Kevin G

Livanavage with an assist for Chicago in a 2-1 loss to Youngstown.

Your feed must be way ahead of mine.

Knuble is committed to Notre Dame.

Good catch.

UND commits in USHL playoff games tonight... In Youngstown's 4-1 win over Chicago, Michael Emerson had a goal for Chicago and Andrew Strathmann had an assist for Youngstown. Also Jayden Perron (CHI) had a roughing penalty. Don't mess with Jayden. In Fargo's 8-4 win over Lincoln, Mac Swanson had a goal and two assists.

That story would’ve been better had there been a floating tiger head between each paragraph.

Mac Swanson with an unassisted goal in Fargo's playoff game which is nearing the end of the second period.

Let’s go! Strathmann with a goal in the game as well.

Mac Swanson scored his first USHL playoff goal last night although the Fargo Force lost to the Lincoln Stars 4-3. Jayden Perron scored his fourth USHL playoff goal last night for Chicago as the Steel lost to the Youngstown Phantoms 4-1. Jake Livanavage had one of the assists on Perron's goal.

Just for the record, Barry Alvarez is no longer AD at UW-Madison. For all I know, Alvarez is still at UW in some capacity--I don't know--but some fellow named Chris McIntosh became AD in 2021.

Wisconsin hires Mankato's Director of Hockey Operations. It would've been easier to just move the Badgers to Mankato.

Mankato being absolutely gutted. Gamache has the potential to be a difference maker.

Meanwhile the A-topic, the actual physical altercation between two actual coaches, fades to the background as soon as UND and Michigan St. are alleged to be aggressive in the portal. Someone told me a long time ago: When you're big, you're an easy target. And when you're an easy target, expect cheap shots. In college hockey, UND is big.

Just a heads up: the USHL draft (Phase I) starts at 4pm. Follow here or here. Hopefully some of these higher-end kids are UND recruits some day!!

Worth noting that UND provided the portal with six players. So it's not like we're not sharing.

There are so many good forwards in the USHL. That being said, his numbers--Emerson's too--are comparable to the forwards who were chosen. My hunch is that Perron and Emerson were discounted in light of three other Chicago forwards--Celebrini, Moldenhauer, and Harvey--all making All-USHL teams.

Perron apparently has "finisher" in his game.

What channel?

There’s Big Bud tractor ad next to an ad for a big screen TV. Because the world’s largest tractor and a TV from 1980 weigh the same.

That would be cool.

Both Swanson and Boisvert are Top 10 overall in rookie scoring in the USHL. Very impressive. And both can/will get bigger and stronger, which will only help.

For defensemen in the USHL: Livanavage was 4th in Pts/gm Strathmann was 9th in Pts/gm For defencemen in the AJHL: Komzak was 6th in Pts/gm For defencemen in the BCHL: Wiebe was 3rd in Pts/gm

You guys don't miss anything! (1) Livanavage was #69 in Pts/Gm. (2) Croal surprised me too. (3) I totally agree: assessing by position is required. I was trying to keep the chart somewhat simple. (4) Top 60 is probably too much. Confession time: I was going to do top 50. Then I saw Croal at #52 and Boisvert at #54. So I changed the parameters to top 60. Each of the junior leagues has between 400 and 500 skaters, so top 60 is still top 15%.

I recently heard some scouting guru talking about skating. He said that skating ability used to be one of the traits they'd assess in prospects, along with things like shooting ability, instincts, etc etc. Now it's more like skating ability is the supreme ability because almost everyone is faster than previous generations of hockey players. If you can't keep up skating-wise, your other strengths are neutralized/minimized. Great-skating teams just swarm you (imo Michigan is the prime example); it's like they have an extra skater on the ice.