Weekly Roundup: How each of UConn's commitments performed this season
Some future Huskies played a normal season while others have barely seen any time on the ice.
With junior hockey over for the season, we looked at how each of UConn’s 14 commitments performed this past year.
BCHL
F Drew Elser (‘00) — Trail Smoke Eaters
After two seasons with the Penticton Vees, Elser was traded to the Trail Smoke Eaters in October before all traces of him on the internet vanished.
According to a Smoke Eaters’ spokesperson, the team had issues at the border with American players due to COVID travel restrictions so Elser and a handful of others were unable to enter the country to play.
The last time Elser took the ice, he recorded two goals and one assist across 17 games (including the playoffs) with the Penticton Vees during the 2019-20 season. Elser did an interview with The Smoke Show (starting around the 14-minute mark), a Smoke Eaters podcast, back in November.
G Logan Terness (‘02) — Trail Smoke Eaters
UConn’s goaltender of the future only played 12 games in a shortened BCHL pod season with Trail but had a strong year with a 2.76 GAA, a .925 save percentage, and two shutouts. Terness particularly tortured the Cranbrook Bucks, going 6-0 with a 1.50 GAA and .955 save percentage against them.
D/F Jake Veilleux (‘00, c/o 2021) — Victoria Grizzlies
A South Windsor native, Veilleux saw action in 18 games with Victoria, recording five goals and 10 assists — far surpassing his totals from the year prior when he notched three goals and seven assists in 61 games.
F Ryan Tattle (‘01) — Coquitlam Express
UConn’s newest commitment, Tattle had an electric campaign with Coquitlam, averaging a point a game with nine goals and nine assists in 18 contests. The Express named him both the team’s MVP and top forward.
F Brandon Santa Juana (‘02) — Surrey Eagles
In his third season with the Surrey Eagles, Santa Juana dominated. He recorded 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in 18 games — the same number of points he totaled across 53 games in 2018-19.
The team put up a funny video of him mic’d him during practice back in December.
USHL
F Chase Bradley (‘02, c/o 2021) — Sioux City Musketeers
Unlike the BCHL, the USHL played a full season. Bradley made a major leap this year, going from seven goals and 12 assists in 34 games with the Omaha Lancers in 2019-20 to 22 goals and 18 assists in 52 games with Sioux City.
Bradley also plays with an edge and was involved in multiple fights this past season, including an all-out melee earlier this month.
F Tabor Heaslip (‘01) — Sioux City Musketeers
Heaslip has played alongside Bradley with the Musketeers — one of three teams with multiple UConn commits. In 51 games, Heaslip had four goals and 10 assists.
F Nate Hanley (‘02, c/o 2022) — Youngstown Phantoms/Green Bay Gamblers
Hanley had a tough season where he dealt with injuries and other health issues which resulted in UConn’s decision to keep him in juniors for an extra year. He played in 14 games and scored two goals paired with two assists for the Youngstown Phantoms before being dealt to the Green Bay Gamblers in February, where he’s scored twice in 22 games.
F Sean Donaldson (‘01) — Sioux Falls Stampede
After spending the previous four years in the BCHL, Donaldson joined the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede in January. The left-winger has never been much of a high-volume scorer in juniors with a career-high 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists) in 44 games with the Nanaimo Clippers last season and just five points (one goal, four assists) in 24 games with Sioux Falls this year.
NCDC
D Jack Pascucci (‘02, c/o 2021) — Boston Junior Bruins
The Boston Junior Bruins are loaded with future Huskies and Pascucci will be the first to arrive in Storrs as a member of the program’s 2021 class.
In his final year of junior hockey, Pascucci racked up three goals and 16 assists in the regular season before adding two goals and six assists in six playoff games.
F Oliver Flynn (‘03) — Boston Junior Bruins
While Pascucci is at the end of his juniors career, Flynn’s is just beginning. After graduating from Loomis Chaffee in 2020, Flynn has scored five times and assisted on 12 goals in 31 regular season contests. In the playoffs, he added another three points with a goal and two assists.
D Owen Simpson (‘03) — Boston Junior Bruins
Simpson planned on playing with the Pickering Panthers in the OJHL before the league canceled the 2020-21 season, prompting his move to the Junior Bruins. He only appeared in 13 games with the team and chipped in one goal and three assists but did not play in the playoffs.
NAHL
F Ignat Belov (‘01) — Maine Nordiques
After returning home to Belarus at the onset of the pandemic, Belov returned to the US and played in 32 games with the Nordiques, contributing four goals and four assists. Like Bradley, Belov has an edge to him and has been in a pair of fights over the last couple of seasons.
F Mark D’Agostino (‘01) — Danbury Junior Hat Tricks
One of two Connecticut natives committed (along with Flynn), D’Agostino also plays his junior hockey in Connecticut with the Danbury Junior Hat Tricks. He’s been productive this season, racking up 16 goals and 12 assists in 45 games along with an eye-popping 119 penalty minutes.
Prep
F Mike Murtagh (‘04) — The Gunnery School/Rockets Hockey Club
Murtagh is finishing his final year at the Gunnery School and was recently selected by the Rockets Hockey Club in the NCDC Draft. Though the Gunnery didn’t appear to play this season, Murtagh got ice time with the Rochester Coalition 16U AAA team where he added 19 points (four goals, 15 assists) in 18 games.
CCHL
D Kevin Fitzgerald (‘04) — Brockville Braves
Fitzgerald hasn’t seen any time with Brockville’s first team and has instead been limited to 13 “developmental scrimmages”, where he has one goal and three assists.