rankings: #52 in BCHL, #287 Nationally
Bandu is a Montreal native who is slated to suit up for the Victoria Grizzlies again this season once the BCHL gets rolling.
Bandu debuted for the Grizzlies last season, scoring one goal and adding 11 assists in 52 games on the blue line. He also played a hard-nosed game, racking up 62 PIMs.
Bandu is a product of Stanstead College in the MPHL and also spent two seasons with the Châteauguay Grenadiers in Quebec’s AAA midget league.
