The Huskies garnered their fourth verbal commitment in August on Monday night in the form of Ben Yurchuk, a 2005-born forward out of New Jersey. Yurchuk posted the announcement on his personal instagram.
Considered to be “a stud,” Yurchuk was originally born in Montreal before finding his way to the New Jersey Colonials youth team and Randolph High School in New Jersey. Last season he played for the North Jersey Avalanche 16U program, where he had 11 points (4 goals) in 12 games while playing most of the year at age 15. In the years prior he was part of the Colonials’ 14U and 13U teams, where he tallied over 80 points in just 49 games, and for Randolph High School he tallied 42 points (15 goals) in 28 games as a freshman. He recently also participated in the USA U17 5 Nations and the USA Select 16s. Yurchuk was selected 9th overall in the 2021 USHL Futures Draft by the Chicago Steel, the dominant franchise in the league.
Amateur scout Russ Bitely added that Yurchuk “plays a smart 2-way game, good hands, skating ability, & offensive awareness.” Puck Prospects said that Yurchuk has an “extremely silky set of hands,” and Puck Preps called Yurchuk a 4 star prospect and was their 41st-ranked ’05.
In a March 2020 interview with Puck Preps, head coach Vinny Smith said “when we’ve played against the big boy teams, he’s been our most dynamic guy…when I see Benny Yurchuk, and I watch him dominate practice against guys, I watch him in traffic and I see how it translates. He’s better than a lot of kids that people don’t think he is right now, and he hasn’t even touched his body. He’s so under-developed physically, and you know he’s gonna put the work in. When his body catches up to his brain, which in my opinion is the best brain in the country, he’s gonna blow up.” High praise from the man who has seen Yurchuk day-in and day-out at Randolph.
Yurchuk projects to arrive likely in 2023 with fellow ’05 Will Smith. He will arrive at 18 years old as a true freshman, and we are eager to watch his further development as he makes his way to Northeastern.
Congrats to Ben on his commitment! As always, go Huskies!