Kermit

This is just being posted at http://centralscouting.nhl.com (registration required). 1. Sidney Crosby 5. Jack Johnson (Michigan recruit from USNTDP) 9. Jack Skille (Wisc recruit from USNTDP) 11. Ryan Stoa (Minn recruit from USNTDP) 16. Brian Lee (UND recruit from Moorhead HS) 32. Dan Bertram (BC) 37. Matt Niskanen (UMD recruit from Virginia HS) 45. Nate Hagemo (Minn) 57. Chris Butler (DU recruit, Sioux City USHL) 68. Chris VandeVelde (UND recruit from Moorhead HS) 72. Robbie Dee (uncommitted, Breck HS) 77. Phil Axtell (Mich Tech recruit, Cedar Rapids USHL) 81. Tom Gorowski (Wisc recruit, Sioux Falls USHL) 82. Andrew Thomas (DU) 87. Andrew Cogliano (Mich recruit from Ontario) 90. Paul Statsny (DU) 92. Zach Jones (UND recruit from USNTDP) 101. Drew Fisher (uncommited, Moorhead HS) 108. Taylor Chorney (UND recruit, Shattuck) 109. T.J. Oshie (UND recruit, Warroad HS) 111. Nick Kemp (UMD recruit, Sioux City USHL) 129. Zach Bearson (Wisc recruit, Waterloo USHL, cousin of Jason Notermann) 132. Mason Raymond (UMD recruit, Camrose AJHL) 138. Andrew Kozek (UND recruit, Surrey BCHL) 142. Michael Gergen (UMD recruit, Shattuck) 147. Matt Watkins (UND recruit, Vernon BCHL) 165. Garrett Suter (Wisc recruit, Green Bay USHL) 191. Chad Rau (CC recruit, Des Moines USHL) 194. Jared Hummel (St. Cloud recruit, Holy Angels HS)

It is unusual. UND has only one recruit playing in the USHL right now (Brad Miller at Green Bay). The list of signed LOIs and verbal commitments does looks very good. One future Sioux is playing with the USNTDP (Zach Jones who is quite familiare to jeffj), three are in the BCHL, two are at Shattuck, and three are playing with their high school teams in Minnesota. Brian Lee and T.J. Oshie will likely be in the USHL after the completion of their high school seasons, and Chris VandeVelde could possibly be in the USHL next season. One could argue that Ryan Duncan would have been better off in the USHL this season, but he is originally from Calgary and UND has some pretty good connections with the Salmon Arm program. I certainly doen't think the Sioux are ignoring the USHL and I'm sure it will be a primary source of players in the future.

You can find snippets somewhere that suggest Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, or BU is in the lead for Kessel. You can be sure he WON'T be coming to UND as he declined an official visit.

Yes, I think the Sioux (or any other team) would suffer a bit if the top 3 forwards all left school 2-3 years early. It seems unlikely given the lockout and the fact that none of these guys are having All-American seasons. Of the three, I think that Stafford is the one closest to being ready to compete as a pro. He is a Buffalo Sabre draftee where they had big money problems before the lockout.

I think the boxscore is wrong. It seems unlikely that there were 3 d-men on the ice. McMahon/Prpich/Fylling makes sense..

That would be true if the season was over.. The Sioux have under-achieved, so far. It's hard to be optomistic, but I still like their chances to make a splash the rest of the way better than I would have liked Denver's chances last year. In order for that to happen, they will have to bring the intensity up several notches and a few guys need to play like stars.

OK, so Williamson was competing with 5 veterans. Radke is competing with six returning players on the blueline, meaning he is in a battle to get in the lineup. The one extra player has a major implication. I agree with that, but I do think we are starting to see improvement and it is far too early to give up on him. I still think he can be a very good player. And I agree with jloos that there isn't anybody ahead of him that should be yanked from the lineup at his expense (at least not at this point in the season).

