UND99

New Sioux recruit, Chris Wilkie of Omaha AAA U16 Lancers, the same team as Minot's Alex Schoenborn and Williston's Austin Hingtgen: Press Release Profile Page

Evan Trupp was traded from Cincy to Bakersfield. The move to the ECHL's Western Conference means a lot of games against Colorado's Marto, Forney, & Schneekloth. http://bakersfieldcondors.com/news/deal-sends-trupp-and-annesley-to-bakersfield/

It's not too bad. There are only about 6 or 7 guys whose stats I have to manually enter. Otherwise the spreadsheet is linked to the web and the stats automatically update whenever I open it. It was a bit of a bear to set-up, but maintenance is pretty simple!

Well said.

Central Scouting's Midterm Rankings are out. Among North American Skaters: #35 Jordan Schmaltz #151 Miles Koules #197 Drake Caggiula http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=76670 Stefan Matteau, by the way, came in at #13.

For what it's worth, I heard there were a handful of teams inquiring about Miles' rights and they were all informed he remains committed to UND. Now, how that plays out over the next 7 months remains to be seen, as the major junior clubs must certainly be brimming with confidence that they can lure high-end US kids (particularly those in the NTDP) out of their NCAA commitments.

I fully agree with you there. If Matteau chooses not to come to UND, at least the staff has half a season and the summer to get someone else in.

Goodbye, Stefan Matteau, we didn't even get a chance to know ya... His QMJHL rights were traded today to Blainville, the team on which his father Stephane is an assistant coach. QMJHL Transactions: http://en.lhjmq.qc.ca/roster/transactions He is already on their roster: http://en.lhjmq.qc.ca/roster/list/team/44/season/ He hasn't officially signed as far as I've heard, but the handwriting is on the wall.

I've heard that UND is in the mix for Vernon's Adam Tambellini (dad Steve, brother Jeff). Anyone else hear anything on him/his potential recruitment?

Ummm...if we ask really nice can we have #18 too, make it a package deal? That WR has some ability!

If I had to guess one way or another, I'd agree with you. But Jones going to the WHL is not, at this point, a foregone conclusion. There's still a chance he plays college, and UND would very much be in the mix if he does.

OC Register beat writer said Smaby is progressing nicely and there should be a timetable for his return announced soon. Blake, by the way, should be back within a week.

I usually update the link on this page a couple times per week. You'll find the stats of every former Sioux currently playing professionally. http://atraditionofexcellence.blogspot.com/p/past.html

Your analysis of Cammarata, which I agree with, also applies to Luke Johnson. Johnson's a 94 birth year but is the same school year & draft year as Cammarata and is averaging nearly a PPG (22G, 20P) in his first USHL season. I've been to a number of Fargo Force games this year and Guertler's been very in and out, which I think is understandable considering his age. Fasching projects well but has yet to meet the hype others have bombarded him with, but again, he's young, all the tools and intangibles are there, and I'd be surprised if he doesn't become a big-time player. Voltin's been very good and is developing nicely, while Paul LaDue is turning into a very good player who I think is going to be better than anyone expects.

Very much all on paper. If anyone could accurately project every player's development over the next 3-5 years, he/she would be the most highly sought after scout on the planet.

