I had posted earlier this week that Colorado College defenseman Brian Salcido said he would be willing to do whatever the Ducks wanted to, and I speculated that they would probably want him to sign. But according to an article from Maine Today:
According to [Portland Pirates coach Kevin]Dineen, three other players - Michigan right wing Jason Bailey, defenseman Kyle Klubertanz of Wisconsin and defenseman David Salcido of Colorado College - are expected to return to college.
That's good news for Colorado College, despite the obvious typo.
According to the Alaska Daily News, Alaska-Anchorage forward Eric Walsky will likely be transferring to Colorado College, mainly because that's where UAA will let him transfer to.
Walsky originally wanted to transfer to Minnesota, but Anchorage athletic director Steve Cobb wouldn't release Walsky to Minnesota because coach John Hill left his coaching position at Anchorage to be an assistant at Minnesota. In my opinion, it's kind of a bush league move by UAA's athletic director. If he's mad at John Hill for leaving, that's fine, but he shouldn't punish a student-athlete because of it.
The same article confirms rumors that Anchorage's top recruit, Erik Felde, failed to qualify academically and won't be going to Anchorage. Felde will likely play for Tri-City of the WHL. Many scouts felt playing in the WHL would have been a better fit for him anyway.
I'm not sure if this Deadspin-esque item is more for Colorado College fans or Denver fans, but former Colorado College goalie Jason Cugnet('96-'98), has his own drink on webtender.com, appropriately titled: Depressed Goalie. Merry Christmas, Let's Go DU.
Aaaah, Closure The Select 17 Festival wrapped up on Friday. Here's the Festival mainpage. Also, your Scoring Totals and Goaltending totals. USA hockey also had a nice article on Minnesota forward Tyler Thompson overcoming non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
It's important because I wrote it Ryan Carter leaving Minnesota State for Anaheim is super-confirmed. Rochester Mayo defenseman Nick Canzanello will replace Kyle Peto at Minnesota State. Travis Morin is still good at hockey.
He's got my vote Bruce Ciskie plays college hockey commissioner for a day and suggests some stuff that makes so much sense I'm not sure why college hockey isn't already doing it.
Thanks for the dreams of the memories Trevor Lewis signing with Los Angeles is confirmed by the Kings website. The Michigan blogosphere is not amused. The Kings are getting panned by a lot of people for this move too. Lewis will likely play in the OHL next season. Without getting into an NCAA vs. CHL debate, I'll just ask if the advantage of playing in the CHL worth paying a guy a ton of money as opposed to letting him play in the NCAA for free? Any sensible person would say no; the Kings say yes. Lewis' deal is a three year deal, meaning three years from now, when Lewis is getting close to being an NHL-caliber player, the Kings will have to pay him for his second contract, rather than his first.
Other high draft pick stuff Sid Hartman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Charley "Shooter" Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press both reported that Phil Kessel will return to Minnesota for his sophomore season, meaning there's about a 50/50 chance of that happening.
North Dakota defenseman Taylor Chorney told INCH that Jon Toews said he's coming back to North Dakota. But Toews added the caveat of "unless the Blackhawks back him into a corner." Again, it sounds about 50/50
Speaking of making it in the pros Chris Conner and Clay Wilson have signed pro contracts.
You Can't Stop Joementum Joe Pavelski has officially signed with the Sharks. The over/under for the number of goals Wisconsin will score next year is now being set at 12.
Citizen Kane Rumors Kane is no longer considering Wisconsin. Mike Spath of Michigan Rivals board fame said Kane will play college hockey, but is still deciding between Michigan and BU. If the stories about Kane's dad not liking to fly anywhere are true, Ann Arbor is two hours closer to Buffalo than Boston. That's four hours roundtrip. Just saying.
Phantom Space Sutter is a Jerk The world of hockey will be a better place once the Sutter clan is removed from it. Hockeysfuture.com reported in their Flames draft preview that Brett Sutter is trying to get Flames draft pick and St. Cloud commit Aaron Marvin to play in the WHL:
Speculation is that Marvin might be heading to the NCAA, but that doesn’t mean that getting him north of the border for junior hockey is impossible -- at least in the mind of the Red Deer Rebels’ tripartite guru Brett Sutter it’s not impossible. Although it may be a longshot, Sutter rolled the dice and traded 17-year-old prospect, Josh Giofriddo and a conditional draft pick in 2008 to the Lethbridge Hurricanes in order to test the probability of Marvin going north and playing junior there.
21 comments:
You ridiculously accuse UAA fans of being "mad" at John Hill on USCHO. I refute those stupid assertions there, so you come here and say if Steve Cobb "is mad at John Hill" ...
What part of what Dr. Cobb said didn't you understand?
Was it the part where he said that Walsky was recruited by Hill using UAA funds and that he wasn't going to allow the ex-coach to benefit from that?
Or the part where you ignore how Cobb said he'd release Walsky to 58 other schools? Yeah ... that must be the one because your WEAK post says "mainly because that's where UAA will let him".
