It's Official: Dahl leaves St. Cloud

I've been waiting patiently for more to come from this story than just vague rumors, and it now looks official: Craig Dahl has resigned as the head coach at St. Cloud State University. Commence the poppping of the champagne

Dahl chose to go out in typical Dahl style:

“It’s been with a great deal of disappointment and anticipation that I’ve reached this decision,”

Wha? He was excitedly expectating to be disappointed? Ok, maybe I will miss one thing about him being gone.

Newly hired assistant coach Bob Motzko is expected to take over behind the bench for Dahl. I would say it's a huge blow to the team to lose their coach so close to the start of the season, but really, who are we kidding here?

Dahl, who has a degree in physical education, will be moving on to a career in financial services. When asked what he knew about stocks, Dahl responded "I'm hoping for a split" *rimshot*

8. University of Alaska-Anchorage

University of Alaska-Anchorage

Key losses: Martin Stucklik, F; Lee Green, D; Jim Dahl, F
Key Returnees: Nathan Lawson, G; Justin Bourne, F; Charlie Kronschnabel, F; Ales Parez, F
Key recruits: Shane Lovdahl, F; Matt Robinson, D
Projected leading scorer: Justin Bourne

Grades:

Offense: C
Defense: C
Goalie: B+
Coaching: C+

Analysis:

Anchorage is the one team in the west that consistently gets the most out of what little talent they have. After a near implosion in the 2002-2003 season, which resulted in a one win season, Anchorage has put up two very respectable seasons. Last year Anchorage finished 7th in the WCHA and gave Wisconsin all they could handle in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. Anchorage is able to do this through hard work, and solid defense play rather high-scoring superstars like the rest of the league has.

The task of maintaining this success in such difficult conditions falls on former Northern Michigan assistant Dave Shyiak. Shyiak had been waiting for years for a head coaching job, and finished runner-up to many jobs, including Northern Michigan, where fellow staff member Walt Kyle was given the job, and even Alaska-Anchorage the last time they had a coaching opening and chose Minnesota assistant John Hill for the job. Last summer though, Hill left his head coaching job to return to his assistant’s job at Minnesota. Shyiak is a talented coach, and Anchorage might be the ideal place for him. He was instrumental in creating a pipeline from the BCHL to Marquette while at Northern Michigan, and will now have easier access to British Columbia. If he can consistently bring in talented offensive players from that league, he could turn Anchorage into a high-scoring program.

That is in the future, however. As for this season, goals will be tough to come by for the Seawolves. Anchorage lost last season’s leading scorer, Martin Stuchlik, to graduation, though Stuchlik only scored 25 points. They do, however, return the other two-thirds of their first line from last year in tall junior forwards Justin Bourne and Charlie Kronschnabel. Neither player came to Anchorage with much in the way of expectations, but have become the top players on the team after two good seasons. The Wolves will need them to have career years to compete in the WCHA. The bottom line is that goals will tough to come by for the Wolves.

News of the Day

Minnesota-Duluth defenseman Jay Rosehill has left the Bulldogs and signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The big defenseman only registered five assists as a freshmen and was plagued by the NCAA's crackdown on obstruction last year. Rosehill showed potential, but certainly isn't irreplaceable for the Bulldogs. Plus, I'm willing to bet that anything that results in more ice time for freshmen defenseman Matt Niskanen will be a good thing for Duluth.

Michigan added their third commitment for the class of 2008, in Honeybaked center David Wohlberg. Normally, any time I see the name "Wohl" associated with Michigan, I feel a little queasy, but he looks to be an outstanding two-way player. He's been added to the 2008 recruiting board, that you can find on the linkbar.

There could be greater significance to this commitment though. It seems as though Michigan, and perhaps other schools are being forced to change their recruiting philosophy a bit. The class of 2008 with Wohlberg, Czarnik, and Jenks will be replacing Michigan's 2004 recruiting class of Kevin Porter and Chad Kolarik, meaning Michigan now has three commitments for two scholarships. A lot of things could happen between now and then to correct this overbooking. Michigan Rivals recruiting expert tbarr hinted at the fact that Michigan might not use all of their scholarships for the class of 2006. But it seems that the more likely scenario is that Michigan is counting on the fact that NHL departures will allow them the space necessary to fill all of their offers. This could turn out to be an unfortunate side effect of the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement(which I shared my thoughts on in a recent post.) It doesn't look like coaches will be able to plan on the majority of their recruits staying all four years when trying to map out future recruiting. College hockey recruiting could become an even more muddled mess of late-summer signings, last second deparatures for other schools, and deferments for an extra year of juniors.

