USA Hockey

Lets see, when do you think he will decommit?

Hammy is reporting on GPL that Troy Hesketh from Minnetonka committed to UW. He visited here in January.

Here is the full list if anyone wants to look at it, http://www.ushl.com/centralscouting/DraftListUSA93.cfm

The writer for Hockey's Future addresses the fact that VV has the talent. He fails to address that he isn't at an NHL level yet and he is still inconsistent in my opinion. VV is dumb if he signs and Edmonton is dumb if they sign him because they're not going to be getting a player that can come in next year and make an immediate impact.

I'm just going by what I've heard from good sources. It doesn't rule out that a European player will never come here again, but I do know that they are a little hesitant on it.

Not sure if anyone was at the game, but Shattuck kicked AHA's ass 7-0. As for the Mattson situation, I usually favor playing juniors for a year, but it also depends on the situation (Oshie being an example). It will depend on where they think Mattson is developed compared to Knight and the type of foward they want to bring in, in other words Knight (who I've never seen play) could be a different style foward than Mattson.

Haula is a very good player, but I know that the coaches a little iffy on taking European players based on the Spirko situation. This might be a little different because he is already in the states, whereas Spirko wasn't before he came here.

There was a recruit on Friday as well.

Yes I was there this morning as well, I also saw Shattuck play yesterday. Haula is a very impressive player, has all the qualities that you mentioned. Fallstrom was impressive, but I also liked the line of LaFontaine, Clark, and Basaraba (who is a Duluth recruit). I watched Nolan Zajac play Shattuck yesterday. He's improved a little from last year but I think he is still a long shot from UND potential. Shattuck, Dallas, and Little Caesars have impressive teams, but other than them I don't think the rest of teams in the tournament are to good.

There are not to many players that I'm to familar with this year. If you're interested in watching Shattuck, Eric Haula is supposed to be a good player. I will be in attendance this afternoon and tommorow afternoon so I might post about some of the players I like.

I agree, we do need to have some blue chip players, and as I listed we have had some in the past. The point of my post was that UND never has been like Michigan and in the sense that their whole team is full of blue chip players. I would not want to see the coaches soley recruiting the best 14-15 year old Hockeybaked AAA players they can get every year. I like the idea of having balance on our team.

I knew when he visited, but before that completely out of the blue. Also, for the people commenting about the elite recruits, with the exception of some of the Shattuck guys (Parise, Stafford, Toews), UND has historically not brought in those types of players. Zajac and Oshie came up on the last minute and ended up getting drafted high, but they were not the 14-15-16 year old so called blue chip recruits that Michigan and Wisconsin seem to go after every year. I think the coaching staff has done a very good job in bringing in a mix of players. This year they could use some more skill in my opinion, but I think overall the coaches have done well recruiting.

Nice job, this is the player I knew about. I found it interesting that they could still delay him until 2010, since he turns 20 in May I didn't think he would be qualified for an extra year in juniors.

No, it would be age.

Yes, I forgot about him. The coaches will have to make a decision on who is the most ready. My guess would be it would come down to Knight and Mattson. I would think Fink would be the least ready.

The player that I was informed that visited for the Gopher series would be a 2009 recruit. Speaking that there would be no early signings (which I don't see with this team), we would bring back 10 fowards. That leaves room for either 4 or 5 fowards to come in. If this certain player committed, then we would add him along with Kristo, Bruneteau, Cichy, and possibly Mattson or Fink. We will also bring back five defenseman and for sure bring in two with MacWilliam and Gleason. They will recruit one more goaltender to replace Walski, but other than that I would think the 09 class is wrapped up.

I've heard it from more than one person out of that dinky town of Roseau. He probably really liked what the Gophers had to offer when he committed (especially playing style), but there is no doubt that his old man didn't want him going here. It is sad that he would hold a 25+ year grudge for all the reasons you mentioned. I've also heard that Jay pushed Aaron very hard when he was a kid, more than what you would see from father to son. I think dad is trying to re-live his playing days a little bit.

The other kid that I knew about is not O'Donnell.

Actually I should rephrase the last post. Ness wasn't even a real loss because his old man was never going to let him play here anyway. His dad has hard feelings towards the program because they took his scholarship away after he was injured.

What a week, three commitments. For some of us recruiting geeks it's Christmas a few weeks late.

With the exception of Aaron Ness, I don't think we have really lost out on anyone. I think that we have a better goalie in Eidsness rather than Lee and asside from that I don't think the rest of the talent in northwest Minnesota has been very good the last couple of years. I would rather have the best players in North America, rather than nothern Minnesota.

I knew of one other recruit that visited besides Knight. I won't post anything unless I get an official confirmation because maybe he was the kid that needed to talk to his mom.

One down, one to go.

The team actually buses to Duluth on Wednesday night and buses to Houghton on Thursday morning.

There were two recruits that I knew of this weekend. Hopefully we can land both of them, it would be hard to pass that atmosphere up.