Scotty

You're correct. Went back to last year's list, and there are a slew of juniors. I'm hard pressed to find a sophomore who's made the jump as an UDFA though. Even guys like DeKeyser and Sustr were juniors. I'd be curious if there have been any recent sophomore undrafted signees. Anyone know of any?

I disagree being Stecher's an UDFA. I can't recall much precedence for an early departure free agent, but maybe I'm wrong. Also not saying he's not opening some eyes, but I think NHL teams are going to let him play out his time here.

And Cepis, as we all remember, transferred to Minnesota where he became a national diving champion. I decided to take a quick look at the draft status of each of the players on that list. Here it is: Potulny - 3rd (round) Ford - 8th Erickson - 3rd Carroll - undrafted Schepke - undrafted Cepis - undrafted Gregoire - 3rd Cichy - 7th Taranto - undrafted White - undrafted Barnes - undrafted Lee - 6th Tarasov - undrafted Roy - 4th Cammarata - 3rd Iacopelli - 3rd So we have Brock Boeser, this year's goal leader, a projected first round pick in this summer's NHL draft. This might not mean anything as draft position doesn't necessarily correlate to college success, but I think he's probably the most talented player on that list with the best chance to make the biggest impact in his first year. I'll predict a 15-15-30 season. Not earth shattering but a very good first year. It would be interesting to look at the top five or top 10 goal scorers from each year for comparison. Maybe for another day. As for expectations, I expect business as usual. I believe we'll be top-3 in the NCHC, a 1 or 2-seed in the national tourney, and I think we'll be in Tampa this time next year.

Teams you may be interested in: Denver Michigan State Notre Dame Miami Duluth Yale Quinnipiac Union Minnesota Ferris State Michigan Good luck to you.

From Schlossman's blog: Tentative, subject to change 2015-16 @IceBreaker (Portland, ME) @ Vermont vs. Wisconsin vs. Huntsville vs/@ Bemidji @ Mich. St. I think that's all that is known at this point.

Thought I'd see if I could get this thread going again. The Fire Hak pitchforkers over on the "Title Drought" thread are mind numbing. Anyone know anything about Zach Yon coming in next year? He's a '95 kid, but maybe they want him to get another year in Fargo.

I don't think fans are complacent; they're grounded and realistic and don't believe that not winning a national championship in nine years is grounds for firing. I'm not going to go through Hak's accomplishment's, because it has been done ad nauseam, but they're slightly more than just making the tournament every year (which is much more difficult than seemingly every Fire Hak charlatan thinks). Also, please don't compare other college sports to hockey, because they simply don't correlate. There are a number of options for hockey other than college, and hockey recruiting is more competitive than ever and probably more so than any other major college sport. Basketball recruits have only one viable avenue to pursue, especially if they want to play professionally, and that's college basketball. There is no Canadian league, and a player cannot jump directly to the NBA from high school. Unless you're Brandon Jennings and go play in Europe for a season before entering the draft, you're going to college. On that reason alone there's a larger talent pool for college basketball. Not to mention basketball if more popular. Sure there are about 300 more teams, but there are a small fraction of elite programs even though recruiting becomes increasingly competitive every year. You know what else? You can win a national championship in basketball with three, four, or five stud freshman. That would never happen in college hockey. The development tracks for these players are in different solar systems, which is why 18-21 year old kids have been playing and excelling in the NBA for years, and why very few hockey players in that age group even see minimal ice time in the NHL. In college football there are about 120 D-1 programs, and probably about 10-15 who can get any player they want. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are several options for hockey players, whereas there is really only the college path for football and basketball. That dilution of available talent coupled with the competitiveness of recruiting make it much more complicated than simply being North Dakota and having a nice arena. And just wanting to "shake things up" simply because, well, they just should be shaken up, is not a stable argument.

Oh, I was not aware of their junior eligibility. Thanks. I really like the D-corps next year, especially if Forbort stays (which I believe he will). If they can mesh a little more with Berry's style, I think they will be a very good unit.

