MADISON, Wis. — Is the most talented recruiting class in Wisconsin men's hockey history preparing to take the stage?
It's awfully tempting to think so.
The Badgers have signed seven prospects for the 2019-20 season, three so highly regarded that they're projected to be chosen in the opening round of the NHL Entry Draft.
Center Alex Turcotte and winger Cole Caufield, both from the U.S. National Team Developmental Program, could be selected among the top 10 picks of the 2019 draft, which will be held June 21 and 22 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Meanwhile, center Dylan Holloway with Oktokos of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, is currently forecast as a top-15 selection in the 2020 draft.
Adding one recruit of this magnitude in one fell swoop would be significant, but a whole forward line?
Three other members of the class — 19-year-old winger Ryder Donovan from Duluth East (Minnesota) High School; 18-year-old center Owen Lindmark from the U.S. NTDP; and 18-year-old defenseman Mike Vorlicky from Edina (Minnesota) High School — are expected to be drafted this month as well.
Wisconsin coach Tony Granato enters his fourth season at his alma mater anxious to meld all this new talent with the substantial pieces already in place.
"These guys have the potential to be as good as any of the classes that have come through here," he said.
Five more draftees in Vancouver would give the Badgers 13 for next season, the most since the 1990 national champions had 15.
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"This is a team that I feel strongly and confident about that if we can get fans in the building early,
they're not going to want to come for two or four games a year,
they're going to want to come to all of the games ..."
It's Time
Granato believes he and his staff — associate head coaches Mark Osiecki and Mark Strobel — have assembled a dynamic roster capable of not only returning the program to its place among the elite in college hockey, but reinvigorate a fan base that has become distant and skeptical.
The Badgers have won six NCAA titles, but their most recent was in 2006 and they haven't qualified for the national tournament since 2014.
"This has to be the year where the results start to show and the kids get rewarded for what they put into it," Granato said. "This is the year that could be that turning year for us and pushes us back to the level that we want to be at.
"This is a team that I feel strongly and confident about that if we can get fans in the building early, they're not going to want to come for two or four games a year, they're going to want to come to all of the games.
"We need them back. Part of the reason when I was recruiting these kids is I said, 'Hey, this place is going to be full here in a couple of years. We're going to build it back to where it was. You're going to have 15,000 people watching you every night.' Well, they're here now, so I need the 15,000."
Draft Forecast Highly Favorable
Some mock drafts have Turcotte and Caufield going among the top five. Consider that 42 college players have been selected in the top 10 of the NHL draft since the first one, Normand Lacombe of New Hampshire, was chosen 10th overall in 1983.
There have been only two other instances where one school had multiple top-10 talents taken in the same entry draft. Minnesota had three (Erik Johnson first, Phil Kessel fifth and Kyle Okposo seventh) in 2006, while Boston University had two (Matthew Tkachuk sixth and Clayton Keller seventh) in 2016.
Wisconsin has had 13 student-athletes tabbed in the opening round of the NHL draft going back to the first, Mike Blaisdell, in 1980. Of that group, three were taken in the top 10: Dany Heatley, second in 2000; Kyle Turris, third in 2007; and Ryan Suter, seventh in 2003.
Turcotte, an 18-year-old from Island Lake, Illinois, is coveted for his elite two-way abilities and NHL readiness, while Caufield, an 18-year-old from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, broke international goal-scoring records set by NHL all-stars.
Holloway, a 17-year-old from Bragg Creek, Alberta, was recently named Canadian Junior Player of the Year, a prestigious award with a distinctive list of winners that includes Heatley and Turris.
Legacy of Great Recruiting Classes
What constitutes a great recruiting class for the Badgers? There are a lot of ways to answer that question courtesy of a program that embarked on its modern era in 1963 and won its first NCAA title in 1973.
Some might say it's the number of NHL draft picks and their pro accomplishments.
That '73 squad assembled by Hockey Hall of Fame coach Bob Johnson had 14 players drafted by NHL teams overall — remarkable given that college players didn't get near the attention from pro scouts they get now — and nine members of that club topped the 100-point mark for their careers.
Under Johnson, the Badgers had six players drafted in 1981 and five made it to the NHL. Topping the list is Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios, who won the Norris Trophy as best defenseman three times and shares the NHL record for most seasons played (26). The only Wisconsin player in the Hall of Fame, he also won three Stanley Cups and played in four Winter Olympics for Team USA. His former Wisconsin teammate, defenseman Bruce Driver, won one Stanley Cup while playing 1,030 NHL games.
Granato, a winger, was one of eight Wisconsin players taken in the NHL draft in 1982, the most in one draft in program history. He was one of three from that group to make it to the NHL, joining first-rounder Patrick Flatley and Dave Maley, both wingers.
