redwing77

I would think what kr said makes more sense. Why would Radke be coming this year? There are already a ton of defensemen coming. Theoretically speaking, if Radke DOES come, and he doesn't redshirt (redshirtting would make him coming this season even more pointless), that means Marvin and Hale would be seen a lot more as a forward on the third or fourth lines. Now, for all those on the other thread, if that is true, leadership or not, you won't be seeing an increase in 3rd and 4th line production. If the Herald is Correct as well, then that means there is at least once defenseman who is almost certainly going to leave before the beginning of the season. The only other option is that some defenseman left the program or decided not to come (which at this time could only be Bina really). Speaking of Bina, are they really going to keep Bina as a 5'7" defenseman? I'm barely 5'7" myself and I feel short all the time. Cant imagine what it would be like as a short defenseman among giants. Can anyone guess?

Out of curiosity, who was the goaltender?

Interesting story on ESPN.com. Here is the link http://msn.espn.go.com/nhl/s/2003offseason/njd.html It mentions David Hale. From reading between the lines in the article, it may be Hale the finds himself in the NHL this fall and the Devils taking a chance on him by letting two veteran defensement go on free agency. So, perhaps Hale is feeling better and the Devils are happy about it. Perhaps this will also affect Martin's future with the Gophers... meaning he's probably back for his senior year. No matter. Anyways, it's just rumor so to speak.

There was quite a thread about him, actually. Not sure if the thread still exists.... not enough time to dig it out. I found it interesting that in many cases (though not all) it started out flaming Josh hardcore and kind of dwindled down into thoughtful pondering. I haven't seen or heard anything about Josh myself, but even so, if I were him, I'd transfer to a DIII school, but alas I repeat myself.

I think this is truly fantastic reporting. 1) Blais has more tact than most reporters and anyone who wants to prod a lion usually gets what they deserv. Did he say that? I don't know, but you can bet most of the Sioux fans would agree with the comment. 2) FSN can the gophers? Even if is against the Sioux, fat chance. FSN is everything short of the official sports network of the gophers booster club. If anything, I'd think they'd be sure to televise it just so that their shoddy commentators can call every UND hit "dirty" and ever Gopher penalty "bogus." Like Goon says, FSN is a shoddy network who wouldn't know fair commentating if it bit them in tha arse. 3) Parise staying two more years MAY happen anyways, you never know. How likely? We'll have to wait and see. (Excruciating to wait, I know) 4) If Blais did say something stupid, then Lucia is also susceptible. In the name of sportsmanship, I find this as hard to believe as Blas' comment. 5) UNO could use some televised time if it doesn't hurt big rivalries such as UM v UND or UM v UW. If it does interfere, well that's just going to hurt College hockey because the channels will see the loss of ratings as a loss of interest in college hockey and lower viewership. This is just guesswork though. 6) The reason why we get so many SSM players is because we recruit them heavily. If this rationale was the case, then Irmen and Potulny would be coming to UND because it would just make sense to come home or be close to home. Same thing with the Morelands. And Parise would be wearing Maroon and Gold. Propaganda is the name of the game sometimes. People with low opinions, low morals, and low ethics. Overall, it is just low.

Update in Devil-town: Daneyko retired. Sad to see him go, but this could be DeMarchi or Hale (hopefully Hale's) break to go right to the NHL. I'm not sure that either of them will start the year in the NHL and if either of them do, neither will be in the NHL at the same time off the bat. I'm rusty on Devils hockey, so I am not sure what exact role Daneyko played on the blue line for them. I'd figure though, that the dman who best fills this role will get the slot whether it is Hale, DeMarchi, Martin, or whoever is in their system currently.

Just who are the goalies for the Gophers? Weber and Johnson are the only ones I've ever heard of. Is there a third goalie or is he like Sofie? Looks good in a jersey but really is no factor?

Say what you like, but I'm happy he stayed a year. I'd like to see him play. Someone this highly regarded has to be fun to watch.

