USA Hockey

I agree with you on this, I think it's easier for schools like Minnesota or Wisconsin to get recruits that are 15-16 years old. Most of these kids are in state kids who wouldn't want to play anywhere else and they can have them. As long as we are getting top recruits to match the other powers, it shouldn't really matter whether were getting 15-16 year olds. In a matter of three months Hak has pulled two "A" rated fowards out of the USHL and an "A" rated defenesman out of SSM, that really shows how good of a recruiter he is.

If Heisenburg is right, it shows how great of a recruiter Hakstol is. Others were talking about a lack of 07 recruits, look at how that unfolded, this may be one of the best if not the best recruit class in the country. This isn't speaking that the class may not be done, guys like Nash or Gregoire could still sign.

Team performance isn't as big of a deal when selecting players for the world juniors. Since Toews, Lee, and Chorney were in it last year so they will probably end up going again this year. Forney and Jones were at the evaluation camp in August but I don't see either of them making the team. As for some of the new guys, Malone is Canadian so it could be hard for him to beat out most of the major junior kids, as for Bruneteau or Lapoint it is hard to say because they weren't invited to the evaluation camp. Lapoint didn't get much publicity because he was from Wisconsin, but since he is playing so well in the USHL he might make the team. I could see Bruneteau making it not this year but the next two years, his birthday is in January so he is only 17.

It was a great game tonight and it shows the potential and talent this team has. Our depth and freshmen class played well and this is what we need every weekend from here on out. If the defenseman can play like they did tonight it will make things much easier on Lammy and Grieco, CC had only 17 shots on goal. We also didn't take many dumb penalties tonight. As Hak said, hopefully a game like this can be a momentum swing on the season as a whole.

A source (yes I know it seems odd) told me Blood was on his recruiting visit here last night. I don't know if anyone else saw him but hopefully his recruiting visit went well. Let's hope he didn't care to much about the score Also, respoding to the post earlier, two recruits I forgot to mention (which I've mentioned before) that we could possibly be recruiting are Tyler Gron and Cam Lamoureux from the AJHL.

All these guys have been mentioned before, but here are the main recruits we have been after: 2007 Defenseman: There really is only one defeseman for next year that I've heard of Ben Blood - Shattuck St. Mary's - According to Heisenburg he is choosing be North Dakota and SCSU with Wisconsin and Duluth as longshots. Fowards: Riley Nash: Salmon Arm (BCHL) Jason Gregoire: Lincoln (USHL) August Aiken: Salmon Arm (BCHL) - According to Heisenburg he receieved interest from North Dakota, Anchorage, and Wisconsin Justin Johnson: Eau Claire North HS Travis Erstad: Steven's Point HS Goalies: This was the only goalie mentioned on Heisenburg's site that we pursued interest in Chris Rawlings: Salmon Arm (BCHL) For 2008 there aren't any defenseman that I know if were pursuing or not, we have verbals from Cichy and Kristo, some other fowards we are pursuing are David Toews and Jordy Murray, both from Shattuck, and Kelly Zajac from Salmon Arm.

I'm not saying he sucks, but Lammy played a bad game tonight. This team also needs to become more self-disciplined or in other words keep the penalties down, especially at the end of a close game, but that's part of an early season. Kozek probably should've had two goals tonight, let's hope that if this team can click they will score on chances like that at the end of the year. Yes Finley isn't playing well, but IMO Smaby wasn't exactly a great defenseman his first year in a half. Tommorow is an important game, not saying it is a must win, but they're playing with their backs to the wall at home and something needs to shift the momentum of this team.

Try saying that on some other teams message boards, according to a few of them there teams had to many recruits and roster spots so he went to UND because there was no other option.

Sarcasm I imply?

Like I've posted before, every season has its ups and downs. Lets hope that this is the down point and our high point is in Jan, Feb, and most of all March. So far this season there are times when we are on and times when we are off. That's good for a young team in a young season. If this team, especially with the talent on it, can become consistent and be on every game they will definetly make another run for a WCHA title and national title. For the people taking shots at Hakstol, give the guy a break, in his first two years he's been to two Frozen Fours, won a WCHA playoff title, and has a better NCAA playoff record in the past two years than any team. He helped bring in the best 05 recruit class in the country and is bringing another top recruit class in 07. Not to add on to the fact he already has verbals from Cichy and Kristo. Not to many coaches have done that their first two years, not Lucia, Blais, or Eaves.

I don't think most of us doubt Marto's ability, it's more a matter of roster spots for next year than anything.

