tnt

A few months ago the Sioux got a verbal commitment from Tucker Poolman and shortly thereafter we saw that McCoshen verballed with BC. With so few openings for 2014, and so many possible to come in that year, is it possible the commitment from power forward Trevor Olson hints that Avery Peterson, another power forward projected as a high draft pick, may have made up his mind to go elsewhere? Hope not, as it would be nice to have a couple bookends like that going forward, especially since we've seen some nice power forward and cycling play in the tournament, and know that is something we were missing for the most part this year with the losses of Miller and Matteau. Need that manchild again like Frattin.

Be great to hear a report on him, Ryan Mantha and Charlie Pelnik, if all of them see playing time.

True, but who knows how the injury affected his recruitment, and usually top line guys are already committed this late in the game for the following season. Matt Henderson is a perfect example of a guy who was a leading goal scorer on his team who ended up walking on and became Frozen Four MVP. But yes, generally speaking top line guys should garner scholarship money.

Do we think he is a scholarship player, or a recruited walk-on? Would be nice to have a little scholarship money in case a talent like Trevor Moore or some other player decommits from Denver as well. I believe Moore is expected to go fairly high in the draft and could move to Major Junior if he is unhappy with how things played out in Denver.

What is our consolation prize for missing out on McCoshen? Would be nice for us to land Ausmus as well.

Who knows what his feelings are about getting away. Perhaps it was a response to repeated questions on why he chose Denver, and it was the quickest response to end the conversation there. I would think Duluth has a good chance because they had more of an unexpected departure in Casto, but I'm sure everybody has contingency plans now anyway, so they would also have to put off somebody else to bring him in next year. Sounds like someone is going to get a last minute gift though, provided he doesn't wait until 2014 like he was projected at Denver.

Maybe since Saunders is a Junior they could find somebody to agree to a three-headed goalie situation, but I would think they would be looking for a person who wouldn't mind being a practice goalie a majority of the time. Takes a special breed to do that, perhaps a player from around here like a Brian Nies, although he is only a year out of high school so might want to see if he can get a scholarship from somewhere and have a better chance at playing.

Heisenberg had him as a 2014, but maybe he saw this as a chance to play right away somewhere.

And for those in the "Fire Hakstol" camp, this is the kind of thing that could happen at UND with the likes of Poganski, Gersich, Schmaltz, Wilkie, etc. if the administration acted in the same knee jerk fashion as Denver's did.

http://www.uscho.com/stats/team/north-dakota/mens-hockey/2010-2011/ Yeah, and after the 2010-2011 season, we lost 6 of our top 7 scorers and still were pretty decent.

Yeah, all of a sudden Wisconsin could have a solid chance at being the top team in the Big Ten if they can hold on to some very good experienced players like Mersch, Zengerle, and Barnes. Will Minnesota's freshmen class be enough to overcome the experience and system-oriented Badgers? Badger powerplay can't be as bad as it was this year, and can Minnesota's be as good? I think five on five is where Minnesota won't be quite as good.

I guess I don't want to be too harsh with somebody who was our best player down the stretch last year and still chose to come back for the love of the program when he could have easily jumped while his stock was at its highest.

Wouldn't mind seeing an eight team Final. Then it would make more sense to have the week in between the regionals and the finals. 3 games in three days isn't anything nobody is used to, especially if they have a week and a half of rest after the regionals. You're also more likely to be playing the finals in front of a full house, regardless where it's at.

Hopefully they would be recruits for a couple years down the line, because I don't know how good it looks for other guys that committed a long time ago to get pushed back for "a last second steal". Could work against you in future recruiting, but then again, it is a business and we all know the coaches are in a "just win" environment.

People around our program say the same type of thing. When it's time to go, it's time to go.

Was referring to the forwards coming in. Can't always outscore the other team in college, as many times 3 goals is going to win.

They could potentially fill some of the scoring void, but I would imagine they would be giving up a lot at the other end as well, which is the case with a lot of freshmen.

If they lose those players, Minnesota will be like us and need their freshmen like Cammaratta, Kloos and Nanne make some noise, along with getting offense from the blueline. Their competition could actually come from Wisconsin next year, along with Michigan.

Which is why I have no problem with our Non-conference games with Northern Michigan, Vermont, Bemidji State. The critical thing for the NCHC is going to be that the teams need to take care of the non-conference schedules against those other leagues. Sioux, and others from the NCHC can't afford to stumble against the lesser teams from other leagues. With the new league, non-conference games have gone from important to critical.

St. Cloud loses their two big guns as well with LeBlanc and Hanowski, and I would bet there will be a lot of interest in signing Jensen, and who knows about Gravel. Might depend on how St. Cloud finishes out. If they reach the pinnacle, who knows. I would think that Miami and Denver are early favorites, but Shore was ready to leave earlier, so who knows what he decides, and do they lose any recruits to the Gwoz firing. Lot of stuff left to be flushed out for all the teams.

But on the other side of things, there have been numerous other players that you ask, "how did they make the NHL". Sort of the same thing someone else pointed out how Johnny Brodzinski didn't put up great numbers in the USHL, but exploded his first year in college. Don't think many of us know how things are going to translate to the next level, so it will be interesting to see who gets the chance.

The sad part for me, is that it probably wouldn't have made a difference. It would only have meant that the Sioux would be content with a 1-0 lead earlier. You could say that Yale started playing harder then, but I didn't see the fire in the Sioux as much after they took that lead. Need that "blood in the water" mentality.

Wonder if any of their recruits were looking to specifically play for Gwoz. Will be interesting if any recruits bolt for Major Junior or elsewhere if they haven't signed a LOI.

I see on Heisenberg that Bemidji State has 3 new commits all named Fitzgerald. They all played for Victoria, and I assume they are all brothers. Don't ever remember seeing a package deal of 3 brothers all at one time. Maybe they got a deal on the three, because that's an awful lot of scholarship money if not.

Bottom line is they need to get back to outworking their opponent game in and game out, and not for just one period or two. If they do that, I think they have enough talent to do well and hopefully get back to building toward the playoffs next year instead of taking a step forward, then a step back. As we've seen with a young Miami team, that if you can get some scoring from freshmen like they did with Riley Barber and decent scoring elsewhere, you can be a good team, even if you are young. Think Murphy or Tambellini could put up decent numbers if they play with talented forwards. Will also need Rodwell, Pattyn and St. Clair to up their goal totals. Not unheard of, since they didn't put up a lot of goals.