Zach Werenski becomes the latest product of the USNTDP to make the jump to the University of Michigan before an NHL career.
It’s the same path taken by current Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson and Winnipeg’s Jacob Trouba, though each of those players was drafted before their freshman year in Ann Arbor. To find a true freshman defenseman to be taken in the first round off the Wolverines roster, we must go back to 2006 when the Anaheim Ducks took defenseman Mark Mitera.