A pair of Nightingales will soon migrate south to East Lansing, and the Spartan hockey team will be the beneficiary of the move.
Adam Nightingale, a forward for Lake Superior State, is transferring to MSU, and his little brother, Jared Nightingale, has signed a National Letter of Intent with the Spartans and will be a freshman in the fall.
Per NCAA transfer rules, Adam Nightingale will not be allowed to play for a season, but can practice with the team. He will start playing in the 2003-04 season and will have two years of eligibility remaining.
Jared Nightingale, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound defenseman, is MSU’s sixth commitment to the 2002 freshman class. Forwards Colton Fretter and David Booth and defensemen Corey Potter and Evan Shaw already have signed with MSU.
Forward Nenad Gajic has verbally committed and will sign an NLI sometime this summer.
Jared Nightingale originally signed with Lake Superior in November, but reneged on the deal and obtained a release from his NLI. He then visited MSU and verbally committed a month ago.
He said he didn’t really conspire with Adam Nightingale to mutually attend MSU, but is happy about having his brother join him in East Lansing. The two are originally from Cheboygan.
“We had to go with what was best for both of us, and that was Michigan State,” Jared Nightingale said Tuesday from Sault Ste. Marie. “(Lake Superior State) just wasn’t the right situation for us. I don’t think we were meant to be there - I think we’re meant to be at Michigan State.
“It’s not too hard to choose to go to Michigan State, it’s one of the best programs in the country.”
MSU head coach Rick Comley recruited Jared Nightingale to come to Northern Michigan when Comley was still coaching the Wildcats. Comley took over MSU in March and began pursuing him again when the player was released from Lake Superior State. He said the National Letter of Intent is being processed this week.
“It’s all official,” Comley said Monday night. “We’re just waiting on the official release.”
Jared Nightingale played in 53 games for the Soo Indians of the North American Hockey League last season, totaling six goals, 21 assists and 102 penalty minutes.
“I’m more of a stay-at-home defenseman,” he said. “I’m not going to put too many points on the board.”
Adam Nightingale didn’t put too many points on the board last year either, while playing for the last-place Lakers (8-27-2 overall, 4-22-2 CCHA).
He tallied six goals, nine assists and 61 penalty minutes in 34 games for Lake Superior. He also was minus-22 in the plus/minus statistic, which was tied for worst on the team. That means opponents scored 22 more goals than Lake Superior while Adam Nightingale was on the ice last year.
Adam Nightingale, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound center, is working at the LaFontaine Hockey School in Waterford this summer.
He said he decided not to return to Lake Superior State in March and then decided on MSU last month.
“It was time for me to move on,” he said about his soured relationship with Laker head coach Frank Anzalone. “I have a lot of respect for coach Comley and I liked Michigan State’s campus and hockey program a lot.”
After Adam and Jared Nightingale defected from Lake Superior State, Anzalone cut Jason Nightingale, the oldest Nightingale brother, from the Laker hockey team.
Jason would have been a senior forward this year.
The last brothers to simultaneously play for the MSU hockey team were Taylor and Curtis Gemmel in 1995-96.
“It’ll make the year go a little easier seeing Jared play,” Adam Nightingale said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to help him out a little.”
The seventh member of MSU’s 2002 recruiting class will be goaltender Justin Tobe if senior goaltender Ryan Miller leaves early for professional hockey.
Tobe verbally committed to MSU during the spring, but if Miller stays for his senior season, Tobe will play another season of junior hockey with the Compuware Ambassadors of the NAHL and join MSU in 2003-04.
