A young college standout is turning heads, and now it appears that there may be a battle looming for his services.
You may have never heard of Neal Pionk before the but the right-handed shooting defenseman from Minnesota will be eligible as a free agent prior to next season and according to ESPN's Craig Custance there are now no less than 20 National Hockey League teams with interest.
Niak went undrafted, but has been a force for the University of Minnesota-Duluth and this latest season which has seen him record 6 goals, 18 assists and a very solid plus minus rating of +19 over 30 games has been his best yet and has seemingly shown teams the error of their ways.
No word yet from Custance on which teams might look to sign Pionk, but it could very well be just about every NHL club by the time summer rolls around.
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