I didn't read the article since I don't have a subscription, but there is a headline on US Hockey Report that says "Ruth to Fighting Irish," Presumably meaning either NTDP defenseman Teddy Ruth has committed to Notre Dame, or the 'ing' is a typo and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is planning a throwdown with Sinn Fein.(That's a close call by the way. Ginsburg's experience is more in coaching basketball, and those angry Irishman have got guns, but they've been kinda quiet lately and this is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world. I'd take The Judge in the 7th round.)
Right, so if you're still with me, I had Ruth as one of the best available defenseman left for 2007 and is a very nice pick-up for the Irish. Apparently Ruth didn't watch "The Video". He's originally from the Chicago area and if Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson can funnel some of the Chicagoland talent to Notre Dame, the Irish could be a very good team.
There's also been rumors that the London Knights of the OHL will offer an assistant coaching position to Dave Gagner, the former NHL star and father of Wisconsin recruit Sam Gagner. The thinking is that Sam will follow his father to the OHL rather than play college hockey. There seems to be some credibility to this rumor since London just lost an assistant coach. Boy am I glad that I got ripped by all those Gopher fans last summer when I said it was likely 50/50 for Gagner between the OHL and the NCAA.
There's even a bit of a doomsday scenario out there for Wisconsin fans. There's the possibility that Gagner could go to London and take along with him his friends Brendan Smith and Cody Goloubef, who have also committed to Wisconsin. A lot of that would be dependent on London being able to trade for their rights. The Knights were dominant in the OHL this past season and many thought they were due for a decline because they would be losing many top players. But if they could find a way to insert Pat Kane, Sam Gagner, Brendan Smith, and Cody Goloubef into their lineup next season, I think they'd be ok.
One player that is definitely going to the OHL is defenseman Zach Bogosian. He was invited to play with the NTDP next season, but has instead chose to play in the OHL. Bogosian was an east coast kid that was unlikely to play his college hockey in the west anyway.
I had also said that Cody Hodgson falling to the bottom of the first round in the OHL draft might have indicated he'd be leaning towards college, but it just happened that he had worked out a deal with that team, so he'll also be an OHL player.
I had a kid named Matt Duchene on the 2009 Recruiting Board. But I saw today that ISS has him ranked third overall for the 2009 NHL draft, behind some guy named Tavares. I'm guessing he doesn't choose the college route.
Also, I've slowly been adding a lot of the USHL names to the 2007 Recruiting Board. There's now over 150 players listed on that post.
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3 comments:
Wisconsin will be fine with our without those 3 Canadien kids...would've made things more exciting, but I trust Eaves and Company will make due with whatever talent they have. This year's team wasn't really that talented, and things turned out OK.
No, they won't, and this is coming from a Badger fan. Gagner is an irreplacable talent.
It's kind of tough to say somebody is "irreplacable" when they never even came close to suiting up for the team.
How many Sam Gagner's and Kyle Turris's did UW have this year? I'd argue Earl, maybe Pavelski (though he's a different type of player, I think), and that's really it. Team didn't do too terrible with them.
If Pavs stuck around for his Senior year, all the better.
And the Dmen would be awesome to have, but again, look what the team won a national title with - Drewiske, Engel, Piskula, and Olinger are all state kids who really aren't too talented (Piskula definitely more than the others)...Likens and Kluby are nice players, and Gilbert was a stud. Again, if those 2 went to London with Gagner, I think Eaves and Oz would find very "teachable" replacements.
I'll start to worry if they don't bring anybody in instead of those guys...
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