You're either a perniciously lying ass or just stupid.
Which one is it?
Where did Eric Walsky want to transfer to? Minnesota
Why isn't he transferring to Minnesota? Steve Cobb won't let him.
Why won't Steve Cobb let him? He's mad that John Hill left UAA.
I don't think it's that difficult to understand. The nonsense about using UAA funds is ridiculous. If he's that concerned about the money, maybe he should demand John Hill give back the $20 in gas money it cost to drive across town and watch Walsky play in high school. That'd be just as petty.
You'd think an athletic director would be more concerned with what his best for his student athletes. Instead, Cobb, in his own words, was more interested in making sure an ex-coach didn't benefit.
I'm going to have to agree with DTP here. I don't think it's wrong for the UAA A.D. put his foot down and say "No you can't leave and go play for John Hill, you committed to our school, and you can't just leave because the coach is gone." ESPECIALLY when it's within the same conference. I think it's generous for him to release him to the other schools, especially the other WCHA schools. Some schools wouldn't even allow that.
When you say "You'd think an athletic director would be more concerned with what his best for his student athletes," I really don't think that "What's best for Walsky" is exclusively playing at Minnesota. Plus, the A.D. has to be concerned with all student-athletes. It is not in the best interest of the Seawolves hockey team to lose their scoring leader. It is not the job of the A.D. to coddle hockey players who are unhappy where they are.
I think it's a perfectly reasonable stipulation that Walsky not be released to Minnesota, and I think the UAA A.D. is being pretty fair overall. He could have not released him to ANY other WCHA teams, if he wanted to.
There you go again. You say, ...
"Why won't Steve Cobb let him? He's mad that John Hill left UAA."
After I exposed your blatant mischaracterizations on USCO (par for your course) and then after I again show what sort of exaggerating RUBE you are; you still insist on calling Steve Cobb mad.
You're fucking weak. I don't know if it's just that your mind is fucking weak or if it is your character. Perhaps a little bit of both.
DTP--
It seems pretty obvious to me that what Cobb did was petty.
Now, he might not be "MAD" at John Hill. He only acts like he is.
Personally, I don't have a problem with a kid going to play for the head coach who recruited him. This is just a really weird situation because said head coach willingly left his head coaching job to become an assistant coach.
What Dr. Cobb does in this case is his own business, not mine.
And, trust me, I'm really not at all offended that a pretty good hockey player was not allowed to transfer to Minnesota. Doesn't bother me at all.
Just strikes me as a bit petty and, yes, bush.
Oh, and if you think it only costs $20 to drive across Anchorage a couple times, then you apparently haven't been paying attention to the price of gas lately.
You're making a letter of intent sound like an indentured servitude contract. Every college student should have the right to choose where they go to college, regardless of whether or not the word 'athlete' follows it. If the WCHA decides to pass a rule like most major college conferences saying players have to sit out two years if they want to transfer intraconference, that's fine.
If I'm not mistaken, RWD, didn't you have a relative or something that played college hockey last season, and at the end of the season, decided it wasn't the best situation for him and chose to go somewhere else? Would it have been fair to force him to stay in his situation.
DTP-- No matter which way you look at it, Steve Cobb isn't allowing Eric Walsky to transfer to Minnesota because John Hill left UAA for Minnesota. It's a petty decision that is punishing Walsky for something Hill did.
In a way, it's similiar to the Gophers drinking scandal. Don Lucia didn't have to publicly punish his players, but most people thought it was bush league when he didn't. Steve Cobb didn't have to release Walsky to Minnesota, but I think it's bush league that he didn't.
Holy crap, I don't remember even saying anything about Tommy... STALKER! But he is going to a D-3 school, so that's neither here nor there.
Everyone has the right to choose where they go to college, yes, however, is Walsky making an academic move? I haven't seen that mentioned before. But no one tied him up and dragged him to UAA. Did they?
No one is forcing this kid to stay anywhere. It's fine that he wants to transfer. I'm fine with transferring, whatever. There was no crying over Dan "0 Points" Kronick. Not getting the playing time you expected? Stuck on the fourth line? Healthy scratch? Yeah, why not transfer to a school that would need you. But that's not the situation here.
Say John Hill had been fired, okay, that's a little different to me. But he leaves UAA and wants to bring his recruit with him? I don't think so.
I think it would be punishing him if he wasn't allowed to transfer ANYWHERE within the WCHA.
chris:
No. You expressed it by mischaracterizing an Athletic Director's emotional state from 2000 miles away. Then after you were taken to task for that ignorant act you promptly used the same mischaracterization not once more but twice.
Bruce:
People are free to express their perceptions about the decision. I don't begrudge that in any manner. However there's nothing left to do but shout someone down when they use gross mischaracterization. In other words; its ok for someone to say "I think it was petty" but pretty damn ignorant to call someone "mad".
In General:
If Walsky is being punished by not being able to go to ONE of the FIFTY-NINE then I can't figure out the downside of that; just how much does that really hurt him? Is it just because he isn't being allowed to go to Minnesota? Perhaps you think that is the ONLY school at which he can display his talents and earn a step to "the show"? I guess nobody goes from other WCHA schools to the pros?
