brianvf

It would be sweet to pick up both the younger Toews and Murray brothers.

No, there will not be a BTHC.

He must be a really promising player as well to be a potential #1 pick in the WHL draft. Hopefully the family enjoys having Jonathan play close to their home and David chooses to follow his older brother to UND. They could play together for a season or two (depending on if/when he leaves early). Does anyone have any info about David?

These are three players that I am excited to see play (aside from Toews and the 3 frosh dmen ). I doubt that Foyt or Marvin will start in their places with the credentials that these three have, but you never know. Both Duncan and Kozek put ALOT of pucks in the net in the BCHL last season (they tied each other for 1st in the league), and I am interested to see how they do in the WCHA. It will also be interesting to see how well Duncan handles the more physical WCHA play due to his size (maybe another Panzer in the making??). I'm also a fan of the speedsters, so I think that I will like Watkins (winner of the BCHL fastest skater contest). All in all, I'm very excited to see how this freshman class performs next season.

Another article from INCH about early top 10 teams: http://www.insidecollegehockey.com/7Archiv...eams06_0333.htm They have the Sioux at #8.

Good pickup for the Sioux. Great to see good local talent coming to UND. Does everyone think that he will play both forward and defense? I think that the team will be set at forward for a few years now, defense will be thin and where I think we would need him most. I agree with tnt that he has tremendous potential. A year in the USHL will do him good, hitting the weights and gaining some bulk preparing for the grind of the WCHA.

Stoa might well be a bust, but I definitely don't expect Kessel to be a disappointment. He may not live up to the enormous hype that is preceeding him, but he will definitely be an impact player in the WCHA.

In the other thread, yzerman19 said that he hasn't been impressed with the NTDP offensive players, and being that Jones is a dman.... Zach never played with the U17 NTDP team, although he was on the US U17 team. Little bit of difference though.

If you're referring to Jim's avatar, that's Uma Thurman from Kill Bill.

My playoff plans for next year: UND first round opponent WCHA Final Five NCAA West Regional at the Ralph Frozen Four in Milwaukee No school means more money and no school-related conflicts like this year. You coming with to all of em?

I'd pick the Final Five as well. Good playoff college hockey is better than football in my book.

I have a yellow lab pup, just turned 6 mos old recently. He likes playing with pucks.

Thanks PCM for the recaps throughout the season.

Plays for the SSM Sabres with Toews and Chorney.

If you would rather be in Michigan golfing than in Ohio watching your team in the national championship game, you are an idiot. None of this changes the fact that your boy Josh is a confused, rambling, and whiny little boy that writes articles to try to convince himself of superiority over others.

I agree with Goon. Toward the end of the season, Radke played very well for a couple weeks, and then he was benched as the games got more important. I remember commenting on it during those games that he was playing better. I think he will have a very good soph year.

I agree. Before the season started, people were hyping both Zajac and Chucko, but IMO Chucko didn't come close to living up to the hype. He seemed to disappear for games at a time, while Zajac just kept getting better as the games got more important. I would take either Spirko or Zajac over Chucko anyday. I can't wait to see how Spirko and Zajac progress next season....

I'd add Porter and Kozek to that list as well. Porter showed flashes of brilliance this year, if he can make that consistent next year, he will be a force. And Kozek and Duncan finished the BCHL regular season tied for 1st in the league in goals, so both should be able to put the puck in the net.

It's probably going to be hard for Hakstol to put together lines without having at least 2 lefties on most lines given the players that we have. I am really interested to see how the incoming freshman forwards do next season, especially Duncan, Kozek, and Toews. All three are highly touted and should do very well at this level. And with Watkins' speed, he will be a valuable asset to the team, perhaps put him with Murray, Porter, or Spirko to have a line that just flies.

I posted this over on USCHO, but will post it here as well for those that don't check over there: Fighting Sioux 05-06 Forwards coming back (8): Zajac, Stafford*, Spirko, Murray, Porter, Fabian, Prpich, and Kaip. Forwards coming in (5): Toews, Kozek, Watkins, Miller, and Duncan. Defense coming back (6): Greene*, Bina*, Radke, Smaby*, Foyt, and Marvin. Defense coming in (3): Jones, Lee, and Chorney. Goalies returning (2): Lammy and Parise. * = not sure if they will be back next year, or in Bina's case, not sure if he will be able to play next season. Bina said that he has a doctor's appt in May to check his progress, but he hopes to be back on the ice by Sept. I'm guessing that Greene is gone for sure, not as sure about Stafford or Smaby. Smaby faces the same problem as Greene due to his size, but he doesn't seem to take as many dumb penalties. Stafford was on or off all season, I feel that he could come back and work on his consistency, but there is a decent chance he won't return, although I think he would really help out this team next season. Concerns: According to the numbers above. The Sioux will have 12-13 forwards next season. The Sioux will have 6-9 defensemen next season. The Sioux will have 2 goalies next season. They will need to add one more goalie to the roster, for at least the practices and to add depth. They will need to bring in one, maybe two, more forwards for depth reasons. They have both VandeVelde and Oshie that they could bring in early instead of sending them to the USHL for a year. Defense is going to be an issue. Worst case scenario, if Smaby and Greene both leave, and if Bina can't play next season, that leaves 6 dmen on the roster. Three of those six will be freshmen. While they may all be highly touted freshmen, they are still freshmen. Of the remaining 3, neither Foyt or Marvin played much defense this season, most of the time they were playing forward. And Radke only played 28 games, and not much at all in the latter part of the season. Yes, defense will definitely be a question mark for this team. Hopefully the return of Zajac and Spirko, including a healthy Murray, with the addition of some highly touted forwards will be able to score enough goals to offset the defensive lapses. Go Sioux in 06!!

If we lose both Matt's, things will be tough next year defensively. I'm hoping that we lose just one, but anything can happen. And I agree with DAR, I hadn't heard anything of Smaby leaving until I read that quote from the GM. Hopefully that is just one guys opinion in that organization and he can stay another year at least.

I would also like to thank Jim for his efforts here to keep this site going. Good job!

Good stuff from the Fri practice in this INCH article.

Kessel.

Weren't you the poster that Diggler and I were arguing with earlier this season because you wanted Hakstol's head and thought that this team was going nowhere? What do you think of Hakstol and the team now?