New Hockey Tommie Fits Coach’s Expectations to a “T”
When recruiting for his men’s hockey Tommies, head coach Mike Eagles looks for high skill level, strong work ethic and commitment to strive for improvement.
For these reasons, Eagles is all smiles when it comes to welcoming the latest addition to the Tommies, his son Matt.
Matt Eagles spent four years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey league and just concluded his career last week as the Moncton Wildcats lost in a tough quarter-final playoff against Rimouski.
Eagles was drafted into the “Q” in the ninth round in 2005 and started slowly as a fourth-liner. This is where the commitment to improve engaged.
Only two years later, Eagles was the leading scorer on the team with 25 goals in the regular season. This past season, he captained the Wildcats and was a leader in the dressing room and on the score sheet. In his last season, the right-handed shooting centre/right winger was the team’s leading scorer with 65 points in 68 games. He finished his major junior career as the Wildcat’s seventh all-time leading scorer (159 points) and fifth in goals(77).
Coach Eagles believes that his new forward has the skills needed to be an impact player but it is his work ethic that will be just as important, noting the younger Eagles’statistics improved each year.
“As a coach, I’m very excited for Matt’s arrival because of his calibre of play and
quality of person. The opportunity to coach my son is another thing for me to be
excited about. At the same time, I wanted it to be Matt’s decision,” said Eagles.
Having a father play in the NHL for 15 years serves as inspiration for Matt. He even wears the same #36 on his back just like his father.
Matt believes this transition will be an easy one since the two have talked hockey from as early as he can remember and since his father was always there to share advice after games in Fredericton where Matt played with the Fredericton Midget Canadiens.
“I feel that if anyone is going to help me to get to the next level of play after university, it is my dad. I have a tremendous amount of respect for his ability as a coach and his determination as a leader.”
Proudly wearing the “T” will help.
“I was always a huge St. Thomas fan, so it is a thrill for me to come back to Fredericton and play for this team,” Matt added.
Daily Gleaner: Matt Eagles lands at STU
its shaping up well now. We have a strong few lines now
ReplyDeleteChamberland-Banfield-Cassidy
Eagles-Welcher-Beljo
Praught-Rinzler-Gallant
Price-Murphy-Estey
~Tommies Video Guy~
Having seen Mike Eagles play personally for four years in Moncton, I am thrilled we were able to pick him up.
ReplyDeleteHe's a sparkplug type player who can fit any role and plays a CIS-style game perfectly.
This move puts another forward in our top ten. Points to Eagles for these recruits.
Well the recruiting season has gotten off to a great start for STU...hopefully already having these guys aboard will sway some others to come to Fredericton...
ReplyDeletedo you think we will hear from our friends from down the hill saying the greatest diss ever
ReplyDelete"uhhhh, Eagles is ONLY on the team because his daddy is the coach and he couldnt crack UNB's roster!!"
Just a thought.
~Tommies Video Guy~
This is great news and now UNB and all the other teams had better be prepared for the STU Tommies.
ReplyDeleteOilslick
You've got to admit this was a no brainer!! Eagles going to play for his dad, no need for a press release haha. As for the comment on not being able to crack the unb roster, UNB fans already have Dietrech to make that comment about, and McCutcheon going from being the #2 forward at Stu to the #14 at UNB. They don't need to harp on Eagles...they already have enough people to have as targets!!
ReplyDeleteWow! This will be special. STU now has an AD who will only support hockey as a sport, a couch who needs to step down and a player.....well, how many issues here are total conflict of interest. Please copy this an paste it to your fridge. "This will be a mess that will explode". Looking forward to it. I suggest the 48 fans who do attend the games begin making signs that say "Eagles for Pope" and of course, andother one that says "BOO".
