UNDhockey22

And I believe that TJ Oshie will quit hockey and take up competitive knitting...

In my opinion Austin Lee has the brightest future out of all these goalies. Unfortunatly he has already committed to Mankato.

I'm no NDPride but I happen to know a few things. The Jets still have 10 players to cut so it's hard to say who will be on the final roster when that is posted. Klenow was cut at the invite tryout, and is not on the preseason roster. I am under the impression Mihulka will be on the final roster (tendered) as will Halstenson and Okland, however the Jets do have three goalies right now. As for Harrie and Larson it's up in the air as their are still players to be cut and I don't think they are cutting any veterans. I'm curious what any of these players will do in the event they are cut because I do not believe they can enroll in any college courses right now and who knows if they want to play Jr. B. I know Klenow is still trying to get on with a Jr. A team but I'm not sure where. Best of luck to all of them.

The schedule these high schools teams play are ridiculous. Is twenty four games sufficient? We have all been to high school. The homework load is not that terrible. They could play a 40 game schedule without detering from the students studies. I'll just wait for everyone on here to hit me with the issue of cost, but our kids don't improve enough playing 24 games and 6 of those games against teams they will probably win 7-0 or more.

I agree and disagree. I don't think they can finish like Paul or Grant did... but they can finish no doubt about that.

Agreed. I'm very interested to see how he produces without those two guys. It's hard to fill in for guys like Paul and Grant...

What about Zach Miller, Ian Powers, or Tyler Klein. Don't you think any of those could be one of the best in the state? Miller really impresses me...

I think the best d-man in the state will probably be Ryan Ladeucer (sp?). However West Fargo has a very capable d-man aswell in Tyler Swanson. Best forward in my mind is a toss-up. We'll see who shows up to play.

No one is debating that Grand Forks was a hockey dynasty. There is no debate to be had in that regard. But I think almost anyone who is not from Grand Forks will agree, that dynasty is ending. Does that mean Grand Forks will have poor teams in the years to come? Not at all. All it means is the odds of Grand Forks winning every state tournement are diminishing. For example, this year two Fargo South graduates are playing in the USHL. I believe Grand Forks has one graduate playing in the NAHL. This doesn't mean Fargo South is above and beyond GF. It means they are catching up. The last time Fargo South had to worry about a kid leaving to play at Fargo North was probably any time between 1990-2001. Just because no student transfered, did not mean they did not have to worry.

I don't mean to start up an argument but I don't believe your telling the whole story on Devils Lake. I believe they will be a hard working team that will put themselves in games because of their work ethic. But you said the tied Grafton 2-2. You forgot to mention they also lost to Grafton 7-2. They also lost to Jamestown early in the season. Devils Lake a good team- yes. A team to be feared? Not yet.

Agreed. It's bad enough having people from Minnesota belittling our high school hockey. We don't need North Dakotans from the East telling North Dakotans from the West they are terrible. None of us are that good where we can make statements like that.

No one is absolutely doomed no matter where they play. If the player wants, he will develop anyway.

Jeez, I wonder if they told Cory McClean he'd never play after high school if he didn't leave North too? It's a fact that if you play against better competition you are going to improve. But the focus should not be on the high school level. Major chemical changes in the body usual occur around the beginning of puberty(13 for a guy). One can mature at a later stage in life or be a late bloomer but in most cases this is when it occurs. That is when you can make significant benifits to your game. The emphasis should be on developing these kids when they are young. Not that we should stop when they get to be 16,17,18 thats not the case at all. These players from Minnesota that are so great in high school hockey are great before they reach the high school level too. It sounds like some people believe it is the responsibility of the high schools to turn these players into stars. This is generally not the case. If a player never put any time in when he was young, you can't expect him to go from a JV player his sophomore year, to a USHL prospect his senior year. It just doesnt happen. Get these kids coaches, and off ice workouts when they are younger. I also don't think real improvement comes in a game. How often do you touch the puck in a game? 30 seconds? You can't focus on leg turnover or keeping your head up when your stickhandling. These things come in practice.

Development of players comes from two sources; the player, and the coach. The player has to want to improve and learn the game of hockey for the coach to be able to have any significant impact on the player. That may be a function of how well the coach presents the message to his players but ultimately the player has to want to improve. These great players are not being made in their on ice practice time. You can make a good player with just the ice time alloted for practice and so forth. These great MN players we are seeing are coming from what they do off the ice when no one is looking. It's a love for the game and that sometimes can be spread like a wildfire in a community that has a strong hockey background (Moorhead, Bloomington Jefferson, Edina...). Many of these hockey communities have former players that may have played pro, d-1, d-3, or Jr's coming back to coach these teams. The love for the game is passed from them unto the kids and it snowballs from there.

A factor could be that Minot is not used to consistently playing good hockey teams out West. Then they get to the state tournement and they play a maybe weaker east team (if Minot was a high seed coming into the tournament) that is used to playing quality competition on a more regular basis. If your not used to having to play your best hockey everyday, it's difficult to just flip that switch. It may work for one game, but in game two there is a good chance you won't show up.

When did soccer come into the picture? I thought this was a hockey board.

That answers a lot of my questions. Amazing to think the kid only had mid twenties in points and he had a point a game in the tryout. I knew he was better than what he showed in high school but, thats impressive.

I'm not sure why I thought of this but I did so here it is. I do not believe Klenow was ever all-state, or even all conference for that matter. I could be wrong so someone tell me if I am. This does not by any stretch mean he may not have deserved it; I am just thinking are some of the high school coaches really missing something on this voting process because from the sounds of it Klenow is out playing a lot of these all conference players at Jr. A tryouts... anyone have thoughts?

After speaking with my son, he told me he heard Klenow say he was able to play better at the tryout than he did during his high school career. He had a point a game at the tryout. Maybe that will clear up some confusion because I'm sure most of us were just going on high school performance.

Believe it.

The only player I have heard making it to the final camp is Nick Klenow. He recently met with the FM Jets coaching staff and they told him providing the players leave they expect to leave they can gaurentee him a spot on the roster. If players do not leave he will have to earn his spot at the final camp in July. Andy Peterson was not invited back to the camp, and neither was Paul Campbell.

Siouxfan3 obviously has some anger management issues. Maybe if mommy and daddy paid a little more attention to you when you were younger you might have turned out alright. You are a failure.

Is he graduating this year? If so- college.

After North's poor performance in EDC, Justin Welk did not want to end his career with a bad taste in his mouth. He will be at the tryout.

I think that just goes to show how good this group of 1988 born players are. Every year at tryouts and after the teams are selected alos they have played the select teams that are older (1987's, Team ND), and either won or came very close. When for the first time they got to play a younger team (the 1989's), they took them apart. Although that was the 87/88 team with Willert and Galt and so on.