USA Hockey

Jake Youso from International Falls committed to the Gophers, apparently we were pretty high on this kid but could never arrange a campus visit due to conflicting schedules.

Sometimes I don't understand the logic, Lapoint is one of the best incoming freshmen d-men and will be in the lineup every night. The most logical answer is to move Genoway up to foward and Lapoint alongside with Jones at defense.

Iceburg on GPL posted it so I figured I would post it here, Players invited to the NHL draft combine Akim Aliu (Sudbury-OHL) Jean-Simon Allard (St.John's-QMJHL) Karl Alzner (Calgary-WHL) Joakim Andersson (Brynas Jr.-Sweden) Mikael Backlund (Vasteras-Sweden) Ruslan Bashkirov (Quebec-QMJHL) Mark Benda (Karlovy Vary Jr.-Czech Republic) John Blum (Vancouver-WHL) Robert Bortuzzo (Kitchener-OHL) Drayson Bowman (Spokane-WHL) T.J. Brennan (St. John's-QMJHL) Bryan Cameron (Belleville-OHL) Trevor Cann (Peterborough-OHL) Luca Caputi (Mississauga-OHL) Alexei Cherepanov (Omsk-Russia) Colby Cohen (Lincoln-USHL) Logan Couture (Ottawa-OHL) Tommy Cross (Westminster Prep) Luca Cunti (Dubendorf-Switzerland) Eric Doyle (Swift Current-WHL) Bradley Eidsness (Okotoks-AJHL) Lars Eller (Frolunda Jr.-Sweden) Keaton Ellerby (Kamloops-WHL) Taylor Ellington (Everett-WHL) Angelo Esposito (Quebec-QMJHL) Mitch Fadden (Lethbridge-WHL) Justin Falk (Spokane-WHL) Matt Fillier (St. John's-QMJHL) Olivier Fortier (Rimouski-QMJHL) Sam Gagner (London-OHL) T.J. Galiardi (Dartmouth-ECAC) Colton Gillies (Saskatoon-WHL) Joel Gistedt (Frolunda-Sweden) Maxim Goncharov (CSKA 2-Russia) Maxim Gratchev (Rimouski-QMJHL) Mark Guggenberger (Richfield H.S.) Zach Hamill (Everett-WHL) Jake Hansen (White Bear Lake H.S.) Jens Hellgren (Frolunda Jr.-Sweden) Thomas Hickey (Seattle-WHL) Simon Hjalmarsson (Frolunda Jr.-Sweden) Mike Hoeffel (USNTDP U-18) Harri Ilvonen (Tappara Jr.-Finland) Patrick Kane (London-OHL) Vitali Karamnov (Dynamo Moscow-Russia) Mark Katic (Sarnia-OHL) Mario Kempe (St. John's-QMJHL) Alexander Killorn (Deerfield Prep) Lassi Kokkala (TPS-Finland) Sergei Korostin (Dynamo Moscow-Russia) Antoine LaFleur (Prince Edward Island-QMJHL) Stefan Legein (Mississauga-OHL) Niclas Lucenius (Tappara-Finland) Spencer Machacek (Vancouver-WHL) Drew Mackenzie (Taft School) Brett MacLean (Oshawa-OHL) Logan MacMillan (Halifax-QMJHL) Brad Malone (Sioux Falls-USHL) Kevin Marshall (Lewiston-QMJHL) Matt Marshall (Noble and Greenough School) Maxim Mayorov (Leninogorsk-Russia) Justin McCrae (Saskatoon-WHL) Ryan McDonagh (Cretin-Derham Hall H.S.) Dale Mitchell (Oshawa-OHL) Oscar Moller (Chilliwak-WHL) Riley Nash (Salmon Arm-BCHL) James O'Brien (Minnesota-WCHA) Radim Ostrcil (Vsetin-Czech Republic) Mark Owuya (Djurgarden Jr.-Sweden) Max Pacioretty (Sioux City-USHL) Nick Palmieri (Erie-OHL) David Perron (Lewiston-QMJHL) Nick Petrecki (Omaha-USHL) Casey Pierro-Zabotel (Merritt-BCHL) Jan Piskacek (Kladno Jr.-Czech Republic) Alex Plante (Calgary-WHL) Paul Postma (Swift Current-WHL) Michal Repik (Vancouver-WHL) Denis Reul (Heilbronn-Germany) Nicola Riopel (Moncton-QMJHL) Nick Ross (Regina-WHL) Linden Rowat (Regina-WHL) Ted Ruth (USNTDP U-18) Ben Ryan (Des Moines-USHL) Nico Sacchetti (Virginia H.S.) Tyson Sexsmith (Vancouver-WHL) Kevin Shattenkirk (USNTDP U-18) David Skokan (Rimouski-QMJHL) Brendan Smith (St. Michaels-OPJRA) Jeremy Smith (Plymouth-OHL) Nick Spaling (Kitchener-OHL) David Stich (St. John's-QMJHL) Brandon Sutter (Red Deer-WHL) Bill Sweatt (Colorado College-WCHA) Maxime Tanguay (Rimouski-QMJHL) Niklas Torp (HV-71 Jr.-Sweden) Zack Torquato (Erie-OHL) Kyle Turris (Burnaby-BCHL) Dana Tyrell (Prince George-WHL) James Van Riemsdyk (USNTDP U-18) Kevin Veilleux (Victoriaville-QMJHL) Jakub Voracek (Halifax-QMJHL) Yannick Weber (Kitchener-OHL) Patrick White (GRAND RAPIDS H.S.)

