as15

Thanks, I did not know that. Does anyone know if he plans on playing for them again after his HS season ends? Great player, just needs to get used to the more physical game in college hockey and a year in the USHL should do that for him.

I agree, even players with multiple years of Junior hockey play have a transition time. Take this year for example, Mark MacMillan and Seth Ambroz stepped into college hockey with multiple years Junior experience and, in my opinion, haven't produced as much as I thought they would. Imagine where they would be at if they had been playing in HS hockey last year instead of Junior?

It seems they are starting to move away from that philosophy, look at this year's freshman class, every single one of them played at a level higher than high school for at least one year with the exception of Rau, and he played in the playoff's for Sioux Falls and showed he didn't need a year of Junior. Same goes for next year as well, all the incoming recruits will have played at a level higher than High School with the exception of Kloos who, if I remember right, isn't a guarantee to come next year?

I don't think it really matters when you turn 18 your senior year of high school, the fact of the matter is that any player that can play their Senior year of high school (Toews, Finley, SImpson) is very impressive. It is very rare for a freshman to not play Juniors before playing college hockey let alone come in a year before he even graduates.

He is 17 right now, but iluvdebbies is right, that would make him 18 at the start of the 2012-2013 season. Most students turn 18 during their senior year of high school, he would be during his freshman year of college, which would be next year, so he did accelerate.

3 drafted, scholarship players out for the year. Bad karma?

Toews played only 2 years here and now he is a walking advertisement and recruitment tool for UND hockey. Seth Jones, as of right now, has a very good chance of being drafted higher than Toews and being an extremely good player in the NHL. You always have to recruit a player like that, even if it is only for one year. The bright side is, it is pretty much a foregone conclusion that at maximum he will only play two years of college so the coaches can compensate for that early departure ahead of time.

NHL.com has 3 first round mock draft's posted. Steve Hoffner has Jordan Schmaltz going 23rd overall to the Flyer's and Adam Kimelman has him going 28th overall to the Blues'. Former recruit Stefan Matteau and Gopher recruit Brayd Skjei are projected by all 3 analysts to go in the first round as well.

His statement confused me as well, scoring has been suspect at times this year and the goaltending has been inconsistent as well, but the defense, with the exception of a few games here and there has been without a doubt the strong point of this team. People underrate the value of sustained offensive pressure when it comes to defense, the more time you spend in the opponent's zone, the less time you have to defend. Example: Minnesota, I am not a big fan of their defense, but they have the best defensive numbers in the WCHA due to having a good group of forwards that spends alot of time in the opponents zone. Having the best goalie in the WCHA helps as well.

This seems to be the question everyone is asking. The beat writer for the Force wasn't even sure if he was eligible or not.

So why not invite Bemidji State to their holiday tournament like UND has done on numerous occasions? It isn't like elite teams are coming to the Mariucci Classic every year, Niagara and Northeastern are real powerhouses.

And it wasn't even for a full series, it was a home and home. Minnesota played only one non-conference game in Bemidji since BSU turned Divison 1, where UND has played games in Bemidji and many more in Grand Forks. There has only been one year that UND didn't go to Bemidji or BSU didn't come to Grand Forks.

So going to their arena once every 10 years is your definition of helping to support their program?

He makes some of the same spacing, spelling, and punctuation mistakes that I see in the third grade class i volunteer at.

I totally agree with your above statement.

That would be when this year's freshman are Senior's. New guys woiuld be Nick Schmaltz, Miles Koules, Luke Johnson, Luke Voltin, Adam Tambellini, and Chris Wilkie. Each one of those guys are top end recruits. On defense Jordan Schmaltz, Keaton Thompson, and Charlie Pelnik will be the headliners and Paul LaDue will be very good as well coming in as an older freshman.

I like how our third pairing is also our 1st PP pairing this year

Craphawks, I like it. Big Chicago fan here, I watch them every night. Leddy started the season really hot, leading the team in d-man scoring for the first third of the year, then he really cooled off. Offensive zone, and neutral zone he is amazing. Great skater and never seems to get a shot blocked. His defensive game still leaves something to be desired, but that is understandable for an undersized, 20-year old defenseman. He will be a great player and in my opinion, will be the best NHL d-man the Gophers have produced in ten years, yes better than Erik Johnson, who I am not a very big fan of. I think Leddy has a chance at the Olympics in 2014.

My bad, I totally blanked on those two. I totally agree on Gardiner, and you could add Brendan Smith to that list too. If he was on any other team but the Red Wings he would probably be a full-time NHLer right now. McDonagh is probably considered better than McBain right now, granted he plays on a better team but is getting big time minutes, has almost 20 points, and is a +17. Pretty good numbers for a second year player.

I totally agree, I think we are safe with guys like Thompson, Voltin, and Johnson seeing as they grew up around college hockey. Tambellini, Wilkie, and Pelnik have all been drafted by CHL teams so they will be pursued hard along with Nick Schmaltz.

Wow, we have landed some very impressive recruits for the classes of 2013 and 2014. I'm looking ahead to 2014-2015 and that team is going to be ridiculous. Even without Grimaldi, guys like Rowe, Caggiula, and St. Clair might not even be in the lineup. If we can keep Jordan Schmaltz until his Junior year that team could be amazing.

UMD has put out 3 NHL defenseman in the past 5 years or so, before that not much but its not like they aren't producing any. I can't think of anyone for UNO.

He is 6'2 as well. Being drafted in the WHL scares me, but his brother, Jeff Tambellini, played for the Canucks and attended the University of Michigan so hopefully Adam sticks with the NCAA path as well.

I'm not trying to argue, I just don't really think we have put out that money good NHL defenseman compared to some other programs. In the last ten years just off the top of my head we have David Hale, Brian Lee, Mike Commodore, Taylor Chorney, Matt Greene, Matt Smaby, Matt Jones, and recently Joe Finley, all solid players, but no one is really a star at all. Minnesota has Jordan Leopold, Paul Martin, Keith Ballard, Alex Goligoski, Nick Leddy, Erik Johnson among many others. I would say every single one of the Minnesota player's with the exception of maybe Leddy, is a better NHL player than all of the UND player's except maybe Commodore or Greene. Wisconsin might not have as many d-men as UND or UM but they have some top-end talent in Tom Gilbert, Jamie McBain, and easily the best d-man from any of the 3 schools in Ryan Suter.