USA Hockey

You are right, the Minnesota class for 09 doesn't compare to past years. This isn't to say it isn't good, but just isn't at the talent level as the other classes have.

Oops, my bad. I meant he would've been offered if he waited.

Great pickup As great as it is to see us get these kids, not all of them have been recruiting wars with the Gophers. Mattson was the only one offered by the Gophers, Fink probably wouldn't have been per he waited, and Gleason and Fienhage were not. Kristo wasn't because growing up a Sioux fan he never really considered anywhere else.

From what I understand, when the coaching staff is recruiting fowards, one of the biggest on ice aspects they look for is a two-way foward.

You can't replace a talent like Toews but you have to try to find a player that will still fit the mold on that line. Despite being good fowards, VV and Malone don't play a similar style to Toews. From what I've heard, I believe they are looking at putting either Frattin or Trupp on that line.

Either 2009 or 2010.

Mike Lee, the goalie from Roseau took an unofficial visit here yesterday.

Don't write it in stone, but I believe Walters has visited here. Watching him play, he looks like pretty good.

The Under-17 Five Nations Tournament is taking place this week. There are a good amount of prospective 2009/2010 recruits in it. You can follow the tournament here, http://www.usahockey.com/Template_Usahocke...AHockeyType=ICE

From what I understand they want to try Frattin on the first line right away.

Some of us have seen these kids play.

I think you under-estimate what another year of experience does for most of these guys, especially at defense. Also, Lammy was a very solid goaltender the second half of the year after recovering from the injury. I agree though, there are some questions with the depth at foward but I think most of these guys will improve greatly with another year of experience.

Here are my predictions 1. Sioux - The biggest reason is because they return Lammy and five of six d-men along with Lapoint as the new addition. As talked about before, the main causes for concern are finding someone to center Duncan and Oshie and having a solid second scoring line. It's hard to win a national title with one scoring line. 2. Gophers - In my opinion they will win the scoring title because they return all their fowards and two very good incoming freshmen. Their blue line is talented, but young and as Sioux fans we have seen the last two years some of the problems with young d-men. There are some questions with the consistancy but I think he will fair well and Kangas will probably also see some time. Big seperation - I feel the rest of the conference isn't near as talented as the first two teams. 3. Colorado College - They return their top four scorers, four of six d-men, and no losses to early signings. The biggest question with CC becomes the goaltending situation. They lost Zaba and bring in Bachman from Cedar Rapids of the USHL. Bachman was a pretty highly touted player and was drafted. He played part of the season for a terrible Chicago Steel team before going to Cedar Rapids. Him and Shane O'Connell will probably split the playing time. It also helps that they have a decent d-men core in front of them. 4. Minnesota Duluth - Little bit of a surprise. I was going to put Denver here but with the recent defections I feel they move down a little. I picked UMD pretty high last year and that didn't pan out but I feel this year will be different. Despite losing Niskanen, Raymond, and three seniors I still feel they are a pretty talented team. They return 8 juniors, 7 sophmores, and a year more experience with Stalock. I feel some of their returning junior fowards (Carroll, Gergen, and MacGregor) will step it up. 5. Wisconsin - Very talented but young. The biggest problem with Wisconsin is lack of experience on the blue line and in goal. They're going to rely some of these young d-men to come in right away and make an immediate impact with what I would assume will be Connelly in goal. With the dump and chase style, they heavily rely on good d-men and goaltending and without the experience they just won't be as strong as in years past. I think they will start off really slow and they could be a pretty good team by the end of the year. 6. Denver - They bring three very good sophmore fowards back but where they really lack is depth at foward. They lost seven seniors plus three early defections which is half the lineup. They bring Manino back and five of their six d-men so they're pretty good on the blueline but they will have problems scoring. 7. St. Cloud State - I don't like to put SCSU down to much because I think Motzko has done a great job there but they lost the heart of the team. Aside from Goepfert, they also lost their top three blueliners with Borer, Clafton, and Fletcher gone which will be tough for Weslosky. They will have some good scoring lines with Nodl, Lasch, Cunti, Dey, and Marvin. Besides the seniors, if they can keep everyone on this team together for 08 they could a top ten nationally ranked team again. 8. Michigan Tech - I think they were hoping for a solid first line with Pierro-Zabotel, Rouleaul, and Shelast but now that Pierro-Zabotel is delayed until the second half of the year they will probably struggle in the first half. I wouldn't rule them out because along with good goaltending and a solid scoring line in the second half you could see them in St. Paul come March. Big seperation - I think 3-7 could go anyway and maybe a very close race between all of them. 9 & 10 - Minnesota State and Alaska Achorage - All I know is that MSU returns a decent amount of players and could be competitive night in night out. I don't know much about UAA.

Two of our recruits, David Toews (Team Canada) and Mike Cichy (Team USA) will be participating at the Under-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament which is being held in Slovakia and Czech Republic. Here is the entire tournament schedule, http://www.hockeycanada.ca/2/4/8/9/2/index1.shtml

In terms of names, not anyone new that hasn't already been brought up. In terms of position, one more d-man for 08 and at least two or three more forwards for 09.

Yes, he will play for Des Moines of the USHL this year and join the team next fall.

He was a junior at Eastview last year. He's listed on team southeast for the fall high school elite league which usually means he will play high school this year. I would imagine he will take a similar route to Lapoint and play a year of juniors before coming here (if he is committed) in 09.

As I said earlier, there was a recruit here two weeks ago, I'm thinking it was Ryan Walters from STA but I'm not certain on it. If anyone has any info on him that would be nice.

Realisticly they would add at least one d-men for 09 because they will lose one with Zach Jones leaving. The two d-men recruits for that year that I know have been on campus are Mattson (although he's listed as 2010) and Fienhage.

I don't believe it was him. It's a good pickup for St. Cloud, he's a good player. Unlike what some people are saying on the high school board, I don't consider him a recruiting loss. They never explained to the degree that UND recruited him. He could've easily been offered 1/4 scholarship here and 3/4-to full scholarship at St. Cloud, so he takes what he feels is the better offer.

There was a recruit that visited here today, did anyone see him to give a description of who he was?

Don't worry, I don't take the woodshed on GPL to personally The whole intent of the post was to give a possible reason to why you may not have seen the same player that he is on a typical night with Edina. It wasn't to compare him to anyone else or give an excuse to why he didn't make the team.

Good point that you bring up with Gleason, his biggest asset has always been his skating ability and the ice on the main rink was terrible during the camp. This may have hindered his play a little.

Yes, they grant the allotment for NTDP that are selected and choose to participate in the camp. So Kristo was basically doing this to get extra playing time and practice. The intent of the select team is to give players that are not on the NTDP the chance to play overseas. It's basically thought of as the B team where as the NTDP is thought of as the A team.

NTDP players are not selected for this team. USA Hockey grants an allotment for NTDP players to participate in the camp.