Luckily, to help us through this muddled mess, Chris Heisenberg has created a new blog that will follow college hockey recruiting. His list of commitments has served as an extremely helpful starting point for me with this blog, and I'm sure that his blog will be great as well. You can check it out here at http://hockeyrecruits.blogspot.com/ I'll also add it to the list of links on the sidebar.

Wacky WCHA Stat of the Day

Poster SJHovey did some interesting research about the number of games played by WCHA defenseman.

Here's the list of the total games played by defenseman for each team.

1. 418 Minnesota
2. 404 SCSU
3. 385 Wisconsin
4. 349 CC
5. 345 Minn. St.-Mank.
6. 338 UAA
7. 318 UMD
8. 311 Mich. Tech
9. 259 UND (including Robbie Bina's 63 games, though he may miss the season)
10. 123 Denver

To give those numbers some sense of perspective, WCHA teams play anywhere from 37-43 games per year. Assuming they dress 6 defenseman each game, that means each team has 222-258 games played by defenseman each year. By my estimation, a little more than that would be considered average for a team to be returning.

Those certainly aren't pretty numbers for Denver, especially when you consider that if Matt Carle were to turn pro also, they would only have 50 games played, 42 of which come from sophmore Andrew Thomas. Denver will probably have to call upon forward Adrian Veideman to move back to defense and provide some leadership and experience to such a young group.

All in all, I don't know that these numbers mean too much. I think there are a couple conclusions we can draw from it though. First, while everyone is expecting the Gophers offense to be very good, they should also have a very experienced defense. Second, St. Cloud has a very experienced defense that they should be able to rely on since they won't be able to score many goals. Third, Wisconsin can no longer be considered a young team. Now that they have talent and experience, they should be a dangerous team.

Finally, I think that everyone knew North Dakota and Denver would be young on the blueline this season, but I don't think anybody really expected them to be this young. I think both teams have tremendously talented players coming in to fill those spots, but regardless of how talented they are, it takes the majority of defenseman the better part of a year to adjust to the college game. Both of these teams are really going to need to rely on their scoring power, and good goaltending to guide them through the first part of the season.

The Official WCH 2005 Pick'em Contest

Since it worked for Seinfeld, I figured why not have a little contest of my own. I’ve come up with a list of ten questions for readers to take a stab at. It’s ok if you have no clue about some of this stuff. Just take a wild guess. I’ll keep tabs on the entries throughout the year, and whoever has the most points at the end of the season will win a prize of my choosing.(I make no guarantees about the quality of said prize, but I’ll keep my eye out for something cool) If the response to this idea is good, I’ll put one up every week during the season with weird proposition bets about that week's games and the winner receiving some sort of recognition. All entries must be emailed to me at hornethockeystar1212@hotmail.com Best of luck.

1. Who will be the next player on the 2007 Recruiting Board(as of 8/24/05) to commit to a college? (5 points)
2. Who will be the next player to commit for the class of 2008? (6 points)
3. Will Sam Gagner choose to play in the OHL or college hockey? (1 point)
4. Will Brendan Smith choose to play in the OHL or college hockey? (1 point)
5. Choose a destination for the following players(1 point if you have the correct conference, 2 bonus points for picking the correct school):

A. Ryan Flynn
B. Michael Forney
C. Chad Morin
D. Brian Lebler
E. Pat Kane
F. CJ Severyn
G. Ryan Hayes
H. Dan Durham
I. Kevin Shattenkirk
J. Wilson Ngai

6. Will any of the players that are currently committed to colleges(not counting Anthony Peluso) back out of their commitments to play to play in the CHL? (1 point)
7. Who will score more points in the 2005-2006 season? Phil Kessel or Lake Superior’s freshmen class? (1 point)
8. Which goalie will appear in the most games for Miami this season? Steve Hartley, Charlie Effinger, or Jeff Zatkoff? (1 point)
9. Will there be more of less than 7 players at Shattuck-St. Mary’s that have committed to colleges by the end of December? (1 point)
10. Who will be the first collegiate 2005 NHL draft pick to sign a pro contract, besides Jack Johnson?( 3 points)

Skinner leaves Denver

Denver defenseman Brett Skinner has decided to forgo his senior season and sign with the Vancouver Canucks.

Skinner was one of the top defenseman in the country last year, and played a big role in Denver's national championship run. He will leave a big hole on the Pioneer defense. If teammate Matt Carle decides to jump to the NHL as well, Denver could be left sophomore Andrew Thomas, T.J. Fast, Julian Marcuzzi, Chris Butler, and J.P. Testwuide as their top five defenseman. That is a very talented group of defenseman, but extremely young and they could have difficulty adjusting to the stresses of playing defense in the WCHA.

