Brogan Rafferty | D

[SingleThorn]

39 minutes ago, stawns said:

Prefer "Right Down the Line", though "Baker Street" is great too 

Useless trivia time.......Gerry Rafferty was in a band ( Humblebums ) that comedian Billy Connolly was a big part of. ( pre Baker St.. )

[Gurn]

33 minutes ago, SingleThorn said:

Useless trivia time.......Gerry Rafferty was in a band ( Humblebums ) that comedian Billy Connolly was a big part of. ( pre Baker St.. )

Prior to his solo stuff he was in Stealers Wheel with Joe Egan, who decided to go back to Britain. Gerry did very well on his own.

 

[Quantum]

Brogan Rafferty has a pretty incredible story that makes him a guy to root for.

 

He's legally blind in his right eye, overcame childhood scoliosis, and (no joking) he was mistaken for the Craigslist Killer in Ohio because he actually shares his name with a Serial Killer (also named Brogan Rafferty and both Brogan Rafferty's were born in the same year).

 

It's all detailed in this article -- https://www.nhregister.com/sports/article/Quinnipiac-freshman-Brogan-Rafferty-already-11324220.php?utm_campaign=CMS Sharing Tools (Desktop)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

 

I've copy and pasted the article below. It's a few years old but still a helluva read.

 

Quote

HAMDEN >> His college career may be barely two months old, but NHL scouts are already lining up to watch Quinnipiac’s Brogan Rafferty.

The playmaking freshman arrived at Quinnipiac a virtual unknown. He’ll enter this weekend’s home-and-away series with Princeton with 15 points, tied for the team lead and second amongst the country’s rookie defenders.

“He’s getting a ton of attention,” says Quinnipiac associate head coach Bill Riga. “After every game there are NHL scouts and advisors who want to talk to him or get him to their development camps.”

Indeed, Rafferty is making quite a name for himself, an added bonus when you consider the nuisance of sharing a name with a serial killer.

Obviously, this Brogan Rafferty isn’t the infamous Craigslist killer sentenced to life without parole in 2012. That fact wasn’t so clear in 2011, when both were 16-year old high school students in the Midwest. One local TV news station in Ohio used the wrong photo during a report on the murder suspect.

 

 

“We were at dinner one night and a friend of my dad’s in Ohio called and asked ‘Is everything OK with Brogan?’” Rafferty said. “’The station issued a public apology.”

Rafferty’s path to college hockey was wrought with hurdles.

In the physical sense, he’s a classic late-bloomer. His original Illinois driver’s license listed him at 5-foot-8 and 130 pounds. When he renewed it earlier this year he informed the DMV he was now 6-1 and 192 pounds.

 

Coordination wasn’t always a strong suit, either. As a kid growing up in the Chicago suburb of Dundee, he says he was so clumsy he couldn’t even hit a baseball. The trouble was due in part to adolescent scoliosis, a curving of the spine that required correcting.

And at 6, his grandmother sensed something wrong with his eyes. Doctors diagnosed him with amblyopia, a sight disorder that reduces vision to one eye. Early detection helped improve his condition, though he’s still considered legally blind in his right eye. His binocular vision is perfectly fine with contact lenses and is only affected when he closes an eye.

“I can still see shapes and stuff when I cover one eye, I just can’t read,” Rafferty said. “It’s something I was born with so I never knew what it was like to have really good vision. I don’t know if it’s helped my game; if it’s made me think more on the ice instead of taking more for granted.”

 

As Rafferty matured physically, his game improved. Still, he was consistently relegated to lower-level teams. Achieving his goal of playing in the NHL required exposure in a major junior league. At the onset of his senior year of high school, he had no prospects and a rapidly closing window.

A lifelong forward, he switched to defense that summer at the suggestion of his father, Brian, who’d printed out a list of undrafted free agents that made it to the NHL to quell any uneasiness his son might’ve had about trying a new position at such a late age.

“I said the game has changed, Brogan, they need puck carrying defensemen now,” Brian Rafferty said. “With what you have and your gifts, I think you should try defense. He was willing to try, and grasped it quickly.”

