Defenseman Kyle Furey, an ’02 birth year from Marblehead, MA, committed to playing his collegiate hockey at Northeastern yesterday evening. He joins Brandon Chabrier, Cam Gaudette, Michael Bevilacqua, Jackson Dorrington, and Vinny Borgesi in the Huskies’ defensive pipeline.
Furey is a right-shot defenseman and clocks in at six foot even, and 165 pounds. He currently plays for the Youngstown Phantoms of the United States Hockey League, where he has 2 assists in 10 games played. He most recently played on the third pairing for Youngstown with Providence commit Austen May. Prior to Youngstown, Furey played at Lawrence Academy (3-19-22 in 27 games last season) and the Cape Cod Whalers 18U and 16U programs. He was named to the ISL All-Scholastic Team last season.
Neutral Zone profiled him a value pick when selected by Youngstown in Phase 2 of the 2020 USHL Draft, saying “Every season we watch Furey, he continues to grow. He has good size and will continue to add more strength, but he plays hard on the puck in all three zones. He also isn’t afraid to bang bodies to separate man from puck: He just wears you down over the course of a game. He grew his game moving from MIAA to prep hockey with Lawrence Academy as he was more of a shutdown physical defender and became more of a two-way threat in prep. In their final NE Prep game our Head of Scouting said he was the best player on the ice against a very good Berkshire team.”
For someone his size, being labeled as someone who is willing to get physical, separate players from the puck, and grows year to year is extremely encouraging. From a statistic perspective he appears to have offensive abilities, so improving as a defender will be extremely important as he progresses to college hockey.
He was listed as one of the Top 25 players at the E.G Watkins Invitational in January 2020, a tournament which features the best teams in all of New England prep hockey. He was also listed as a “top uncommitted ’02” by the New England Hockey Journal as recently as November 2020, and was a Watch List name for The Draft Analyst and Neutral Zone ahead of the 2020 NHL Draft.
When looking at where Furey slots into the recruiting timeline, we plan to slot him into the 2022 freshman class. With the uncertainty of 2021’s roster created by the new NCAA eligibility rules related to the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the idea that Furey might benefit from a second full year in the USHL, we will slot him into 2022 for now and update as time progresses and rosters are sorted. Turning 19 in just a month, he certainly is eligible and could arrive in Fall 2021. Whether he arrives next year or not, it’s undeniable that the recruiting pipeline for the Huskies continues to be stocked with incredible talent for the next few years.
Congratulations to Kyle on his commitment to Northeastern!