So far, I am in agreement with everyone, but we are forgetting something. For UND to be successful, it seems, (going by last season alone because I don't have all the stats- my bad) A key to UND's success is special teams. Ok, our goaltending was subpar. Our passing was pretty bad. But I believe the key to all those tough losses we took was our special teams. Our inability to score on the powerplay and our inability to stay OUT of the penalty box. Not to mention, I feel special teams action affects even the 5 on 5 action. For example, if we are playing with low confidence in our penalty kill team (which was poor considering how often we were on it), we may not play as confidently as we could. The Gophers, in my opinion, had confidence in their goaltender and their special teams. Their record shows it too. After the CC series last season, I think we showed no confidence at all on the ice. Though I am exaggerating, it seemed like every penalty we took, the opposition scored. I think if we improve our goaltending, our passing, and our special teams, I think our transitions and our confidence will improve almost on its own and our record will show it. Sometimes I feel like our transitions and breakouts are foiled because we seem to be trying too hard to make it look "pretty." I don't feel like it needs to be pretty for a goal or a good chance at a goal to occur. A garbage goal is just as good as a highlight goal, in my opinion. So, why not keep it simple? Tape to tape passes, skate with the puck more, bank clearing passes off the sides of the rink instead of the far end. Icing the puck isn't working folks. As for our bottom two lines, well, it'll improve.

I agree with jk's assessment, but I think not everyone realizes that we HAVE an offensive Defenseman. Wasn't Andy Schneider among the leaders (not the leader, but in the neighborhood at least) in scoring defensemen last season? Didn't have have something like 10 goals or better? I admit, Schneider is more of a defensive threat, but he CAN score. We can make arguments about our 3rd and 4th lines, or even our 2nd lines, but I trust Blais' recruiting instincts on his current team. Irmen's loss was unfortunate, but it happened and we have to live with it. It's the goaltending we have to look at. We don't get Lammy for another season so we have the question mark still looming over the twine on our OWN end. Let's worry about that before we worry about offensive talent. If you recall, the Sabres, Hurricanes, and the 1995 Devils all made the Stanley Cup Finals boasting more defensive minded teams. One could even argue the Stars did too. Blais can make a dominating team. The advantage this year is that UND doesn't have all the hype. MN graciously took that by the performance of their seniors and the back to back championships they've won. By the way, don't confuse hype with expectations. As for the 80s teams, as skateshattrick stated, look at their goaltending. Balfour and Casey. Wow.

I did check my sources. Here's a good link: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdispla....php3?pid=26591 Scott Fankhouser -- Goalie -- Bismarck, ND. Went to UML. Selected by the Blues in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. I do not know if he every played hockey in Bismarck, but that's where he is listed from. I try to know my sources before hand and, if I believe that I may be wrong, I say so.

Travis is getting married, yup. Don't forget Tim Skaparud (sp?) His announcement was two over from Travis'! Wow

I do believe that Roloson was a UML product. Also, some may remember Scott Fankhouser, the ill fated inaugural starting goalie for the Atlanta Thrashers a while back. He went to UML as well. Oh yeah, he's a Bismarck, ND product. he didn't do very well, which brought a trade to, I believe Ottawa, which brought Damian Rhodes to Atlanta. You can see how that worked out... As for goaltending University, there seems to be good goalies coming out of Maine from out east too... like Garth Snow and now that Howard guy. there are others, I'm sure... But it still doesn't make Hockey East even close to being as good as the WCHA.

tboneund, I actually beg to differ with the statement concerning Brandt having to fight for the starting role last season. As everyone is aware it was rotate-a-goalie all season. At one time Ranfranz was our starter. The only thing without a doubt last season was that a lot of fans wouldn't know until game time who was starting. Especially the first game of the series. I won't argue that Brandt has a work ethic. I believe that. I also believe that Ranfranz had a good work ethic too, and that never amounted to anything. The starting position isn't "in the bag" for anyone, although the expectations for Brandt, Zeigelman, and Parise are only getting higher. I wouldn't want to be in Zeigelmann or J. Parise's shoes/skates/pads/whatever. All you can really say is "Wait and find out." We all know that that's sometimes too hard to do.

I think I am going to go out on a limb here and say that DeMarchi will beat Hale to the NHL. I know you are all stunned, but here's my reasoning. First, DeMarchi is already at 100 percent. Although Hale was back to nearly his peak form at the end of last season with the Sioux, there are still doubts. They will want him to skate in the minors at least at the beginning of the season to see how he does and assist in conditioning, after Hale only returned to play the last few games of the entire season for the Sioux. Second reason is that DeMarchi is more of the enforcer type. NJ loves physical players like Scott Stevens. It is why they drafted Commodore. Although they traded Mike (rather unwise if you ask me), they probably feel that DeMarchi is an adequate replacement for Commodore despite the fact that, arguably, Hale is a smarter and better player overall. Let's face it, I see DeMarchi as just another Scott Parker. Potential, but mainly there to pick fights. I DO anticipate DeMarchi to contribute more than Scott Parker though... I gues to sum up, I feel Hale is the better player, but health is an issue, which helps DeMarchi in the "race" between the two players to the NHL. If Hale is deemed as healthy as DeMarchi by decision time, or if health isn't a factor, then skill-wise Hale goes NHL. But it does appear obvious that NJ wants one of these two (along with a few that may be in their current system) to vie for the role that Scott Stevens leaves behind when he eventually retires.

