Prospective Recruits

[spfreak]

That's a pretty big deal, and a big blow to CC. The Forum indicates he's accelerating, which is very unusual for UND.

The last Sioux recruit to have accelerated was Toews. Hopefully St. Clair can be half the player that Jonathan was while he played here. Either way, a very exciting pickup. I wonder what the details as to the reason for this are? I don't believe Guentzel would have played a part in recruiting him to CC as he was at The U of M when St. Clair committed. As I recall, St. Clair was either 14 or had just turned 15 when he committed so maybe he was another one where he made the decision and changed his mind as he matured.

[Big A HG]

Wow, this is pretty awesome news.

Here are a couple links that pertain to his signing with CC, but they are good reads nonetheless and don't pertain much to CC usually.

5 minutes with . . ."

USHL stats via hockeydb.com

Someone get the kid a new sweatshirt!

[brianvf]

Wow, that is huge. Hate to steal a kid from CC, as they are a like-able school for the most part (I didn't mind getting Gregoire from DU... ), but this kid is the real deal.

Now that he is a year older in the USHL, he will have a much better year.

http://www.areavoices.com/force/?blog=59068

[Goon]

Colton St. Clair played on the Junior Sioux so that might have a hand in it. That was a couple of summers ago, so I was actually shocked that he had originally picked C.C.

[redwing77]

Wow. That's two now.

Expanding too. Miller is from Georgia (now he graduated) and soon we'll have players from the Southwest US to the NE Canadian provinces.

Pretty expansive.

[Riverman]

Wow. That's two now.

Expanding too. Miller is from Georgia (now he graduated) and soon we'll have players from the Southwest US to the NE Canadian provinces.

Pretty expansive.

UND has to expand with Dean in our back yard at UNO.

[AZSIOUX]

az kid in grand forks playing hockey nice

[Goon]

This is the kind of crap that I think is funny. This was from Brad's blog in the comments. I don't there is any monkey business behind the scenes.

I think it is funny how Sioux fans always try to talk garbage about other coaches supposedly recruiting players after they have committed elsewhere but this is the 2nd time in the last year or so where a kid quickly decommits from a WCHA school and then suddenly commit to UND. Maybe we should be raising an eyebrow over Hakstol and Co? Something tells me if this happened at a rival school, we'd be reading a bunch of comments on how it is wrong, etc.

[nd06hockey]

I can't wait to see St. Clair in a Sioux uniform. I don't think there is any funny business in him pulling his commitment from CC and coming to UND. He must've came to a few Sioux games when he was playing for the Force and wanted to get in on the action. If there is any question about the Force being a good program to have in the area for the Sioux...I think it has just been answered with this.

Force to Sioux Recruits Tally up to 2!

1. G Zane Gothberg (TRF for one more year)

2. F Colten St. Clair

It'll be nice to be able to see some UND recruits playing for the Force now...compared to last year where there were a couple of Gopher recruits...and 0 UND...until St. Clair decided to come up the Red River 75 miles!

[dagies]

This is the kind of crap that I think is funny. This was from Brad's blog in the comments. I don't there is any monkey business behind the scenes.

If there is recruiting behind the scenes initiated by the coaches, while he was still a recruit at CC I would not like it. That said, Hakstol seems to be in favor of keeping the agreement of no recruiting after a verbal so I'm not too concerned that anything went on.

[ChadR]

I think this just goes to show you what happens when you committ to a college at 14 or 15 yrs old. Remember what you were doing at that age? No, either do I. But I do know college was not what I was thinking about. Although this hurts for CC, I can't wait to see him in a SIOUX uniform

[Goon]

If there is recruiting behind the scenes initiated by the coaches, while he was still a recruit at CC I would not like it. That said, Hakstol seems to be in favor of keeping the agreement of no recruiting after a verbal so I'm not too concerned that anything went on.

I don't think Hak would do these sort of things. I know the one coach in favor of changing the gentleman's agreement is Lucia.

[USA Hockey]

This is the kind of crap that I think is funny. This was from Brad's blog in the comments. I don't there is any monkey business behind the scenes.

The individual that posted that has no idea of what he is talking about. Gregoire changed his commitment because he wanted to be closer to home and the St. Clair situation is a matter of a 14 year old making a decision to early. Just because a player switches his commitment to another school doesn't mean that the coaches were not honoring the "gentlemen's agreement".

[Goon]

The individual that posted that has no idea of what he is talking about. Gregoire changed his commitment because he wanted to be closer to home and the St. Clair situation is a matter of a 14 year old making a decision to early. Just because a player switches his commitment to another school doesn't mean that the coaches were not honoring the "gentleman's agreement".

My suspicions it's one of the hate UND at any cost regardless of the fact type fan.

