Mac Bennett to Michigan

There's a new name on the sidebar's commit list. As Bob Miller reported earlier, Mac Bennett, a defenseman out of Hotchkiss Prep in Connecticut, has committed to Michigan to join the class of 2010. Hotchkiss is the school which produced Matt Herr. Herr is actually now a head coach at Kent in the same league as Hotchkiss.

Western College Hockey's Hot Board lists him as a "Puck moving offensive defenseman" and notes that his father played for Brown.

The New England Hockey Journal wrote about him in October. Don't think that I won't be stealing the nickname "Mac The Knife" in the future. He was drafted by the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the CFL USHL, so we may see him there in the future. There are some good quotes in the article from Hotchkiss Head Coach Damon White. He says, among other things, that Bennett will have a "real shot" at playing in the NHL. He also cited Bennett's vision, passing ability, and his keen hockey sense as positive attributes.

This article from HSGametime.com says that BC and BU were after him as well. In the prestigious Flood-Marr tournament over Christmas, Bennett was named to the All-Tournament Team due to his role in Hotchkiss's win. They list him at 6'0" 170.

McKeen's called his upside "huge".

Bennett joins Jon Merrill, Luke Moffatt, and Jared Knight as part of what is shaping up to be an unbelievable recruiting class.