2007 Recruiting Board Update

I've added Philip McRae(USHL), Colton Grant(AJHL), Riley Nash(BCHL), Travis Oleksuk(OPJHL), Brennan Vargas(NTDP), Steve Sperry(NTDP), Nick Dineen(USHL), Don Hallmark(USHL), Christian Steingraber(USHL), and Kevin Mole(OPJHL) to the
2007 Recruiting Board

The New NHL

When the NHL finally signed a new collective bargaining agreement in July, people were unsure of the effect it would have on college hockey. One part of the new agreement that people were particularly interested was the fact that drafted college players became free agents on August 15th of the year that their class graduated college. It wasn’t really clear if this change would have a positive or a negative effect on college hockey, but now that the rule has been put into practice, it’s starting to look like it has had a negative effect on the college game.

If NHL teams decide to let players stay in college all four years, that only gives them a couple of months to get their draft picks signed before they lose them to free agency. This has put greater emphasis on pro teams to try and get their college draft picks to sign early rather than risk losing them to free agency after graduation.

It was bad news for college hockey when the Boston Bruins, easily the cheapest(and not just in terms of payroll) franchise in the NHL, were willing to shell out the rookie maximum to Bowling Green defenseman Jonathan Sigalet in order to get him to sign a pro contract. The new CBA also seemed to be the motivation behind the surprise signings of Michigan forwards Jeff Tambellini and Mike Brown these past two weeks.

Overall, I think this will have a negative effect on college hockey. There were six college hockey players taken in the first round of the draft, and I’d be very surprised if any of them ever saw their senior year of college. So while the NCAA has been working courageously to protect Native Americans from something they don’t really mind, they’ve now let two out of the four major pro sports sign collective bargaining agreements that diminish the likelihood of players staying all four years and graduating, which is an issue that the NCAA has only paid lip-service too. Granted, the list of college hockey players leaving after 2 or 3 years won’t be as bad as number of one-and-gone college basketball players that declare for the NBA draft early.

If the NCAA would have had their priorities straight, they would have left poor Chief Illiniwek and Osceola alone and spent this summer lobbying the NBA and NHL to sign agreements that made sense for colleges as institutions of learning and not just minor league pit stops on the way to the big show.

2007 Recruiting Board Updated

I've made some changes to the 2007 Recruiting Board. I've added a bunch of names, as well as made some cosmetic improvements. You can view the changes here or you can click on the link on the sidebar.

Random Business

The Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks suffered a huge blow today when goalie Chris Holt signed with the Rangers. This is a huge blow to an Omaha team that was looking to possibly make an NCAA tournament run this season. Omaha is left with Kris Tebbs and Eric Aarnio who have appeared in a combined total of 19 games at Omaha, and their stats weren't pretty. Omaha is going to have to rely on their talented offense to score a lot of goals for them this year.

In a blatant attempt to mock my efforts to stay ahead of the game in recruiting, Michigan has received the first two verbal commitments for the class of 2008 in Robbie Czarnik and A.J. Jenks. Both were teammates for Detroit Honeybaked. Czarnik looks to be a small playmaker-type, while Jenks is a very raw power forward who has the potential to be a big-time player. These commitments may seem early, but they might be necessary for Michigan as a way of saying "Back off" to the OHL. Some scouts think that Jenks especially has the potential to be a first round draft pick in the OHL entry draft next June. Michigan fans will once again have to watch next year's OHL draft, like they did this year with Tristan Llewellyn, to see whether or not these guys will actually ever make it to Michigan.

Now that these guys have committed, I suppose it's about time for me to start a 2008 Top Prospects list. I've been working on adding updates to the 2007 Top Propsects list. Those updates should be published in the next week or so.

Finally, there's been another edition to the links on the sidebar. The DECC is Stacked! is a pretty good blog maintained by a Duluth fan. It covers a relatively wide range of topics but seems to focus more on college hockey. Again, if anybody else would like to be linked on the sidebar, just drop me a line and I'll make it happen.

The Truth Hurts

Since I’m horribly late due to the fact that I haven’t had internet in my apartment, anybody reading this already knows that Michigan forward Jeff Tambellini signed a deal with the Los Angeles Kings. I couldn’t be happier for him and wish him the best of luck in the NHL. He should have a great career.

Since I’m way too late to post anything too newsworthy, I figured I’d just share my two favorite Jeff Tambellini stories.

