Normally I wouldn’t know much about college prospects, but this year is different. Friday Night College Hockey is a main event in our home these past few months. We discovered it by mistake – AT&T Uverse did us a dis-justice and dropped NHL Network. Besides joining NHL Gamecenter, we scoured channels for hockey. Lo and Behold! College Hockey! Awesome doesn’t begin to describe the fun of watching these young and talented players. I started keeping my eye on the games and shared a bit with everyone on this blog. You can read it here if you are so inclined.
The LA Kings signed O’Neill yesterday to a one year NHL contract. Brian O’Neill was the Captain and played 4 years for the Yale Bulldogs. He will play for our AHL team, The Manchester Monarchs and supposedly will play this weekend. Things move quickly it seems when scorers are needed. I’m a little confused on salary minimums and maximums with the AHL, but it looks like he gets a signing bonus of 10% of his maximum salary and I believe the maximum AHL salary is $72,000.00 which he is guaranteed. Not too bad for a kid fresh out of college.
When we first started watching, one of the first games I caught was Harvard vs Yale. Besides being mesmerized by the beautiful arena, there were a few kids that stood out. One Mr. Brian O’Neil was one of them. As my hubbypat so eloquently stated as he held his beer in hand, eyes on the game, “Holy crap! Who’s that kid?”. Besides his skating ability, he has a beautiful shot netting 2 goals that night if I can remember correctly. And so was born our fascination with O’Neill.
You notice right away he is not a big hockey player. He is actually listed at 5’9″ and 165 lbs. We all know that he will have an uphill battle to make the NHL with that stature. Some will say he will never make it at that size. Tell it to Marty St. Louis – 5″9″, Patrick Kane – 5″ 10″ or Brian Gionta at 5″7″. He has 46 points in 36 games this past season and is a difference maker.
I wish I had written down the next time we saw him, but we flip channels on Fridays due to the great amount of college games played that night. But Yale was playing Princeton and all of a sudden here comes O’Neill and snipe! Goal one. But he wasn’t done for the night. He ended up having 1 goal and 3 assists in that game. Talk about thrilling! He ended up 8th in the nation. So yes, we took notice of Brian O’Neill. You can check out a short biogrophy of him here.
Welcome Brian! With hard work and a big heart, we hope to see you on the ice at Staples very soon!
Go Kings Go!
The Recipe Seeker
March 15, 2012
You know I mentioned in my last post about cheering on Nolan and King as the future of the Kings hockey. Now along comes this wonderful blog about a new, new newcomer, Brian O’Neil. How exciting is this to see the future unfold before our very eyes. You know, as women, we are natural nuturers, so watching these young player makes us want to love and encourage them. HOWEVER, leave us not forget the seasoned and great players that we depend on to help these hapless babies become succesfull. I watched the Penguins wipe out the Rangers tonight and that was a lesson in what a well balanced team can do. How wonderful is this great game called Hockey?
GO KINGS!!!
tracykingslover
March 16, 2012
I find it a lot of fun looking at prospects and such because inevitably someone gets traded and when you are familiar with who can come up, well, for me, its less traumatic.
Lundqvist still out for the Rangers. I’m going to predict Rangers v Vancouver in the finals this year.