USA Hockey

With the way Forbort is progessing he should be here in 2010. If you send him to juniors for an extra year that just means one year less at UND, because this kid will not be a four year player with the way he is progessing now.

For anyone that lives in the Twin Cities area and hasn't seen him play yet, you can watch Derek Forbort this weekend in the advanced select 17's at the Plymouth Ice Arena. They take the best 54 players from this weekend and invite them back on April 17-19 for the last tryout before the national selects. Forbort's section 7 team will play Friday night so if anyone wants to watch him it won't interfere with our game. Also note that the national select 17 festival in July isn't in Saint Cloud anymore and was moved out to New York, so this weekend and a few weeks from now would be a good time to see some of these players. Here are the rosters and schedule, http://minnesotahockey.org/assorted/2009%2...m%20Rosters.pdf http://www.minnesotahockey.org/assorted/bo...v17Festival.pdf Also, if you want to watch prospective players the advanced 16's are there this weekend as well, here is the rosters and schedule for that, http://minnesotahockey.org/assorted/BoysAdvanced16Roster.pdf http://www.minnesotahockey.org/assorted/Ad...s16Festival.pdf

I know The Exiled One posted some names, but here is the official list put out by USA Hockey for the NTDP tryouts this weekend, http://usahockey.cachefly.net/NTDP/CampRoster.xls

Erik Haula from Shattuck St. Mary's committed to Minnesota, nice edition for the Gophers.

Yes, the coaches are interested in Nelson.

It takes a different type of personality to coach in the NHL than in college. Just because you can coach at the college or junior level doesn't mean you can at the pro level.

They fly, with the exception of Michigan Tech there is a certain cutoff line on the mileage between busing and flying. Other than Tech, I think Mankato is their longest bus trip so the cutoff would be somewhere around there.

Well we can agree to disagree. I've watched to much NHL hockey and I just don't think he would be ready for it and if I was him I would stay and develop and get a degree at the same time. I think that the value that that education provides a player is better than the year they play in the AHL, but that's just my opinion. Who knows, I could be wrong and maybe he will step right into Edmonton next year (a team that I will admit that I don't watch as much).

Priceline said 1.67 miles, that doesn't bother me if it's decent weather.

I also got a room at the Sheraton, I put the bid in at $75. We probably won't take the Shuttle Bus, probably just walk to the bars and make are way down there.

I think it has to be handed out at home, although it would be sweet to hoist it in front of their fans and a few of us that are going, makes the moment more special

It's still a great record, being that it is in the top 16, definetly a long ways from Johnson. Interesting with Johnson, he had more assists (198) than every player had points in UND history exept for five.

In case you didn't know or anyone else didn't, Duncan broke Cary Eades record as the school's all time leading scorer, I think he deserves MVP hands down.

Can't wait, my third year in a row going down there, my favorite hockey trip. Does anyone know if there is a Sioux gathering before the games?

It'll be interesting to see if Mattson could possibly play in juniors the rest of the year, kind of like Osh did his senior year. It would be nice if he could, especially if the coaches bring in him next year it would be nice to have some junior experience.

I don't always think in college hockey's best interest first. This is a good move for USA Hockey and the NHL as a whole because it accelerates the NTDP that much more. As for it hurting college hockey, I still think that most of the NTDP players will still play at least a year of college because it is very tough to go straight to the NHL when you're 18. There is no doubt that this move will make the USHL thee premier rout for U.S. born players.

If I was any player I would get out of the Mild organization.

The USHL and USA Hockey announced today that the NTDP program will now be a member of the USHL, as it once was. This is part of the push by USA Hockey to advance the new american development model that I posted about a few weeks ago. It will also be nice for area fans if we have a recruit on the NTDP team to see him in Fargo. Both the 17U and 18U will play in the league and will count as one team in the standings. Here is the press release, http://www.usahockey.com/USANTDP/default.a...etailedNews=yes

Vande is not ready for the NHL. If he has a brain in his head he will stay for senior year and get a degree so you have something to fall back on when your 35 and hockey is done. He will play in the AHL for at least a couple of years. Many of these players don't understand that when you get to the NHL it's a whole new game, now you play an international game against the best Canadians, Swedes, Czechs, Fins, and Russians. He's good on faceoffs, but that is against many second rate players, try facing off against Henrik Zetterburg--good luck. With the exception of a few blue chip players like Jon Toews and Zach Parise, the rest of these guys should be staying four years and getting degrees so when they're older and hockey is done they have something to fall back on. A great example this year would Chorney.

I hear you there. Danny Mattson is the best foward in the state along with Leddy as the best d-man. The Mr. Hockey award will be between those two.

We brought in two players this year from Shattuck and will bring in one next year. This year's Shattuck team isn't near as good as in past years and weren't losing any ground by not bringing in those players. Recently they haven't had the Parise, Stafford, Toews type players that they used to.

I trust the coaches. They scout talent across the board all over North America and they can evaluate which players are the best fit for the program. We still have a good amount of talent from different areas including the USHL (where I think the majority of our already committed players are from), NTDP, High School, and AAA's. I don't have the access to watch Canadian recruits, but what I would assume is that this is a better crop out of the AJHL compared to the BCHL whereas three or four years ago it might have been vice versa. Also, college hockey recruit exchange posted a good presentation of the American Development Model proposed by USA Hockey, he also has the current model farther down. What's most interesting is the development of the High Performance Club League. Here is the link, http://collegehockeyrecruitexchange.blogsp...ment-model.html

It seems like a ways away, but I think with what you're looking at now (current freshmen and sophmores) and the next two recruit classes coming in, two years from now we could have a very very good hockey team.

Jackson was down in Waterloo earlier this year for a game, this is who they were looking at and obviously Fink.

Jones is likely out for the weekend, other than that the rest of the team is healthy to play. They really need a sweep.