Vegas

The kid is an American citizen who grew up in California and Phoenix. I'm guessing that his perspective is very similar to his peers who would all be looking at the College route. Major Junior hockey would hardly be on his radar screen since the games aren't televised in the States. Don't be too surprised if Gretzky's kid goes the college route. That is were he will have the most opportunities as an American. I'm guessing that it is better than 50-50 that he will go College and the odds will probably go to 80-20 by the time he has to make a decision especially if he is playing at Shattuck.

I wouldn't make that assumption. Most ex NHL'ers kids go the college route and it doesn't matter if they are involved in Hockey Canada or not. Hockey Canada and the Major Junior Leagues are not the same thing. You also forgot the Manitoba Junior League which is also part of Western Canada and has produced some of the most outstanding Sioux players in recent years. Toews is from Manitoba and so is Zajac. If they pick up some of the kids I have suggested in my posts there may be some more outstanding boys from Manitoba playing for the Sioux and winning some more National Championships.

David is a great talent but he is not quite Jonathan's calibre. He will always be a little smaller than Jon. His game is a little more aggressive than his older brother's. He will certainly help the Sioux and would more than likely be a 1st liner by his sophmore year. Another advantage is that you would probably have him for more than 2 years.

Just take a satellite that you will never use in your list and change the location to 89W under the USALS menu and edit the name to IA8 or NORTH DAKOTA (whatever). If you use USALS it should give you the amount the motor has to turn from true south. Make sure it seems to make sense and you are good to go. That is what I did.

Last time I saw the kid he was more finesse than grinder, mainly because of his size, i.e., not very big. He was however a pretty smart little guy, made some nifty plays around the net that were Toews like. Again he is no Toews, however, and never will be :[

Plays for the Wellington Dukes in the Ontario Junior A league (not OHL). Has played on several AAA teams for Wisconsin and other all star teams. Just to change speeds, I still think the Sioux should be looking at Wade Poplawski from Winnipeg. Smart 1986 born, mobile defencemen. Would be a shame to see him go elsewhere and show his stuff.

Well, if we are going to start looking at Wisconsin boys we might as well add Zach Morbeck to the mix. Good kid, 1988 born, from a solid family. Has played with Lapoint on many occasions. Younger brother (known as CornDog) will be even better. Youngest brother 1993, will be very good as well. Just adding my two cents on Wisco boys.

I have a hat. That is all I really need. While in Santa Fe last spring, a true hockey hot bed, my hat attracted the local junior hockey coach ( I think his name was Scott) who started talking to me in the local McDonalds. Then on the way home, an Aussie was wearing one of his fancy hats on the plane and the pilot yelled out "nice hat". The Aussie said "thanks" and the pilot said "no not you, the guy with the Sioux Hat!". Their are Sioux Fans everywhere.

My buddy has an out house at his cabin that has a sign over it labelled "M I N N E S O T A". Whenever he takes a "Sheet" he says he has to go to M I N N E S O T A.

Which means he is almost definitely going to go college. If he wasn't then he would have gone to the WHL.

Sorry for not replying sooner. I've been out of town for the last few weeks. As far as Jason Gregoire is concerned, he has expressed an interest in going the college route. I don't know if UND has approached him or not but I certainly hope so. UND would be very attractive due to geography (2 hours from home) and the great tradition and facilities. As for Wilson, UND was very high on his list according to his uncle. I don't know what gave BC the edge but I'm pretty sure it was very close between the two schools.

The only thing?

UND should try and pick Jason Gregoire who was slightly better than Wilson before Wilson went to the US Development program. Jason has great hands and is well liked by his teammates. He had a great rookie season in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League and was one of the top scorers in the playoffs. This shows that he was getting better as the season wore on (who does that remind you of) against much older players. Another great pick-up would Wade Poplawski who was a teammate of Gregoire and a very smart and mobile defenceman.

There are a number of players and coaches in the NHL that played both soccer and hockey growing up. Dave Tippet of the Dallas Stars (and a former Sioux) was one of them. The game of soccer for the most part is fine. What is ruining it is the diving/simulation which apparently is going to be addressed before the next World Cup. You can learn a lot by playing two sports. You tend to become a little more aware of individual and team tactics.

Toews is the safe bet for most scouts because they understand how smart he is and also how dedicated and determined he is. They also know he is a great teammate both on and off the ice. I think Toews and Staal will go no. 1 and no. 2 in this draft because they are both great kids with huge potential and the scouts will figure that out very quickly.

He played for the Manitoba Champion Midget AAA Champions, Winnipeg Thrashers Name: Kelly Zajac Number: 19 Position: Forward Height: 5'10" Weight: 170 Shoots: Left 2004/2005 Team: Winnipeg Thrashers Level: Midget AAA 2003/2004 Team: Winnipeg Hawks Level: City Midget AAA

For the most part hockey people in Canada pay little attention to what Cherry actually has to say about the game tactically. After all he set a record for the most futile CHL team in the History of Major Junior Hockey. He is seen as a character to add a little colour to the game. Kind of like that little old grandmother in the stands who throws out F-Bombs to the opposition and then goes home and makes everyone tea and cookies. Cherry played when there was little real science involved in the game. He was coached by Eddie Shore which probably says it all.

