Monday, May 31, 2010

Recruiting Update Part 5: AJ Michaelson

Sunday night I started making a post of recruiting notes that I've been getting together lately. As I was working on this, the post got very, very long so I decided to break it into posts for specific players. I've got 5 updates and I've programed the site to post an update every two hours on the hour.
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According to many recruitniks out there, the top 1994 born forward left uncommitted is Apple Valley, Minnesota forward AJ Michaelson. The good news for Badger fans? He lists Wisconsin as his #1 school at this stage in the game.

The Sophomore forward put up impressive numbers last season at Apple Valley helping his team to the Minnesota state tournament where they were bounced by eventual state champion Edina in the semi-finals. Michaelson put up 35 points in 24 games for the Eagles including 9 points in 3 playoff games to lead AV to state.

Michaelson, who considers himself a play maker, is considering Wisconsin, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Minnesota-Duluth according to the College Hockey 247 article.

Michaelson has plenty of options to play hockey before he enters college for the 2012 season. He was drafted in the fourth round of the WHL Bantam Draft by the Portland Winter Hawks but the chances he makes that move are slim to none.

The USA NTDP extended him an invitation to play with the national team but he turned them down to play another season with Apple Valley. He was also recently selected in the USHL Futures Draft by Waterloo in the first round, 14th overall. Most people connected to the situation say that they expect Michaelson to play 1 more year at Apple Valley and 1 year with Waterloo before heading to college.

Most likely this is going to come down to Minnesota and Wisconsin for Michaelson's services. He's supposedly visiting Minnesota this summer and it's expected he'll get an offer. He'll probably wait to commit until late in his junior year so this will be a kid to follow.

Click Here to watch a video of Michaelson from his freshman season at Apple Valley. He is number 19 and had a hat trick and an assist in this game.
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