Wilbur

Probably the right move if the kid wants to play in games. Got to give the kid credit for sticking it out for two years.

Really? I've heard it from SCSU fans at the Final Five for years.......One guy told me he helped organize one of the protests.....He had an SCSU jersey on so I assume he was an SCSU fan.

Agreed....My guesses are: ~Money ~Don Adam's officiating ~Marco Hunt's officiating ~The Shepherd family ~Protests at the National Hockey Center ~Not having to fly to Alaska ~Not having to bus all the way to Tech Just guesses.....

I'm just surprised how quickly this all came to be. So lets pretend that Western Michigan and Notre Dame join the new conference (can't wait to hear the name), and the WCHA and CCHA merge.....would this be the new WCHA? Any one of these teams could win the league.... 1. Anchorage 2. Fairbanks 3. Mankato 4. Michigan Tech 5. Northern Michigan 6. SCSU 7. Ferris State 8. Bowling Green 9. Lake Superior State 10. Bemidji State You could add Huntsville to the CCHA and Air Force to the WCHA and have the two leagues remain intact. Then both leagues would get an automatic qualifier, which would mean less chances for an at large team to make the field. WCHA 1. Anchorage 2. Mankato 3. Tech 4. SCSU 5. Bemidji 6. Air Force CCHA 1. Huntsville 2. Fairbanks 3. Northern Michigan 4. Ferris State 5. Bowling Green 6. LSSU

Agreed. Heatley playing in a Wild uniform......yikes.......Of course the San Jose GM said all sorts of nice things about him, but of course was thinking "thank God we got rid of that guy".

Congrats to Jason. If he is healthy he will be in the NHL this season. I think I'll cheer for the Jets more than the Wild. I just can't handle being a "Wild Fan". I was a North Stars fan with the likes of Modano, Casey, Broten, but the Wild just haven't caught on with me. Unless of course Genoway is playing every other shift for the Wild by the end of the season....

I wonder how this will effect the summer hockey camps that are going on at the Ralph.

At one point in time Parise was quoted as saying that Eaves was one of the best coaches that he'd ever played for. Believe it was the year they won the WJC together over in Finland. I'm thinking Parise would like to see Eaves arrive in New Jersey.

Might as well make this into a coaching defections page. Sounds like Jason Herter is heading to Duluth to fill their assistant role.

This is a good thing. Who are other UND players that Edmonton has drafted in the past? These are the only ones I could find. ~Matt Greene ~Dillon Simpson ~Taylor Chorney ~Gord Sherven (one of my dad's favorite players) ~Geoff Smith Hmmmm.....three defensemen that played under Hak......interesting.

Perfect fit for Simpson as far as playing in his hometown! Nice to see that he got picked up by that franchise. The only thing that worries me a little bit is the youth movement that is ongoing in Edmonton and I hope that he doesn't get swooped up into the minor leagues and pushed up before he is ready. He'll be 18 when he starts his sophomore season, so hopefully they let him stay and develop.

Being a greedy Sioux fan......its nice that Grimaldi has fallen a bit.....could mean that he's around the university for a few more years than we think..... I hope he gets drafted early tomorrow. Great kid, great family, great heart. He'll turn heads in the NHL, and he'll turn heads for the Sioux next season.

Can't believe that Grimaldi has fallen as far as he has..........I guess size does matter in the NHL more than I thought it did.....

Glad to see that Miller got picked up by New York. I thought he would go later in the first round..... Grimaldi won't slip out of the first round, but I think I jinxed him with picking Chicago for him.....guess he could be playing hockey by the beach!

I have a feeling that Grimaldi will go higher than expected. I mean every report you hear about him it says that his size is the issue (one of the only ones), but he has the lowest body fat of any guy in the draft, which means the kid is a rock at 5'6, not a pudgy 5'6. Add to that the kid has a heart larger than 5'6, a great attitude, and has been always playing at levels ahead of his time. Teams like character guys, and I think they'll get a great one with this kid. I don't know why, but I can see the Blackhawks taking him at pick #18. Tampa Bay loves him, but I can't see him falling to them. I really hope I didn't just jinx the kid..... Miller being more of a "North-South" guy I believe will go to Pittsburgh or Detroit. Favorite all time draft moment: The look on Devil's GM Lou Lamoriello's face when Zach Parise fell to his team in the later first round. Like he just won the lottery.

