Following in the footsteps of current Philadelphia Flyers prospect Porter Martone, Jack Nesbitt is expected to commit to the University of Michigan in the fall after having spent the past three seasons in the OHL with the Windsor Spitfires, according to a report from Jeff Marek.
Nesbitt, drafted by the Flyers in the first round of last year’s draft, scored 25 goals and 58 points in 55 regular season games this year for the Spitfires, after scoring 25 goals and 64 points in 65 games last year.
While those numbers don’t necessarily stand out, he has been a lot more noticeable during the playoffs, where he has 5 goals and 8 points in 6 games.
However, it seems like this year’s playoffs will be the last game the Sarnia, Ontario native plays in the OHL, at least according to Marek’s report.
If that is the case, he will be joining a team that also has Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Will Horcoff, New York Rangers farmhand Malcolm Spence, and San Jose Sharks prospect Cole McKinney.
Nesbitt is an intriguing prospect because he was widely seen as a controversial pick. The Flyers traded valuable draft capital to jump up several spots to land him at #12 and it was seen as a reach with other players still on the board like Jackson Smith, Kashawn Aitcheson, and Victor Eklund.
The 6’5”, 185-pound centre has all the makings of what the Flyers are hoping to build for the future; big, strong, two-way centre that can play alongside their very skilled wing corps.
While the start to the season wasn’t the best for Nesbitt, he turned it up for the Spitfires down the stretch, as he collected 23 points in his final 18 regular season games, which included 7 goals in his final 4 games.
All this was done from the 5th of February to the 22nd of March, and he has since continued that hot stretch into the playoffs, where he scored a goal in the series-clinching game against Guelph, and has scored 3 goals and 4 points in the first 2 games of the second round against Flint.
He’s heating up at the right time and will now be looking to take advantage of the opportunity of playing in the NCAA next year. Many players from the Canadian Hockey League are opting for the NCAA, including the projected number overall pick at this year’s draft in Gavin McKenna.
As we saw with Martone’s ascension, the NCAA developed his game to even new heights, and Flyers general manager Daniel Brière was nothing short of complimentary of the work they do with their young players.
“The way he’s developed physically,” Brière said, when asked how Martone has improved this season. “And that was the biggest reason for encouraging the move to the NCAA this season: To have a stepping stone from the OHL to the NHL, developing his body, getting stronger. I think the amount of time he spent in the gym, you can see in his body how it’s changed. It’s almost going from a teenager to a man and his play on the ice spoke for itself.
“Playing against men in the NCAA, there’s a lot of strong players that are much older than the 16- or 17-year-olds in the CHL, so It was a good stepping stone for him.”
Other prospects that made the jump this past season from the CHL to the NCAA include Roger McQueen of the Anaheim Ducks, Cayden Lindstrom of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and Jack Ivankovic of the Nashville Predators.
It’s a trend that will likely continue for years to come and the Flyers will be hoping that Nesbitt can have nearly the same level of success as Martone next year.