Why is a guy like Foyt so noticeable when he gets in the lineup as a forward for heaven's sake and busts his tail on a few shifts? On Friday night I kept seeing Prpich going into the corners and getting into scraps despite a bum shoulder, and I had to think who is the other wing on that line? Oh yeah, Massen. Where was he? BTW, does anyone else wonder what Prpich could do if he'd go to the net and look for the puck with the same vengeance that he uses to instigate mayhem?

I agree with most of jk's comments. The Sioux have performed like a slightly better than average team so far this season. I still think they have the potential to be better than some of our recent opponents, but the performance has certainly been spotty. It's easy to blame effort, "issues in the locker room", coaching, etc. My opinion as to why the Sioux haven't gotten over the hump is that they don't seem to have any stars. Elite teams have star players and the good Sioux teams of the past have never had a lack of All-American candidates. Who on this roster has played like an All-American? Drew Stafford played like an All-American in the WJC, but I don't think he's performed at the same level for the Sioux. Travis Zajac may be an All-American candidate in another year. Brady Murray had the injury, but even so his play hasn't approached that of Brett Sterling, Marty Sertich, Ryan Potulny, Danny Irmen, Gabe Gauthier, etc. this year. Furthermore, the Sioux really lack a top end offensive-defenseman--and they have since Travis Roche. That's not to say the Sioux defensemen are not good players individually, but the better defensemen are all stay-at-home types. One of the reasons Denver got over the top last spring is because Ryan Caldwell had the ability to take over games at key moments. Certainly that's been true of the recent Gopher teams with Leopold, Martin, and Ballard. The goaltending has been steadily improving the past two years--but too often just good enough to lose. When will the Sioux win one of the games when they were outplayed? Finally, some of the seniors have just disappeared. Schneider, Fylling, and Massen all performed at a higher level as sophomores than they have recently.

This doesn't look good. The kid's "advisor" is a heavy-hitter who represents many NHL stars --and Sidney Crosby. Most of us know that verbal commitments are not binding. What bothers me about this situation is that there has been many articles in the online press about a "commitment" that may never have occurred. It looks to me like the USHR story was probably the primary source for many other reports (including Heisenberg?). USHR never gave a source or any indication that they had actually contacted Toews about his commitment. I really hope no one associated with UND had anything to do with leaking this story to USHR. This could be just the start of the circus. If he ever actually shows up at UND he will probably draw attention even greater than what Zach Parise received. He would probably play for a maximum of two years and leave the program before he turns 19. There's a part of me that wonders if it is really worth it..

This is the reason that next year is likely to be a rebuilding year (and let's hope for a big second half this season!). Of course, there's these three guys named Lee, Chorney, and Jones coming in next year. While I don't like to count on freshmen defensemen, that group has the potential to have an impact similar to the Goligoski, Hagemo, Peltier trio at Minnesota this year.

I haven't seen Hardwick since last year's state tournament. I know there have been concerns about his mobility. My bias is that the Sioux need great skating and puck moving skills from their defensemen if they are to compete successfully with Lucia's Gophers and the other top WCHA teams on big ice surfaces. Wisconsin, CC, and Denver are all bringing in defensemen in this mold. I'm going to continue to plug Moorhead's Jon Ammerman. I think he is similar to Robbie Bina in a little bigger package with a little more skill. His stock seems to have taken a beating in the past year. He went from "the best sophomore defenseman in the state" according to Lou Nanne and playing for the USA internationally to apparently nowheresville. He's an outstanding skater, very strong for his size, and he's got some sizzle in his game.

If you include Marvin, the current Sioux roster has 9 defensemen: Jones Greene Schneider Smaby Fuher Bina Radke Foyt (Marvin)

I might be wrong, but I don't think Heisenberg ever had '06 by Oshie's name. On the other hand, in the official UND press release "Hakstol said it is possible that VandeVelde and Oshie will defer their enrollments at UND until the 2006-07 season." http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/mhocke...RELEASE_ID=3367

I think Stafford was outstanding. I sure wish the Sioux had wing like him. Oh yeah.. So is this a sign of things to come for Drew? Or are we going to see a post-WJC letdown?