Sometimes I feel fans don't understand that it takes a few years for some players to develop. Just because you're a first round draft pick doesn't mean you're going to be a Hobey finalist your freshmen or sophmore year. Being a first round draft pick means an NHL team feels you have the ability to EVENTUALLY play at the NHL level, but not necessarily when you're 19 or 20. If you watch Brian play, he has all the talent in the world but just needs to work on a few things in terms of adjusting to the college level or in other words more experience. PCM is right about having experience at defensemen. If Lee and Chorney (who I think will) stay, they could return all of our defensemen and bring in argubly the best freshman defenseman in the country. If you want to talk about winning #8, bringing back all of our defensemen and goalie I feel is more important than bringing Toews and Oshie (although it would be nice) back. As for Brian, I hope he doesn't listen to what a few fans say on a message board in terms of his ability to be a great defenseman. The people to listen to are the coaches, which is why they didn't cut him from the team because they obviously know he has the ability.

Well I figured I would put it in here because it is an "update" on Blood and since Toews is very likely to come here.

Blood with a goal and Toews with two assists today as Shattuck won the national championship 5-2. Toews finished out the tourney as the leading scorer with 10 points in 6 games. Novotny was second on the team in scoring with 8 points in 6 games and Murray was third with 6 points in 6 games.

Correction on the game time, it is 4:15 central time. Also, Malone played well last night with 2 goals and an assist in his teams win.

I figured I would put this in committed recruits because Blood is already committed and hopefully Toews will soon. Shattuck plays Cape Cod today for the USA Hockey TI 18U National Championship at 5:15. Toews is currently the leading points scorer for Shattuck with 8 points in 5 games. If you're really bored, you can listen to the game, here is the link http://www.usahockey.com/2007_nationals/ma...ain/audiocasts/

I think he is waiting until after the season. This happens with a number of recruits (Nash, Ness, Gleason, etc.) because their focus is on what they are doing now and not on their future. Similar to the players mentioned above, I think you will see a commitment after Shattuck's season.

Correct, he is uncommitted. He would either be an 08 or 09 wherever he goes.