I can't see Forbort leaving, but I suppose it's always a possibility. I'm including him until a final decision is made. I also think Tambellini will play center, at least to start anyway. 1st Line: Ma. MacMillan-Grimaldi-Parks 2nd Line: Mi. MacMillan-Tambellini-Caggiula 3rd Line: St. Clair-Johnson-O'Donnell 4th Line: Gaarder-Pattyn-Rodwell Extra: Chyzyk, Senkbeil, Sanderson, Murphy D1: Forbort-Schmaltz D2: Simpson-LaDue D3: Poolman-Mattson Extra: Panzarella Goalies: Gothberg, Saunders

Yeah, I bet Hak hates winning.

Who invited the troll? I saw something recently that showed Grimaldi as only the sixth or seventh UND freshman EVER to have 35+ points. I'd rather have a guy who's hitting posts than someone who is shooting high and wide. Means he's close. It will all balance out.

I've wondered about potential transfers as well. Perhaps a guy like Dickin would leave, because he really can't be looking at a ton of playing time next season. On the other hand, we do have three forwards (Rodwell, O'Donnell, Grimaldi) coming off of season-ending surgeries, so with the possibility that one of them has a setback, maybe we're just keen on loading up on forwards so this year's situation does not repeat itself.

Forgot Caggiula. Maybe Kristo's decision changes things, but as of yesterday he planned on coming this fall.

I only counted 10 current players on that list, and it's not exactly a Who's Who of the NHL.

Hell yes!!!

He actually hasn't been up all year. He's played 37 games for St. John's this year, but he missed about six weeks from November to mid-December, and then was out about another month until early March. It seems the injuries have been a setback for him, so I just wonder if he would have seen some time with the Jets if that wasn't the case.

Don't you think Gregoire would have had more of an opportunity with Winnipeg had he had not been injured early in the year?

I agree to a point. Heck, if someone offered me hundreds of thousands of dollars to leave school early, I can't say I would have turned it down. As fun as college was, money is the great enticement. On the other hand, these guys are not only receiving information from agents. They have family, Hakstol, and I'm sure they can call any one of the guys who left early for their opinion. I think that's where they'll get the most honest feedback about their game and their readiness. But going back to the other side again, I'm sure some of these guys hear great things from the organization itself, and that would be difficult to ignore. The bottom line is that this isn't an easy decision, and I think we can all respect the amount of information these guys have to process in order to reach that decision.

I'm sure many have seen this already, but Schlossman just re-tweeted this info per Chris Botta: RT @ChrisBottaNHL: Isles tell first-rounder Brock Nelson they're ready when he is. They're putting no pressure on UND center to leave school RT @ChrisBottaNHL: Nelson weighing options with advisor, family and UND Coach Hakstol. 3rd year of college/Frozen 4 bid vs. year in minors.

Fair point. I'm as high on Grimaldi as anyone, and I agree, he's a top-line talent. I think it's just hard to ignore what the second line did this year. Honestly I believe Kristo will bolt, and there will be an opening that Grimaldi should be able to fill. Regardless of how it turns out, we are going to have some unbelievable forward depth (assuming health ).

Curious as to why people think they wouldn't keep the MacMillan-Rowney-Parks line together? Personally I think you at least start with them as your second line to see if they continue to play as well together as they did this season. I think they were often our best line over the second half of the year. I realize these are just everyone's extremely early projections, and a lot can and will change, but assuming no early departures, my thinking is that the top two lines from this year stay together and you mix and match to find some good combos for the 3rd and 4th lines.

I would assume the answer will be very, but since this will be my first Mariucci experience tomorrow, just wondering how busy the surrounding restaurants get prior to the game.

Care to share a source or clarify what you know?

Very disappointing. Did not see that coming at all.

Schlossman said via Twitter that he was pursuing some Hextall rumors. Here's his tweet: Re: Hextall rumors. Been working for two days to get something confirmed, but haven't gotten anything. I know PHX is after him.