In the past few weeks, the University of Maine has been getting recruits from out west. Now they need to look inside of their own state. This year’s active roster only has one Maine native, Matt Duffy hails from Winthrop. Nick Payson was a red shirt freshman this year before getting suspended last weekend. He went to Bangor High School.
Last year, Maine got a commitment from Mark Anthoine. He’s a Lewiston native who spent last season with the Portland Junior Pirates of the Tier III Junior A Atlantic Junior Hockey League (AJHL). Playing against players that are three years older then him, he had 37 goals. In the spring, the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League took him the 12th round of USHL Entry Draft. With the Steel this season he has 7 goals and 10 assists in 32 contests.
Nick Broadwater is one of the top goaltenders in the AJHL. He has a 2.66 Goals Against Average and a .910 Save Percentage with the Portland Junior Pirates. The Lewiston Maineiacs of the QMJHL drafted him in 2006. He hasn’t signed with them to keep his NCAA Eligibility.
Other highly touted players from Maine include Tyler Fleurent who plays for the Portland Junior Pirates of the AJHL. This year he has 15 goals and 10 assist in 31 league games. He led Biddeford High School to a Class A State Title over Lewiston High School as a junior last year.
A former teammate of Fleurent is Biddeford’s defenseman Brian Dumoulin, who’s tied for first in scoring with 36 points (8 goals and 28 assists) in the Class A Western Division. He’s only a junior. This could be his final year playing high school hockey; he will most likely will play in juniors or go to a prep school next season.
Biddeford is the best team in high school hockey and another reason is because of their senior goaltender Tony Dube. In nine games he has nine wins with a 1.11 Goals Against Average and a .955 Save Percentage.
North Yarmouth Academy has two young players, sophomore goaltender Brian Billet is one of the top goalies in New England. He’s from Brunswick and The Scouting News says he’s a dark horse to make the United States National Team Development Program Under 17 Team for next season.
The other player is Colt Steele who’s a freshman, he hails from Lewiston. Both players have been listed in the USHL Draft rankings for the upcoming draft.
Maine doesn’t have the player pool to choose like Massachusetts, Minnesota, or Michigan but that doesn’t mean there’s no talent in the state. Most kids have to go out of state to get notice. The University of Maine needs to pick up more kids from their own back yard.
That's My Take
Nathan Fournier
(Nathan also is a writer for MVN.com. He's the writer for the Asylum which covers the Lewiston Maineiacs of the QMJHL. He's also a regular contributor to the NHL Source also at MVN.com. He can be reached at fbbhgfan@aol.com)
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