June
5, 2005
Roy, QMJHL Make Pitch for Esposito
By
Paul Shaheen, Research on Ice
The biggest
NCAA-related story from Saturday's QMJHL Draft was the Quebec
Remparts' selection of Shattuck St. Mary's forward Angelo Esposito,
the highly regarded 1989 birthdate from Montreal. Esposito, 6-foot-1
and 170 pounds, by all accounts has been grappling with whether
to play Major A or return to the states to keep his NCAA options
open.
Remparts co-owner
Patrick Roy is trying to make Esposito's decision much easier
however.
The former
NHL record setting-goaltender serves as the Remparts' Vice President
and Director of Hockey Operations, and helped orchestrate a massive
three-way draft day trade which allowed Quebec to move up from
the 15th position to nab Esposito at 11th overall. Research on
Ice has it on good authority that the Remparts will be making,
or have already made, a huge cash offer to Esposito and his family
to lure him away from college hockey . One source reports that
the offer could easily be in the high six figure category.
"Esposito
and his family haven't made their final decision, but we're positive
he's going to come," said Roy to the Halifax Herald.
"We would not have taken him if we were not positive. But
there's still a long way to go before he comes to Quebec."
Though Esposito
has said publicly his heart is set on the college game (Boston
University and New Hampshire are the lead candidates), things
may well change within the next 30 days.
Paul Shaheen
is the publisher of Research on Ice and will contribute recruiting
updates to Inside College Hockey throughout the year. To subscribe
to Research on Ice's free daily recruiting e-mail newsletter,
contact Paul at puckkeg@comcast.net.
