kingston frontenacs take a hit from the ncaa, but may have a break-out prospect from slovakia in goljer
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kingston frontenacs vann williamson, during his pre-season tilt against the erie otters at the cornwall civic complex on saturday september 9, 2023 in cornwall, ont. erie won the game 7-3. robert lefebvre/special to the cornwall standard-freeholder/postmedia network
robert lefebvre
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robert lefebvre/special to the standard-freeholder
for the kingston frontenacs and their coach troy mann, the past week has been a bad-news, good-news situation.
defenceman vann williamson caught management off guard with his announcement that he’ll be heading to clarkson university in the fall rather than returning to kingston for his overage season.
when the frontenacs named the 19-year-old from ajax captain after the trade of jacob battaglia to flint back in january, all involved seemed locked into a script that had williamson coming back for the 2026-27 campaign to lend needed experience to a blueline group that would skew on the younger side.
the buy-in became a no-sale.
“i certainly did not see this ncaa commitment coming,” mann admitted. “we made him captain anticipating him being one of our three overagers and leading our team next season. and he was just so coachable and prepared in terms of delivering that message to his teammates in the room. and it seemed to suit his personality.”
mann did allow that williamson was likely sincere when signing on, but situations change and influences beyond the team can factor into the mix.
“there’s a lot of pressure on these kids now,” mann said. “when they start looking at their peers and they’re all trying to develop to quickly in my opinion. they see 20-year-olds leaving the league and going to the ncaa, so they feel like they have to do the same regardless of where their own development might be.”
and for many overagers and junior-eligibles it might be a case that a college program would be a source of the pressure to make commitments a season too soon lest a window close or an opportunity be lost — williamson might have reasonably had concern that an offer from clarkson that was in place for the fall of 2026 wouldn’t be there a year later after playing out his overage season with kingston.
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“there’s just so much politics out there and so many mixed messages,” mann said.
for the frontenacs, it’s decidedly mixed on the news front.
centre kieren dervin scrubbed his commitment to penn state because the nittany lions coaches were recommending that he play another year in the ohl, and he’ll be heading to michigan instead.
dervin’s situation in contrast to right-winger landon wright and centre matt frost, who signed commitments to the university of maine and boston college respectively — their schools are advising them to play another year of major junior and thus they seem likely fits for two of three overage slots on kingston’s roster.
another player who might be hearing the siren call is goaltender matt minchak — when the new jersey native came to training camp last fall as an undrafted free-agent on a tryout, he said he planned to play two seasons of major junior before heading to the campus of colgate university in hamilton, new york, in the fall of ’27. while his surprising early-season form landed him on nhl scouts’ radar, minchak might believe he’d see more game action next season in the collegiate ranks than he might if it came down to another contest for starts with gavin betts, who won the no. 1 job in january and held it into the playoffs. if minchak is selected by a club in the nhl entry draft, his prospective employers will likely point him in one direction or another.
until everybody reports to camp, you have to imagine that the depth chart will remain in a state of flux.
one wholly positive development recently, however, was the play of adam goljer for slovakia at the world under-18 championships in trencin.
the frontenacs selected goljer with their second pick in the 2025 import draft and the nhl central scouting service’s final rankings he was slotted no. 14 among draft-eligible european skaters, sixth among defencemen in the pool.
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off his play at the u18s, that projection might prove to be on the conservative side — goljer might well be closer to a late first-round pick than a third- or fourth-rounder.
logging 20 minutes a game and manning the point on the first power play, goljer was the lead defenceman on the host team which knocked off canada in the u18s’ preliminary round and lost to sweden in the gold-medal final. officials named him the tournament’s top blueliner and put him on the all-star team.
“he’s got some offensive ability and a real good hockey iq,” mann said. “like any young defenceman, he’ll probably need to learn to defend better. with him coming over hopefully and giving us top-four minutes and playing on the power play, he can be pretty impactful and important for us.”
while goljar’s accolades at the tournament suggest a significant upside for the upcoming season, mann tried to temper expectations.
“we see it with players coming over from europe where they played (on the larger international sheet),” mann said. “like with tomas pobezal last season, he talked about things happening quicker on the ice here and that’s coming off playing in a pro league — it’s just the nature of the game going from europe to a smaller ice surface.”
the adjustments and learning curve notwithstanding, mann does envision a significant contribution from goljer in his 18-year-old season. “he played pretty well at the world juniors last winter and was an anchor on the slovaks’ second power play, playing top-four minutes for the most part,” mann said. “he seemed to do pretty well playing at a really high level.”
and while the arrival of goljer mitigates the loss of williamson, the blueline remains a crying need, with a pair of last year’s 20-year-olds, will bishop and maleek mcgowan aging out.
while the frontenacs will certainly be looking for defencemen at the ontario hockey league priority selection, it would be a big ask (or even an unreasonable one) for anyone other than a first-rounder to step a top-four role on kingston’s blueline next season — even 2025 first-rounder matthew henderson was protected in match-ups and managed in third-pairing duties.
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