Incoming Harvard Freshman Drafted by N.Y. Rangers

The New York Rangers selected incoming Harvard freshman defenseman Dylan Reese in the seventh round (209th overall) of the NHL Entry Draft on Sunday, giving the Crimson an ECAC-leading 12 draft picks on its roster, one season after being tied for the most in the nation with 13.

“Obviously I’m really excited,” said Reese, who was at home in Pittsburgh, Pa., not at the draft in Nashville, Tenn., when his name was called. “I was a bubble guy going in. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go at all, and I wasn’t expecting any higher than the fifth round at best, so the seventh round was right in the middle.”

Harvard coach Mark Mazzoleni phoned Reese to congratulate him after the draft.

“Dylan’s not a big, big kid, and at times the draft, like it or not, is still predicated a lot on size, especially for certain positions, so this is a real compliment to him,” Mazzoleni said. “It’s very refreshing to see someone taken based on his ability.”

Reese, who admitted that he has always been a fan of the Rangers’ Atlantic Division rival Pittsburgh Penguins, said that several teams had chatted with him, but that the Rangers had “showed the most interest the whole way through.”

“If I had to pick one team who I thought would have taken me, it would have been the Rangers,” Reese said. “I’m really glad it worked out. The Rangers showed the most interest in me and believed in me more than the other teams. I’m happy that they want me in their program.”

Harvard wants Reese in its program, too. After scoring 11 goals and assisting on 30 others as the captain of his hometown Pittsburgh Forge (NAHL) last season, he’s expected to provide the Crimson with a much-needed offensive presence from the blue line.

“We were very excited when he made the decision to come play for us, believe me,” Mazzoleni said. “He has very good puck skills, and he likes to jump into the offense and be active. He’s a good right-hand shot, and we need a guy like that.”

Jason Koehler, former general manager of the Forge, which was sold after the season and moved to Toledo, Ohio, said that Reese was “by far the best defenseman in the NAHL, and probably the best defenseman in all of North American junior hockey.”

“He was everything you want out of a player, and everything you want out of a son, really,” said Koehler, whose team won both the NAHL and USA Junior Hockey titles. “I’m only 25 years old, but I hope my kids turn out like him. He’s an elite player, a consummate professional.

“I cannot say—and this is the honest-to-God truth—anything negative about Dylan Reese,” he continued.

Reese received another bit of good news earlier this month when, after being passed over by USA Hockey when it chose players for its Under-17 and Under-18 national teams, he was one of 43 players (15 defensemen) invited to the 2003 U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp in August in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The invitees to the camp are considered the top players in the nation who are under the age of 20. If Reese is chosen for the team, he will play for the U.S. in the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championships Dec. 25, 2003-Jan. 4, 2004.

He could become the first Harvard player to be chosen for the World Junior team since rising junior Noah Welch, who missed the 2001-2002 tournament with an injury, and the first to participate since Brett Nowak ’03.

“As a gambling man, I’d bet that he’ll be on that roster at the end of the day,” Koehler said.

Reese was the lowest-rated of the three Harvard players included in the Central Scouting Bureau’s end-of-season rankings, which often correlate with draft order.

Defenseman Chris Kelley, who has verbally committed to Harvard for the 2004-2005 season, was No. 176 among North American skaters, and rising sophomore Charlie Johnson, whose stock improved as his freshman season went along, was No. 181.

Reese was 192nd and, despite having below average size (6’0, 184 lbs.) by the standards of NHL defensemen, he was the only one of the three taken.

Reese’s selection marked the third time in four years that the Rangers have taken a Harvard player. All-American Dominic Moore ’03 and rising junior Rob Flynn were the others.

Harvard had the most draft picks of any ECAC team in 2000 (four), 2001 (four) and 2002 (five), and has the most all-time draft picks of any ECAC school (70), but with this year’s incoming freshman class being Mazzoleni’s smallest since coming to Cambridge in 1999, Reese was the Crimson player to hear his name called.

Twelve draft picks came from the ECAC, including Rangers’ first-round pick (12th overall) Hugh Jessiman of Dartmouth, last season’s runaway ECAC Rookie of the Year. Cornell’s five draft picks were the most in the league, and the Big Red is second in the ECAC to Harvard with seven overall.

Kevin Sneddon ’92, an All-NCAA Tournament selection during Harvard’s 1989 national championship run, was introduced as the new men’s hockey coach at Vermont on Wednesday afternoon. He replaces Mike Gilligan, who retired in May after 19 seasons.

Sneddon had been the head coach at Union since 1998 and was an assistant there dating back to the 1993-1994 season, only his second year after graduating from Harvard. The Dutchmen improved their win total each season he was there, and last year Union hosted its first-ever Division I ECAC home playoff series.

After beginning his coaching career at a school that is regarded as one of the toughest in the nation to attract players, Sneddon is moving on to a scholarship school in a largely non-scholarship league that has struggled in recent years but has a strong tradition and nationwide name recognition.

The other leading candidate for the position was reportedly Brown head coach Roger Grillo, a former Gilligan assistant.

With the hiring of Sneddon, and assuming no more coaching changes this off-season, three ECAC schools will begin the season with new head coaches: Vermont, Union and Clarkson (George Roll).

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.