Last year, the Harvard men's hockey team that cruised to a 21-9-2 season and earned an NCAA tournament berth relied largely on the efforts of a deep and talented freshman class.

The latest crop of Crimson freshmen has all the talent of the Eight from '88, but none of the depth.

Only three freshmen--Chris Biotti, Ed Krayer and Josh Caplan--should see extensive playing time with the Crimson varsity in the coming year, but that trio has the ability to help an already outstanding Crimson squad become even better.

Biotti, who attended local hockey powerhouse Belmont Hill, gained recognition as a teenage phenom when he was named the 17th pick in the first round of the National Hockey League draft.

Although the Calgary Flames made the 6-ft., 3-in., 180-1b. defenseman the first high schooler and only the third American picked, Biotti stuck to his decision to accept Harvard's offer of early admission.

"Harvard's the finest institution around," Biotti says. "If I just wanted to play hockey, I would've chosen the NHL."

Biotti credited part of his choice to Harvard's hockey coach and program, but he also considered its fine academic reputation.

The decision lay solely in Biotti's hands; the NHL scouts put no pressure on him, nor did his parents, friends, or Belmont Hill Coach Ken Martin. "I tried to stay away from that," Martin says, "but I would've told him to go to college because it's better for 99 percent of the kids."

And any idea of entering the NHL right away was dismissed when Biotti dislocated his shoulder (courtesy Yale's Randy Wood) at the National Sports Festival in Baton Rouge, La. "Anyway, I was always pretty sure I was going to Harvard," the Weld resident says.

Biotti should fit well into the mold of Coach Bill Cleary's style at Harvard. Both Belmont Hill and the Crimson play a skating and passing game, and in the past, Belmont Hill graduates have done quite well on Ivy League teams.

"He's big and mobile," Harvard Captain Scott Fusco, another Belmont Hill graduate, says. "He has things to learn. There are things he could get away with a lot in high school that he can't get away with in college.

"Chris is a great shooter," Martin points out. "He's strong, tall, and a team player, and with Harvard's big rink, it'll help him."

The Newton native faces a quicker and rougher collegiate game, but he has the size, the background, and the attitude to adjust.

"He's gonna be an outstanding hockey player," Harvard Coach Bill Cleary says. "He gives us size back there. He's gonna be a force and I'll be surprised if he's not."

Now in his 13th year of playing the sport, Biotti considers his greatest strength "my love for the game. I love to skate--it's in my blood," he says.