Maley had modest career stats, but won a Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1986. Flatley played 850 NHL games and is fifth among former Badgers in the NHL with 543 points. Granato, meanwhile, was an NHL all-rookie team selection in 1989 and an all-star in 1997, the same year he received the Masterson Trophy for perseverance and dedication.
A year later, with Jeff Sauer in charge of the program, four Wisconsin players were drafted and all four, wingers Scott Mellanby, Paul Ranheim and Steve Tuttle and defenseman Gary Suter, made it to the NHL.
Though 179 names were read before his, Suter won the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year in 1986, played in four NHL All-Star games, two Winter Olympics for Team USA and was inducted in U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016. Mellanby, meanwhile, played 1,567 NHL games and has third-most career points among Wisconsin players in the pros with 893. Ranheim played 1,049 NHL games, one of seven Badgers to top 1,000.
Sauer and Mike Kemp, another top UW recruiter, ventured to new territory on the East Coast and brought in two scholarship prospects in 1985. Defenseman Paul Stanton, from Massachusetts, wound up becoming a first-team All-American and went on to win two Stanley Cups rings with Pittsburgh, while goaltender Mike Richter, from Pennsylvania, became a U.S. Olympian and earned a Stanley Cup ring with the New York Rangers.
There were four Badgers drafted in 2003 when Mike Eaves was overseeing the program. All made to the NHL and three — defenseman Ryan Suter, center Joe Pavelski and goaltender Brian Elliott — were named to multiple all-star teams. Pavelski and Elliott did so despite long odds.
Ryan Suter, Gary's nephew, has played in three NHL All-Star games and amassed 458 points in 1,073 contests. Pavelski has been an NHL all-star three times and scored the most goals (403) of any Wisconsin alum to reach the NHL despite being a seventh-round draft pick. Elliott, meanwhile, is a two-time NHL all-star with 225 career wins despite having been selected in the ninth round.
The NHL drafts in 2007 and '08 will go down as an extraordinary stretch in program history. The Badgers had nine players chosen overall, seven going in the top 51 picks, thanks in large part to the work of Osiecki, who was Eaves' recruiting coordinator.
There was a school-record three first-round choices in '07: Turris third, defenseman Ryan McDonagh No. 12 and defenseman Brendan Smith No. 27. A year later, defenseman Jake Gardiner went No. 17, defenseman Cody Goloubef No. 37, defenseman Justin Schultz No. 43 and center Derek Stepan at No. 51. All seven made it to the NHL.
McDonagh has played in two NHL all-star games. Gardiner was on the NHL all-rookie team in 2012. Schultz has won two Stanley Cup rings since being named to the all-rookie team pick in 2013.
Unheralded Success Wearing the W
Some might say a recruiting class is defined by the individual success of each prospect at the college level.
The group in 1974 was bountiful, bringing the program's all-time leading scorer in Eaves, two-time All-America defenseman Craig Norwich as well as Norm McIntosh — one of 12 defensemen in the school's 100-point club — and 129-point winger Tom Ulseth.
There are six Wisconsin players with 200 career points and two arrived in the same class in 1977. Defenseman Theran Welsh and winger Scott Lecy weren't drafted and didn't play in the NHL, but they rank third and fifth in career scoring with 228 and 210 points, respectively.
The additions in 1978 included winger Ron Vincent, who led the Badgers in goals in 1980 and ranks sixth all-time with 206 points; winger Peter Johnson, who led Wisconsin in goals in 1981 and ranks among the top 30 scorers in school history; and goaltender Roy Schultz, who was a first-team All-American in 1980 and averaged a team record 32 saves per game for his career.
The class of 1980 was exceptionally dynamic. Goaltender Marc Behrend won 84 percent of his starts (49-8-3) and is the only two-time Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Frozen Four. Driver developed into a first-team All-America defenseman, while winger John Newberry led the Badgers in scoring in 1982, was the first Hobey Baker Award top-10 finalist in school history and was a first-team All-American in 1982.
The additions in 1981, brought in by famed recruiter Grant Standbrook, were tremendous. Chelios was a second-team all-WCHA pick in 1983, but went on to become regarded as the greatest American-born player in history. Flatley was a first-team All-American in 1983. Winger Paul Houck is among the top-10 scorers in school history. Center Paul Houston is among the top-20 scorers in team history. Defenseman Tim Thomas was a second-team All-American in 1985 who ranks fourth among UW blue-liners in career scoring.
Standbrook had another haul in 1984, adding goaltender Dean Anderson and center Pat Ford as well as future line-mates Ranheim and Tuttle. Anderson was a second-team All-American in 1988 when he won 30 games and set the school standard with 1,305 saves. Ranheim was a first-team All-American in 1988 and ranks 10th all-time on the UW scoring list. Tuttle led the Badgers with 31 goals in 1987 and ranks among the top 40 scorers in program history. Ford ranks among the top 50 scorers at UW.