"#64 Brand Winchester may be all that...but not smart. Obviously his court appearance went well... or it is suspended. Either way I would love to see the outcome of those proceedings. There has to be more to the story than just the former UW Captain punching a police officer. (of course if that's it, well then...) Of course with my streak as of late, I could be thinking of a different Winchester.

Thanks for the replies concerning the QMJHL. It makes sense to me now. As for Greene, Commodore is actually bigger than Greene in both height and weight (Commodore was 6'4" 250 or so and Greene is 6'3" and I am not sure of his weight). Very comparable, but Commodore has the edge in size. It isn't the stupid penalties that makes him a flight risk, in my opinion. It's what happens when he's not committing stupid penalties. For example, all the penalties he recieved for going near another opponent's player? Sheperd and Schmitt always seemed to take pleasure in calling a penalty on him very early on the game. Even commentators remarked whether there was even contact in the first place on some of the penalties. Bad calls are frustrating to fans, but a 100 times more so to the players. I've heard some people here defend some of WCHA's refs, and it is true that our refs are better than other conferences (though how much better than Hockey East's new system will be yet to show), but the occurance of bad calls in games are staggering. Yeah, as a sioux fan I can name a bunch for the sioux, but I remember a UM v MSU-M game that featured 17 penalties and it wasn't even the 3rd period yet! Are the teams that dirty? I doubt it. Maybe DeMarchi and Greene have the corner market on dumb penalties, but nothing in the world brings 17 penalties on in 2 periods, in my opinion. That's just the refs trying to enter the game. If they want to do that, I suggest they get a jersey. [/rant] Anyways, Thats why I say Greene. Others may be more prepared for the NHL, but Greene may want to try his luck in the AHL or ECHL affiliates of the Oilers organization to try out what it would be like in a league where the refs are better. Just a thought.

I do not know what position Wookiee plays. I don't think he even knows! It appears that Curtis Murphy did indeed go to the Preds, but Smrek is NOT a Wild. It was a three team trade with Ottawa. Ottawa gets Smrek. The Wild get LW Chris Bala. He had 6 goals and 18 assists in the AHL last season (51 games) plus he has NHL experience (1 assist in his short NHL career so far). For info on source, I got it from ESPN.com at: http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/2003/0626/1573182.html I have no size numbers on him.

That's great! I really think that UND should do with Dean-o what Duke did with Coack K. They gave him the carte blanche so to speak. Basically, Coach K's contract lasts "As long as Coach K wants to coach at Duke." Coach K works at a big time basketball school, same thing as Dean at a hockey school. He should stay until he dies of natural causes. As for an NHL offer, I did hear that he was being considered some time back for the Minnesota coaching job.. then as an Assistant coach for them (Wild, not gophers), but that was nixed and Jacque took over. As for now, I haven't heard anything about him even looking to the NHL, but with Dean's record, one cannot say that he hasn't given it some thought. Teams with coaches with less credentials have made it very far in the NHL as of late (Can anyone say Anaheim? Their coach coached for some no name college out west for a while as well as a junior team and then some time in I think a major junior club before jumping NHL) However, if I were Dean's advisor, which I'm not nor will I ever be, I would say "Stay with the Sioux" but if that doesn't pan out, I'd say "Choose the NHL team wisely." A first coaching gig in the NHL is rough. It's helpful when starting out to have a good team to coach coming in. I'd say (if their coaching positions were open that is) I'd coach St. Louis, Carolina, Calgary, Washington, or maybe Phoenix. I'd say Minnesota, but only a fool (or the Detroit Pistons) would fire a successful coach at the professional level at this point. To sum up: Deano stays as long as he wants. But if he does go NHL, choose wisely if he can. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it... maybe

It seems that today I am really out of the loop! So I'm going to finish up looking stupid in one last post. First, who is Dahlen? I don't recall ever seeing him on UND's roster or is he another incoming freshman? Second, maybe we can anticipate Ryan Hale's departure? His "resence" well... would Ryan be missed? Third, I don't know who is comign or going anymore, so I am just going to wildly guess that Greene is gone. Why? Well, last season was tough for him. Making stupid penalties, getting on DB's bad side, Not making stupid penalties (but sitting 2 min anyways). Very frustrating. Third, this question is sort of off topic, but does any NCAA colleges ever try recruiting from the QMJHL? Or is it not a recruitable league due to the fact that it is a "Major" Junior league? How does that all work anyways?

