USA Hockey

If you haven't seen this, Brad Malone has played pretty well lately. In the last 15 games he has 13 points and in the last 4 games he has 5 points. He actually started out the year pretty well and had a slump from late Nov. through the begining of Jan.

The USHL did a nice scouting feature on Budish, he lists North Dakota as one of his choices. http://ushl.com/news/0607/20070204CSBudishRandell.cfm

No one has brought this up, but Wisconsin and CC play tonight which is a big game for UND and WCHA playoff implications.

This is good news and Cichy is still 16/17 so he has at least a year and a half left of play. This opens up to probably one year in Junior A although there is still a possibility of the QMJHL. Chris also reported that Nash has narrowed his options to UND and Denver. Let's hope that with Gregoire commiting to Denver UND can fill the last foward spot for 2007 with Nash. I don't know if UND has recruited Mike Connelly at all, but Chris did report that he dropped Wisconsin and is exploring other programs.

I also forgot that Tyler Gron, a highly rated foward out of the AJHL committed to Northern Michigan. I've mentioned him before and I don't know if UND was recruiting him or not, but it is a good pickup for Northern Michigan. He was drafted by the WHL and decided to go the college route.

If he still wants to play midget majors and start at a school already into the semester. If he still wants to go the college route he could probably sign onto a USHL team pretty easily and he definetly has the ability to play at the Junior A level. Like I said, let's hope this happens.

One of UND's verbal recruits, Mike Cichy who plays for the NTDP has left the team, it is on westerncollegehockey.blogspot.com. Not sure what he is going to do, but it was rumored earlier he was going to play major juniors, let's hope this isn't the case.

Lapoint had an assist in the USHL All-Star/Prospects game tonight.

Derrick LaPoint was selected to the USHL Prospects/All-Star game, here is the link http://ushl.com/news/story.cfm?id=154

Toews scored in the shootout and Novotny scored Shattuck's second goal. Another kid I was impressed with was Kostolansky.

Many guys when they first come to college don't have experience against older guys. Not being anti high school hockey here, but most high school guys don't have much experience competing against older guys when they first get here. That's one of the intents of the USHL is for some elite younger guys to play against older guys, they may not put up the best stats but they have that experience compared to high school guys. So when looking at the talent of the player and if they're going to make an immediate impact when they get here, I don't always feel that stats are the most important thing.

Just remember that USHL stats when comparing talent can be skewed sometimes. Remember that Bruneteau and Malone are 17 year olds and the USHL has many 19/20 year olds. For example, if you currently look at the top 5 scorers in the USHL, 4 of the 5 are at least 19 years old. This means that these kids have been in the league longer and have developed. Also, both of them are currently not playing on the best teams either.

If you want to watch any prospective Shattuck players including Toews, Novotny, and Blood, they're in Grand Forks this weekend. I myself haven't gotten the chance to see Novotny but only have read what is said in the blogs. Another interesting thing to watch from Shattuck would be that line that is all going to Wisconsin which includes Murray's brother.

I haven't heard anything recently but I sure hope he does. Nash's addition would really put a great cap on this recruiting class.

This is all too preliminary IMO. An addition like Nash or Gregoire could easily move us up a few spots especially in front of BC or Notre Dame. I also don't agree with their assesment on Fairchild and Hoefel who despite not having the best season I think are very solid players. Westerncollegehockey.blogspot.com re-ranked the classes and put Michigan first and I would agree with their assesment a little more.

I'm not a big guru on this stuff, but I've always thought if there was one other team in the NCC to make the leap it should be Mankato. I feel Mankato's biggest problem is football, I feel they really have a lot of potential to become like Denver and focus on hockey and basketball. Besides football, Mankato has good teams and Division 1 athletic facilities. Mankato is a good community and I feel would definetly support DI basketball especially with the facility they have. I feel they have much more potential than SCSU. SCSU is in a good growing community, but there problem is is they don't get much support. Most of the people in that area would rather drive an hour down the road and watch the professional teams and the Gophers. From what I hear, SCSU's football attendance is terrible. The only sport they really support is hockey, and even then they don't get 5,000 unless they're playing a top team.

I hate to see the kid go because I really did like what I saw from him in the few games that he played. I really felt he could be one of those four year impact players. What I wonder now is if he will come back to UND or if this will open up a roster spot. If it does open a roster spot than someone like Bruneteau or a potential recruit could come here next year.

If anyone cares there is a little comment on westerncollegehockey.blogspot.com for Murray committing, it is three articles down. Who knows why he choose Wisconsin, a lot might have had to do with his two linemates Stephan and Montpetit already going there. I wouldn't really consider this a loss because we should have some good forwards coming in for 08.

Also, I believe the selection for the US team is tommorow but I could be wrong.

Canada released their selection camp roster today. Only three college players with Toews obviously being one of them, here is the link, http://www.hockeycanada.ca/index.cfm/ci_id...team_id/645.htm

My guess would be Murray since he has put up 34 points he is only two shy of the leading scores so at the time he could've been the leading scorer. There is one other that I can think of which would be Stepan Novotny. Heisenburg listed Novotny as one of Shattuck's top fowards this year and what else is interesting about him is he is from the Czech Republic. So far this year Novotny has put up 18 points.

Well he's not draft eligible until next year, so he may have just turned 18 recently, which still makes him pretty young.

Good post, people need to take it easy with Grieco. Remember that he had a pretty good weekend against St. Cloud, so there is potential there. We also need to remember that he is only 17, this is very young especially at the goalie position. Remember that guys like Parise and Goehring came in when they were older and that gave them a big advantage. Give Grieco some time, I feel that in a few years he will be a good goalie. These next two seasons he should get in games like Dartmouth and Bemidji. Lets just hope Lammy stays healthy for the top teams.

Although I don't feel we need a goalie for next season, Heisenburg has this kid listed as receiving interest from UND Chris Rawlings - Salmon Arm (BCHL) - 6'5", pretty tall goalie, his stats don't look to impressive so far, here is the link http://bchl.bc.ca/leagues/rosters_profile....61641&pos=G Also, with the Shattuck connection Justin Farrell is listed as the top 09 goalie recruit.

He is a 90 and would be a good foward pickup in 08. Heisenburg has him listed as #1 out of that league for 2008. His stats are also very impressive for a 16 year old in the AJHL.