siouxforce19

Are you for real? A decline? Yeah, we've really been hurt by poor recruiting... Yeah, not really.

They are a governing body though.

In my opinion, College Hockey Inc. has been so focused on increasing the awareness of College Hockey in Canada that they are overlooking the fact that maybe they should be reaching out to Americans even more so.

They're both going to the NTDP. Eichel is committed to BU.

If the reasons for his dismissal that I heard are accurate, I'd be pretty sour too.

This isn't anything new. It's just more frequent and common now. It used to be all the Michigan recruits. Now it seems us and Miami are taking a lot of the hits. I bet pretty soon if you go to the NTDP and keep your college scholarship, you'll be an outsider. The latest de-commit though, the McCarron kid, is a different case since he's just decided to go to a different school. On a side note, I thought it was a pretty telling/interesting that Luke Voltin favorited my tweet that said him getting kicked off the NTDP was the best thing that ever happened to him. I guess he agrees! haha. I get the impression he was glad to get out of there. You won't be able to convince me that something strange isn't going on in Ann Arbor though. But then again, the NTDP doesn't care about kids keeping their college commitments. They care about getting kids drafted high.

Never going to happen. The "higher-ups" in college hockey have no say. USA hockey is above all of college hockey. That is probably something USA hockey and Hockey Canada/CHL are going to have to work out. But I would be shocked if it ever happened.

I stopped even caring when this began to drag out.

Talk to me when you're the one the rumors about and tell me how you feel then.

It's classless to bring someone's personal business up in a public forum. It's slander. Maybe not in the legal terms, but it defames someone's character all the same. I'd prefer to leave rumors to the National Enquirer or something...

I met some Canadians once who were shocked I knew what the WHL was...

I learned a long time ago not to attempt to talk college hockey with Canadians because they just don't understand. This was along the same time I figured out how clueless Habs and Leafs fans are for the most part. I take back the generalization about Canadians, I'd say Manitobans are much more knowledgable about the college game and UND than others, thinking back to when I was in Winnipeg for the game in January...

I don't think in general too many are ready. Glancing at USHL rosters, there really weren't too many high school juniors on the rosters this past year. Maybe a couple per team or something.

It's all the same to me though... It's all quitting to me. Maybe some think I'm off base here, and that's fine.

NTDP effect in full force.

I understand kids are committing at 15 these days and some change their minds. That's fine. It's these late changes of heart that irk me. I think that is disrespectful and reflect poorly on the individual. And on St. Clair, yeah, he decommitted from CC, but he did that two years before even making it to campus. It's these last minute bail-to-the-CHL because I'll get more playing time bails that irk me. I find it ironic that the CHL touts itself as far superior to college hockey when that's where kids go when they're concerned about playing time in college, or if they aren't getting playing time in college.

That's where I saw him play. Yeah, you definitely knew he'd be in the NHL in a short period of time. On a side note, I met his mom and sister at that tournament. Ha, random.

See, now there's a guy I can respect. And today, with the kid that decommitted from Miami because he aged out of the NTDP and didn't want to play his draft year in the USHL ... well Kristo and Mattson aged out too , and they aren't doing too bad for themselves either. People can say nothing fishy is going on in Ann Arbor, but the track record of the last couple years speaks for itself if you ask me. People say most keep their commitments. Well, good for them. They know the meaning of the word. As for the others... perhaps they needed a college education more than anything so they can improve their vocabulary. Okay. End of rant.

After having a day or so to think about this situation, I'd say the thing that pisses me off the most about it is that this is a kid who has been committed since he was 15. And... I don't think I'm that off base to think that there are 1000s of kids across North America that would have killed to be in this kid's spot. And he took up a space of a kid who really wants to be a Sioux. That's what irks me. Kids that decommit are taking away roster spots from kids who really want to be in our program. Yeah, I get people change their mind, but if you're not 110% committed, you shouldn't commit in the first place. I just can't wish someone well that disses my alma mater. I just can't do that. I'll say good luck, but I won't wish them well. We are in a good spot for next year not losing much. But a year ago things were a lot different. And you just never know when we're going to have a year like last year.

They have "front office" people to handle the duties of the GM until it's filled. But as a college player, they can't contact you. If you're interested in signing, said college player would have to contact them first. I'm sure Kristo has "people" he knows in the front office of Montreal that he contacted. Sounds like Montreal didn't extend an offer because Kristo indicated his interest in returning to UND.

His dad also said his game was better suited for the college game. You can't rule anyone out, but I wouldn't call him iffy quite yet. You usually know the guys that are iffy a bit closer to their arrival date, and he won't be here until 2014.

Why do you say that?

UND does nothing. We are losing 2 forwards and bringing in 3. We're fine. Plus we get Grimaldi and St Clair back, both of whom will be in the freshman class technically.

Additionally, besides Rocco and Forbort, the only kids with ties to the NTDP in our program, Mattson and Kristo, coincidentally aged out of the NTDP and played their senior year of HS in the USHL.

3 of out of 4 of our recruits out of the NTDP have bailed on their commitments. If that's not a telling sign about that program, I don't know what is.