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Yeah, kind of saw the same thing, and hopefully the team that drafts him and UND coaches can instill in him that he can’t float and neglect the defensive side of the game if he wants to have a career in the NHL. Each step up the chain, you can’t just rely on your skill level, because others can match that. Compete level with a decent skill level sets you up for a nice career with many perks.

Overall, the odds are much better for that to happen.

With Simpson its overall compete…and defensive awareness. Serious flaws to be honest. He’s a wizard in the ozone and his shot is what I would label as “special” but there are colossal red flags.

Agreed. I mean the full blown blue chips will blue chip…but I also remember folks on this forum bashing Michigan and BU for all their young players. As a reminder, some of these kids coming in will under achieve. College is a different (heavier) game.

Selfishly, I hope he gets drafted by a US team

I wouldn't say neither lived up to their contracts, as those two players brought in a lot of money for the Wild. I would say the problem lied within management and wanting to make a splash in free agency rather than put together a winning team based on logic because you knew what kind of production he was going to give you. He was never going to give you 40 goals or average 100 points in a season. Parise's contract with the Wild is for a players like Ovie/McDavid (IMO). Parise was a good player but not for what he was getting paid for by the Wild.

I guess if an ex-UND player doesn't bring the Stanley Cup back to GF, I don't look too much into it. It is there day to do whatever they want with it.

Simpson is very similar to Zellers, in my opinion. He has a lot of elite offensive skill but needs a year in the USHL to round out his game. He could put up some numbers this year in juniors. The CHL play style is a lot less structured than the USHL, so I would prefer him in the USHL for the time being. O’Neil is a great fit in the WHL and so would Schultz. Cooper Williams is already close to DuPont. The buzz around this team would be crazy if we landed DuPont in a year. It would not only be good for the hockey team, but good for the University as a whole.

The CHL is almost quietly admitting defeat in the past month - more specifically the WHL in this case. They are willing to sign prospects even if they will be leaving in the future to the NCAA. (IE, McKamey, O' Neil, Jundt, and that's just for UND's case, then throw in Carter Casey and others) Would love to see Schultz or Simpson somehow end up at Everett to become buds with Bear and Dupont hah.

Some of the high end guys will struggle with the adjustment, no doubt about that. There are fairly high end older CHLers coming into the NCAA next year that I'm really interested to see how they do: Oliver Tulk at Wisconsin, Shea Van Olm at Penn State, and even Josh Zakreski at North Dakota; I believe they should do very well right off the bat. 18 year olds like Cole Reschny are talented enough to be able to adjust very quickly and produce at a well above average rate. Some will struggle of course, I tend to think of the high end talent level of many Canadian CHLers as high enough to overcome challenges in the NCAA.

Youngstown is near the border of Pennsylvania? I think they would stay with the MVC schools, OVC or look toward MAC. It would be great if St. Thomas went scholarship. I think that is farther down the road. But, they are a football school and that is what got them kicked out of DIII. And if they have a big donor ready to step up it to could be done. They have a couple of facilities they could use: - Allianz - seats 20,000 - outside the stadium is a mess. But, the staduim itself is very nice with around 5,000 seats going to suites, club areas, and a beer hall. - Vikings TCO Staduim - little smaller but very nice - seating varies from 7,500 to 10,000.

WTF! At least he's ok.

if joshy does one thing right in the next week....he buys up the WAC name and history and rebrands the summit as the WAC..probably get it for a buck or two.

I’ll reserve judgement until I see how these guys do in college hockey. I think guys like Menghini might have just as big of an impact as some of the newcomers that will be coming into college hockey. We have seen plenty first round picks that don’t make huge impacts their first year of college hockey.

I think it’s a tough ask for the hockey talent in Minnesota to keep up with the CHL and majority of US on an annual basis. That’s where the gophers seem that they have to change their philosophy on Canadian players in recruiting In the future with the added CHL depth I don’t think it’s out of the question that most of your blue bloods will have 1st / 2nd round players filling up the majority of your top 6 forwards and 3 of your top 6.

Haha!!! For Funny @Hawkster I love the Humor!!!

You sure that isn't Bubba with a very dark suntan?

st thomas would make 7 Youngstown...8

Thats a great way to end up in a SUU situation. 6 isnt stable, especially if Tarleton is one of the 6.

Didn't know the Predators were for sale.

More and more CHL players will commit before their draft year. This year is an anomaly because CHL players became NCAA eligible midseason. UND already has two players, McKamey and Williams, that are playing in the CHL while committed to an NCAA program. That will be the new norm in a couple of years. Players waiting so long this year to commit is a combination of them simply not being eligible and wanting their NHL team to take the bullets for them leaving the CHL.

A lot of the 2009 born Canadian CHLers will commit to NCAA programs pretty quickly in this new world. Some will wait, and some will just go the straight to pro route.

I will say, it will be very interesting to see if blue blood teams get as many early commits after August 1 as they did before, hoping to keep room open for high end CHL guys after their draft year. Of course the perceived can’t miss kids will probably go, but maybe more of the guys that would normally play junior hockey in the U.S. will play in the CHL and wait for guidance after they are drafted. I think it’s a whole new world out there, and hopefully with Chyzyk, UND is well positioned to take advantage of it.

Even if they don’t, they have had quite a bit of high end talent from Minnesota. How would Minnesota have looked for next year if they kept those guys for another year?