Last year early on the Gophers lost three out of four points to Fairbanks at home, three out of four points to Duluth on the road, and got swept to Wisconsin at home. This included falling to #13 in the polls. They were then only beaten once in the rest of the regular season and went on to win the Macnaughton Cup. So you can see that the season is still very young. From a talent perspective I still think we have one of the best if not the best talented team in the conference.

I'm not going to say that Marto isn't going to come here, but there is a possibility that if we have to many players some recruits may not come here or play another year of juniors. If another d-men like Ben Blood were to sign and the other d-men were to stay than that may trigger someone like Marto to not come here.

I agree, the coaching staff has been doing a good job getting a number of well rounded recruits. The national team we have historically lacked on, but with the committments from Cichy and Kristo were starting to get more players from there. It isn't like the Gophers where like this year for example they only have one guy that isn't from Minnesota, that being Briggs.

I give it to the coaching staff for yet again picking up another big recruit. There is no doubt that the recruiting was never down and the pipeline keeps rolling.

Yea I was a little surprised with that to, don't know why he wasn't on there, Heisenburg's site has him listed as the #1 out of the USHL.

Central Scouting has their players to watch list out, here is the link, http://cdn.nhl.com/futures/cssrankings/css_uswatchlist.pdf

It's hard to say becuase it's only the begining of their sophmore season, but Kozek is a second rounder and most second rounders don't stay four years if they've played well.

I also forgot to mention, the blog says that if Justin Johnson would receive a scholarship from Wisconsin he would probably go there.

In case you haven't read this site yet, www.westerncollegehockey.blogspot.com, they have a brief description of uncommitted fowards. The top three uncommitted fowards are Nash, Brutenau, and Gregoire. According to the site, Brutenau has narrowed his choices down to Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, CC, Denver, and UNO. It also says he has offers from Michigan, CC, and Denver, so it looks like he will go to one of those three. Nash has his choices down to Cornell, Michigan, Denver, New Hampshire, and North Dakota. The promising news is that the blog does say that Gregoire will probably commit to North Dakota. Chuck has mentioned a few Wisconsin kids, those being Justin Johnson and Travis Erstad. The blog says that both have recieved interest from North Dakota. It also says that Chris Rawlings, who is a goalie and plays for Salmon Arm has recieved interest from North Dakota, so he could be on the radar for 07 or 08.

Well looking at his size and the fact he's never been drafted, Trupp could be an impact four year guy like Ryan Duncan. Looking at this class so far, it looks like a very complete class and could be once again one of the best in the country. It obviously shows that Hakstol is right up there with Lucia and Eaves. Myself and a few others were talking earlier about how we could have to many fowards. A team that comes to mind is the 02-03 Gophers, Lucia had a bunch guys coming back and had 8 committed freshmen, he signed all of them and maxed out the roster at 28 which included 16 fowards. This gave the Gophers a lot of depth and was one of the reasons they made that late season run all the way to the national title. If Hakstol can get some committments from Gregoire, Bruteneau, Lammy, Nash, etc. it might not be a bad idea to max the roster out at 28 and have possibly 16 fowards.

Even if Toews and Oshie leave, that leaves us pretty stocked up at the foward position. You may see one more foward sign this year, but I would think that would be all. The next season is when I feel there will be a good number of fowards coming in. The next year is where you could see a good foward class coming in, especially with the for sure departures of Hamilton and Kaip, if Toews or Oshie stayed they would be depatures, and there would be a possibility of Kozek or Watkins leaving. Toews, possibly Murray, Cichy, and Kristo are all 90s and could come in this same year. Even though Kristo is committed for 09, he could possibly come in 08. As much as I would love to see Gron, Lammy, Brutenau, Nash, and Gregoire come here, were pretty stocked at foward. Also, Heisenburg's site doesn't have Trupp listed as a draft pick, I was wondering if he was ever drafted at some time?

Depends which one you're talking about, Cam Lamoureux hasn't signed anywhere yet and is the number 2 recruit out of the AJHL.

UND could be pursuing Cam Lamoureux more, Heisenburg's site has him listed at the #2 recruit out of the AJHL, Tyler Gron being the #1 recruit who I also like. Cam is also an 89 so he could possibly be a draft pick this year.

There really isn't anything we can do about the NC$$ pairings, all we can do is stick in their face and win out. I agree with Bin on our chances of beating UNO, that week we didn't have our top quarterback and they had to come back and beat us. With Manke 100% I bet we could be UNO.