Last week, we put a spotlight on Isaac Jonsson, a UMass Lowell hockey commit starring in the United States Hockey League.
Now it's time for an update on another future River Hawk defenseman. While Jonsson is a terrific skater and point producer, Gabe Blanchard is a brick wall on skates. He's tough, very tough.
The 5-foot-11, 196-pound native of Buffalo, N.Y., is not afraid to throw a check. He has 79 penalty minutes in 27 games for Sioux City, just one minute off the USHL lead. In the past month, he has three games with 15 or more penalty minutes and two fighting majors. He's added a 3-5-8 offensive line and is a major reason Sioux City, which has 14 wins, has bounced back from an awful season from a year ago.
Blanchard has drawn favorable comparisons to former UML defenseman Nick Schaus, also a New York native. Schaus compiled 220 penalty minutes and 65 points as a River Hawk from 2006-10. Schaus would hit anything in sight. Blanchard, almost the same size as Schaus, appears to be cut from the same cloth.
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