Reese was the lowest-rated of the three Harvard players included in the Central Scouting Bureau’s end-of-season rankings, which often correlate with draft order.
Defenseman Chris Kelley, who has verbally committed to Harvard for the 2004-2005 season, was No. 176 among North American skaters, and rising sophomore Charlie Johnson, whose stock improved as his freshman season went along, was No. 181.
Reese was 192nd and, despite having below average size (6’0, 184 lbs.) by the standards of NHL defensemen, he was the only one of the three taken.
Reese’s selection marked the third time in four years that the Rangers have taken a Harvard player. All-American Dominic Moore ’03 and rising junior Rob Flynn were the others.
Harvard had the most draft picks of any ECAC team in 2000 (four), 2001 (four) and 2002 (five), and has the most all-time draft picks of any ECAC school (70), but with this year’s incoming freshman class being Mazzoleni’s smallest since coming to Cambridge in 1999, Reese was the Crimson player to hear his name called.
Twelve draft picks came from the ECAC, including Rangers’ first-round pick (12th overall) Hugh Jessiman of Dartmouth, last season’s runaway ECAC Rookie of the Year. Cornell’s five draft picks were the most in the league, and the Big Red is second in the ECAC to Harvard with seven overall.
Kevin Sneddon ’92, an All-NCAA Tournament selection during Harvard’s 1989 national championship run, was introduced as the new men’s hockey coach at Vermont on Wednesday afternoon. He replaces Mike Gilligan, who retired in May after 19 seasons.
Sneddon had been the head coach at Union since 1998 and was an assistant there dating back to the 1993-1994 season, only his second year after graduating from Harvard. The Dutchmen improved their win total each season he was there, and last year Union hosted its first-ever Division I ECAC home playoff series.
After beginning his coaching career at a school that is regarded as one of the toughest in the nation to attract players, Sneddon is moving on to a scholarship school in a largely non-scholarship league that has struggled in recent years but has a strong tradition and nationwide name recognition.
The other leading candidate for the position was reportedly Brown head coach Roger Grillo, a former Gilligan assistant.
With the hiring of Sneddon, and assuming no more coaching changes this off-season, three ECAC schools will begin the season with new head coaches: Vermont, Union and Clarkson (George Roll).
—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.