First of all, thanks to all of those that linked to my site. We had our most visitors ever yesterday and could surpass that mark today.
There was some talk about my qualifications to put together such a list. I've never made any sort of claims to be an expert. Like any other blog, the credibility comes from the content. You can put as much in what I say as you'd like.
As for the list itself, the conventional wisdom from earlier this year that this year's class didn't seem to have as many star players seemed to hold true. There were only four 5 star players on the list. By comparison, I can see 6 in the class of 2007. I would have only given four players out of last year's recruiting class the 5 star rating, but in my opinion, there were two phenomenal players in Phil Kessel and Jack Johnson, whereas this class really only has Erik Johnson.
It's also interesting to note that if Nigel Williams and Jim O'Brien had stayed in the class of 2007, as they were originally expected, both probably would have earned the five star ranking, just because I think each player has so much potential, and should be much, much better by this time next year.
Packer487, the proprietor of the Blog that Yost Built, picks up some bonus points for assertiveness by noticing that I slipped Johan Ryno into the rankings, despite the rumors of his not wanting to play college hockey.
I talked about this on the MSU Maverick group All Bull, No Sh*t, but since it was brought up here, I'll mention it here too.
I talked with hockey recruiting god Chris Heisenberg about Ryno's commitment, and he said that there was some sort of miscommunication between the Detroit Red Wings organization and Ryno's agent/advisor/whatever. The Red Wings wanted Ryno to go to college, presumably so that the Wings got an extra years to let him develop before they had to sign him to a contract.(The NHL's new CBA requires players in Europe to be signed after two years, while college players don't have to be signed until after they're done with college.) Ryno's agent wanted him to play in the Swedish Elite League and have the most bargaining leverage for Ryno's pro contract.
It's a confusing situation and unclear how it will all play out. For now, there hasn't been anything definitive reversing the initial report of Ryno coming to Mankato, so until there is, I'll leave him up on the list.
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6 comments:
Interesting stuff about Ryno. Thanks for the update. It's interesting that the Wings actually want one of their prospects to play college hockey based on how they seem to completely ignore that it even exists when they draft.
I thought the same thing you did. I assumed the Wings wouldn't want him playing college hockey since they never take college players.
But it makes sense that they want to see a player with as much untapped potential as Ryno develop for a couple extra years before they have to start paying him.
Yeah, thanks for the valued input, Hobart.
The real question is, can any of these players ever measure up to Danny Richmond?
For their sake, I hope none of the players on this list end up measuring up to Danny Richmond's college career.
with the rules the way they are now, I totally understand why the Wings would want Ryno to come play college hockey. The question is, why on earth would Ryno's agent let him do that?
As for Summers/Williams...Williams for sure impressed me more in the game against Michigan. That was the only time I've seen him play. I've seen Summers a couple of other times, and he's a great skater--and he did seem to improve in his own end from last year. But Williams is an absolute monster.
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