redwing77

The Bison wing has its own worries. After all, they're throwing stones at the cattle farmers now. I thought farming was NDSU's forte?

I hate it when you are right. Especially that last part. I may hate him, but he's a "known" entity whereas the new guy is unknown.

I do believe he will. I think the D will have to change at first. Our D has been "stifle/limit shots, get to the rebounds." I do believe we have to keep to that, but they also have to expect that, with the young D, they should give up more shots. So they should limit what they can, play good positioning and smart hockey, and work extra hard to get to the rebounds. And hopefully JPar and Phil stay in the nets. I don't think wandering would be a good idea at first.

I don't know if there are words right now to describe how low the NHL is right now.

I've held back quite a bit and I just want to send out my condolences towards the inevitable wholesale loss of civilian jobs at the GFAFB. There are at least two schools out there that will undoubtedly be closed. If there is any good news in this, they'll find a way to keep one open. Certainly both won't stay open. There won't be enough kids for that. So there will be an influx of unemployed teachers and school staff to the greater Grand Forks area. The military gives a ton of revenue to the area. Losing over 80 percent of the base is a huge blow. Unmanned drones? I guess.

Having not read the whole thread, please forgive me if what I said was already said. First off, I don't believe this move at all. If he turned down his alma mater, he'll turn down Marshall. In a conspiracy theorist's way, I can almost see him declining the offer if it is made and then turning around and telling the UND faithful that he turned it down because he has it too good at UND to give it up and he's far too loyal to give up his stature in North Dakota for some school out east. Secondly, I hope I'm wrong and he does take the job. I feel that, if that happens, and the students of UND can get into the new Presidential search, perhaps we can get a guy who is like Clifford or someone that has me saying "Yeah, this guy better represents what I believe UND is all about" so that I can once again take pride in ALL of UND, not just my department and the hockey and football programs. Basically speaking, though, I'm not holding my breath. He's not going anywhere. And if he does, Marshall can have him.

I thought Curtis left after his junior year. Oh well. So I'm not a historian. :shrugs: Hopefully my point wasn't clouded by my inability to count how many years Curtis Murphy played for the Sioux.

I bolded the pivotal parts of this post because that is the reason they stayed. Though being undrafted doesn't necessarily mean you are guaranteed a four year player (See Roche, Murphy, Curtis Glencross, and others), they have a disproportionally greater chance of actually staying the course. First round draft picks rarely stay four years (have any stayed four years at any school?). The same could be the case with second through 5th rounders. Bochenski, I feel, was the exception to the rule about late round draft picks staying four years.

This post has two parts: 1. Reflecting back to earlier posts, I will now say welcome to UND, TJ! It's now official and so I can believe it. I do believe that a year in the USHL would have been nice but, with Murray's leaving (whether it is the reason or not for TJ's coming doesn't matter), TJ's arrival was a necessity. 2. Regarding early departures: I think this is a two-edged sword. It is unrealistic, unfortunately, for the best hockey players to spend all four years or, nowadays, even 3 years at a DI setting anymore. They are too high profile and the money that used to be the potential after graduation is becoming a reality after a certain point for a limited time only (hence, get it while you can mentalities). Though I would love to have the Gino composed teams that stay 4 years or until an NC is won, we wouldn't be able to do much with that. I fear that, though we would get the better of those character players, we'd never really be that scary in the post season. It is the perspective of the administration, alumni, and the fans that the hockey team is there to win National Championships. It builds prestige, tradition, and notoriety (and revenues). Therefore, Hakstol and whomever will coach the Sioux after Hak, will take the best recruits out there, flight risk or not. No way would we have gotten past top flight players (Zach Parise, Matt Commodore, Curtis Murphy, Bryan Lundbohm, Travis Roche, Ryan Bayda, Brady Murray) or current top flight players (Toews, Lee, Stafford, Greene, Smaby, Zajac) if we were looking for only 4 year or even only 3 year players.

One way to look at it is this: Brady Murray was a grade A talent, but his size made his stock drop. So he was a 5th round draft pick. As for $300,000, it isn't very reasonable to expect a 5th rounder to get a ton of cash for a signing bonus (or is this money we are talking about his actual contract? If that is the case, he may be taking what he can get along with a promise for more once the CBA gets approved). He is worth that much to us, sure, but the big $$$ in contracts and signing bonuses are for those players drafted in the first two rounds for sure and maybe the third round as well. What was Bo's contract worth? Anyone know? Losing Brady sucks. It also proves that I was wrong about who would be the first to go. As for who is next, citing a CBA Agreement article means nothing. The last time they were saying what they did nothing happened anyways. They have to sign the agreement before I will believe they are even close (yeah, that's a contradiction, but right now, they can't convince me squat)

I worked with Taylor Chorney's aunt (who is an elementary teacher in Grand Forks) at the time that Chorney was visiting. She told me that UND was the only school Taylor looked seriously at attending. So, according to family, there really was no heist with Taylor. I was also supposed to give Taylor his campus tour. I think it was for the better that I didn't. Not that I wouldn't have given Taylor a good tour of the campus... I would be intimidated by Marc, who did show up for the tour.

I know #23 is retired a la Engelstad, but I never heard about the number 12. I'm interested to know why that number is retired as well. PCM?

If my estimates are correct, the numbers that will be available or are currently available are: 3, 5-10, 12, 16, 20, 22, 25, 29-33, 35+ (this assumes Matt Greene, Matt Smaby, Brady Murray, and Drew Stafford stay). One thing of note: I'm expecting Zach Jones to inherit the #3

Has Matt Greene signed yet? I hope so. I can't wait for him to leave!

Sorta off topic, but Cory Johnson (the Moorhead Spuds Hockey player) just committed to Concordia of Moorhead to play football. So much for his hockey career.

I like Sic's breakdown. I yield to the coaches, but my wager right now is that Oshie, Vandie, and Marto headline the 2006 recruiting class.

And Gionta's young apprentice, Robbie Earl