Further to my post above, got this from the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League web site showing the rankings of the various teams. MJHL champs are ranked 3rd, highest BCHL team is ranked 7th: CJAHL National Junior 'A' Rankings The Canadian Junior 'A' Hockey League is pleased to announce this week's CJAHL National Rankings sponsored by SP Apparel. The National Junior 'A' rankings represent an assessment, based on performance, of the top Junior 'A' teams in the country left in the running for the RBC Royal Bank Cup. From the 141 Junior 'A' teams in the Canadian Junior 'A' Hockey League the rankings are as follows: The SP Apparel Canadian Junior 'A' National Rankings for the week ending April 16th are: Last Week 1. Yorkton Terriers (SJHL) - 37-11-7 (RS) 14-5 (PO) (1) 2. St. Michael's Buzzers (OPJHL) - 29-12-8 (RS) 20-5 (PO) (2) 3. Winnipeg South Blues (ManJHL) - 39-20-4 (RS) 12-2 (PO) (3) 4. Pembroke Lumber Kings (CJHL) - 50-7-2 (RS) 7-4 (PO) (4) 5. Fort McMurray Oil Barons (AJHL) - 40-14-6 (RS) 12-5 (PO) (6) 6. Woodstock Subway Slammers (MarJHL) - 41-10-5 (RS) 11-4 (PO) (7) 7. Burnaby Express (BCHL) - 34-20-6 (RS) 15-4 (PO) (11) 8. Penticton Vees (BCHL) - 41-13-6 (RS) 10-4 (PO) (5) 9. L'Action de Joliette (LHJAAAQ) - 39-8-4 (RS) 11-3 (PO) (9) 10. Hawkesbury Hawks (CJHL) - 30-19-8 (RS) 11-3 (PO) (14) 11. Fort William North Stars (SIJHL) - 50-2-0 (RS) 8-0 (PO) (12) 12. Lafleche College Titan (LHJAAAQ) - 36-12-3 (RS) 9-6 (PO) (13) 13. Sudbury Junior Wolves (NOJHL) - 36-11-2 (RS) 7-3 (PO) (17) 14. Amherst Ramblers (MarJHL) - 33-18-5 (RS) 9-7 (PO) (15) 15. Nepean Raiders (CJHL) - 37-16-6 (RS) 9-9 (PO) (16) 16. Dryden Ice Dogs (SIJHL) - 35-14-3 (RS) 4-4 (PO) (19) 17. North Bay Skyhawks (NOJHL) - 30-18-0 (RS) 10-5 (PO) (20) 18. Streetsville Derbys (OPJHL) - 25-19-5 (RS) 2-4 (PO) (21)

I think this would have been a correct assessment in the early and late 90's. The BCHL advertised themselves as being a College friendly Junior League much earlier than the rest of the Junior leagues in Canada and they did eveything they could to make it easier for US Colleges to scout and recruit from their league. As a result they began to capture a lot of the higher end talent in Canada that didn't want to remove the college option by playing Major Junior. That is slowly starting to turn around because of the what some of the other Junior B leagues in Canada are starting to do or have done. The MJHL has used the same tactic of using the College option to recruit/retain players starting in around 2000. They removed the center ice rule to conform with US College Hockey and they have run tournaments specifically for scouts to attend and see all of the teams in one weekend. They may not have the same amount of cash behind their teams but it would be a stretch to suggest that the top end MJHL teams couldn't compete in the BCHL. In fact I would argue that over the last couple of years, the Manitoba Champion would probably have beaten the BCHL champion. The Portage Terriers gave the Saskatchewan team everything they could handle last year. While the Saskatchewan champions didn't win it all, the team that did win the national championship was out of Saskatchewan. The BCHL has been quite on the national front for quite some time now. I also tend to look at how the younger teams have done in the past in their AAA summer tournaments, western finals, etc. The group out of Manitoba starting in around 1985 has been getting stronger and stronger, peaking with the 1988's (Toews et al) and with the 1989's being a close 2nd. The 1987's were probably the weakest out of the that stretch from 1985 to 1989. That tells me that their are roughly 3 out of the 4 years of very competitive age groups to pick out of and they should probably do well against other teams across the country.

On another note Jason Gregoire (1989 born) of the South Winnipeg Blues is on fire. He finished as the 3rd leading scorer in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League playoffs with 23 points in 14 games. He had more points than several college bound guys who are 2 and 3 years older than him. Jason and the Blues are in Yorkton Saskatchewan this weekend going up against the Terriers who the the SJHL champs. Jason also made it known in last Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press paper that he is very interested in going the College route. Hope the Sioux are listening. He is another special player out of Winnipeg with a great attitude.

I think Staal will go ahead of either Kessel or Mueller. Staal is a force and learned a thing or two playing against Toews during their Bantam years against each other.

I'm going to guess that Toews goes number 2 and gets picked up by Pittsburg. He would be a great addition to Crosby and Malkin. Plus there is the Shattuck connection, although the two have never played together since Toews actually replaced Crosby when he left Shattuck. This Pittsburg team if they take Toews or Staal is really starting to shape up as the next Quebec Nordiques -----> Colorado Rockies of the future. They are really starting to look like future Stanley Cup contenders. Also noticed that there are three Manitoba boys potentially being taken in the first round, Toews (1988), Burki (1987) and White (1988). Wow, someone out there is finally starting to notice the great talent that is coming out of this Province. I could argue that Staal is also a Manitoba product since that is the league that he played in until moving on to the OHL. I still wound't take Staal over Toews, however, knowing a little bit about all the intangibles that these two guys have relative to each other. Toews, as far as I am concerned, is the best 1988 born player on the planet.... period .... and the guy with the most upside.