Kemp's finest recruiting moments likely came in 1986 and '88 when he brought in classes that resulted in multiple NCAA title-game appearances.
Winger John Byce, center Gary Shuchuk and winger Chris Tancill became pillars for the national championship squad in 1990. After a redshirt year, Byce finished among the top 20 scorers at UW and recorded a hat trick in the NCAA title game. Shuchuk was a first-team All-American and led the Badgers in scoring in 1990, while Tancill averaged a point-per-game for his career and ranks in the top 15 scorers in program history.
The '88 class included two elite goaltenders in Duane Derksen and Curtis Joseph as well as defenseman Sean Hill and center Doug Macdonald. Derksen started two NCAA title games, was a Hobey Baker Award finalist in 1992, ranks second on the all-time UW goaltending list with 80 career wins. Joseph was the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Most Valuable Player in 1989 whose .919 career save ratio ranks second in school history. Hill ranks fifth among UW defensemen in career scoring and owns the single-season record for defensemen with 19 goals, while Macdonald ranks seventh on the all-time UW career scoring list with 189 points.
Bringing Home the Hardware
Some think a great recruiting class is best characterized by the accomplishments of the team — championships won — during their stay on campus.
Two freshmen from that first NCAA title team at Wisconsin — center Steve Alley and defenseman John Taft — sandwiched a stint with the U.S. Olympic Team in 1976 with national titles in '73 and '77.
Six prospects came onboard with the Badgers in 1980. The headliners were a trio of NHL-caliber talents — Driver, Behrend and goaltender Terry Kleisinger — but winger John Johannson, winger Ted Pearson and center Scott Sabo were part of three straight NCAA championship-game appearances and are among 11 players in program history with two national championship rings.
The foundation for the 2006 national championship club arrived in '03 when Elliott, winger Robbie Earl, and center Andrew Joudrey showed up. Elliott was a Hobey Baker Award finalist in 2006 and set school goaltending records with a .931 career save percentage and 16 shutouts. Earl led the Badgers in goals in 2005 and '06 and was the Most Outstanding Player in the 2006 Frozen Four, while Joudrey led the Badgers in scoring in 2007.
The Special Little Extras
Granato defines a great recruiting class by its overall skill level, but also its intangibles.
"The recruits coming in are talented because NHL teams have noticed them, but I don't think that's how you grade your class," he said. "I think you grade your class on the character of the kids you want in your (dressing) room. If you bring in the right kids, you're excited about your class.
"The most important thing for us coaches is, 'Did we recruit the right kids to add to what we've started?' That's what we want to grade ourselves on."
Osiecki, now in his second coaching stint at his alma mater, said leadership has to be woven into any assessment of a recruiting class. He mentioned McDonagh, Pavelski and Stepan as examples of natural leaders who honed those traits at Wisconsin on the way to becoming NHL captains.
"They did an unbelievable job at bringing other players along, helping other players get better and pushing them to another level," Osiecki said.
The marquee classes Osiecki lured to Madison in 2007 and '08 — four first-round picks and three second-round selections — were known as much for their work ethic as their talent.
"They all brought their character," he said. "They all brought unbelievable humility."
Kemp, who worked with Sauer from 1986 to '96, said recruiting success is a wide-ranging phenomenon that can be measured lots of ways.
"I kind of take it in its entirety," he said, adding that it was augmented by a quality sales pitch at Wisconsin.
"It was history, it was tradition, it was we'll help you become a National Hockey League player," Kemp said. "That and it's a wonderful place to go to school."
Standbrook, who worked with the Badgers from 1976 to '87, said he learned about recruiting from scratch.
"I read every book on sales that was printed and just developed my own natural way to do it," he said.
"Every situation is different. Every recruit is different. I loved to get into their homes and see the family fitting. I could see the respect going back and forth or the lack thereof.
"As far as how I did it, it was pretty simple. It was just, 'All right, who's leaving? What did they bring to the table that we'll be lacking next year? And just common sense stuff. I moved around and tried to find the guy that would fit in."
Standbrook, who also assembled a national championship culture at Maine, said recruiting is driven by one truth.
"If you don't have the right players, you're not going to win," he said.
The Newest Badgers
Granato said he and his staff have known for several years that this incoming class was uniquely talented.
"You know they have all the potential," he said. "You know they have something special. That's why you recruit them.
"They've lived up to what we expected. We brought them in here to help us in our goal to get our program back to where we want it to be. They are certainly a great addition to our program. We're really excited to have them.
"I feel very strongly they're going to represent our program the way we want it presented," Granato said.
