In a move that was no surprise to Boston University coach Jack Parker, defenseman David Warsofsky has signed with the Boston Bruins, forgoing his final season with the Terriers.
The big question: Coming off a somewhat disappointing year for both player and team, did Warsofsky make the right decision by going pro?
“I think he did,” Parker told USCHO between player meetings in his office Thursday afternoon. “He needs to be challenged in a different way. He didn’t perform as well as he could’ve this year, and I think it was because he wasn’t challenged. He needs to be on eggshells, worrying about how good he is compared to everybody else, and I think this year he thought it was going to be too easy for him.”
The junior led BU’s defensemen in scoring this season with seven goals and 22 points, not quite matching the 23 points he scored in each of his freshman and sophomore years.
“He didn’t have a bad year, but he didn’t have an All-American year, either,” Parker said. “I thought he’d be that type of player for us. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that he might’ve had one leg out the door already, you know, thinking that he might be gone at the end of the year.
“I think the challenge of going to play for the Bruins — going to professional hockey and having to prove something all over again — he needs that.”
Parker said it was comparable to when Warsofsky elevated his game by playing for the U.S. National Team Development Program at Ann Arbor and rode on his success there when he came in to BU as a freshman, helping the team to its 2009 national championship.
In the short run, Warsofsky likely will be joining former Terriers teammate Colby Cohen with the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League. But Parker does not see it as a competition between the two to make the big time.
“There will be a whole bunch of other guys; you never know how many bodies are going to be floating around,” Parker said.
Boston College junior defenseman Tommy Cross was a second-round pick by the Bruins in 2007 and should be joining the blue line competition sooner or later.
Altogether, it would’ve been more of a surprise to Parker if Warsofsky had stayed. “We were pretty sure he was leaving at the end of the year; it was a Matty Gilroy situation,” Parker said, referring to the fact that Gilroy appeared to be a near lock to go pro after his junior year.
“We were thinking of this as his senior year, but I was thinking that there might be some hope that he comes back because he doesn’t have a great year.”
Although Parker said it was a probably a good move for everybody, he acknowledged that Warsofsky’s loss would be felt. “Big impact; he’s a real good player,” Parker said. “But we have a real good defenseman coming in that we had lined up to come in in case he signed, and that guy’s going to be a good player, too.”
According to NCAA rules, Parker cannot disclose the name of the incoming player, but judging from recruiting websites he is referring to Alexx Privitera, an 18-year-old defenseman who has scored 10 goals and notched 22 assists in 51 games for Muskegon in the USHL this season.
“We think that with six out of our seven defensemen coming back and a good freshman coming in, we should be in pretty good shape,” Parker said.
