Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Gravel to St. Cloud

Marquette Rangers defenseman Kevin Gravel has has committed to St.Cloud. Gravel has flown under the radar a bit, playing with the Marquette AAA program prior to joining the Rangers of the NAHL, but he's one of the better '92 born defensemen in the country. He's a very tough, defensive defenseman.

Gravel has a connection to St. Cloud as his father Jim played for the Huskies. Northern Michigan and Michigan State also offered Gravel a scholarship.

Also, Mahtomedi HS defenseman Ben Marshall has committed to Minnesota. North Dakota, Wisconsin, and St. Cloud were also interested.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great recruit for the Gophers, maybe Mahtomedi will make the FSN High School hockey this season. I always hoped we'd get to see New Prague's Ambroz last year. Congrats to Ben and the Gopher coaching staff.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully Marshall plays in the USHL soon to get some experience.

Or at the very least hopefully he goes the private school route and plays with and against some better talent. Perhaps CDH, HM, or STA would be a good fits.

Anonymous said...

Since Gravel is a junior in high school this season what are the chance of him even playing for Motzko in St. Cloud?

Anonymous said...

Ben is a fine young man who comes from a great family. Met them in Slovakia and they're top notch. The Gophers are getting a great player.

Anonymous said...

"Since Gravel is a junior in high school this season what are the chance of him even playing for Motzko in St. Cloud?"

I hope you are kidding. St. Cloud gave Dahl over 15 years, there is no way Motzko is gone before this kid hits campus.

Anonymous said...

The "chances" are 100%...got it?

Anonymous said...

Maybe the higher-ups in St. Cloud have learned their lesson. Don't wait 15 years to dump a non performing coach that recruits non perfoming players.

The calalry isn't going to get there in time to save Motzko. Look for Mike Guentzel to be the coach there in another year.

Lookin for a split this weekend with Robert Morris. That is if St. Cloud can pull off a win on Saturday.

Anonymous said...

6>1-

Are you serious? I'm no fan of SCSU, but anon 3:10 is right on.

Motzko will be there. Dahl sucked for almost 15 years. His only redeeming qualities were that he pulled the wool over Herb Brooks' eyes (RIP big guy) and he was always good at saying something completely retarded.

Motzko is getting recruits that Dahl could only have wet dreams about. They'll turn it around.

Anonymous said...

6>1, you can troll with the best of them but you may be the biggest idiot I've ever seen as it's been very clear you know nothing about Motzko or the players he's recruited.

Anonymous said...

Motzko getting recruits that will turn it around. Roll that one around a couple of times. Isn't that what was said about last years recruits? and this years recruits?

How's Hepp doing? How about Lardsen? He's like Killer in Slap Shot. Sitting in the press box, out of the line-up with a cold. Will Roo save the season when he finally becomes eligible? Doubtful.

Has Lasch been playing this season? Or did he turn pro?

I'm here to help.

Anonymous said...

Lucia has been doing a great job of winning these recruiting battles with No Dak lately. He is getting the top talent to stay.

The last big time recruit they got from us was Nick Mattson... that was awhile back now.

Gotta love it!

Anonymous said...

6>1 is just a troll...read his posts...all he does is rip. Classic trolling behavior...just take his posts for what they are worth...wiping your backside after a good curly-q in the "John".

Anonymous said...

6>1, Skeets is a much better troll than you are, stop ripping him off. You look like a fool.

Anonymous said...

Looking at the St. Cloud schedule I'd be surprised if St. Cloud even wins a conference game before Christmas. The recruits won't get there soon enough to save this season. It will really suck to finish behind Tech and Anchorage.

Remember a verbal isn't worth the paper it's written on.


What's a skeets?

Anonymous said...

Aaron Harstad Commits to Colorado College playing for Team Wisconsin and will return to his hs for the season. Green Bay hold his rights in the USHL.

Anonymous said...

Well, we still have one more conference game to lose there 6>1, and then I guess we'll match the Goofer futility from a year ago...right?

Oh, and by the way. a "verbal" is not written on paper; therefore your little shot makes no sense whatsoever along with the rest of your joke posts. Oh, and how is that verbal from Brandon Martell working out for the Goofs?

Anonymous said...

Anon 3:17--You really aren't that dim are you?

Verbals not being worth the paper they are printed on is an old joke. Let me explain.

