I Ranger

I have heard Derrick Lapoint come up a few times as being a potential 07 recruit for D. He is from WI and I read either on this board or somewhere else that he may come to UND. I have no clue about his talent though only know that he is listed at 6'3". Another name I'm gonna through out there is Ben Blood for 07 or 08. Again I have no clue about his talent just know that he plays at Shattuck. Anyone know anything on Hardwick at Lincoln and where he is going to go?

I agree with what everyone is saying about the possible recruits and in my opinion I believe we are the first choice for Marvin, Christian, Willert and Lamoureaux. The only thing that really jumps out at me is the fact that everyone on this sight can name a bunch of forward recruits that are on the Sioux radar but no one really has a D-man in mind. I know that we have a roster full of them right now and two more coming in next year but I would like for us to find one good one for 07.

I think the fact that David Backes is still around for his senior at Mankato is a promising sign for us with Oshie. I think he should easily be playing in the AHL this year if not in the NHL with the lack of talent in St. Louis.

After watching the game last night, I have to voice a few of my opinions on the USA. I can't believe that Bobby Ryan was the second pick in the draft. I thought he was terrible. He had about five chances to walk out in front of the net on the powerplay and just stood in the corner. I think he is vastly overrated. Also, I think that Kyle did a poor coaching job in this game. It seemed as if the Kessel line was on the ice every other shift and you could tell towards the end of the game. The US is deep enough were they should be able to run four lines. I think Wheeler was on the ice about two or three shifts. Anyways hopefully they get another shot at the Canadians but it will be alot tougher now.

I think there was an article somewhere where Travis said that Darcy is a mean, tough player. Dagies beat me to it.

This is great news. Everyday I check hoping to see that we signed a player or two and we finally did. I'm assuming Zajac next year and Trupp for 07. Sounds like we won two nice recruits over the likes of Michigan and Wisconsin. Hopefully this will be the start of a great 07 class.

I was talking this morning with someone who saw the Hibbing-Warroad game on friday and has seen all of Hibbing's games thus far this season and he said that Aaron Marvin was by far the best player they have seen this year. This includes players like Hoeffel and Fulton just to name a few who have committed to play D1 already. He told me that he was far and away the strongest player out there and was a beast to knock off the puck. Personally I have only seen him play at the State Tournament last year but I hope he is signed soon for either 07 or 08.

I'm not worried at all about next year but I would definitely like to see some 07's very soon. I would like to see Mario Lamoureaux give us a committment as well as some others. I am hoping Hak and the boys can find a few diamond in the rough D-men as I believe we may need to get one or two committed for 07 in case of early departures.

I thought I heard last week that if Toews doesn't make the team he would be back for the games this weekend.

I thought Oshie played pretty well but did anyone else notice how many times he fell. It seemed as if he lost an edge and never got it fixed. I remember one shift where he fell like two or three times in a row and could possibly had a scoring chance or two if he hadn't fallen.

I can't believe all this talk about Toews. I thought he was our best player Friday night and should have scored at least two goals as he hit two posts. And how can you say he isn't the 2nd best player eligible when the suposed BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE was basically unnoticable out there this weekend except for a litte shot from the top of the circles on the power play friday.

The thing that amazes me about this pick is that they say they pick Paukovich for his physical presence but with big forwards like Wheeler, Skille, Mueller, Ryan already on the team my question is how many big physical forwards do you need. I would say that four highly skilled big guys like the ones listed above is enough and there is no need to add such a hack like Paukovich.

It seems to me that there are a few surprises on this team. Chris Butler wasn't even mentioned in the hocky futures article of even being considered and Paukovich is a real surprise. I don't know why they picked him except for maybe his size but with guys like Wheeler, Skille, Mueller and Ryan it seems to me that there is enough size with the forwards. I am thinking that this is a bad pick not just because of the hatred I have for him but for the simple fact that I believe there are many better players. For instance, Adam Pineault who was on the team last year.

My feed is really blurry now.

I got mine back and I restarted my computer.

Mine did too and I can't get back on.

Fairchild I believe was considering UMD, Wisconsin and Minny while Hoeffel? was listed as considering UND, UMD, Wisconsin and Minny. Both said they decided on Minny for the same stupid reason many do "Every kid who grows up in Minnesota dreams of playing for the Gophers". I can only reply to that by saying only the ones that are brainwashed and thats coming from a true Iron Ranger.

Here is a question I want to throw out but really don't know much about. Would it have been possible to send Miller back to Green Bay this year to work on his strength or was he already coming? Because the way I see it is if he isn't strong enough and the coaches know that and he probably knows that wouldn't have been best for both parties to have him play another year in the USHL.

According to Hennessy, Kaip was -8 on faceoffs Friday while the rest of the team was even. I'm not sure about Saturday. I like Kaip's overall play, but if that trend continues, he might be better off on a wing while someone else plays center. <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well I got to see my first two Sioux games one of which was on CSTV and the other being the webcast so I figure I better throughout a few of my observations. I agree with everyone about Toews and Oshie. Oshie really impressed me. I didn't think he was ready for the WCHA but I guess I was way off here. Overall, I thought the D was pretty good with a few mistakes each night but that will happen. Teams should take note that they should not try to make a move on Smaby at the blueline because he absolutely hammered a few guys who tried this weekend. JPar is a stud. The grinder line played well. I wish Miller or Martens got a chance go play rather than Foyt just because I know what Foyt can do but I wanted to see what Miller and Martens had. Overall, the one big thing I noticed that could be a weakness was faceoffs. It seemed as if we lost every draw. UNH had controll off many faceoffs which could cause many problems especially in the D zone. Anyways thats my two cents and I can't wait to be in GF this weekend for the Denver series and see the boys live.

He did mention Eveleth which is on the Iron Range.

Found it thanks. Comes in pretty good.

what do you click on to get the webcast?