Nathan Krawchuk commits to RPI
RPI gets their first commitment from the CHL in the '05 goaltender
In November, the NCAA changed their decades long rule prohibiting players from the CHL, the major junior leagues in Canada, from playing NCAA hockey. Immediately, there has been a rush of commitments across the NCAA from a multitude of players. Coach Smith said on the radio with Rodger Wyland that he was excited for the change. He said it adds a lot of excellent hockey players to the player pool, and with his many connections in the OHL (Ontario Hockey League) in particular, he thought RPI was in a position to add some great players due to the change.
Given all that information, it was only a matter of time before RPI picked up their first commitment from one of these leagues. RPI has received a commitment from ‘05 goalie Nathan Krawchuk from the Sudbury Wolves in the OHL. He fills a position of need in the net as both Jack Watson and Noah Giesbrecht will graduate this spring. With Ryan Sanborn bouncing around junior hockey and landing in a very weak league in the OJHL, it appears he will need another year of junior hockey. This left RPI with 2 spots open in the goalie room, and now they have a big get to fill one of those spots.
Krawchuk is a huge addition for the Engineers. He is an experienced goaltender in junior hockey with this being his third season in Sudbury in the OHL. As a 16 year old, Krawchuk had a breakout year in U18 AAA hockey with a 0.932 SV%, which led the entire league. This led to Krawchuk being selected in the 1st round, 3rd overall by the Sudbury Wolves in the OHL’s U18 draft. His first two years in the OHL, he was a backup goalie for Sudbury, which is normal for a younger player in the league.
This year, Krawchuk has been excellent. He started the year fighting for the net with Finn Marshall, and he won the starting job with his play as The Sudbury Star wrote about in this piece. He is now one of the top goalies in the entire OHL; his 0.912 SV% ranks 6th in the league. For those that do not know, the OHL is widely considered the best junior hockey league in the world. It is pretty comparable to the USHL, but I’d say it is slightly better than the USHL as would most scouts and talent evaluators.
Listed at 6’2” and 180 LBs, Krawchuk has good size in the net to go with his talent. He is great at reading the play and moving into good position to make the stop. Check out highlights #2 and #4 in this video: he reads the pass and moves post to post to make the save. He doesn’t explode across the crease, but he recognizes the pass really early to make the save. Krawchuk is also really calm and patient in net and will stick with shooters with good positioning to make the stop. In highlight #4 in this video, you can see how he doesn’t bite on the dangle and matches the shooter to get the great blocker save. Here’s a good example of both his play tracking and his positioning where he’s able to move across his crease and immediately get in good position so the shooter ends up having very little net to shoot at. Basically every highlight I find of Krawchuk shows these attributes, and there’s plenty more I didn’t link here.
Krawchuk will enroll at RPI this fall as a freshman. With his talent level, he projects to have an immediate impact despite his youth, and he’ll have a chance to win the starting job right out of the gate. I expect RPI will be looking for a more experienced goalie to compete with him for the net, likely through the transfer portal. With Krawchuk’s commitment though, RPI has landed its goalie of the future, and he should become a quality #1 goaltender as he develops, even if he doesn’t win the job as a freshman. Congratulations to Nathan and his family!