Tambellini Commits To North Dakota

Vernon Vipers (BCHL) forward Adam Tambellini took an official visit to North Dakota during the series with Minnesota and liked it enough to the point where he decided Grand Forks was the best place to continue his hockey career. He’ll enroll either next year or in 2013. Tambellini is third on the Vipers in both goals and assists, and picked UND over Minnesota, Michigan and Penn State.

The most notable thing about him, of course, is his last name. Tambellini is the son of Oilers GM Steve Tambellini, and the brother of former Michigan Wolverine Jeff. With all of the talk that the CHL is the best route to the NHL, an NHL GM (of a Canadian franchise, no less) has now sent two sons to college hockey. There are positives and negatives to either route, of course, but more and more evidence is piling up that what CHL teams tell their prospects what NHL GMs believe and what NHL GMs actually believe may be two very different things.