BLOG: On Oliver Wahlstrom being a good poster child for college hockey recruiting craziness

Smack in the middle of recruiting craziness, this week saw a rare occurrence in the college hockey world. One of the top 17 year-old hockey players in the country chose his school months before he'll suit up for them.

Not years. Months.

Oliver Wahlstrom, a potential 2018 top-10 NHL Draft pick, will be playing for Boston College. It's a big get for the Eagles, who pick up a player whose USNTDP goal-scoring total is sixth all-time and has been in the public eye since he was a nine year-old viral star.

In most college sports, a five-star recruit deciding at the deadline would be business as usual. Maybe there'd even be a ceremony with hats. College hockey? Five-star recruits commit before they can drive. Look at a U-17 or U-18 roster for the USNTDP. The names without college logos jump out because there are so few.

Most of the time when elite players are undecided at 18 it's a precursor to planning on heading to the CHL or Europe.

When it comes to elite players deciding to go the college route as seniors over the past 10-15 years, Phil Kessel and Brock Boeser stand out as the exception rather than the rule.

May 2018 College Hockey Mailbag (The Athletic)

This week I participated, along with a few others, in answering questions from Athletic subscribers and Twitter followers. We ended up enough college hockey questions to split the whole thing into three parts based on schools. (Part III also has a couple more general college hockey questions.) I can't thank everyone enough for sending such thoughtful questions. Hopefully, we do something similar soon.

They can be read below.

Part I: On Mankato, Bemidji, North Dakota and the NSCC

Part II: On the Gophers' men's and women's programs

Part III: On the national champions and St. Cloud State