Former North Dakota recruit flips to Bulldogs

Former North Dakota recruit flips to Bulldogs Defenseman Keith McInnis — an 18-year-old from Red Deer, Alberta — has verbally committed to the UMD men's hockey program.

McInnis was previously committed to North Dakota, but as my colleague Brad Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald wrote today, the Fighting Hawks pipeline of defensemen was starting to get clogged, so McInnis opened up his recruitment again. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound McInnis is playing with the Brooks Bandits of the BCHL this season. The Bandits are one of the former Alberta Junior Hockey League teams that broke off last season to join the BC league late in the year. McInnis had six goals and 10 assists in 26 games last year with the Bandits in the AJHL and BCHL. He has one goal and three assists in 12 games this year. McInnis began the 2023-24 season with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL, posting no goals and two assists in 24 games. He played just nine games for the Black Hawks in 2022-23 because of injury. UMD recently lost one of its recruits from the blue line after defenseman John Stout of Minnetonka decommitted from UMD. Stout verbally committed to the Bulldogs in Sept. 2022, when McInnis committed to North Dakota. Both were potential 2024 NHL Draft prospects but neither was selected. According to Schlossman's profile of McInnis back in Sept. 2022, the Bulldogs were among McInnis' finalists along with Michigan and North Dakota. Find the full list of UMD men's and women's recruits here.