ReplyDeleteTake your trash heap opinions and shove them. Few if any Tommies fans share such an absurd view of things. Even Squirrel fans would look at this as a personal attack of Mike, just to cause trouble. Questioning aspects of his coaching abilities is fair game when times are tough but to suggest he only cares about hockey and you look forward to his demise is just mean spirited. As things start to look brighter, you just want to keep things dark. Well it isn't going to happen. I pity you and the sick world you create for yourself.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work Mike!!
to the guy who didnt put your name on what you said, making yourself look like a keyboard warrior. Under Eagles, STU atheltics has had a great year. Womens basketabll went 20-1 with an ACAA title. Our rugby teams were good, womens hockey had a great year. Its better under Eagles than Jen Myers. Eagles even wants to support intramural sports as well. I dont see Kevin Dickie doing that.
ReplyDelete~Tommies Video Guy~
okay, no one said that the club sports do not do well. As a matter of fact they do great. What I said was two things. Eagles only thinks hockey. Guess which sports are fully funded by STU? Male and female hockey. All the other sports fund raise most if not all of their money. Female most likely fund raises, but AUS website lists them as mostly funded. Certainly more than any other sport at STU or more than any other AUS female hockey team. Secondly I said that being an AD, coach, and coaching his son certainly places Eagles in a conflict of interest and it will blow up. So, really, I am not taking cheap shots, and you are the one who is uninformed.
ReplyDeleteAs well, who cares what Kevin Dickie does? This was a comment about Mike Eagles. Why do STU fans always have to bring UNB into everything... seems like someone is a little bit jealous.
ReplyDeleteQUOTE "This will be a mess that will explode". Looking forward to it. I suggest the 48 fans who do attend the games begin making signs that say "Eagles for Pope" and of course, andother one that says "BOO". QUOTE
ReplyDeleteIf your looking forward to something exploding, I would dare say someone is being pety.
Your on a STU forum talking smack about St. Thomas people and your calling us jealous of UNB? Hmmm. I think someone is a little mixed up in their small rodent mind. Turn around is fair play.
first of all mike is incredibly professional... if anyone is capable of being fair while coaching his son its him... secondly matt eagles would have been wanted by every coach in the aus, he led his team in scoring twice and was captain of a team that exceeded all expectations so mike really had no choice to recruit him... he has the potential to be a great university player and not landing him could have burned the tommies
ReplyDeleteTo the Anonymous who is writing all the crazy stuff.Learn how to spell.Coach is not spelt couch.
ReplyDeleteI attended many of the the B-Ball and volleyball games over the season both men and women,and Mike was at everyone I was at unless he was on the road.Gee I thinkthat is a guy who cares.
If Stu only gets 48 fans,well they are the fans who don't care what kind of year the team has and will keep supporting team.Not the ones that only come out when something on the line,like the oh so high and mighty UNB fans.
OilSlick
Funny, as I sit here reading your BS, there's a song by Queen that keeps coming to my small rodent mind... any guesses as to what that might be? By the way, I didn't write the initial comment, I only wondered why Kevin Dickie was brought up. I think you're the one that's mixed up, Squirrel H8TR... as usual.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the always brilliant response, Oilslick.
ReplyDelete"The loser in the end"??
ReplyDeleteMy bad on assuming that the two anonymouses were the same person.
Don't care, turn around is still fair play. You start off by talking smack about STU, we come back with smack about Squirrels. It isn't that complicated, we don't appreciate it.
Whichever anonymous is writing what it is all wrong as usual.
ReplyDeleteOilSlick's remarks were brillant,because she knows what she is talking about.SquirrelH8tr really knows ,their stuff as well.
Matt Eagles will be treated just like any other player.STU will be good and that is scary to a UNB fan.
The last comment was Yankee Fan
ReplyDeleteAdding 2 players of quality comes no where near addressing the "quality gap" existing of last years team..........looks like same old,same old,trying to ice 3 lines with too few players of quality..........persoally I am sick of "the recruiting incompetance"that presently exists at STU mens hockey.........IS IT SUCH ROCKET SCIENCE????..........GET IT DONE ASAP. STU FAN
ReplyDeleteProof in the pudding here:
ReplyDeleteWhat I am going to say is that STU needs a hockey coach who is different from the Athletic Director. Stu is a small university and the focus for funding is only on hockey. The hockey teams do not attract fans. The combined hockey teams receive full funding while the basketball, soccor, etc receive nothing. Time to put the money, time and effort into the student body, and not 40 recruited and funded atheletes in one sport, namely hockey.
