Maryland Black Bears

First Draft For Black Bears Yield Interesting Results

/ scottywazz / Leave a comment

img_20180509_091523124387279.jpg

The annual NAHL Draft happened on Tuesday and the Maryland Black Bears used it as a nice jumping off point for their franchise, selecting 13 players in the draft. The NAHL draft lasted 16 rounds, which means Maryland made the most of their time.

However, before the draft, they tendered two offers to two players out of the pre-draft camp in Matteo Menotti and Brady Lindauer. Menotti had 24 goals and 45 points in 29 games with the Minnesota Moose of the US Premier League. Menotti has also played seven games in the NAHL in the past two seasons between the Odessa Jackalopes and Minnesota Wilderness. Lindauer played in the NA3HL with the La Crosse Freeze, netting 48 assists and 64 points in only 34 games while also having seven games of NAHL time with the Coulee Region Chill.

With the first overall pick in the actual draft, the Black Bears picked Steve Agriogianis, who split time between Cedar Rapids, Omaha, and Central Illinois of the USHL last season. The interesting thing with this pick is that Agriogianis is supposed to join Penn State University this season, as well as attending camp with Central Illinois in the summer. This means Maryland is third on the depth chart with Agriogianis most likely, which makes you wonder why they picked someone with obvious other options with the top pick if your team is the second fall-back option.

In the second round, Maryland picked another player committed to Division I in 2018-19 in Patrick Choi. Choi is committed to Bentley University for next season, but if he does stay in juniors another year, Choi would be a great producer. In the NCDC AAA side, Choi was the tenth leading scorer in the league with 23 goals and 53 points in his 48 games between Boston and Syracuse.

A little local flavor in the third round, as Maryland picked Andrew Lucas, who was born in Alexandria, Virginia. A commit to University of Vermont, Lucas played with the Loomis Chaffee Prep School and Yale Jr. Bulldogs this past season. Lucas is coming off of back-to-back 28-point seasons with Loomis Chaffee from the blue line.

Here’s the rest of the picks from the Draft for the Black Bears:

-Cole Gibbs, D, St. Mary’s Prep (MI)
-Luc Salem, D, Alberni Valley (BCHL)
-Max Borst, F, Edina High (MN)
-Tristan Culleton, D, Steinbach (MJHL)
-Joseph Demers, C/RW, Dallas Stars U18 (TX)
-Brayden Shaw, F, Regina (Sask. Midget)
-Kobe Keller, C/RW, Soo (Northern Ont.)
-Luke Mountain, F, Shattuck St. Mary (MN)
-Marek Wazny, C, Burlington (Ont.)
-Thomas Jarman, D, Omaha AAA (NE)

There are still free agent camps to be had for the Black Bears, as they’ll hold a free agent camp in Rockville before they have their invite-only game in late July to round out their team before the September training camp in their inaugural season.

First Black Bears Acquire from Kenai River

/ scottywazz / Leave a comment
Dec_R9ZWAAIK7eJ.jpg

Via @BlackBearsNAHL

A few days late, but the first two rosters players were announced for the Maryland Black Bears, as a deal was made with the Kenai River Brown Bears, which sent Carter Wade (’98) and Luke Posner (’99) to Maryland for what appears to be future considerations, though nothing was put as a return.

The move was a decent one for Maryland, as they’ll immediately be bringing in older players who have experience at the NAHL level to help mentor the other players who may be getting their first shot at this chance.

Wade finished his second season in Kenai River, putting up three goals and 14 points in his 88 games over two seasons, as well as serving as an alternate captain last year. Wade comes from Ephrata, Washington and came out of the Everett Jr. Silvertips program before jumping to the NAHL in 2015-16 with the Odessa Jackalopes before getting a taste of the USHL in two games with the Sioux City Musketeers. After that season, Wade moved to Kenai River before heading now to Maryland. The big stat for Wade is his 407 PIMs in the last two seasons, which means the Black Bears may have found their enforcer already.

Posner finished his first year in the NAHL with five goals and 27 points in 56 games after a high school career in Mahtomedi, Minnesota. Posner captained his Mahtomedi Zephyrs get to the Class A State Tournament his senior season, though they were eliminated in the first round. Described as a slippery player, Posner was sixth on the Brown Bears in points in his rookie year. A hot start helped Posner, with 11 points in his first seven games, but it cooled as the team cooled down. A new start in Maryland could help him get back on track.