[petey23]

The individual that posted that has no idea of what he is talking about. Gregoire changed his commitment because he wanted to be closer to home and the St. Clair situation is a matter of a 14 year old making a decision to early. Just because a player switches his commitment to another school doesn't mean that the coaches were not honoring the "gentlemen's agreement".

Also DU changed the year they wanted him to come to school and pushed it back a year. I think the main reason he chose DU over UND in the first place was to play a year earlier....when that changed so did his decision.

[siouxforce19]

Also DU changed the year they wanted him to come to school and pushed it back a year. I think the main reason he chose DU over UND in the first place was to play a year earlier....when that changed so did his decision.

That's not accurate at all. Gregoire hadn't decided about whether or not he was going to go to DU in 07 or return to juniors before he switched his committment. His decision had NOTHING to do with the year he was entering college. It had nothing to do with him playing a year earlier because he still didn't end up playing a year earlier, he still ended up at UND in 08.

[yzerman19]

It is difficult for other schools to compete with the fact that we have produced two NHL all stars and over a dozen NHL players over the past couple years. Hak is not stealing recruits; our program stands elite. Parise>>superstar, Toews>>superstar, Oshie>>budding superstar, the rest are all very good. Name a program with that level alumni, and I'm not even talking: Blake, Commodore, Greene, Stafford, Zajac...guys with regular NHL pay checks. UND develops top talent into millionaire NHL talent, period.

[ScottM]

It is difficult for other schools to compete with the fact that we have produced two NHL all stars and over a dozen NHL players over the past couple years. Hak is not stealing recruits; our program stands elite. Parise>>superstar, Toews>>superstar, Oshie>>budding superstar, the rest are all very good. Name a program with that level alumni, and I'm not even talking: Blake, Commodore, Greene, Stafford, Zajac...guys with regular NHL pay checks. UND develops top talent into millionaire NHL talent, period.

IIRC UND's history of moving college players into the pro ranks was one of the reasons Herb Brooks gave ZPar to sign.

[I Ranger]

Do you think with St. Clair committing this means we are out of the running for Sahir Gill? Unless Gill or St. Clair along with a few other committed recruits are willing to wait until 2011 to come in.

[USA Hockey]

The 2009 Upper Midwest High School Elite League season starts tonight with Team Northwest playing Team Southwest at 7 p.m. at New Hope Ice Arena. I will post the rest of the rosters and schedule later this week, but here are tonights rosters, as you'll see there are already a number of D1 players in tonights game,

Team Northwest,

http://www.hselitehockey.com/roster/show/11526

Team Southwest,

http://www.hselitehockey.com/roster/show/11524

[Chris]

This is the kind of crap that I think is funny. This was from Brad's blog in the comments. I don't there is any monkey business behind the scenes.

I'm sure Hakstol did a wonderful job recruiting him during that five minute period between breaking it off with CC and committing to UND.

[brianvf]

I'm sure Hakstol did a wonderful job recruiting him during that five minute period between breaking it off with CC and committing to UND.

From what I heard (reliable source), St. Clair contacted UND, not the other way around.

Evidently he had been rethinking his commitment to CC during last year in Fargo, and decided to change it.

[82SiouxGuy]

From what I heard (reliable source), St. Clair contacted UND, not the other way around.

Evidently he had been rethinking his commitment to CC during last year in Fargo, and decided to change it.

Let's see.

- Playing for the former UND coach (I'm sure that UND hockey stories were never told at the rink).

- Playing 75 miles from the University of North Dakota in front of a lot of hockey fans that also support UND.

- Dealing with media that also cover UND hockey.

- Watching UND hockey highlights on TV all year and/or reading the newspaper stories about UND hockey all year.

- Possibly attending a game or more at the Ralph (along with 11,000+ fans) since it is only 75 miles away.

Nope, I can't figure out why a player might think about what it would be like to play for UND without being recruited.

[The Sicatoka]

Two simple statements:

1. Recruiting 14-15 year olds is dicey at best: Their minds change faster than the weather in ND.

2. Verbal-schmerbal*: It ain't real until it's a signed national letter of intent.

* That statement in no way advocates tampering with a kid after a verbal is given. Please refer to Statement 1 for clarification of my intent.

[AZSIOUX]

Two simple statements:

1. Recruiting 14-15 year olds is dicey at best: Their minds change faster than the weather in ND.

2. Verbal-schmerbal*: It ain't real until it's a signed national letter of intent.

* That statement in no way advocates tampering with a kid after a verbal is given. Please refer to Statement 1 for clarification of my intent.

agree on #2 but a very high % of all verbals are honored in college hockey. its not that common for players to change their minds that often as you know. just pointing that out but yes it sint a signed letter. great we ended up with colten! big time player from my neck of the woods out in the left coast