I'm kind of late to the discussion here, but after UM landed Fasching, there was some talk about UND losing the recruiting battles to the Gophs/not having as stellar of a commitment list as UM. I completely disagree. 2012 Commits: Stef Matteau, Jordan Schmaltz, Miles Koules, Zane Gothberg, Colten St. Clair, Clarke Saunders - The members of this class and their abilities are well-known as it contains several high-end players who will contribute immediately. Gothberg's been up and down this season, but he's shown flashes of outstanding play, and I suppose the same can be said about Saunders. Besides, who knows what the goaltending situation will look like next season with Aaron Dell having a career decision to make this offseason. 2013 Commits: Luke Johnson, Paul LaDue, Drake Caggiula, Luke Voltin, Geoff Crisfield, Jack Rowe, Charlie Pelnik - Again, a very talented class both offensively and defensively. Crisfield looks every bit like the second coming of Andrew MacWilliam, while LaDue could become a star based on the progression of his development over the past two seasons. Pelnik appears to be raw but has the natural tools (size, skating ability, mean streak) to become a force. Voltin and Johnson are known commodities and any program in the country would take them in a heartbeat. Rowe and Caggiula are kind of wild-cards at this point and thus hard to project for an amateur such as myself, Rowe because of his limited action in the USHL this season due to injury and Caggiula simply because there's not much known about him. 2014 Commits: Nick Schmaltz, Keaton Thompson - This is the beginning of an outstanding class. The younger Schmaltz is considered to be among the elite 1996 BY prospects in North America, if not the world. Keaton Thompson is performing very well for the USNTDP Under-17 team and he may very well be on track to become the best hockey player the state of North Dakota has ever produced. There's obviously a lot of fluidity to the commitment classes (accelerating education to come in early, changing commitments, sticking in juniors an extra year, etc.), but based on what we currently know, UND's recruit pipeline takes a backseat to nobody. And there are several recruits out there on the radar that could bolster the list even more - Clint Lewis, Ian McCoshen, Seth Jones, Alex Schoenborn, etc., etc., etc. Again, nothing here really that's not already known, but I figured I'd put pen to paper finger to keyboard on my thoughts.

Considering I've been to, I don't know, literally a thousand+ sporting events on every level of competition, and I've been asked to sit exactly ONCE in my life (someone was unaware of the stand until the first whistle tradition), I would say my propensity to stand for an exciting play is not a problem. And if I were to encounter someone who did find a problem with it I would think, based on the sample size of my game experience, they would be in the distinct minority on this issue. But, if they were respectful in their request that I try to remain seated, I would attempt to honor their request. But if the request came with a sense of entitlement and/or arrogance, then no, I wouldn't change a thing.

I stood twice last night during the game thinking we were about to score, including when the puck was at the goal line when a UNO player came and swept it out. I don't know if the people behind me care or not as they've never said anything, but even if they did I'd still stand because it's an involuntary reflex to an exciting play. Also, I love when a player gets the puck and people yell "GO!! GO!!" as if the players are not aware they need to skate towards the offensive zone. That ranks right up there with the "SHOOT!!" yellers, regardless of whether there's a shooting lane or not. But that being said, and as was alluded to earlier, at least we had 11,719 people in our barn last night, most of whom are willing to yell something!

Tickets sold.

I have two upper bowl tickets available for the Friday game only of this weekend's UNO series. $30/seat. Email if interested: shumake12@hotmail.com

Tickets are sold.

I have two tickets (Sec 314, Row E, Seats 38-39) for each night of the CC series this weekend. Asking less than face value at $25/seat/night OBO. Email at shumake12@hotmail.com or text at 701-330-2097.

Nick Schmaltz was named to USA Hockey's Youth Olympic Games team (U-16 Selects) today: http://www.usahockey.com/Template_Usahockey.aspx?NAV=TU_12&id=308538 http://usahockey.cachefly.net/Media/110211_YouthGamesRoster_ED.pdf http://atraditionofexcellence.blogspot.com/ @SiouxTradition

Best to play it safe with Rocco, let him get close to 100% to lessen the chance of this becoming a chronic thing. His dynamic playmaking abilities are going to inject a lot of life into the lineup when he gets back.

Also, by leaving the door open for Frattin to return to the team after being suspended he afforded a young man an opportunity to develop not only on the ice, but off the ice as well. He could have taken the hard line and said Frattin is done, but he let the student-athlete make the choice for himself as to whether he was done or not. I think Hakstol's handling of the situation speaks volumes about the way this program strives to develop its players. In my eyes, he should be North Dakota's head coach for as long as he wants the job.