The first of which comes from the first time I ever saw Tambellini play in a game against Merrimack at Yost. Tambellini immediately caught my eye for his style of play. It seemed as though any time he got the puck on his stick, he would shoot it. It didn’t matter if he was in good position, bad position, behind the net, center ice, whatever. If he got the puck, he was shooting it. It was that style of play that led me to nickname him “The Truth” after former Michigan basketball hack Willie “The Truth” Mitchell, who also loved his own shot, though rarely had the success with it that Tambellini had.

Midway through that season, Tambellini appeared on the radio for an interview. The host of the show, Dennis Fithian, had posted on the Michigan Rivals message board the previous day asking for questions he could ask, as well as possible nickname suggestions for Tambellini. I threw out “The Truth” as a joke, and Dennis ended up mentioning it on the air to him as a possible suggestion. While I don’t think Tambellini ever adopted the nickname, the guys on Dennis’ show, the Sportsbeat, occasionally referred to him as The Truth, which always gave me a good laugh, as the creator of the nickname, and one of the only people who understood the reference.

My second favorite Jeff Tambellini story happened this past September. Tambellini was coming off a rough season where his numbers were far lower than his freshmen season. He suffered a tough stretch in the middle of the season where his play was very untruth-like. Towards the end of the season though, he got back to his old ways and finished strong. That was all I needed to see to be confident that he would have a great junior year.

In my fantasy hockey draft that September, I decided to draft Tambellini in the second round of my draft. I knew it was a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to make sure he was on my team. I was immediately mocked for the pick. Someone asked me why I wasted my second round pick on a guy that finished something like 163rd in the NCAA in scoring the previous year. I quietly informed them that only the points for that season, and not the prior season mattered.

Of course, I got the last laugh when I ended up finishing first in the fantasy league, in large part to Jeff Tambellini finishing in the top 5 in the country in scoring.

I’ll missing getting to watch Jeff Tambellini play college hockey, because he was a great player, but he’s definitely ready for the next level of play and I think it’s great for him that he got the deal that he wanted.

A couple other defenseman have left college for the pros. One of them was North Dakota defenseman Matt Greene. Greene’s departure isn’t a bigger story only because it was so expected. North Dakota had already made plans for Greene’s departure. The same is true for Colorado College defenseman Mark Stuart who made his departure to Boston official.

The biggest surprise of the bunch was Bowling Green defenseman Jonathan Sigalet leaving school to sign a contract with the Boston Bruins. I had speculated in an earlier post that Sigalet might leave BGSU for the WHL. Instead, he signed a contract with Boston, which would allow him to be with his brother Jordan again. I don’t think Jonathan is quite ready for the NHL yet, though, so he could still technically end up in the WHL, which would make me technically correct.

WCHA Preview: 9. St. Cloud State Huskies

St. Cloud State University

Key Losses: Dave Ianazzo, F; Matt Gens, D; Mike Doyle, F; Peter Szabo, F
Key Returnees: Casey Borer, D; Billy Hengen, F; Justin Fletcher, D; Andrew Gordon, F; Tim Boron, G; Matt Francis, F
Key Newcomers: Bobby Goepfert, G; Michael Olson, F; Dan Kronick, F
Projected Leading Scorer: Matt Francis
Grades:
Offense: D
Defense: B
Goaltending: B+
Coaching: F

Analysis:

From the late 90’s through the turn of the century, St. Cloud was one of the strongest programs in the country, even though they never achieved much in the way of postseason success. The past few years though, St. Cloud has been undergoing a bit of a rebuilding process, and unfortunately, this will probably be the year where they have to hit rock bottom before they can be successful again.

The problems for the Huskies start at the top, with head coach Craig Dahl. Dahl took over coaching the Huskies for the legendary Herb Brooks in the late 80’s and it’s seemed that ever since, he’s been trying to emulate Herbie. In theory, that’s not a terrible idea, but Dahl always seems to screw it up in the application. He’s constantly trying to do what he thinks a good coach would do, rather than doing what is right for his team.

I think this could be summed up best in looking at a series St. Cloud played at the end of the 2003-2004 season against Colorado College at home. St. Cloud needed one win to make the NCAA tournament.

In the first game, St. Cloud got 3-1 in the first period. Two of the goals were direct results of defensive turnovers leaving goaltender Tim Boron out to dry. The third was a Brett Sterling powerplay blast. None of the goals could have been considered Boron’s fault. Despite this, Dahl decided to change goalies and put in Adam Coole, who performed well early in the season, but hadn’t seen any game action in almost a month. The Huskies came out playing well in the second, and controlled the play. They didn’t allow a shot on goal for almost 7 minutes. When CC finally got a shot on goal, they scored on their first shot as a result of Coole’s rustiness. With the score at 4-1 and all the wind taken out of the Huskies sails, the game was essentially over thanks to Dahl’s move. The Huskies went on to an embarrassing 7-1 defeat.

