Wednesday, May 14, 2008

USHL Draft

The USHL held their draft today. The results are here.

The first overall pick was former North Dakota Mike Forney who will be playing in the USHL for a year, and then returning to college, though it's not clear which college yet. Forney's career at North Dakota was derailed by a number of injuries after coming to school with high expectations. Forney probably would have been better off playing a year in the USHL before coming to North Dakota, and now it looks like he'll get a year in the USHL anyway.

Northern Michigan goalie Reid Ellingson was the second overall player selected by Green Bay. Ellingson showed promise in 9 games for Northern Michigan as a freshmen, but sophomore Brian Stewart saw the majority of the playing time, and another sophomore, Derek Janzen, also played in 7 games.

Recently released BU goalie Brett Bennett was also selected in the first round by the Indiana Ice.

The expansion Fargo Force had to give up their first three picks as compensation for receiving a number of players from the recently folded Ohio franchise, but the Force still ended up with a solid draft. They got three players already committed to colleges in Colton St. Clair, Corey Leivermann, and Johnie Searfoss. They also picked up a pretty good defenseman in Tom McCarthy, and also took a bit of a chance on talented '93 birthdate Shane McColgan. McColgan was recently selected by Kelowna of the WHL, and seems likely to sign there, but he can only play five games for them next year if he does sign, so perhaps he might see some time with the Force.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Which players did Fargo get from Ohio?

Anonymous said...

Was Forney a victim of Sue overrecruitment and forced out.

Anonymous said...

why were there so few players selected off of USHL central scouting list and zero Ontario kids. I thought there scouts were the best??!!

Ryan said...

I believe the USHL CS list just lists draft eligible players. Teams have their own lists they compile and go off.

Anonymous said...

USHL Central Scouting was created by an indivdual who was only worried about geeting players to register for his tournaments. It has been said that he will be out, that the USHL has had enough. Watch for him to be involved with another "Outlaw league" near you soon.

Anonymous said...

Forney has suffered injuries for two years and after coming in as true freshman went to coaching staff and told them he needed to go and heal to be ready to play college hockey. Player has great relationship with coaching staff and may be back when ready if ready to play at ND level again once truly healed. Facts, just the facts.