The Austin Bruins, proud members of the North American Hockey League (NAHL), are pleased to announce that Jake Kucharski has agreed to play NCAA Division I hockey with the Providence Friars (Hockey East).

With the announcement, Kucharski becomes the first in-season commitment for the Bruins in the 2016-17 season. He will eventually join former Austin goaltender Kristofer Carlson, who committed to the Friars last Spring.

After a stellar NAHL Showcase performance, Kucharski had interest from numerous schools, but he says that his relationship with Providence was months in the making.

Kucharski, who is from Erie, says playing for a Hockey East school was always a dream of his.

“I first was in contact them over the summer,” said Kucharski. “I went to the campus for a visit and I really liked it and they said they were going to watch me at the Showcase the day after my first game they came up to me and offered it to me.”

Kucharski played for the Esmark Stars 16U team, in the NAPHL, during the 2015-16 season and recorded a 1.77 goals against average for Esmark, which ranked 7th in the NAPHL’s 16U Division, and helped lead Esmark into the NAPHL Playoffs before being tendered by the Bruins.

It’s been a quick jump and big learning curve, but Kucharski is enjoying his NAHL experience so far. “It’s been great,” he said. “Playing on Fridays and Saturdays especially here at home is great. We have a great fanbase and I think the big difference [in level of play] is you can’t take a shift or a game off. You’ve got to be prepared every second of the game.”

He has appeared in 9 of the team's first 13 games, with 3 wins, a 3.03 GAA and a .905 save percentage. Perhaps his best performance was on day two of the NAHL Showcase, when he turned aside 39 of 41 shots in a 3-2 overtime win against the defending Robertson Cup Champion Fairbanks Ice Dogs.

Having just turned 17 in late September, Kucharski knows that there is still time to work on his game before the Friars come calling for his services, and his goals are clear:

“I want to improve my overall game - get stronger, faster, and build my confidence up to be able to be an elite goaltender at that level,” said Kucharski.”

Kucharski joins forward AJ Drobot (Maine) and defenseman Danny Petrick (Northeastern) as currently rostered Bruins with NCAA DI commitments. The NAHL set a record for college commitments in 2015-16, sending 259 players to NCAA programs.