A verbal agreement is a non-binding contract. Neither party is bound by the agreement. Therefore I was suggesting that the verbals that St. Cloud has could be in danger of not being converted to signed letters of intent. Those guys that made verbal committments just might change their minds. Call it the reverse Beaverson.

Good luck sweating out some of those verbals once Motzko gets shown the door.

As for Martell's verbal. Probably not working out for him so far. For Minnesota, it looks as though they have quite a few high quality committments so I think they'll be ok.

Why should I care it's not my team.

Anonymous said...

I suspect Martell is working out about as well as Ravndalen who was also demoted from Fargo's USHL team.

I think Motzko deserves a lot of credit for Nodl, Lasch, and Roe. That said, he is still not winning recruiting battles with the big three. The quality Minnesota kids he's been getting are do more to the increased depth of talent than anything else. Minnesota, UND and UW continue to dominate recruiting in the state of Minnesota. Not only that, but Mankato picked up two kids which Minnesota wanted, in Pitlick and Lehrke. Too be fair, I heard it was mostly grades, but these two kids chose MSU-M over St. Cloud. And Motzko is not getting many blue-chip defensemen. I don't believe Motzko's job is in jeopardy but this season has begun disastrously. And it is certainly fair to point out with the offensive talent and Weslosky this SCSU team should not be below .500.

Anonymous said...

6>1:
I guess that means all the other teams' verbals aren't worth a damn either then, right? So why single out one team? Wow.

You are the only one on earth that thinks Motz is gonna get shown the door soon...that should tell you something about what you think.

I suppose Mike Lee wasn't on "the big three's" radar either...oops.

Our season didn't begin very well last year either. But they found their rhythm and had a good 2/3 of a season. This year I expect them to do the same. Oh, and I suppose those "blue chip" recruits that SCSU isn't getting is a point of contention with the NHL, as they have pegged three future Husky recruits as 1st or 2nd round picks (see story on this here blog). Isn't that the definition of a "blue chipper"...ability to play at the highest level?

That being said I mostly agree with anon at 5:55 PM's thoughts. But then again, that poster doesn't display trollish behavior with every post, either. Maybe it is called sanity.

Anonymous said...

St. Cloud didn't get Lehrke but the story I've heard is they passed on him in favor of David Eddy out of Woodbury who is originally from California and played with Lasch as a kid.
The blue chip defenseman may not be coming yet, but the D-core will be solid, they just need time to gel, don't forget there are 4 underclassmen on it and it could be 5 once Lauridsen and Rioux come back.

Anonymous said...

marshall (Mahtomedi) plays in the classic suburban conference.

there was a post suggesting he go the private school route (hill murray, st. thomas) and play a tougher schedule. Hill & STA also play in the classic suburban conference. Something tells me Marshall is probably right where he wants to be.

Anonymous said...

On Eddy versus Lehrke, Heisenberg has Eddy as an '09 and Lehrke as '10. It seems odd that that SCSU would pass on Lehrke for Eddy when they would be members of different recruiting classes.

Also SCSU only has one '10 recruit which is Gravel who is a D. Ravndalen might end up a '10 after his demotion.

I never said SCSU wasn't getting good players in the state of Minnesota, I said they weren't winning recruiting battles with Minnesota, UW and UND.

Anonymous said...

UND and UM wanted Mike Lee...that's one recruiting battle win.

Anonymous said...

The Gophers may have scouted Mike Lee, but I can't find anything that even hints he was ever offered a scholarship.

Apparently the Gophers were interested Kent Patterson, Allen York, Adam Murray, and Kevin Hartzell. I think they offered Hartzell, the rumor when he declined was that he was concerned about playing time. So they offered Patterson and he accepted. I don't know if Patterson's injury played a part in being second choice.

Anonymous said...

SCSU may have only one '10 recruit listed currently, but SCSU has only 4 seniors so all those kids won't be coming in next year.
Watch for Ravndalen, Lee, and Hanowski to all be guys coming in for 2010.
Lee won't come unless Weslosky leaves which is unlikely, Ravndalen obviously needs more time and it would be a huge mistake to bring Hanowski in straight from Little Falls.
Johnson could also be a 2010 if they wanted as they only lose 1 d-man and will have 8 returning, Oliver could be an either or as well.
Right now the only "lock" for 2009 is Eddy.

Anonymous said...

When did Lee make his visit to Minnesota and what was he offered? When did he turn them down?

Anonymous said...

Lee didn't visit MN, Motzko locked him up after UND told him they were going with a different goalie.

Anonymous said...

congrats gravel,great job
D.P.