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University of North Dakota Hockey 2015-16 season


Frozen4sioux

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Gersich actually just completed his senior year in high school, but your point is somewhat accurate.

That may be true, but he is also 19 years old (or will be Friday). 

 

All I know is that when he first committed, he was identified as a possible 2014 or 2015 kid.  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AoPLTHefMmmTdGt1bWNTcUNqRm1SaUNZbG5jMi1PS2c&gid=1

 

I'm not knocking him.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy we got him, and anxious to see what he can add to the team.  You simply can't teach the type of speed he supposedly has.

 

But given his size, it's not surprising if he struggles when he makes a big move up in competition, and I expect that to happen here.  I figure by January of his sophomore season we could start to see some legitimate contribution from him, assuming he has what it takes to play college hockey.

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To take it a step further, I wouldn't be surprised if Wilkie came in and had the same kind of season Poganski did last year, and I'd be ok with that.  I though Pogs really took steps forward during the season, and I expect he's going to be a very good player for us in the coming years.

 

I'd love to have Wilkie throw up 10-15 goals his freshman year like Hextall or some others recently, but I'm not sure we're going to see that.

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That may be true, but he is also 19 years old (or will be Friday). 

 

All I know is that when he first committed, he was identified as a possible 2014 or 2015 kid.  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AoPLTHefMmmTdGt1bWNTcUNqRm1SaUNZbG5jMi1PS2c&gid=1

 

I'm not knocking him.  Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy we got him, and anxious to see what he can add to the team.  You simply can't teach the type of speed he supposedly has.

 

But given his size, it's not surprising if he struggles when he makes a big move up in competition, and I expect that to happen here.  I figure by January of his sophomore season we could start to see some legitimate contribution from him, assuming he has what it takes to play college hockey.

I actually agree with your point, there will be one of those guys (Boeser, Wilkie, Gersich, JJ) who won't do well with the speed aspect or the physicality of college hockey in year 1.  My comment was in regards to Gersich's age.  He was a tweener, if he would have came in last year he would have been super young.  As he is not a big guy it would a great idea for him to go back to the USHL.  The USHL is such a great league that I worry less with players coming from this league as compared to guys coming in from the Candadian Junior A leagues.  It depends on the player though.

 

Out of all the players I could see Wilkie struggling the most.  His D game is not one of his strengths and that could hold him back a year or two.  Gersich on the other hand plays really hard so he could play a bottom 6 role if need be. 

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To take it a step further, I wouldn't be surprised if Wilkie came in and had the same kind of season Poganski did last year, and I'd be ok with that.  I though Pogs really took steps forward during the season, and I expect he's going to be a very good player for us in the coming years.

 

I'd love to have Wilkie throw up 10-15 goals his freshman year like Hextall or some others recently, but I'm not sure we're going to see that.

If your standard is 10-15 goals as a freshman, then not many will attain that because guys like Michael Parks and Luke Johnson only had 12 and 11 respectively last year.   But I think you can make a difference without scoring that many goals as Poganski showed.  By the end of the year, he was very good, and if the freshmen you mentioned live up to that, then I think they will have had a pretty valuable impact on the team.  Besides, you never know who is actually going to shine,  Wes Dorey being the guy talked about as an impact player coming in years ago, while little talked about Jeff Panzer was the player that really shined. 

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Boeser has to be counted on to be the primary contributor, along, obviously, with Tomek.  Probably either Shaw or Wolanin as the next top frosh contributor.

 

Beyond that I wouldn't expect much.  Before everyone starts going crazy over Wilkie or Gersich, we need to remember that both struggled with taking the step up to the USHL, and were probably held back a year from what was initially expected in terms of coming to campus.  I don't expect to see major contributions from either until probably their late sophomore or early junior seasons.

I think we will get a lot more out of Gersich than you think. I see him filling a top 6 role and wouldn't be at all surprised with 10 or so goals. I think the extra year really helped Wilkie a lot and he will have a nice freshman season as well. I expect a better offense this year and this group of freshmen will be a big part of that.

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If your standard is 10-15 goals as a freshman, then not many will attain that because guys like Michael Parks and Luke Johnson only had 12 and 11 respectively last year. But I think you can make a difference without scoring that many goals as Poganski showed. By the end of the year, he was very good, and if the freshmen you mentioned live up to that, then I think they will have had a pretty valuable impact on the team. Besides, you never know who is actually going to shine, Wes Dorey being the guy talked about as an impact player coming in years ago, while little talked about Jeff Panzer was the player that really shined.

I think about Mike Cichy, too. Great in juniors and highly heralded, but never really lived up to that potential at UND.

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I think about Mike Cichy, too. Great in juniors and highly heralded, but never really lived up to that potential at UND.

The thing with Cichy was......he wasn't good enough offensively... To make up for his lack of interest in the defensive zone
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I think about Mike Cichy, too. Great in juniors and highly heralded, but never really lived up to that potential at UND.

There are always the outliers.  Jonny B is consistently brought up as a guy who had lower numbers in the USHL but did well instantly in college.  I tend not to focus on the outliers as they are pretty hard to find.  On average, if a player does very well in the USHL they should produce at an above average level in college.  That's why im curious to see what guys like Simo, JJ, and T. Olson will do after a year or two.  These guys were very good USHL players, they just happened to develop a tad later.  Wilkie and Gersich may struggle a little in year 1 (maybe not :) ) but these guys are multi-year players that should be good given time.  As I noted earlier, I think Gersich will probably be the best freshman forward in year one given his skating and intensity level, other than Boeser obviously.  JJ is another guy I am interested to see.

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