Vegas1

I can assure you Jonny does not know baseball. Never played it, probably never will.

I wouldn't, not based on the most recent talent pools. Manitoba has been on an upswing relative to the other Prairie Provinces for about a decade now and that trend will continue for a little longer. The Sioux are actually benefiting from that upswing directly in recruit's like Toews and Gregoire. Wade Poplawski is an example of what the MJHL can produce and someone that may have been undervalued because he played in the MJHL. He is currently a rookie on the Colgate team playing first D-pair minutes, on the 1st powerplay unit and penalty kill. I know that he is one that the Sioux could have used even if you don't think that much of Colgate. He would have been a terrific PP quarterback with his exceptional vision and intelligence. He also would have stayed all four/five years of his college eligibility.

Ok, I've heard enough. I will grant you that the USHL and the BCHL on the whole are better then the MJHL, but to characterize the AJHL as way superior is simply nonsense. The AJHL suffers from the same problems that the MJHL suffers from, that is, a few teams tend to dominate the league year in and year out. The overall talent level is not as good as the BCHL or USHL, but.............. and this is a long but..........some of the better MJHL teams can certainly compete with teams in the other leagues and beat them. I would rank the leagues as follows: USHL-probably closer to low level Major Junior in Canada, i.e., Quebec CHL BCHL-can probably beat anyone in the other canadian junior leagues most of the time but will suffer upsets, particularly when not playing in BC AJHL - SJHL - MJHL- OPJHL-best teams in these leagues can beat anyone else pretty much any given year

Manitoba Colin Wilson (teee heee heee)

Overall, I find a strong bias towards gopher recruits in the NCAA because they really don't get to see a lot of other players . I knew they had it completely wrong when they dismissed Toews as just another high ranking recruit when he came to UND and where all over Kessel and Okposo. The UND class that is coming in this year is better than anything the gophers have, believe me. And if some of the future recruits being mentioned on this board come to UND, the gophers will have absolutely no chance to beat these guys in the future, none! Get used to it.

St. Croix, Brett Bensen, and Hurley all being mentioned as possibly going the college route. The times have definitely changed folks. None of these guys would have been a consideration 5 years ago never mind 10 years ago. Top end Western Canadian Talent, all looking at college as a possibility. Wow! And make no mistake, the 1993's out of Western Canada are an absolutely outstanding group. This is a world class group we are talking about here. Maybe all three play for UND. Guessing that is why Lucia pet is starting to take a hard look outside of his State. He knows there is no way he could compete against this type of talent.

St. Coix is now on the list as well. hmmmmm....... I think I should shut up.

http://www.collegehockeyrecruitexchange.blogspot.com/ Noticed Trevor Morbeck a 1993 is already on this list. Get Corndog (Corey Morbeck-goalie) now and then get Trevor a few years later. Let Trevor play with St. Croix and you've got the makings of an unbelievable team.

Uncommitted Goalies Eric Ferber-Bay State Breakers-Played well at 2006 Select 15 Festival. Four straight shutouts at Swift Current rookie camp. Jeff Teglia-Chicago Mission-Very athletic goalie. Quick movements and can make acrobatic saves. Justin Farrell-Shattuck-St. Mary's-One of the top goalies in his age group. Moved to Shattuck from New Jersey. Kyle Washer-Detroit Honeybaked-3-time selection for US Select Festivals. Corey Morbeck-Wisconsin AAA-Impressive performance at 2006 Select 15 Festival. Trent Caspar-Eagan(MN HS)-Invited to Select 15 Festival. Stand-up goalie. Ok guys. I watch kids only a couple of times a year so I'm pretty selective about who I suggest. Corey has been on my radar for a year or two. Check out some old posts, i.e., Corndog. Get this kid while you can. He is definitely starting to create some smoke out there. Just to add to this. His younger brother Trevor is an even bigger talent. This could be another brother, brother combination. Trevor combined with St. Croix out of Winnipeg would be an amazing combo. These guys are still very young but you have to put the bug in their ear, particularly St. Croix or you'll lose them to Canadian Juniors.

Didn't realize Sutter was coaching this team again I believe you meant Savard.

Coached two of those boys. Not going to tell you who

Don't worry, I'm well aware of that. James was a great player but I am really referring to a new crop that appears to be at a different level of excellence. Winnipeg/Manitoba is producing some fantastic talent that will be in the NHL for a long time. Summer hockey will be a lot different than it has been in the past in some of the upper leagues. Toews Zajac Dawes Boyd These guys all have similar characteristics in how they play the game and how they treat other people. Gregoire and Colin Wilson are hopefully the next two to join this group. We also have one amazing 93 in St. Croix who reminds me of Toews so the trend should continue for some time. I would hope that coaching in the area has something to do with it, but I'm guessing parents are what is really driving the difference here. In the past, some of the best talent seemed to have some of the most retarded parents. The opposite trend seems to be happening and the results of that are starting to show.

