Max Pacioretty is a college dropout. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be sitting at home wondering what to do with the rest of his life. Sure, he’s at his parent’s home in New Canaan right now, but he knows he’ll be spending this fall in Canada.

Pacioretty, the first-round draft pick of the Montreal Canadians in 2007, has given up his final three years of collegiate eligibility with the University of Michigan to sign with the NHL team.

Pacioretty will be in training camp with the Canadians this September, and is expected to start the season with Montreal’s AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs.

“Max Pacioretty is a young player with a lot of skills, who has the potential to play in the NHL,” said Montreal general manager Bob Gainey in a press release. “We are very happy to have him under contract for years to come. We feel he is ready to make the jump to professional hockey, and we will make sure to provide him with all the resources which will benefit his long-term development as a player.”

As a freshman at Michigan, Pacioretty was named the CCHA Rookie of the Year, and was named to the College Hockey News All-Rookie team and the CCHA All-Rookie team. He finished fifth in U.S. college hockey among rookies in points (39) and points per game (1.05). He was also Recipient of the Mickey and Wally Grant Scholarship for Men’s Ice Hockey.

The 6-foot-2, 199-pound left winger finished second on the team in plus-minus and powerplay goals with nine. Pacioretty also scored three game-winning goals and registered 109 shots on goal.

Pacioretty was a member of the US National team which finished fourth at the 2008 World Junior Championship presented in Czech Republic.

“We’re certainly disappointed that Max Pacioretty has chosen to forgo his eligibility at the University of Michigan at this time,” said Michigan associate head coach Mel Pearson in a statement. “Max was a positive force on our team last season. We would like to wish him well in his pursuit of his dream to play in the National Hockey League.”

Balloting (if you want to call it that) for a “Name the Team” contest for Danbury’s new Eastern Professional Hockey League franchise has concluded, and the moniker will be announced with a new site launch. The problem is, Danbury franchise owners Tim Kolpien, Curtis Russell, and Igor Mrotchek in March sunk their money into a brand new league, which may or may not ever get off the ground.

Then again, according to an article in The News-Times, ticket sales are going well. They also wouldn’t tell the reporter, Rich Gregory, how many tickets were sold.

So is a sucker born every minute? Or are officials at Danbury Ice Arena cashing in on rental fees lost when James Galante lost the city’s first franchise, the UHL’s Danbury Trashers, to the feds?

That’s right, Danbury’s short professional hockey lifetime is already a tainted one.

Galante brought hockey to town, kind of as a gift for his son, A.J., who ran the team at the young age of 19. The Galante’s promised family hockey… as long as the family’s last name was “Gambino,” or your family acted like trailer trash. Orphaned New Haven hockey fans made the trip of Route 34 to watch games, and became a nightmare of the civilized, and the Danbury police force (though this use of a taser on a fan in a brawl was at a New England Stars game).

Oh yeah, family hockey? Kidding. The team was all about playing dirty to win.

Once the Trashers and Galante were brought down on fraud charges which included defrauding the United Hockey League in the Trashers’ operation, the arena filled the void with a “pro” hockey team called the New England Stars. They went undefeated in a three-team North Eastern Hockey League (ooh!), which folded soon after. The Stars were billed as a pro team, but it turned out it was a semi-pro weekend-only league.

Will hockey work this time around? I’d love to think it will. But let’s face the facts. The league is not established. The history of pro hockey in Danbury is already horrid. And if you’re a true hockey fan, you already know there is some very good hockey to watch at the Danbury Ice Arena.

There’s plenty of SWC hockey, including CIAC Division I Immaculate and the D-II Brookfield-Bethel co-op that seems to have become a team to watch. Also, Western Connecticut’s club hockey team competes against some of the area’s top ACHA programs.

Not too far from New Haven, Sacred Heart fills the Milford Ice Pavilion. Quinnipiac’s team is playing in a nice new on-campus arena in Hamden. And in New Haven, of course, Yale’s hockey tradition continues.

Real hockey fans will hit those venues, as well as other local high school and college games. And the goons of Section 102 will continue to support fly-by-night hockey in Danbury.

My floor hockey career ended as a sophomore in high school when I jumped in front of Kevin Arrix, a sophomore on the New Canaan varsity, to block a shot and ended up with something like 30 stitches above my right eye. (Kevin apologizes to this day, even though I take the blame)

But you don’t have to own a stick or know how to skate to understand that FCIAC teams cannot compete at the CIAC Division I level.

Why? Because the FCIAC’s Division I teams play everyone in in the league once, then participate in the FCIAC’s winnerless holiday tournament, and only schedule four out of conference games each.

This is great for Division II teams like Fairfield and Trinity Catholic, both of which were in the Frozen Four, and will benefit emerging Division III programs like St. Joseph.

But let’s break it down here: Fairfield Prep finished the regular season 9-10-1 and won the CIAC Division I championship as the 11 seed. Notre Dame-Fairfield was the runner up, the 9 seed, and had an 11-8-1 regular season. Prep didn’t play any games outside of D-I, Notre Dame played two games against D-II opponents.

What did FCIAC finalists Darien and New Canaan do? Darien played 11 of 20 regular season contests against D-I foes, New Canaan played 10. Darien played two D-II teams in the FCIAC playoffs, New Canaan beat one.

Needless to say, playing lesser opponents during the regular season doesn’t help when it comes to the CIAC D-I tournament, where FCIAC teams went 0-4 in the first round.

Now look at Trinity Catholic and Fairfield. Trinity Catholic had nine D-I games, including two in the FCIAC playoffs. Fairfield also skated against nine, including one in the playoffs and East Haven, the D-I’s top seed, in the regular season. They were clearly ready for trips to Ingalls Rink.

So what’s the FCIAC to do if it wants to get better? Or, better yet, keep its best players from running off to Prep schools? Here’s three ideas:

1. Take a lesson from the SWC and break the FCIAC down to D-I and D-II/III. The D-I teams will play each other, and the D-II/III teams play in their realm. Then make each school go out of conference to find opponents. This was a rare year for Notre Dame, which actually played against a pair of SWC D-II opponents. Fairfield Prep doesn’t touch anyone of the SCC’s second-tier schools.
2. Abandon the FCIAC holiday tournament, which doesn’t really seem to serve a purpose but to fill the schedule for two more games. Find some out-of-state foes like Prep and Notre Dame do when they get in prestigious tournaments. Heck, some D-II schools, I think Sheehan was one, played a tournament in Quebec.
3. Consider an end to the postseason FCIAC championship tournament. Not even separate D-I and D-II/III tournaments. You’re adding up to three extra games before the CIAC tournament. And, you have to cram your required (up to) 20 regular seasons into one less week to get ready for FCIACs. Maybe that’s a good thing if you’re playing similar foes. But maybe it’s also wearing FCIAC teams down.

Will all this help the FCIAC improve as a hockey conference? Yes. The D-II/III teams can fill their schedules with D-Is who want to play, or stay in their division. And the FCIACs D-Is can be freed up to take on teams like Tri-Town, Simsbury, Conard, and Glastonbury more often.