Western Michigan will have to make do with two less players next year, one a highly-prized incoming recruit and the other a defenseman with two years of NCAA experience, according to USCHO.com.
Michael McCarron, a first-round draft choice (25th overall) of the Montreal Canadians at the 2013 NHL Entry Draft last month, decided to bypass playing in the college ranks to sign a three-year deal with the Habs last week. The 6-foot-5, 228-pound winger from Michigan tallied 14 goals and 34 points with the U.S. National Team Development Program's U-18 squad last season, and will either be assigned to London (OHL) in the major junior ranks, or else start his pro career with Hamilton (AHL).
“Our feeling is our program is on solid footing and we will put someone in the lineup to replace Michael McCarron,” said WMU head coach Andy Murray at mlive.com.
Murray also announced that rising sophomore blueliner Garrett Haar has been released by the WMU hockey program and will no longer play for the Broncos after being ruled academically eligible earlier this year.
“Garrett has not lived up to his commitment to his academics and his Bronco hockey teammates and we have decided to part ways with him,” said Murray in a school news release last week.
Haar, a 6-foot-1, 198-pound California native and a 2011 Washington Capitals draft choice (207th overall) who posted four goals and 17 points in 58 career games with the Broncos, said on Twitter that the decision to leave WMU was all his own. He prepped with Fargo (USHL) before coming to Kalamazoo.
Western Michigan joins the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference this season, after playing its first 41 years in the now-defunct Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
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