Jonathan Merrill

What is his upside?

Difficult to tell at this point. Last year I watched about a half dozen regular season games of his plus NCAA tournament play.

Last year it was looking very much like he was a budding two way defender with a top pairing potential, a good #2 defenseman. But the loss of this development time and his off ice issues have left things rather hazy in a lot of peoples mind.

I'm personally still high on him, I think he has all the tools to be a solid twoway guy in the vein of a Jordan Leopold

Merrill is back in Michigan's lineup tonight according to his teammate Chris Brown via twitter! Woooohoooo!

Great news. Good for him sticking it out.

go big Jon

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Originally Posted by Wingman77

Yea that is awesome news that he's back

I'm curious to see what he does next year, but I'd think he stays at Michigan again

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Yeah, I don't think that this is totally a lost season for him, but the loss of games definitely means that he should spend at least another year there - which isn't a bad thing at all.

While I am glad he stuck it out for character building reasons this season if he is really a high end prospect he needs to play in a league that plays a lot more games than in the NCAA next season at this point in his career. Just my opinion.

notched two assists last night in his first game back! woot woot

Very good read on Merrill. Looking forward to seeing him in New Jersey.

http://slapshot.blogs.nytimes.com/20...-a-defenseman/

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Originally Posted by Wingman77

Awesome to hear

I think we'll see him in rookie camp for sure this summer and in training camp the following summer

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Skill wise he's ready to make the jump to the pros next season but I could see him staying in college for another year. Will be interesting to see.