Junior hockey: Maine Nordiques sign a Division I commit and two forwards

The Maine Nordiques continue to solidify their roster with three tender signings in the past week.

The team has added two forwards in Vincent DeSanctis and Carter Lane, while adding defenseman Andrius Kulbis-Marino.

Kulbis-Marino, from Methuen, Massachusetts is the Nordiques’ second tenured player to have already secured a Division I commitment. The 19-year-old is scheduled to play for Sacred Heart University starting in the 2020-21 season. Goaltender Connor Androlewicz, the team’s first tender signee, is committed to Maine.

Sacred Heart plays in the Atlantic Hockey conference and is based in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Kulbis-Marino is the modern defenseman that scouts at the NHL and college level look for in today’s game.

“You talk about an excitement level from our coaching staff, boy, we can’t be more excited to work with that young man,” Maine Nordiques director of hockey operations and coach Nolan Howe said. “He’s mobile and he’s athletically gifted, has great hands, tremendous vision. He’s got a knack not only where the puck is, but where the puck is going or where the puck needs to be distributed.”

After a four-year career at Lowell Catholic High School in Lowell, Massachusetts, where he amassed 39 goals and 49 assists from 2015-2018, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound defender spent this past season playing prep hockey at Albany Academy in Albany, New York, where he had six goals and eight assists.

DeSanctis is the first tender signee for the Nordiques that has Junior A or Tier II experience, as he played with the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, one of the ten leagues that make up the Canadian Junior “A” Hockey League.

The 19-year-old forward from Howard Beach, New York had 14 goals and 24 assists in 51 games with the Golden Miners this season. He also played a game with the Northeast Generals NAHL team last season and went through the P.A.L. Junior Islanders of the USPHL, playing for the organization’s 18U midget team from 2015-18.

DeSanctis fits the hardworking player the Nordiques are looking for.

“Vinny is someone we identified very early in the (recruiting) process,” Howe said. “He plays a brand of hockey that we are looking for with the Maine Nordiques. Not only what he does on the ice, but the character he displays off it. He’s a terrific young man and comes from a background of hard work and dedication to be successful. It’s part of the reason why he was able to go into the junior (hockey) world and compete at a high level right now.”

Lane, meanwhile, is the youngest tender signing to date as a 16-year-old, and won’t turn 17 until June. The Black River Falls, Wisconsin native fulfills the tender signing the team had to make from the North American Prospects Hockey League 16U level, where he played with the Madison Capitals this past season. In 57 midget games, he had 19 goals and 20 assists.

“I think he’s a well-rounded player,” Howe said. “I think he brings a lot to the table in the sense that he kind of was counted on in every situation for his team. He was the top gun there, offensively and defensively, end of the game situations, power play, penalty kill, he kind of did it all. For us I think, as a 2002 (birth year) he will come in and he will have to compete that he can do it at this level.”

Lane is someone Howe thinks highly of and hopes he can play in the organization, whether it’s with the NAHL team or spend a year down in Princeton, New Jersey with the Maine Nordiques Development Program at the U18 level before making the jump to the NAHL level.

The organization still needs to tender at least one more player who played in the NAPHL this past season. That tender had to play this past season in NAPHL’s U18 league.