Sorry for pulling up and older comment. Don't have the time to follow these threads as much. McWilliam's D partner. Was it Olsen and if so, what did he have to say? I'm just curious to see if he saw what I saw.

Thanks for sharing this. I think Gregoire is going to be another outstanding Sioux from Winnipeg. Guys like Zajac and Toews have set the bar and there are a lot of kids that have taken notice and want to be just like these guys. Its no surprise to me that all of them share certain traits and characteristics. The list of outstanding players that go from Winnipeg to the Sioux to the NHL should only get longer and longer over the next few decades.

This is a fairly recent ranking. 59th in north america means he could be well below the 100th picked player if, and that is a big if he gets picked at all. That is 4th or 5th round material and I still believe from what I saw that that is too high. Euros start to go in larger numbers after the second round. I still remember Eric Doyle from last year. projected as a late first or early second rounder and never got selected. Its a big crap shoot and MacWilliam has a lot of scouts who are not very sure about him. The fact that he has committed to UND will certainly help his draft stock since they know he is going to a good program. I'm still not convinced. He didn't show me enough. His foot speed is questionable and he is playing with guys a year younger who are already better than him. Maybe this can be a good test regarding my judge in talent. We'll see in a few months I guess.

Where did you read that? I've never seen him ranked that high by any scouting service.

Had to..., he wouldn't let me post anymore

I don't know a whole lot about him. I'm just basing my opinion on what I saw when I was watching MacWilliam and Colborne when I was out there. I kept seeing this kid who was able to pivot in either direction, drag the puck with no hesitation off the wall on either side and shoot it with authority. Was being used on the PP even though he was probably their youngest player. Played the body well, didn't have any problem playing 1 on 1, anywhere on the ice. Made some great outlet passes including one that went three zones, tape to tape, with all sorts of traffic in front of him. I just liked him better than MacWilliam. Just by googeling I was able to determine the following. He appears to be from the National Sports Academy School in Calgary which would suggest that he is certainly aware of the college route. Was named outstanding midget defencemen last year, i.e., 2007. Somebody out there must be aware of him if he was named outstanding defencemen. Medicine Hat took him in the fourth round 84th overall of the 2006 WHL draft. Doesn't show up on their regular season stats in any way so that would suggest he hasn't played a WHL game just yet.

Bringing up a very old post of mine. Corndog, a la Corey Morbeck (1991) is starting to turn some heads. Would be funny to take a Wisco boy right out from underneath the Badgers.

My primary concern is that they are getting by on physical strength in most instances and not being challenged by other players who have similar physical strength. The game I watched, these guys could have held on to the puck for 3 or 4 minutes if they really wanted to. They probably wouldn't have done anything with it while they were doing it but that is not the point. Oshie playing high school was probably not as big a deal because he was using his skill for the most part. The skill level in this league is surprisingly pretty decent. Big guys, using their bodies against smaller players may not translate as well at the next level. That is really all I am saying.

Its interesting that everson is going to Harvard since my first impression of him is that he is a man amongst boys and doesn't really get it done based on a huge amount of hockey intelligence. Guess he is book smart This impression is also based on one single showing so I'm probably way off. If I had to compare him to somebody, it would be a poor man's Owen Nolen. Budish is another one who should be playing at a higher level. I think it only hurts guys like this when they play high school when they should be playing junior. I don't care if they are in grade 11 or not, they should play at a level that challenges them. Budish never seems to come off the ice. How could that be good for him? Not too sure about his skating. Looks a little choppy to me. Will be interesting to see how he pans out on the big ice in Minnesota. As for Lee, he appears to be pretty strong. He is going to get a concussion one of these days, however. The guy protects the puck by almost lying on the ice. Leverage is one thing, placing your head at a height that could get it lined up with a Rob Blake hip check is another.

And USA's top line features Colin Wilson out of Winnipeg. Its too bad we couldn't get this kid. He would have been great with Gregoire next year. Two old teammates playing with the Sioux.

See this link. Not saying this guy is totally credible, but his opinion of MacWilliam is the same as mine http://thedraftguy.com/cms/index.php?optio...1&Itemid=35

I agree, but I've been saying that for some time now. Every time Toews gets some points, so does Kane. Kane has been holding his own and keeps getting the first assist after Toews does a lot of the dirty work. Kane is a nice complement to Toews, a slightly softer Oshie, but better skater. He will continue to rack up points playing with Toews, unless he gets thrown into the second row instead just the player's box