The Huskies landed a big commitment Wednesday afternoon, with forward Alex Mella out of Shattuck-St. Mary’s committing to the program via his Twitter account. He originally hails from Stamford, CT.
Honored to announce my commitment to play D1 hockey at Northeastern University! Thank you to everyone who has supported me! #Huskies
— Alex Mella (@AlexMella_) March 29, 2017
Mella is a six-one, left handed center, and has had success at Shattuck for the past four seasons. During the 2016-17 season, he tallied 60 points (23 goals, 37 assists) in 53 games at the high school level and led the team in scoring. Last year, he put up 29 points in 40 games in his first year jumping up from the U16 team. In his two prior seasons playing in the SSM program, one year in Bantam and the other in Midgets, he combined for 121 points in 118 games played.
Mella has been described as “a very effective point producer who can score and make play…the support part of his game has gotten much better. He is effective in the offensive zone and helps his team out in any way possible” . In 2016, SBN College Hockey’s Jeff Cox said of Mella: “His strength is certainly his shot, which he gets off quickly and with some velocity…He’s a goal scorer who looks to be close to putting it all together.“
3.75 star prospect Alex Mella commits to @GoNUmhockey. Strong skater, makes plays in traffic and can fire the puck. Leading SSM Prep in pts https://t.co/cxyRvKJ0vL
— Neutral Zone (@_Neutral_Zone) March 29, 2017
99 F Alex Mella (NU) is a 6' scorer for Shattuck St Marys. His wrister is powerful & accurate plus he shows good burst & can dish it too.
— Mark Bilotta (@mbilotta) March 29, 2017
Mella has his rights held in both the United States Hockey League and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He was a sixth round draft pick by Green Bay in the USHL in 2015, and a seventh round pick by Rimouski in the QMHL draft in 2015. We expect with his commitment to play college hockey, he will be playing one year in Green Bay before enrolling to Northeastern in the Fall of 2018. He is eligible for the 2017 NHL draft, and in October he was rated as a “C” skater in the NHL Central Scouting Service Watch List, meaning he could be a late round pick this June.
Shattuck-St. Mary’s is a prep school located in Minnesota, and is widely considered one of the premier hockey prep schools in the nation. Most of Mella’s teammates will go on to play Division 1 hockey, including at top tier institutions across Hockey East, the ECAC, and the NCHC. Shattuck has produced numerous alumni that played both Division I hockey and in the NHL. Recent alums include Clayton Keller (Boston University), Jordan Greenway (BU), Ian McCoshen (Boston College), Taylor Cammarata (Minnesota), and Connor Hurley (Notre Dame). All-time alumni include Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Zach Parise, Jonathan Toews, and Derek Stepan.
Congratulations to Alex on his commitment and welcome to the Huskies family! You can see our latest projection for Northeastern’s incoming class and future classes, including Alex Mella in the Fall of 2018, on our Future Roster page.