What the hell is going on down in State st? All of these kids bailing. Why in the world would he leave for the Knights? The NHL I would understand but the ohl? What a joke
London is one of those OHL teams that pushes college guys hard if they have drafted them. It's one of the teams that, when your a Michigan fan, you hope to hell they draft no players coming here. As far as guys bailing, this is nothing new. For the last 15 years it's been harder and harder to keep the top level talent in Ann Arbor for more than a year or two at most. The only real surprise to me so far this off season was Copp.
Can't say I was all that surprised with Larkin going. As he was on the younger side I was hoping he would stick around for one more year to get a full off season of college S&C and to just get a little older and stronger, but he definitely has the talent to make a go of things.
Werenski I am hoping will stick around for another year (he won't be 18 until later this summer so he is really on the young side), but he also seems to have the frame of a guy a year or two older so who knows. He has the talent, no doubt about that. With London in the picture that's an extra dose of upset stomach (not to mention a couple of guys on that team that left college teams are already in his ear). He hasn't made any guarantees that I've heard of to anyone, UM, OHL, or NHL. All he's saying right now is he's open to talking, but won't make any decisions until after the NHL draft. So he should be a Wolverine for at least a couple more weeks, after that it's going to come down to his draft position I think. If he goes high, that could be bad. If he drops to the middle or late 1st round that could be good (of course anything in the 1st round is going to make the skin crawl).
Losing Larkin and Copp has been bad enough. Losing Werenski in the same off season would really be a gut punch, but that's the way college hockey seems to be going. Nobody who's any good seems to stay for more than a year or two (anywhere). You feel lucky if they stay two, you are ecstatic if they stay three, and if you can actually manage to keep a top tier guy for all four years, well that's turning into the holy grail and I don't think anyone has found that cup yet.