Not allowing UofTwinCities to benefit from it's tampering/poaching isn't even petty. It's smart. Chris claims at USCHO that the NCAA wouldn't be interested in investigating allegations of poaching (I disagree) but lets assume he is right. If the NCAA isn't going to do anything about it then I'm damn glad Steve Cobb will. Lets face it. If Red Berenson did the same thing Chris would be all about supporting him.
Saying that Walsky can transfer to any school besides the one he wants to is...generous? All it's doing is illustrating the fact that Cobb is mad at Hill.
If a coach is a big reason for a student committing to a university, then forcing them to stay after that coach leaves is pretty cheap. Allowing them to go to any university besides the one with that coach is a straight up douche move.
There's a difference between not allowing Minnesota to benefit and punishing Walsky. Especially when there are a multitude of choices for Walsky. If one insists that Walsky is "being punished" then perhaps John Hill shouldn't have made overtures and tried to poach the kid. With that in mind, Walsky is a victim of John Hill trying to circumvent the NCAA rules about contacting athletes at other D-1 schools.
The real story about Walsky can be found here: http://runninwiththedogs.blogspot.com/2006/07/one-hundred-years-behind-mask.html
What exactly is that difference? That he gets screwed over because they don't like Minnesota as opposed to him getting screwed over as a punishment? The point is Walksy is getting screwed over for something he has nothing to do with.
Do you have any kind of information showing that Hill contacted Walsky and not the other way around? If you get recruited by a coach to play for him...what's wrong with wanting to stay with him when he moves?
Several things:
Say what you will about UAA's situation regarding Walsky, but losing Felde is far more damaging, IMO. And the thing is about Walsky is that he still could have gone to Minnesota if he had wanted to, only he wouldn't get scholarship money for the year he had to sit. Mad at Hill is one thing, saying that another team shouldn't benefit off of a former coach's recruiting methods is another.
Signing Trevor Lewis is probably the dumbest thing I've seen in quite a while. But, what do you expect? I wonder how much of this has to do with Andy Murray? While he was skipper, they didn't seem (to my knowledge) to do strange impulsive things such as this. Now, I'm not saying Andy had anything to do with the drafting and development of players (Usually a GM decides when to sign a player), but still...
Sutter's push for Marvin to go to the WHL is just the MO of major juniors. Everyone talks about the famed "Gopher arrogance" that permeates the WCHA. Well, sorry UMN fans, but Major Junior arrogance is FAR FAR FAR more rampant than the Gopher fans of this type could EVER dream up. They feel they are the best and, regardless of what anyone else says (even NHL GMs, players, owners, etc.), it's true. Sutter feels his team is the best place for Marvin because the alternative would be a top recruit going to someplace that is inferior.
And Canadians think Americans are arrogant.
If John Hill actually tried to recruit Walsky while Walsky was at UAA, then Hill has broken the rules.
And if Hill has broken the rules, then maybe, just maybe, Dr. Cobb should have said that, instead of saying what he said. Because I don't know about everyone else, but my thoughts on this issue are completely different if there is real evidence that Hill (or anyone else at the "Main U") did that.
All Dr. Cobb did was make himself look petty and angry with the comments he actually made.
Bruce:
Catch-22.
Say so without evidence and he'd be vilified worse than just being called petty.
Don't say anything but instead take action that is within the rules and you get called petty.
Without evidence, he is simply assuming that Hill tampered with Walsky.
And you know what happens when you assume...
If he has evidence, he should come forth with it. If he doesn't, then he shouldn't take action that could lead to the conclusion that he is being petty.
Please stop make me say things that could be interpreted as "defending Minnesota".
Over/Under on Badger goals at 12, eh? Well the over/under on how many they give up is at 11, so THERE!
Re: Sutter - Isn't there a Sutter playing at Mankato? Not related, or...?
Curious about players from the Select 17 camp -
Tyrel McBain - from ND, but any relation to Jamie?
Dean Chelios - Chris's kid? Any good?
No disagreements about the Badgers only giving up 11 goals next season.
As far as I can tell, even though Sutter is from Red Deer, Alberta, he's no relation to the famous Sutter brothers.
I have no clue about Tyrel McBain.
Dean Chelios is Chris' kid. As far as his hockey future, I'd guess he's probably borderline to play college hockey some day. He's certainly not his father.
Thanks, Brad. I love your site.
My lament over the Marvin situation wasn't so much that I was worried about him going to the WHL as it was over the Sutter clan automatically thinking they have to try to "save" their prospect from the horrors of playing college hockey.
Not just college hockey, but pretty much anything American.
I had this post about Brent Sutter last year: http://westerncollegehockey.blogspot.com/2005/09/other-sides-argument.html
I wonder if Sutter tried telling Aaron Marvin, from Warroad, that he didn't come from a "hockey culture" where fans really understood the game.
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