I agree (I'm doing alot of that lately) with sentiment on the board but I'm wondering why? Minnesota is a good team, but scoring D, I thought was something they could use. Curtis, statistically speaking, looked stellar in his pro career so far. I admit he is a tad small, but is that really a problem? It seems to me that Nashville got the better end of the deal. It also appears to me that this trade was lopsided. One doesn't trade someone like Murphy for a dude who's only positives seemingly are his +/- and his size. In Sioux terms, I think it would be like trading Nick Fuher or Lee Marvin for someone like the Wookiee! Good acquisition: Nashville Poor decision: Minnesota My opinion

I realize that this may be a redundant topic, being that we've already had a discussion on goaltenders, but I can't much argue with who's coming and going anymore. However, my prediction is similar to everyone else's regarding the starting spot. Brandt's no shoe in and in fact, I expect the beginning (at least) of next season to be more of the same from last season (rotating goalies). I DO anticipate though, that Brandt will be opening day starter probably for both on the road and home opener. This doesn't mean he's the #1 goalie, but Blais has a tendency to use previous streaks to justify actions. Brandt choked, sure, but he wasn't alone. He DID do well for what it was worth in the end, so, I anticipate Blais sticking to him initially. Redshirting is a possibility, but for whom, I don't know. Can you only redshirt as a freshman? If not, maybe that could be a way for Josh to stick around. Though it would be pointless for him, Sofie, and Ranfranz to do so. Who is this Sacred Heart goaltender? Who was looking into UMD? I think I may have lost track of the thread.

You know, there are a lot of great ventures out there. This is another one. It will join venues such as the Fargodome, the Alerus Center, the I-29 Amusement Center... Oh wait! None of them actually are making money! One of them (I29) is actually torn down and turned into apartment buildings! Talk about a here today gone tommorrow restaurant with a laibility attached (statue). I'd just love to see the look on the city council's faces when it goes out of business and the city is left with a giant statue with lit eyes cluttering up Gateway.... Or maybe some wayward UND Aerospace student will crash into it. Either way, it would be a worthless waste.

Ok, off all those drafted from the local region, I'd expect Suter and Vanek not to return to college. Suter: The fact that he's considering going pro means, to me, that he's waiting to see what the signing bonus is for hos new team. Also what assurances he can get about the timeline for him making the NHL. If the numbers don't match up, he'll be wearing red in the Fall. If they do, well then, he's gone. Vanek: Well, this is still up in the air, but I'm saying he doesn't return. He's rookie of the year, he gets mucho points for the Gophers and wins a national championship. Apart from winning the Hobey Baker award, what's left for him to do in the WCHA? He's drafted 5th overall. That means $$$$$$$. Buffalo, despite what the GM said, is looking for anything resembling offense. They are also looking for a playmaker a la Ilya Kovalchuk type. They got it and I'll bet they want him. I say he's gone. Period. It is true that the Gophers won't "suck" because Vanek leaves, but they won't have the speed Vanek gave them anymore. Hard to say how this will effect the outcome. Afterall, Vanek wasn't the only offensive threat on the Gophers. It will help everyone else though. One less weapon to be used against everyone else is always a helpful thing.

I don't anticipate the Huskies doing too much this year, but I doubt they'll do as bad as everyone seems to think. It is quite surprising what players can do when they learn that they may have an opportunity to get more playing time and share the spotlight that was formerly dominated by their more senior players. Especially true for the freshman, as they will certainly get more playing time than they could ever expect if this situation wasn't true. As for Dahl, if I were a coaching fanatic (which I am not as I can only assume from other posts that he is the head coach), I would surmise that this season will be a true test for himself and the school. Any coach can look good when their team has all the talent and is winning (Hmmmm Joe Torre? Lucia perhaps? Maybe even Dean Blais despite his rocky start at UND. Miami football coach and FSU's coach during their winning seasons). However, a true great coach is when a coach does well with practically nothing. If Dahl manages to break even this season, it will be a success. If they are ranked nationally in either poll at the end of the season, even if it is 25 overall on one poll, it will be a fantastic success and one truly worth being proud of. Going on that scale, should they make the NCAA Regionals, well... let's not get carried away. In any case, if Dahl survives this season and his team does ok, barring any legal or other issues, Dahl's job would theoretically be more solid than last season. Did that make any sense? Don't get offended by the Blais reference, it was my impression that UND wasn't too hot for a few years under DB. If I am mistaken, I'm sure I'll be notified