AJS

Agreed to the open slots, but when you look at the pipeline, there's no room for next year for Reid. I'm still trying to figure out how it's going to work. You lose two and I'm guessing it's a safe bet that we'll see one more. Sanderson (potential 1st), Kleven (potential 2nd) both signed NLI's today. You have Bast who was delayed last year, Moore who's a 5th round pick. Those would be the first four. Also you have Miller who's highly regarded and draft eligible (also playing his 2nd year in the USHL).

Huge news, that would make such a difference having Bennett / Turner and Morrison all getting healthy just in time for the playoff push.

I get it, but we both know these are completely different scenarios although you're right, both the oldest YOB's. One the oldest YOB were mostly drafted True Freshman who all proved themselves in Juniors. Next years oldest YOB would be a lot of guys that are maxed out of eligibility. Edit: By the way, I don't have a problem with most the guys you listed (Gaber / Budy / Rizzo), where I do worry is that based on YOB they would delay guys like Bowen & Halliday for guys that have proved less in Juniors and are role players, but are just older. This is clearly just speculation anyways. I'm confident we'll see Bowen / Halliday next year.

Costello currently more than anyone, but yes, Randklev as well as Montgomery. Although not local, you can add Schmaltz to the mix. As I said earlier, it's not that any one individually couldn't have a role, but that's four players who can't score in Juniors. That's just the local ones, there are other role type players (i.e. Ness, Portz). I see more role players than guys that can get points and that's a concern.

I agree with this mostly, but my major concern is still (this goes back to the current Senior class), what happens when a local player doesn't develop as expected. Berry has shown he's capable of cutting ties with players, but not local ones.

That's true, but what current recruit has a situation even close to Pinto's when he committed / where they are currently?

I'm not following this. Toews was underage, but Parise / Oshie were true freshman, just like Frisch, Pinto, Blaisdell and Caulfield are from this years team. A freshman class based off of YOB is my nightmare scenario. Halliday is off to a slow start, not saying he doesn't need another year, but I bet you lose him if he gets delayed. No way Bowen gets delayed.

To expand on this a little, what I'm nervous about right now is looking at @petey23 list with their ages / eligibility. Outside of Budy and lets say Gaber (possibly Ness), have the others shown enough in Juniors? I don't want to start the same argument about what about player X, he didn't score and look what he did in college. This isn't a shot at anyone individually. Just like as critical I've been with the current Senior group, it's nobody individually, I know there's roles for everyone. The problem Berry got into, is you start stacking depth players in one class and it becomes a complete disaster. I might be optimistic, but I don't think they'll lose any forwards early. I just don't see where all of these players fit. I have my fingers crossed that Berry has learned from the current Senior class and he's out recruiting, making the hard decisions on next years class. It doesn't work out sometimes with players unfortunately.

Also, players can start signing their NLI's on Wednesday. This year more than usual, I'm very interested who signs early.

I wouldn't mind seeing a little bit of a purge / re-evaluation of the current Forward recruiting scope. Although it's early, to say I'm concerned about the current group of USHL forwards would be an understatement. It's been an absolute nightmare of a start, nobody can score. Who do we feel comfortable with right now for next year? BCHL: Budy (lighting it up as expected), Bowen / Rizzo (hopefully will increase their production, but have ok numbers so far). USHL: Halliday (been a disappointment so far, but has talent) / Gaber (Solid overager) After those five you kind of have an avalanche of guys who I would say are pretty interchangeable. Lose: Bowen / Michaud / Smith / Yon / Johnson

That response was a response to an earlier post I had asking how many leagues will the autobid not already be in the Top 24.

Good call, I definitely did. How many are we talking? Outside of the Pioneer, is there another that usually steals a spot? Doesn't really change my overall thought process. Sitting today, it's kind of out of their hands, which although isn't a spot you want to be, but would take pretty much everything to go wrong to keep them from making it at 7-4. Although I do put more stock in the Coaches / STATS polls, it's also nice that Massey, Athlon, AGS all have UND higher than #26.

#26 in both STATS and Coaches polls, disappointing, given how valuable each spot is, but overall, in a pretty good spot. You most likely aren't going to move down with a win, so win the next two weeks, the floor is #26. Two teams in the Top 25 are from the Ivy league, so for playoff purposes, UND would be at that #24 spot.

Caleb Nelson is over, he's played in 7 including last Saturday. Skokna is at 3 (including last Saturday). The others I couldn't recall if they played or not against Weber, so these totals are going into last Saturday. Fort 4 (played in first four and has been shut down since), Beach 3, Cochran 3, Moore 2, Pierre 1, Schuster 1.

I will say this, if you have a problem with the STATS poll, Herder and McLaughlin are not the guys your anger should be directed towards. I'm sure they do more research than 95% of the other voters.

One persons opinion, but Neutral Zone had a scout at the U-18's (US won gold), very complementary towards USA's Top 4 D-man (includes both Sanderson and Kleven).

Prediction before today's polls come out. If UND is ranked in both STATS polls, they will be a lock for the playoffs with wins the next two weekends. If they're out, it'll be more of a 50/50 type situation with two wins.

Great work by the team winning these games they really did have to have. Still early, but they've set themselves up nicely. Now they have an eight game stretch, six on the road to finish off the first half. They have the potential to be a pretty special team. I realize they've had a relatively easy schedule, but only giving up 1 goal or less in 7 of their 9 games is spectacular. This will be a playoff team, but the next stretch will tell us if they are challenging for a Top seed or not. Optimistic / Thrilled: 6-2 (On pace for a Top seed) Satisfied / Happy: 5-3 (On pace for a #2 seed) At worse: 4-4 (#2 / #3 seed)

One of the many things I love about Midco is they seem to try their best to get these games on. Unfortunately, both USD and SDSU are at home starting at 2pm that day.

Very anxious to see the availability of Turner, Bennett and Morrison. Going strictly off this board, it sounded like Morrison was 50/50 last week (didn't play), just watching this weeks Day by Day, Bennett seemed to be moving pretty well in some of the celebration videos (was listed Doubtful last week / didn't play). Offensively, could really use McKinney back as well. Is Waletzko the only player that has officially been counted out for the year?

Unfortunately, they do.

Very interested to see how tonight's game will go, can't really disagree with anything that was said about last nights game, it was a really bad performance for most of the night. Small sample size, but we've seen a lot more quality / solid performances as last night was the first time this year they were completely out of sorts. The one thing that sticks out to me as the difference between last year and this year in this type of game, is having Pinto. What I mean is last year, when they couldn't score, it felt like they would never score. Every time Pinto is on the ice, I have hope the tide can turn. I wish they didn't switch off of Blaisdell so fast in the 3rd, I really liked him with Pinto / Michaud. A wins a win, you're not going to find a team in the country that doesn't have a couple games like this every year. Huge to come out on top and I'm guessing we see a much improved team tonight.

After listening to the 360 podcast, doubling down on my line of thinking. IF they pull this off and I'm not optimistic with the D-line in shambles, it'll be huge.

Really, not a lot when it comes to injuries on a week to week basis. Am I off on that? I'm using Holm as an example from earlier this year, who was listed as a starter for a couple weeks, but never played. I did look at the notes for this week and can't find the two deep, so I'm not sure where @MoSiouxFan found this weeks.