College Hockey: Snuggerud back to Minnesota, Quillan to Maple Leafs, and more

The NCAA Frozen Four is set to begin in under a week. St. Paul is about to be the home of three incredible games to determine who is the 2024 National Champion.

Boston College is going to take on Michigan and Boston University is going to take on Denver. The winner of each game will play for the title.

BC and BU have been the two best teams in the country all season long but Michigan and Denver are trying to change the course. All four teams have an incredible shot to win this thing.

The semi-finals will take place next Thursday (4/11) and the final will be next Saturday (4/13).

College Hockey is as strong as it has ever been going into the Frozen Four

Outside of the actual games, there is a lot of news to report regarding college players away from their schools as well.

The first big news is that Jimmy Snuggerud, who was expected to sign his entry-level deal with the St. Louis Blues this week, is going to return to Minnesota for his junior year.

The team that drafted him in St. Louis has to be pretty disappointed but they will be happy with his development in a few years. This is a fantastic move for him as he has another chance at a Hobey Baker and National Championship with a very good team.

Quinnipiac had a couple of players make NHL decisions during the week as well. The Toronto Maple Leafs were the lucky team that landed Jacob Quillan.

The 22-year-old forward was a National Champion with Quinnipiac and he scored a ton of big goals. If the Leafs can continue his development, he will be a great part of their forward group someday. He is with the Toronto Marlies now to begin his pro career.

Collin Graf had a good 20 teams looking at him before he narrowed down his list. Eventually, he stunned the hockey world by choosing the San Jose Sharks. They aren't a good team and are a long way away from competing but they continue to stack up good prospects.

Graf, along with Quillan, had a tremendous career at Quinnipiac. He should be able to translate a lot of that to the NHL game. He may be playing with the Sharks before the current NHL season is over.

Sam Lipkin is also going from the Bobcats to the NHL as he has signed a three-year deal with the Arizona Coyotes. Arizona needs as many good young players as they can get their hands on. They drafted Lipkin in the seventh round of the 2021 NHL Draft and he is finally going to be with them.

Lipkin will finish this season on an amateur tryout with the Tuscon Roadrunners of the AHL before his ELC kicks in with the Coyotes next season. It is never a bad idea for an NHL franchise to consider a point-per-game college kid who won a National Championship.

Dylan Wendt of Western Michigan signed with the New Jersey Devils after his season was done as well. They had a good season there at Western as they did make it into the tournament. Wendt was a big part of that as he scored 22 goals and had 44 points.

With some development, he could end up earning a role with the New Jersey Devils at some point in time. It is on him and the organization to make sure his development continues well past college.

There will be other college kids signed once the Frozen Four is over and some will decide to return to school. No matter how you look at it though, the NCAA is thriving in hockey as the game has never been better.