HOCKEY PREVIEW 2006-07: Fraser Earns Tryout for Team USA

Last year, winger Jimmy Fraser didn’t take long to make a name for himself, showing enough promise as an incoming rookie to earn playing time in every game of the season.

This year, Fraser was turning heads before the season even began.

Every August, USA Hockey National selects a team of approximately 40 players from around the country to participate in the National Junior Evaluation Camp, held in Lake Placid, N.Y. Standouts earn a chance to be called back in December to represent the United States at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.

This year, Fraser’s name made the initial 43-man list, and he soon found himself in upstate New York, playing alongside top performers from across the country against all-star squads from Finland and Sweden.

“The caliber of players out there is unbelievable,” Fraser recalls. “That’s when guys who are playing in the NHL right now [get their start].”

Though competing for ice time with some of the nation’s rising stars, Fraser quickly managed to set himself apart, scoring a goal in his team’s first contest, a 4-2 win over Finland.

“It was a great camp,” Fraser says of the four-day tryout session. “It was great for my experience and just great hockey.”

Although Fraser certainly made an impression during his time in New York, the end of the tryouts did not mark the end of the evaluation process.

USA Hockey will continue to judge his performance through the first half of Harvard’s season.

Despite this added incentive, Fraser stresses that it’s still the chase for the ECAC title rather than the chance to play on an international stage that will serve as his early-season motivation—not that the two goals are mutually exclusive.

“I’m more concerned about the team right now,” he says. “Hopefully, if the team does well, individually everyone does well, too, so we’ll see where that takes us.”

Fraser didn’t take long to begin helping his team, scoring the Crimson’s first goal of the 2006-07 campaign in what eventually proved to be a season-opening loss to Dartmouth.

If Fraser were to receive the call in December, he would earn a place alongside some of Harvard hockey’s elite. Former team captain Noah Welch ‘05, who recently broke into the NHL with the Pittsburgh Penguins, made the team as an undergraduate, as did current skipper Dylan Reese—although both were unable to play due to injury.

“Noah was captain here, Dylan’s the captain now, so it’s definitely huge footsteps to fill,” Fraser says. “I’m looking forward to the first part of the season. Hopefully I can do the best I can.”

Reese expressed optimism that his teammate would receive the opportunity to play under the spotlight of international competition, a privilege that both he and Welch were forced to forgo.

“It was a huge honor for me—I was disappointed I couldn’t play in that tournament,” Reese says. “For Jimmy, I’m really excited. I heard he had an excellent camp. We look for big things for him in the beginning of the year.”

—Staff writer Daniel J. Rubin-Wills can be reached at drubin@fas.harvard.edu.