I Ranger

I sure hope he makes the correct decision. Over the past couple of weeks it seems as if the Gophers are taking over recruiting throughout the nation and it now sounds that Gagner may have verballed there as well. I sure hope we can lock up Forney here so we can move on to others preferably Gryba. I also hope Lamoureux decides to play at UND in two years rather than go major juniors. It would be nice to sign a top prospect for 07 as it seems all the other big time schools are or already have.

I can't believe Wisconsin isn't ranked higher. I think they have a real good shot this year. I know in years past they have choked at the end of the year but right now I would pick them to finish first or second in the WCHA. That pick may come back to haunt me in about five months.

Anyone know why Marvin didn't play. I would think he would be in there before Alexander and I was thinking he might get quite a bit of time on D early on because he has been there before.

Interesting that we are after Genoway for the 07-08 season. That could possibly be the year we lose one or two of our defenseman to the next level. I hope the Sioux brother ties keep him in Grand Forks rather than Cornell. I don't know a whole lot about him. Does anyone know what kind of player he is or has anyone seen him play while he was at Shattuck.

Anybody have any new information on Forney. From what I hear, the Gophers seem to be pushing for him pretty hard and I'm sure a few others too. I thought I read on here somewhere that he was leaning towards North Dakota but I'm not sure and that was quite a while back.

And leave off the Hobey winner from a year ago. I thought Marty was spelled like that not like this ANDY.

I am hoping we can land Eric Gryba. I don't know to much about him but what I've read. He was trying to play in Canada and wasn't allowed (or something to that affect I'm not real sure what happened) but he is playing in the USHL this year and is rated highly. He is a big D-men and could fill the void that most of us had for Dowzak replacing Smaby. I am hoping for Gryba and Forney getting added to the 06 list shortly and possibly Ruegsegger from Shattuck.

I agree with you here but I still believe that Kozek is going to have a great freshman campaign especially if they end up breaking up the Stafford-Zajac-Spirko line but more than likely he will not beat out Kessel.

I agree that Oshie could be one to watch this year because I don't know if a first round draft pick has ever been so under the radar coming into his freshman season. Anyways my sleeper pick for rookie of the year is Kozek. From what I have read and from people and NHL scouts have said he sounds like one heck of a player and talk about a guy under the radar. A second round draft pick and he was the fifth guy taken just out of his freshman class. I just have a feeling that with all the talent coming into the WCHA this year that someone like Kozek, who isn't as well know as some of the Sioux's other recruits or the guys from Minny, will have a good shot because all the attention will be on other guys.

I'm probably wrong but I heard a few years back that McMahon was a recruited walk-on.

I think he might surprise some of us this year. He put up some pretty good numbers last year and even though I have never seen him play I have a feeling he will see some ice time. I think Rory McMahon was a recruited walk-on as well and looked how he turned out. Hopefully Martens can turn into the same type of team player that Rory was.

Annnnddddddy Schhhhhhhhheindddddder The best ones were always the guys with two syllables in their first and last names.

Does any one know if Mario is a 06 or 07 recruit. Heisbenberg has him listed as a 06 but I read in an above post that he is 16 and going to be a junior in high school. He sounds like a very good prospect and hopefully he plays the rest of his high school days in the USHL so he can become a Sioux in the future.

I think Kaip will be a perfect replacement for McMahon. They are identical players with Kaip I believe being a little more talented as he was more highly regarded coming in as a freshman than Rory was. Either way I think he will be able to step right in and replace Rory and be a great two-way center that will more than likely be centering are so-called Red Pepper Grinder line.

Ok, I'll open a vein a little here. I know from reading other posts you know something of hockey. Never having played I'm always looking to learn a little more. Would you mind expounding on the role of the centers in the scenarios you posed in your question above? I.e. how, specifically, do the centers factor in to breaking the puck out of the zone, etc? Thanks in advance. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know there has been quite a bit of talk around here about how our D-core is going to be extremely young with the loss of Matt Greene but how much do you think it will hurt us to have even younger centers helping them. The way I see it our four centers will be Zajac, Toews, Kaip and Kozek with Zajac being the only one who has any experience. Yes Kaip played about half the season last year but he doesn't have very much experience and throw in two other guys with zero experience and that could be trouble getting the puck out of our zone. Just thought I would throw this topic out there and see what everyone thinks. Kozek is a guess because Oshie and Watkins I believe are centers as well and any one of them could center a line.

Anyone have any news on who Hak and the boys are after. Looks like we are going to need to find at least one defenseman for next year and Dowzak is not an option. Also I've been hearing that Lucia's been after Forney pretty hard. I think we really need to get this kid. He is big and has a ton of potential. Also I think now with Dowzak out of the picture what about Hardwick for 2006.

Its nice to see some other teams losing some key players as well. It seems to me that it looks like Minnesota is becoming the overwhelming favorite as the fall creeps closer.

Toews scores one more goal in Canada's second game a 4-0 win over the Swedes. From what I am reading, it sounds like his line has dominated competition so far.

Why is Jack Johnson not at the camp? Anyone know that was the first thing I noticed.

Robbie Bina

Kozek first period vs. Michigan St. Had to go with something different. Zajac Stafford and Spirko will come out flying in the first game so the freshman won't need to break the ice until the second game.

I am thinking that he will also have a big year especially if he plays with Zajac and Stafford. That could be a line that puts up huge numbers. Either way Spirko was a great late catch for us last year because he is a great player and one that most likely will be here four years.

I agree with you totally here. Obviously all the Defenseman will have alot of pressure on them because all four will more than likely be playing in all situations throughout every game for the entire season. I also completely agree with your point on Oshie and Kozek. They, along with Miller and Watkins, were basically forgot of coming into next season but after last weekends draft there is definitely alot more pressure on them to perform than there was a week ago. Here is to hoping all the freshman play up to their abilities and take the pressure off one another.

I think Hak and company realized that players such as the three you mentioned were good at the time but Hak saw that they were only going to get better. From what I've heard about Vandevelde is that is the reason we offered him so early. I can't remember if it was Blais or Hak that said they wanted to get him before anybody else realized his potential. All I've been hearing about these three is that we haven't seen nothing yet and they are only going to get better and better. These recruits have been picked up based on potential rather than pure talent at the time but by the sounds of it it looks pretty certain they were all great pickups.