Maybe Lee should have played. That's debatable. I think he would have adjusted pretty well, but who knows. I think some of the criticism of Suter is over the top. He probably tried (and was asked) to do too much, but there's no question he was the top defenseman on this team.

There's room on the roster for 7 defensemen. Most teams won't play more than 6, and it's not unusual to shorten the bench to 4-5 guys in many situations. Now, if you're picking the roster and you're down to the #7 defenseman, a consideration may be to find a young player who will accept the role and who may benefit by practicing and being around the team for a couple of weeks. You can argue that the USA defense would have been improved by having better players in the 1-6 slots, but changing the #7 defenseman won't change the outcome of anything.

The logos and lines were quite faint in person as well.

Toews scores the game-winning goal and adds an empty-netter as Team Western wins the gold at the world U-17 challenge. He ends up the leading scorer in the tournament. http://www.prairiesportslink.com/article.aspx?art_id=5979

I wanted to see Team USA beat Team Canada in the gold medal game, but I'll be there cheering for Canada tonight. Canadians are our brothers--sometimes they feel like little brothers and that explains quite a bit about the complex relationship between our great nations. Let's go Canada!

I see Toews is wearing the "C" for Team Western. The roster on the Hockey Canada site lists him as 6'2" 185 lb. I didn't think he was quite that big.. http://hockeycanada.leaguestat.com/en/u17/...onId=2&teamId=8

That was a brutal game for the U.S. Belarus should get some credit too. They were opportunistic and their goaltender stopped the puck. I think the loss--and generally poor play since the Russia game--was a team effort. No facet of the game has been very good. The goaltending has been poor. Defensemen, especially Suter, have made too many mistakes. I still think Suter is easily the best defenseman on the team, but he has made several crucial turnovers. Suter is probably trying to do too much. Someone like A.J. Thelen (last year's version, not this year's) could have taken some pressure off. I continue to really like Nate Hagemo. I think he's a better all-around player right now than Goligoski and I expect him to be an All-WCHA caliber player by next season. I thought Brian Lee looked a little better, although he's still pretty tentative. I think he'd adjust within a few weeks if he had the opportunity to keep playing at this level. The WJC tournament just isn't the right environment for that to happen. There might be a silver lining for UND: if Lee had looked fantastic in the tournament his draft stock would have risen so much that it likely would have sliced some time off his college career. He will be a great player for the Sioux. Beyond the O'Sullivan-Stafford duo there doesn't seem to be much chemistry amongh the US forwards. Fritsche and Kessel look dynamite at the individual level. The U.S. team is a pure finesse team, but not skilled enough to dominate anyone at this level. Suter, Stafford, Bourque, and a couple of other guys are willing to make a hit, but the hits are so few that they are really noticeable when they occur. With the possible exception of Kessel, I don't see anyone on the U.S team that I would expect to be a star in the NHL. I think Suter will be a top-4 defenseman but probably not a star. Look for the U.S.A. to be much better in a couple of years.

I watched snippets of last night's webcast of the Moorhead-Centennial semifinal in between watching the USA-Belarus game. The video quality was pretty good. Centennial kept the Spuds bottled up in the neutral zone for much of the game. It seemed like Ammerman played the whole game for the Spuds. I think he is still a very good prospect and I'd like to see him in a Sioux uniform, preferably after a year of juniors. Moorhead is proving that they are certainly not invincible, but I think they are far from top form right now. I think they will benefit from a bit of line shuffling as Cory Johnson will be a much bigger factor in a few weeks (he's just coming back from a football injury). Jordy Christian belongs on the second line in my opinion, but I'm sure it's tough for Morinville to move some of those seniors down in the lineup. White Bear Lake is a very good team. Tonight's championship will probably go to the team best able to handle a third tough game in three nights.