The move paid immediate dividends. Rafferty, never able to ascend past Tier II in the Illinois youth hockey leagues, finally made a Tier I roster and a year later was in the North American Hockey League, where he continued to produce, though few noticed.

At the annual draft of the United States Hockey League, considered the best vehicle to Division I college hockey, over 400 players were selected. No one took Rafferty. There were a couple of tryout offers; he was cut both times.

Back with Coulee of the NAHL, Rafferty, now 19, emerged as the team’s top defenseman; a strong skater with untapped ability and hockey sense. A few began to take interest. Riga, also Quinnipiac’s recruiting coordinator, got a tip from an NHL connection in December 2014.

“I told him we were looking for a defenseman and no one was really standing out,” Riga recalled. “He said I’ve got a name for you: Brogan Rafferty.”

Riga followed up quickly and was one of the first college coaches to connect. By early 2015, after a strong showing at a prospect showcase in Minnesota, a handful of other schools were courting Rafferty. Quinnipiac’s offer came in February; Rafferty could barely contain his joy.

“I knew I would say yes,” Rafferty said. “But I wanted to take some time to call my parents because it’s a family decision. I accepted, and I was super pumped.”

Enrollment was put off another year so Rafferty could continue to develop, this time in the USHL, which finally drafted him. The plan has worked perfectly. Rafferty assimilated almost immediately to college hockey, now firmly established as one of the team’s top four defensemen.

Paired with senior Connor Clifton, Rafferty is also on the Bobcats’ first power-play unit. He’s recorded at least one point in 10 of 17 games, scoring goals against UConn and Harvard, and with three assists at Colgate.

Earlier in the year, he found himself on a breakaway. Last weekend against RPI, he showed the poise of a veteran by taking charge in the neutral zone. The resulting play led to Rafferty running a 2-on-1 rush into the Engineer zone and feeding Tanner MacMaster for the game’s first goal.

“He trusts our system in that we want our D to play offense,” Pecknold said. “He’s just taken off like a rocket. We figured he’d be a seventh or eighth defenseman as a freshman who’d get better in our program and eventually be a top six kid. Obviously, the whole process got accelerated, which is great for him and our team.”

Two years ago, it was unclear if Rafferty would even get a shot to play college hockey. Halfway through his freshman year, he’s evolved as a hot commodity who could receive NHL contract offers as soon as this summer.

Rafferty has other priorities at the moment.

“I’m just worried about freshman year, and winning a Cleary Cup,” Rafferty said. “It could be overwhelming, but for me it’s about not letting it get to you and continuing to play your game. I’m trying to win and not thinking about that stuff right now.”

I hope he becomes a player for us because he's already got one of my favorite back story's of the year and if he cracks the NHL roster as a mainstay next year, could be a sneaky Masterson Trophy nominee down the line.

[250Integra]

Interesting that he played with Tanner MacMaster. Maybe our scouts picked up on him while watching their games.

[Nuxfanabroad]

The BrogoProgo-Monster!

[N4ZZY]

What is his potential? 

[Podzilla]

7 hours ago, N4ZZY said:

What is his potential? 

Bottom pairing d

[DrJockitch]

Fun story.  I like seeing these guys non-traditional paths.  Good to see late bloomers come up. 

Desperate need for some more right shot D and D depth in Utica next year.  

We have done well with college guys and they look at the club and see a bunch of former college players there too.

I do like to see this pathway develop more.  The players get more time to develop physically and do it in what is frequently a really good environment specifically structured for young 18-22 year old people.

[Borvat]

I am glad JB is picking up these defensemen especially the RHD.  Along with the young D starting to arrive -  Hughes - and hopefully on the way - Juolevi, Woo, Rathbone this should bode well.  Unless you are getting those high first round picks it's a numbers game with some luck involved anyways. Good to see some depth and options.  Maybe the next Giordano is among them...... 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Giordano

[GoldenAlien]

New profile: https://www.nhl.com/canucks/news/vancouver-canucks-kielly-rafferty/c-306419100

 

Quote

The right-handed defender had just completed his junior season with Quinnipiac University that saw him post four goals and 20 assists in 38 games. The Bobcats had lost in the ECAC Quarterfinals to Brown, but were selected to join the NCAA regionals as one of the best teams to not have won a conference title. They won their first regional game with a 2-1 win over Arizona State, but fell 3-1 to Minnesota Duluth on Sunday.

