Quote:
Originally Posted by asdwe1
Before Dennis was drafted he was cut 5 times from his rep team in Fort St,john, BC
|
Not sure where you got that idea. Dennis was always on the Rep team, and often the Captain (voted by his teammates). At least in Pee-wee and Bantamn, his only midget year was in Penticton before he went to Junior.
For certain, he was not high on the NHL radar until this year at Brown (NCAA). Several (8 or so) teams had him on their lists, and he was interviewed by most of them pre-draft. He was lucky that a couple of his teammates (Zolnierczyk who went to Philly and Maclellan who is a coveted free agent) had the scouts watching and they noticed Dennis.
I think that Dennis will surprise a lot of you next week at the Prospects camp. He is a solid 2-way D-man who physically controls his opponents in his own end and has a serious mean streak and a big offensive upside.
At Brown as a Freshman, he was a starter each game and played first shift on power play and penalty kill. In his first game he had a GWG against Harvard in OT. He ended up getting a lot of points for his team, but mostly his contribution to the team was solid D. He made a lot of mistakes last year as a Freshman D, but balanced out the early scoring and the later play in his own end.
He won a lot of awards last year as a Frosh, All-Ivy and all-ECAC included. He is definitely a player and will have a good pro career. I think he will probably play at least some games in the NHL because he is a reliable and strong defenseman who is eminently coachable.
