Meet your new hockey Eagles: Brian Billett

At this point, we don’t have the time to go through all the players on the team (unless I posted three or four articles a day, which I’m just not going to do), but we are in a good position to discuss the nine new players on the men’s hockey team coming into the 2011-2012 season.

The first player we’re going to meet is Brian Billett, #1.

Billett is a 19-year old freshman goalie from Brunswick, Maine (via Charleston, South Carolina) who went to high school in Kennebunk. Before coming to Boston College, he played for the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs of the EJHL (Eastern Junior Hockey League). In 2009-2010, he was the EJHL Goalie of the Year, and his 2010-2011 season saw him go 19-2-1 with a 1.93 GAA and .933 save percentage. He posted a perfect 6-0 record in postseason play in net for the Monarchs last season, bringing his total up to 11 playoff wins, and he also won 62 regular-season games in his time with New Hampshire.

His track record is fairly impressive, having been three-for-three in making the all-star team in the EJHL, and as the goalie, he won back-to-back league titles before coming here (having a goalie who knows how to win championships is kind of a big deal around here).

Billett’s arrival on the Heights has been a long time coming. He verballed to BC all the way back in 2008 and signed his letter of intent in 2009. Everything he has said in the media about Boston College is highly positive, and it seems like this is the place he wants to be.

There has been an under-the-radar quality to him, however, given his tremendous pre-Eagle career. When it came time for the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Billett went unselected. He’s not the property of any team, therefore, except Boston College, despite having been highly-regarded in his amateur league play and being ranked by the Red Line Report as the 75th-best overall draft prospect in 2010.

If there’s one thing I can tell you about Billett from reading about him, however, is that he is motivated. In fact, I would say that it’s pretty difficult to come to a team coached by Jerry York and not be motivated to succeed and to impress the men in suits. He’s not going to be regularly starting games any time soon (not yet, anyway) but Billett looks like the sort of guy who won’t be satisfied until he’s the best he can possibly be, and will make the most of whatever time he gets to shine, even if it’s just in practice.