 

Rafferty is a late bloomer as a defenceman after playing forward until his senior year in high school. He made the switch to the backend after realizing that his skillset might be best suited as a puck-moving defenceman. That also followed a growth spurt that saw him go from 5'8" at 16 years-old to the 6'2" that he is now.

 

The newest signee possesses excellent skating abilities that allow him to create space for himself before he efficiently moves the puck to his teammates with speed. He is willing to jump into the rush when the situation arises relying on his read of the play to recognize when is the best time to do so.

 

He has a physical edge to his game where he uses his size and skating abilities to lay the perfectly timed hit. Collegiate hockey does limit that attribute to some degree, so it should be something that we see more of when he does suit up for a professional game.

 

[GoldenAlien]

[DJSkingz]

Love that management is giving these new signings a taste of the big show. More depth please!!

[Tre Mac]

On 4/2/2019 at 6:46 AM, Glug Datt said:

not sure what that means, but it sounds awesome! 

 

On 4/2/2019 at 7:19 AM, stawns said:

Prefer "Right Down the Line", though "Baker Street" is great too 

Last song on the Sleepwalking album Wise as a Serpent and my personal Rafferty fav.

 

Quote

Well we sit in empty rooms and dream our lives away
While the spirits come and go without a sound
And just like you and me, they're tryin' to find a way
Find a way, find a way home

There's a full moon in the sky, but that don't worry me
I don't ever hang my soul out on the line
When the witchin' hour comes, I always fly away
Fly away, fly away home

There's a light in the city, that comes down from above
Leavin' you as wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove
Don't blow your tomorrows, don't throw away your love
You've got to be as wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove

Now you once asked me why we can't communicate
But it doesn't always pay to tell the truth
If I told you right now, you'd only run away
Run away, run away home

So, we sit in empty rooms and dream our lives away
While the spirits come and go without a sound
Yeah, just like you and me, they're tryin' to find a way
Find a way, find a way home

There's a light in the city, that comes down from above
Leavin' you as wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove
Don't blow your tomorrows, don't throw away your love
You've got to be as wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove

/end derailment 

[Guest]

Quinnipac Killer?  

[86Viking]

Hopefully he can help Utica next year

[UticaHockey]

They are keeping Eliot from playing any games with the Comets so they don't burn off a year of waiver exemption which is a smart asset management move.  And with one single game they do burn off a year of waiver exemption on Rafferty (and Teves) which is poor asset management.

[mll]

15 minutes ago, UticaHockey said:

They are keeping Eliot from playing any games with the Comets so they don't burn off a year of waiver exemption which is a smart asset management move.  And with one single game they do burn off a year of waiver exemption on Rafferty (and Teves) which is poor asset management.

Probably the only way to convince them to sign with the Canucks.  Burning a year of the ELC is a selling point.

[The Great Canucks]

19 minutes ago, UticaHockey said:

They are keeping Eliot from playing any games with the Comets so they don't burn off a year of waiver exemption which is a smart asset management move.  And with one single game they do burn off a year of waiver exemption on Rafferty (and Teves) which is poor asset management.

Eliot is younger and was able to sign a multi-year ELC. Teves and Rafferty can't. So no, in this case, it isn't bad asset management because otherwise we might not have been able to sign them.

[TGT68]

17 minutes ago, mll said:

Probably the only way to convince them to sign with the Canucks.  Burning a year of the ELC is a selling point.

So is getting a chance to actually play.  

[cyoung]

4 hours ago, UticaHockey said:

They are keeping Eliot from playing any games with the Comets so they don't burn off a year of waiver exemption which is a smart asset management move.  And with one single game they do burn off a year of waiver exemption on Rafferty (and Teves) which is poor asset management.

Very different scenarios and contracts.