Chuck Schwartz Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Agreed. Up until Oshie, who to me clearly seems to be the exception to the rule, that there has typically been a drop off in production between a player's final year of High School and his first year of DI hockey. I guess you could say that Oshie had a drop off, but then again, it's hard to score 100 points or more in DI nowadays. And Irish- I'm sorry you feel that way about our recruiting class. Sure, Minnesota's recruiting class is the best on paper, but not every top recruit goes onto a successful freshman year. Look at Frazee. I had him beating out that sieve Briggs for #1 goaltender by January of this past year at the latest and it didn't even come close to happening. And Chuck- Sorry, pal, though what you say is true on the most part, I would not consider Wheeler as anything close to an "elite" WCHA player. He hasn't done anything yet to garner such a label. He's a good player, don't get me wrong, but he's not elite. Wheeler will be an Elite player this season. And the point I was trying to make earlier regarding rankings was, no one knew that he was going to have a down year at Minnesota, they ranked him purely based off him being drafted #5 overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Wheeler will be an Elite player this season. And the point I was trying to make earlier regarding rankings was, no one knew that he was going to have a down year at Minnesota, they ranked him purely based off him being drafted #5 overall. Its possible, if true, shall we say that Lucia will be reviewing his recruiting policy after this season, if true Wheeler will be a member of the Phoenix yotes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZSIOUX Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Let's see our 2 choices: 1. Degree from The Carlson School of Management at the U 2. Flying for Mesaba at $17k a year with a guarantee of being laid off within 12 months. What school should I go to? neither, you should have gone to ASU and be a sun devil like i did with 65,000 others with 35,000 of them being female Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 neither, you should have gone to ASU and be a sun devil like i did with 65,000 others with 35,000 of them being female Who would love 35,000 drunk coed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jloos Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Okposo and Johnson are probably the two "best" incoming freshman in the country. I have seen Okposo play several times and have always been very impressed. He is built like a power forward, but he is fast and has very good hands. He is easily my bet for ROY. I think Michigan Tech landed the best offensive d-man of all the incoming freshman. Eli Vi(his last name is about 25 letters and I am not going to attempt to spell it), played for a bad HS team in the Cities, and was overlooked by everyone but Tech. He is a very talented player and IMO the best player Tech has picked up in years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greyeagle Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 I think Michigan Tech landed the best offensive d-man of all the incoming freshman. Eli Vi(his last name is about 25 letters and I am not going to attempt to spell it), played for a bad HS team in the Cities, and was overlooked by everyone but Tech. He is a very talented player and IMO the best player Tech has picked up in years. Did he play at St. Bernards/St. Agnes? I think I saw him play a couple times early in his HS career and he could be very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tnt Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Now while I argued that Toews at 9 was a joke last season, you can hardly argue with how they ranked Skille, Rau, Raymond, and Wheeler. They are Elite WCHA players. And NO ONE knew what Oshie was going to do. Isn't that the point? It's rankings based on people who likely haven't even seen some of these guys play. If they had any insight, they would have had Ryan Duncan in the top 20 forwards. It's nice to have players named, but I'm not going to get bent out of shape because they don't have a number of players. As for the person worried about the Sioux recruiting--you really need to have a little more confidence in the coaches that recruit these players, not the so-called experts. I would call your attention to the post concerning character and talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goon Posted September 17, 2006 Share Posted September 17, 2006 Okposo and Johnson are probably the two "best" incoming freshman in the country. I have seen Okposo play several times and have always been very impressed. He is built like a power forward, but he is fast and has very good hands. He is easily my bet for ROY. I think Michigan Tech landed the best offensive d-man of all the incoming freshman. Eli Vi(his last name is about 25 letters and I am not going to attempt to spell it), played for a bad HS team in the Cities, and was overlooked by everyone but Tech. He is a very talented player and IMO the best player Tech has picked up in years. And Okposo will be around one or two season before the pros come calling and sign him to a contract. EJ will be gone after this season, because St. Louis willl make a hard push to sign him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Schwartz Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 And Okposo will be around one or two season before the pros come calling and sign him to a contract. EJ will be gone after this season, because St. Louis willl make a hard push to sign him. I agree on your assesment of Okposo and Johnson. Johnson will be gone, but I think Okposo has at least 2 years. Not because he needs it, I just think hes a true gopher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sioux_Hab-it Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 I agree on your assesment of Okposo and Johnson. Johnson will be gone, but I think Okposo has at least 2 years. Not because he needs it, I just think hes a true gopher. Do you have any proof that he has already been to Blarney's or is this just word of mouth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jloos Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 Did he play at St. Bernards/St. Agnes? I think I saw him play a couple times early in his HS career and he could be very good. He did. I saw him play a few times when I lived in St. Paul, and again on the elite teams. His only downside is his size, he needed to hit the weights. He played in Lincoln the past two years, last I checked he appeared to be progressing. Not sure what his final stats were last season. I hope the Gophers play Tech at home this year, it will be entertaining seeing Woog trying to pronounce his last name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siouxnami Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 It's hard to believe that with our tradition and our facilities that we rank a mere fifith in the recruiting rankings in our own conference. Granted, 6th nationally is still pretty good. Hopefully we can secure some of the blue chip talent still available so we can move up on the rankings next year. With the high probability of losing another 4-5 underclassmen next summer, looks like we'll need to make the most of this season as the WCHA will continue to be extremely competitive for the next few years. TOP 15 FRESHMAN CLASSES 1. Minnesota 2. Boston University 3. Wisconsin 4. Denver 5. Colorado College 6. North Dakota 7. St. Cloud State 8. Cornell 9. UMass Lowell 10. Michigan State Recruiting Rankings I strongly agree with these rankings. The Sioux did not bring in alot of high end talent this year, just Forney, (nor did they need to). Now we will see how UND develops talent. We have had alot of good players that arrived without too much fan fair. Jordan Parise and FABIAN!!!! are recent examples. I would look for Zajac or Grieco or Genoway or Vandevelde to play a much larger role than anyone expected. But as for the rankings, I think they are dead on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greyeagle Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 He did. I saw him play a few times when I lived in St. Paul, and again on the elite teams. His only downside is his size, he needed to hit the weights. He played in Lincoln the past two years, last I checked he appeared to be progressing. Not sure what his final stats were last season. I hope the Gophers play Tech at home this year, it will be entertaining seeing Woog trying to pronounce his last name. Woog has no shot. BTW - FSN is broadcasting all four MTU games this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagies Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 Do you have any proof that he has already been to Blarney's or is this just word of mouth. Wasn't he the recruit mentioned in the Blarney's scandal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
State Of Hockey Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Wasn't he the recruit mentioned in the Blarney's scandal? There were a couple. The only one I remember was Forney. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackheart Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Do you have any proof that he has already been to Blarney's or is this just word of mouth. According to Jeff "Long Island" Frazee, there have been some rookie sightings already... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petey23 Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 There were a couple. The only one I remember was Forney. You mean the only one who was not drinking and was upset that the gopher players would jeopardize his football season by bringing him there(and probably made his decision to go to UND even easier)? Is that the Forney you are talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sioux_Hab-it Posted September 19, 2006 Share Posted September 19, 2006 Wasn't he the recruit mentioned in the Blarney's scandal? Right you are, so I stand corrected, he already is a real Gopher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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