Eight Gophers on SBN College Hockey's Top 100 NHL Prospects List!

Our friends at SB Nation College Hockey ranked their top 100 NHL Prospects who are currently playing in college hockey.  Of course there were several Gophers who made the top 100 list.  Eight Gophers in fact, good enough for the third most of any team in college hockey. If you would like to read the whole list (no surprise on who #1 overall is if you follow college hockey at all) the entire nine part series can be found here.

We have pulled out the eight Gopher profiles and provided them here in case thats all you care about.  But we encourage you to go look at the entire series.  There are lots of good players in there that you will see in the NHL very soon.  The eight Gophers below are listed in ascending order with their overall rank, their year in school, the NHL team that holds their rights, and the small blurb written by the crew at SB Nation College Hockey

#79 Taylor Cammarata--Sophomore (New York Islanders)

Cammarata is one of the best passers in college hockey. But his small stature and lack of elite skating ability have relegated him to being a relatively one dimensional player. Even his goal-scoring has gone way down this year compared to his freshman season. But Cammarata will always make his teammates around him better by getting them the puck, and will always find a way to put up nice point totals

#70 Kyle Rau--Senior (Florida Panthers)

Rau is among the active career-scoring leaders in all of college hockey. He's small, but he relies on grit and hockey intelligence to always be around the puck and making plays. Opponents hate to play against him because he's a true pest on the ice. But it's hard to deny that skills that he has, or the tenacity that he plays with

#69 Jack Glover--Freshman (Winnipeg Jets)

It's been a rough transition to college hockey in Jack Glover's freshman season. There's been little patience for the typical growing pains of a true freshman defenseman on a deep Gopher blue line, which has left Glover only playing 14 games so far this season. All the tools are there for the big defender with remarkable skating ability, however. Next season will give him more opportunity to show his talents, and with another year of physical maturity and experience against the speed of college hockey, he could be an excellent player.

#64 Adam Wilcox--Junior (Tampa Bay Lightning)

It's been a tale of two seasons for Adam Wilcox. In the first portion of the season, Wilcox looked like the calm, confident goalie Minnesota has come to rely on in the first two years of his college career. But a difficult stretch through the middle part of the season tanked his statistics and raised questions about his future. Wilcox is undersized for a pro goalie, but when he's playing well, he has the athleticism to overcome that.

#60 Ryan Collins--Freshman (Columbus Blue Jackets)

Collins is a tall, lanky defenseman that was expected to be a bit of a project when the Blue Jackets selected him in the second round of last year's draft. That was the case when Collins showed some shakiness early in the season, but he has progressed nicely over the course of the season, earning a regular spot on a Minnesota blue line with seven other NHL Draft picks and showing flashes of using his enormous size to be a shutdown defensive defenseman

#24 Hudson Fasching--Junior (Buffalo Sabres)

Fasching has gone through a bit of a sophomore slump after a breakout freshman season, but he's still young and still has the tools to be a very effective, grinding two-way forward. Fasching is at his best when he's going hard to the net and using his big frame to help create space for teammates. Even when he hasn't been as effective offensively, he can still make a difference on the defensive end of the ice.

#12 Brady Skeji--Junior (New York Rangers)

Injuries slowed down Skjei for much of the first half of the season, but since returning to the line-up regularly in January, he's continued to be a dominating defensive presence, using his big frame and smooth skating to take away ice from opponents. He's starting to add a bit more offensive production to his game, but likely won't be a huge point producer at the next level. He moves better than most defensemen that are 6-3 which should make him a valuable commodity in the pro game.

#9 Mike Reilly--Junior (Columbus Blue Jackets)

Like most of his Minnesota team, Reilly went through a lull in his play through the middle part of the season. But when Reilly is being assertive, and playing at his best, he has the ability to take over a game in a way that no other defenseman in college hockey can. His smooth skating and vision makes him an elite puck-mover, and he runs Minnesota's power play smoothly and efficiently, making him the leading scorer among defensemen in the NCAA.