Even though he hasn't committed, after 4 games David Toews is currently the leading scorer at the USA Hockey Tier I 18U National Championships, he has 7 points in 4 games. Novotny is the second leading scorer on Shattuck with 5 points in 4 games.

www.gopherpucklive.com

Hit it right on. Some recruits like to play on the bigger sheet of ice.

The USHL had a nice feature on Budish, he lists UND as one of his choices, here is the link http://www.ushl.com/news/0607/20070204CSBudishRandell.cfm. Apparently Gleason and Ness are pretty good friends also, remember that Ness made his decision on style of play over anything else. Hopefully Gleason (because he is from Edina) can have some influence on Budish coming here.

Siouxnami, let's hope we can get a few others (Derek Lee) out of the deal also.

Not just that, they will have to hang a banner up for the DQ Cup and a win at Mariucci In my opinion Motzko didn't do a good job preparing his team this year. With the talent they had, they should have made it out of this regional. They played to emotional and put all their energy on the series with the Gophers and then they didn't focus on the anything after that.

I think a lot also has to do with major juniors and trying to get kids into college instead. In terms of landing top prospects, these kids have to make decisions when they're 15/16 years old about play college or major juniors. If college coaches have been recruiting them or if they have been on recruiting visits it gets them to see if they want to go the college route. So what happens is is you get a bunch of early commitments.

Ness stings a little but keep in mind that Joe Gleason is in his age group and has a great amount of potential also. Ness's decision probably had most to do with his style of play and wanting to play on that olympic ice sheet, which is respectable. Also, going back to Marvin, Christian, and Lamoureaux, keep in mind that the name on the back of the jersey isn't near as important as the players potential. If the coaches think they can get a better recruit than take the better recruit.

Wrong name, I meant John Lee, Derek is the foward from British Columbia.

I don't think there is any hard feelings with the Lee family towards the UND program, nor does a recruit make a decision based on a message board. I think the reason Derek choose Denver was either 1. the coaching staff at UND didn't recruit him as much as Denver did or 2. he just simply liked the Denver program more.

There's been some speculation about Nash waiting for a scholarship to Cornell. I feel the reason, as siouxnami kinda pointed out, that they haven't made their decision is because they are focused on the BCHL playoffs. It's a little similar to why a college player isn't necessarily (or at least they shouldn't) thinking about playing in the NHL next year while the NCAA playoffs are going on. I think after the BCHL playoffs you will hear a pretty quick decision by Nash.

Yes Wisconsin did win the national title last year, yes they have a great program, but that was lead by a great defensive team that likes to play dump and chase hockey. What siouxnami is trying to point out is that Wisconsin isn't set up for power fowards like Derek Lee. Now Wisconsin has had good fowards but they are set up for a certain style of play. The whole reason a foward like Phil Kessel didn't go to play for your program is because he didn't like the style of play Mike Eaves runs. If you really want to compare national titles and conference titles of all time be our guest, but I don't feel the numbers would work in your favor. Kent, please come back when you know what you are talking about.

Denver got a commitment today from USHL foward Nate Dewhurst. He's only a 90 birthday so he probably won't come until 2008. The reason I am posting this is it could affect Riley Nash's decision since Denver may have offered Dewhurst a scholarship.

In case anyone hasn't read, Mike Dorr from Roseville High School committed to the Gophers for 2008. This is a pretty big pickup for the Gophers since he is one of the best fowards in the state. He will play in the USHL next year. I don't think he was ever on UND's radar but I just thought I would mention it.

You hit it right on there. Although I enjoy looking at the NHL CSS rankings, it doesn't prove how good a player or a recruit class is going to be. I don't have the link, but Lucia hit it right on in an interview when he said that being drafted means two things: first an NHL team feels you have great ability and second you have more media hype when getting to college, however, it doesn't mean your going to be a good player. There are recruits (not going to mention names) that were drafted high and haven't produced as much and there are some recruits (not going to mention names) that were drafted low or not drafted at all that have produced more.