Two Buckeye Boys eye pro careers here
Both late drafts from Ohio State, Dzingel and McCormick impressive
They are the Senators Buckeye Boys.
Ryan Dzingel and Max McCormick were both late-round 2011 draft picks out of the USHL, one more slick, the other with more grit.
Dzingel, 23, from Wheaton, Ill., was Ottawa’s second pick of the seventh round, 204th overall. McCormick, 23, of De Pere, Wis., was the second pick of the sixth round, 171st overall. (Fulfilling the old hockey saying — it really doesn’t matter what round you’re selected).
Both joined the Ohio State Buckeyes for the 2011-12 season, and became two of their best players. In this, their fourth Senators development camp (which concluded Monday), they are both tracking NHL careers.
Dzingel, who got a taste of the AHL last spring with seven points in nine games with Binghamton, plus one playoff game, finished the season as Ohio State’s MVP, and a Hobey Baker finalist. With 22 goals and 46 points, Dzingel, 6-foot-0, 188 pounds, had the most productive season by an Ohio State player since R.J. Umberger in 2002-03.
McCormick, 5-foot-11, 185, wasn’t so bad himself, scoring 11 goals and 35 points in his junior season with the Buckeyes. While both usually lined up at left wing and therefore on different lines, they did share time on the power play, where Dzingel often played the point.
Off the ice, the pair were scholarathletes, business majors, and the best of pals, but sworn enemies at table tennis.
“You name it, we want to beat each other,” McCormick says. “I’d say the biggest game is probably ping-pong. We had a ping-pong table in our locker-room at Ohio State and we get at it pretty hard after practice.”
So, now that they’ve signed with Ottawa, what kind of pros will they be? Let’s defer to the expert, Senators assistant general manager and player development guru Randy Lee.
ON BUCKEYE A
“Dzingel is a highly skilled player we’re going to use as a centre. He plays the game with real pace, he makes plays with speed, attacks holes with speed,” Lee says. “He’s good at the give-and-go game.”
Dzingel was also smart enough to go to school on his shortcomings.
“When we first saw him, he was a good offensive player but I questioned his complete game,” Lee says. “He’s made a concerted effort to be a much more complete player. He was used in all situations at Ohio State, on the point on the power play, out killing 5-on3 penalties, out in the last minute of periods to protect leads; out in the last minute if they’re behind in a game.
“He gets into traffic better now,” Lee says, “and he plays so hard, and with such speed, he’s really hard to defend.”
Dzingel performed well here, despite nursing a hip flexor injury during camp.
BUCKEYE B
“He’s really competitive,” Lee says of McCormick. “He’s got good skill, but he’s most effective when he’s a pain in the ass to play against. He’ll bang into you, go to the net hard, be tenacious along the wall — a real feisty guy and a good teammate. People like him. If your team is sort of flat, you can put him out there and he’ll give your team a jolt.
Lee describes McCormick as “a real nice person but he plays a bit like Darcy Tucker. He will get under your skin. He’s hard to play against, and that’s what we want. We want competitive guys.”
It isn’t every day a guy gets to turn pro with his university teammate, so Dzingel and McCormick savour this experience. And whatever the future holds.
“He’s been one of my best friends for a while now,” Dzingel says. “It’s really cool to take the same steps as he is, and just having a guy around that has your back all the time.”
McCormick notes that the pair played together on the U.S. team in the world junior challenge, prior to attending Ohio State.
For the Buckeye Boys, it’s all fun and games until a game of table tennis breaks out. Who wins those games, anyway?
“I do, nearly all the time,” McCormick says. “He likes to think he can beat me but more often than not I beat him.”