If Simpson makes the Canada U20 team and has a tremendous season I could see him being a huge flight risk after his sophomore season. Either he or Gleason needs to step into Genoway's role on the powerplay. I think you'll see Kristo start early on the point, but at times you want to have two defenseman on the blue line on the powerplay in case a rush goes the other way. Frattin proved this year why he is a forward with his lack of skills in one on one situations defensively when he was the point man on the powerplay.

I think Canada should keep producing great hockey players that end up at UND. Like Frattin, Genoway, Malone, Dell, Eidsness, Simpson, Knight, Balfour, Hrkac.......The Hoogsteen brothers......Chris Porter....Travis Zajac..... But they should take a deep breath after a team of theirs loses a big hockey game.

Yeah....I read something about that a while back too.......darn it......If he stays healthy Zucker should be the guy who ends up being the league MVP. Maybe him or Schwarz......

Triple header weekends used to rule my world when I was at school at UND. Now if I was a student I don't know if I would want to do a triple header with some of the teams that UND is playing at home at the Alerus..... I mean..... Drake Black Hills State (NAIA) Montanta Western Cal Poly Sioux Falls (NAIA....but they are a pretty good team I guess) South Dakota The only games that sound interesting at all are South Dakota and Cal Poly.......attendance may be awful this year for the football team. On the other hand, at least they'll make a little money going to Fresno State to get murdered.....

Got to give credit to the bruins for a great game seven game plan thus far. Playing good physical team defense and letting Con Smythe in the crease see everything in front of him. This could get chippy at the end. Alex Burrows learned that biting someone equals you getting run for the remainder of the playoffs without any calls...

Thinking about the last ten or so years of UND hockey at the Ralph......(at least what I remember).....Can anybody remember a big name recruit that has come in to UND, had a ton of success, and left right away? I'm talking was a top two line player, and left after one season? Landon Wilson was before the new Ralph.....Of course Eddie was too.....Anybody got names of guys that skipped out after a year that left us wishing they had stuck around? I mean Parise was two years, Toews was two, Bochenski was three, Greene was three, Murray was two. One year guys from the new Ralph that left after a year listed below here.....at least that I can think of? The only one that was kind of a big name coming in was Fournier. But he just never really matured into the type of playmaker they wanted him to be. ~Hunter Bishop ~Chris Fournier ~Nate Ziegelmann

FIRE HAK!!!! HE DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO WIN THE BIG ONE!!!! BRING BACK GINO!!!!!! Agreed with Hakstol bringing in great recruits in recent years. I think the thing that I've been most impressed with is the toughness of the guys that Hak has brought in. Guys like McWilliam, Blood, Lamoureax, Frattin, Malone.

Nothing to do with Sioux hockey (Well...maybe), but Brad reported that Sam Brittain is undergoing surgery for a torn ACL and will likely miss most of the season. IMHO I don't think Adam Murray is the goaltender that will lead the pios to the McNaughton Cup. They'll be a great hockey team, but Brittain is a huge loss for them. I guess he tore it during the WCHA Final Five Championship game. He made some great back across his body saves in that game, so I can see where he might have injured himself. Now if the Wild would only sign Zucker.....

Brad said today on the live chat that it will likely be an ECAC team. Didn't say who, but was pretty steadfast in the fact it would be one from that conference. Just looked at Brad's blog page and I don't see where they are supposed to play the Russia U-18 team. Is this a game that was just added recently? Brad has them playing Ferris State the 16th and 17th of December.

I saw Nate Gerbe play for the Buffalo Sabres earlier this year when my wife and I visited her family out in that direction. Of course I was rooting for Drew Stafford (who scored two goals and was the game's #1 star) but the whole fricken game I couldn't forgive Gerbe for that crap that he pulled against us..... Of course he is a fan favorite of my wife's family..... And I had to explain why I shook my head every time he touched the puck....