Brim006

Kind of a chicken before the egg scenario. Do Langdon, WC, NW, and Crosby need to create hockey as high school sports to make the 2 classes a feasible option, or do the 2 classes need to happen first and the teams would switch over then? It seems to make sense, and would definitely grow the sport in the state, but I'm worried doing it with only 20 teams might be a stretch, and also wondering how hard it is for those smaller schools to start hockey as school sports? Or do we just need Minot North and Horace to start 2 classes? And how many teams can ND junior gold lose before the league folds and GF, Minot and Fargo lose overflow teams for hockey kids.

From what I can find, it appears Edina only has about 6 kids playing D1 currently. I thought it would be far more. But I'd imagine there are some other schools that have more, but so far I cannot find any schools that have more than GFC+RR who combine for 12 current. Minot currently has 5, but only 3 of those played at least 1 year at MHS. Still more than I would've guessed.

No one in their right mind would argue against it being an unbelievable tournament or atmosphere. It's the biggest and best tournament in the country by a long shot. I just think it's silly when people float the idea of ditching their communities to move across the river based on the idea of a single tournament. 1- because it's not a given, and most MN high school hockey players will never experience it 2. I dislike the importing and transferring school's culture that we see today.

Hmmm, I’d have to disagree there. “Grand Forks very rarely produces D1 talent like Moorhead”. I think grand forks kids just fly under the radar more for whatever reason. I think you’ll be surprised to hear there are CURRENTLY 12 grand forks kids playing D1…that’s pretty friggin impressive for a town of 60k with 2 smallish schools. I doubt Moorhead has that many? Probably more like 5-7? But I would guess Moorhead likely has more NHL players all time though? Here’s a list off the top of my of recent+current GF kids who have played D1 since 2010. Let me know if I missed any…there are a ton. Grant Johnson, Luke Johnson (NHL), Casey Purpur, Paul Ladue (NHL), Jon Lizotte (NHL), Montgomery (current),Montgomery (current), Kunz (current), Caulfield, Casey Johnson, William Lawson-Body(current), Will Howard(current), Cole Hanson(current), Brandon Holt (current), Kaleb Johnson(current), Mason Salquist (current), Lucas Kanta (current), Tucker Hodgsen(current), Panzer was born in GF but we won't count him (current), Mikey Coleman (next year), Cole Spicer, Johnny Simonson, Alex Simonson, Eric Meland, and many more.

Lolol. Make your kids ditch their friends, move your family to a different town and school, and pay higher taxes all just for the off chance of your kid potentially playing in a better state tournament maybe 1 time out of 3 years at best. Sounds like a great plan.

This seems pretty scorched earth, but I'm all for it. Nothing could get worse at this point. UND athletics as a whole is in complete shambles right now given the history and size of school...and that's not even mentioning the top tier facilities. I've lost interest in all programs as of a few years ago. Big changes would show they're serious about being relevant, and would pull folks like myself back in again. Look at the excitement around football already. Now imagine hockey and basketball if new coaching upgrades came in.

They played in the Warroad tournament instead this year. Last year they beat Gentry Academy, and beat Providence Academy Season before that they beat Holy Family and beat Roseau Season before that they lost to Gentry Academy Season before that they beat Warroad (1A) and lost to Roseau. Do you even follow hockey?

So...you are comparing the 2 grand forks teams beating 8 other teams for the EDC title more often than the 2 grand forks teams would beat all 80 other MN A teams for a state title as a comparison? Lol No, I was stating that the average EDC team is much more competitive than the average MN A across all 80 teams. And it's not close. You then mentioned 7A as a more specific comparison, which I agree is a better comparison since it's about the same number of teams and is fairly level across the board, but the EDC likely wins out most years there too despite 7A debatably being one of the more solid in MN outside of Hermantown and SCC powerhouses skewing those sections. MN A probably has 40-45 teams that are worse than Mayport. In fact, Mayport went 7-6-1 vs MN A this season and 6-4 vs MN A last season. So let's not confuse sheer numbers of teams with overall competitiveness. The EDC is probably pretty comparable to the top 25% MN A in reality. And the top 3 EDC teams are probably pretty comparable to the top 3 MN A teams every year, with MN A top 3 likely winning out most years. The majority of ND vs MN games are EDC vs MN A each season, and the record speaks for itself. 2023-2024 records = ND 26-14-0 2022-2023 records = ND 21-14-0 2021-2022 records = ND 21-13-2 2020-2021 records = ND 12-7-1 We can agree to disagree, but safe to say both GFC and RR would fit in better at AA than A. Because I'd say it's pretty reasonable to state that the top 3 EDC teams would consistently be top 10 MN A every year. I just think a lot of people get a false sense of MN superiority complex after watching their giant state tournament showcasing their best of the best of the 145 teams and with all the excitement and publicity that comes with it, I guess I can see how that can happen. So I can see how for some people it feels like that's how all the MN teams are across the board all year long. It's just emotional thinking. And It's easy to forget about all the other teams that are at home... a lot of which (at least of class A) are realllllly bad hockey teams. Once again, look at the success Wahp has finally found playing in MN A after decades of winless seasons in the EDC.

I'd say this year yes it was. And I'm not talking non-con games and full schedule comparison. I'm talking EDC vs 7A. Most years EGF goes 1-3 or 0-4 versus GFC+RR, and top dog Warroad is usually on par with them. Then the top 2-3 WF/Fargo schools are most often better than the rest of the 7A. Go look at past season scores and tell me I'm wrong. 7AA is a different story, but I'll never understand the 7A superiority complex when the direct scores speak for themselves.

RR has been scheduling a few top end AA MN games every year now and has typically beaten them. Plus the Bantam AA grand forks team has typically steam rolled the MN AA competition for 5+ years now. I think there's no question a combined GF team would easily be top 10 MN AA year after year and likely top 5 most often. I think a lot of years RR and GFC on their own would do really well, but neither would have this season.

agreed but Id say 8 out of 10

Clown comment. Because some kids and family's still have pride and commitment to playing for their hometowns. All this transfering and importing has gotten out of hand. It's gross in college and even worse to see it happening so often even in high school now. Plus the EDC is the same if not better competition than MN A. Most years it's a long shot for them to make it to state over Warroad etc so I'd say this year is def not the norm. Compare direct scores over the last 5 years if you disagree with that. EGF won the Gambucci for the first time in a decade this year.

Certainly lots of variations at play and this "study" was pretty anecdotal, but with that said I'd imagine if you changed it to NHL instead of D1 it would just favor the HS route further. How do you think it would flip? That's essentially saying kids that don't make it D1 are more likely to get to the NHL than kids that play D1....so I'm confused on your thoughts there. Unless you think kids that leave early go major juniors more often or something.

First time EGF has won the Gambucci cup in 9 or maybe 10 years so it's been a rough go for the MN side.

You'd better post it a 4th time just to make sure lol. Low IQ mouth breather confirmed. I have no high school players of my own, so I have no skin in the game there, but I am a lifelong North Dakotan and heavily involved in the hockey community. And I just have to point out BS when I see it. And your type of attitude contributes to why we see parents ship their subpar kids off early to fighting leagues to ride the bench instead of playing alongside their lifelong friends representing their towns and schools. It's a lose lose for both parties every single time unless the kid has clearly and obviously mastered the level and has strong opportunities to move onto (USHL, NTDP, or mayyyyyybe NAHL).