With speed and some toughness on the roster already, the Black Bears are setting things in motion for the new younger class coming in. The NAHL will hold their draft on June 5th, which will be another step in the Maryland Black Bears molding their team either through the draft or making trades to get some established players on their roster.

Black Bears Welcome Former Hound Into the Den

/ scottywazz / Leave a comment

maxresdefault.jpg

Another step was made in building the Maryland Black Bears first season in the NAHL, this time with naming their head coach and general manager. While they could have gone on the inside with the variety of coaches in the systems, they decided to go well outside the Maryland space by hiring Clint Mylymok from the Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan Junior League.

Mylymok is coming off of four seasons at Notre Dame, where he went 114-90-13-13 in that time, as well as reaching the Anavet Cup Final for the SJHL champion in his first season of 2014-15. This season, the Hounds under Mylymok went 29-24-1-4 and lost in the Wildcard portion of the playoffs.

While he bounced around in California for a bit after originally being born in Ontario, Mylymok played in the Notre Dame prep system before going to Western University in Ontario and then hung up his skates, aside from stepping in during an emergency goalie role for the Columbia Inferno in 2003-04. Aside from that, Mylymok plied his trade in the front office in Columbia and El Paso of the Central League before going back to Canada for coaching in the lower Ontario junior levels before going to Notre Dame as an assistant coach first, then into the head coach/GM role. In addition, Mylymok has been in Hockey Canada’s radar, coaching Team Saskatchewan in the last two seasons at the WHL Cup for U16 players in the WHL boundaries.

To bring in this sort of coach and GM to help craft this team from the ground up shows that the Black Bears won’t be messing around with pinning down the proper talent to make this team successful and to display the top talent that needs to be displayed on and off the ice. While it remains to be seen how Coach Mylymok will put as a priority, the resume he has will definitely get some eyes on the Maryland Black Bears as they start their first year.

Black Bears Create Pipeline to NAHL and Beyond

/ scottywazz / Leave a comment

img_20180509_091523124387279.jpg

On Wednesday, the Maryland Black Bears further their push to keep the best players from Maryland in Maryland, as well as bringing in an outside source  to help keep their pipeline strong. The Black Bears announced they have formed a partnership with Team Maryland in their Eastern Hockey League and AAA programs, as well was a partnership with the Mercer (NJ) Chiefs.

It’s almost a no-brainer that Team Maryland and the Black Bears would have a partnership, as the brass of Team Maryland was a big pusher when it came to talk to Black Bear Sports Group about bringing in a high-level junior league to the Maryland area. This working partnership will allow the Black Bears to display Maryland-grown talent, while also give incentive for kids to play on the Team Maryland squads– as if there wasn’t one prior.

Despite being in New Jersey, the Mercer Chiefs are also connected, as the Ice Land Skating Center in Hamilton Township, NJ is one of the arenas that Black Bear Sports Group has under their umbrella. The Chiefs program runs from the Squirt Minor level to the U18 AAA level, which having this not only gives another region to pick from in the Mid-Atlantic, but also gives the younger players something to strive for as they advance in hockey.

The one thing that the Black Bears and this ownership group is doing is creating a bit of a family atmosphere to this team. While some might think it’s a little too much of staying inside the bubble, the fact they’re trying to make the most of their investments not only in Maryland– but with all their holdings.

If their alumni is anything, the pipeline is strong with Team Maryland. Sam Anas (Iowa Wild), Mikie Chen (Knoxville Ice Bears), William Nylander (Toronto Maple Leafs), and Nick Sorkin (Wheeling Nailers) all came up through the Team Maryland system at one point or another, but had to move elsewhere to get bigger exposure than they had. With the NAHL now putting stakes in the ground– odds are a lot of the next class of players will not need to go far in order to get the exposure others had to leave home to get.

Welcome the Black Bears

/ scottywazz / Leave a comment

After weeks of waiting, the new Maryland NAHL has names and colors. As mentioned prior, the colors are the Maryland flag colors, but the name is a bit odd to the idea of Maryland.

The Black Bears will be the new identity, named after the main holding of the ownership, Black Bear Sports Group. The black bear population in Maryland is primarily in the Western part of the state, very rarely going into the suburbs. The logo and website for the Maryland Black Bears was revealed today.

The logo itself incorporates the Black Bear Sports Group logo with a wilderness scene, much akin to the Minnesota Wild motif. The colors are black, red, yellow, and white.

While it’s not the Crabs or anything of that sort, it’s a solid name and solid logo. This is the first of many things to come for this new team.