"persoally I am sick of "the recruiting incompetance"that presently exists at STU mens hockey.........IS IT SUCH ROCKET SCIENCE????..........GET IT DONE ASAP. STU FAN"
ReplyDeleteyou try recruiting to a liberal arts college with far inferior funding than the university it shares a campus with. if you knew how much money unb players were recieving it would make your head spin
I am willing to bet the money UNB players receive and the money STU players receive is closer than you think...
ReplyDeleteRE: Video guy's shaping up line-up:
ReplyDeleteRinzler,Price & Murphy have NO place in that line=up ,Gallant should be on probation........Banfield can certainly play as well as Turgeon ( not often used),defence needs to be upgraded by 2 and a number 1 Goaltender needs to be acquired as the 2 we have are good back-ups.
with the addition of Dietrich to Beljo and Eagles,the # of improvements to date is only 3........NOT ENOUGH and as mentioned earlier,the same old "under recruiting" seems to be continuing and a continuation of inadequate recruiting looks to be on going still,after 7 years of the current leadership,I believe that better results are about due..........Let's get it done!!!
STU Fan
how should Gallant be on probation? Because he had a fight at the end of the year? If you were watching, Gallant played very well on the top line for the first half of the year. Then his play tailed off. But when he is on, he is on
ReplyDeleteMurphy is a good 3rd or 4th line center. Big, strong, quick. He has improved since his rookie year. He will be good in his 4th year.
Pricey is a good defenisve winger that can kill penalties.
If we could get another top 4 defensemen and a forward and a goalie for McFarlane, we will be top 4 in the conference.
~Tommies Video Guy~
No.
ReplyDeleteAndicropoulous is a good offensive defenceman/puck mover/power play guy. The others couldn't play for any other team in the Conference and shouldn't be counted on to lift you to top 6
"I am willing to bet the money UNB players receive and the money STU players receive is closer than you think..."
ReplyDeletebelieve me theres still enouogh gap between the two to make a difference add that to the fact that stu offers arts only has less than great facilities and it makes recruiting a tough job... look at it this way though, eagles gets more out of his players than anyone ever has before him... banfield and bowers never even played major junior but mike found a way to get them to be impact aus players whereas other teams have impact major players that underachieve... give him a decent line-up and watch out
proof in the pudding says:
ReplyDeleteMy point still stands. Why fully fund two hockey teams and nothing for any of the rest. That is the reflection of three Athletic Directors in a row coming from hockey.
To STU fan...you say the additions thus far are NOT ENOUGH....you do realize it isn't even May yet...it's not like the season is starting tomorrow...there is still 5 months to add players...I would say STU has done the best recruiting job of any team in the conference thus far based on what we know...has any other team added anyone (except for that goalie for Dal)??
ReplyDeleteFor video guy...even if they added those guys I still don't think they are a top 4 team...the talent gap between STU and UNB/SMU is still too much...and both Moncton/Acadia were better than STU last year and extremely young themselves and should only get better....I would put them just outside the top 4 with UPEI and St. FX
UNB Bruins Fan....remember those games when we beat Moncton and Acadia at least once and the other games were deathly close. (Minus 8-2 shelacking at the end of the year). We had SMU twice this year then lost it in the end (referee aided one of those losses). If STU didnt wait for UNB to come to them and attacked them, they wouldnt have blown us out. Like in the Mark Jeffery game we were still trapping when it was 7-0 in the middle of the third.
ReplyDelete~Tommies Video Guy~
And for that Dalhousie goalie recruit, its Bobby Nadeau. The same Bobby Nadeau that was on TV internationally for getting beat up by Jonathan Roy
ReplyDeleteI think the correct term would be cheap shotted by Jonathan Roy...
ReplyDelete