In the second game of the series, after a game in which nobody played particularly well, Dahl decided not to dress Dave Ianazzo and Billy Hengen, two of the team’s three top scorers. Now if it had been for disciplinary reasons, I could understand it. But Dahl sat them out simply to “send a message to his team” Again, I could understand the move if it was a meaningless game early in the season, but in arguably the most important game of the season, St. Cloud found themselves down by a goal in the third period with two thirds of their top line sitting in the stands.

Critical coaching errors in two games cost St. Cloud a chance at the NCAA tournament that year.

I’m not as critical of Dahl as some people are. I don’t blame him for his ridiculous quotes to the media. Every college hockey coach is happy to get a split on the road. Only Dahl could make it sound like he actually hopes his team loses a game though. I don’t blame him for kicking Tyler Arnason off the team. I believe Arnason’s drinking episode in Sweden this past year proved that the fault probably lied with Arnason and not Dahl. I don’t even blame Dahl for his NCAA failures. St. Cloud was the victim of some bad luck, and more important, bad draws in the tournament. I doubt any other coach would have had more success in the same position.

Regardless, a change needs to be made at head coach for St. Cloud and it looks like that change is coming. Former Minnesota assistant Bob Motzko left Minnesota to take the assistant coaching job at St. Cloud, with the understanding that he’ll take over the head coaching spot whenever Dahl leaves, voluntarily or not. Motzko should inject new life into the program. He’s already paid immediate dividends by getting a commitment from defenseman Jon Ammerman for 2006.

As for the players on the ice, the biggest strength for the Huskies will be in goal. Transfer Bobby Goepfert will be eligible this season after sitting out last season. Goepfert was very good for Providence for two years before being kicked off the team for violating team rules. While many people expect Goepfert to play very well, the Huskies don’t have a lot of room for improvement in goal. Tim Boron has been outstanding for the Huskies the past two years, but hasn’t had much help in front of him. Whoever is in goal for the Huskies this year will be able to keep them in some games, but ultimately will struggle due to the team in front of him.

The defense for the Huskies should also be solid. The team will be led by junior defenseman Casey Borer. Borer showed what a talented defenseman he was when he was arguably the best defenseman(in a pretty weak bunch) on the US World Junior Team last year. Borer is a solid defensive defenseman. The Huskies also have a very talented offensive defenseman in Justin Fletcher. After a non-descript freshmen year, Aaron Brocklehurst should be ready to step up as another offensive defenseman. The Huskies will need goals anywhere they can get them this season, which means anything they can get from the defenseman will be a big plus. One player that could surprise a lot of people this season is Matt Stephenson. He struggled as a freshmen and didn’t see much ice time, but he is a big defensive defenseman that is very good in his own end. He could give the Huskies some good ice time at the 5th or 6th defenseman spot.

The offense for the Huskies is a huge question mark right now. The Huskies have a ton of pretty good players, but lack marquee players that can play on the first line and put up over a point per game.

Last season, Andrew Gordon got off to a hot start, but Gordon was more of an opportunist than a creator. Towards the end of the season when those opportunities became few and far between, Gordon looked pretty average.

There were high hopes for incoming freshmen Michael Olson after he won an award for best Canadian Junior Player. Olson, however, won that award primarily for his defensive abilities. He only averaged about a point per game in the BCHL, which is decent, but not that spectacular in the goal-happy league.

Nate Raduns is a very good power forward, but he has lacked a skilled playmaker to set him up for goals. Matt Francis could be that player. I went with Francis as a bit of a sleeper pick when I projected him as the team’s leading scorer. Francis struggled this past year and didn’t score as much as everyone hoped. He looked very good on the ice though and had many scoring chances. If things go his way this year, he very well could lead the team in scoring.

Overall, the Huskies probably won’t be able to score enough goals to keep up with the rest of the WCHA. If they played in the ECACHL, I think they’d be a very good defensive hockey team, but it’s hard to win a lot of 1-0 and 2-1 games in a league where you’re facing Marty Sertich, or Gabe Gauthier or Robbie Earl every weekend. As such, the only real saving grace for Husky fans this season will be that it will probably be Craig Dahl’s last season behind the bench for St. Cloud.

2005 Fantasy Hockey Draft Board

In a bold move, I’ve decided to release my Fantasy College Hockey draft board prior to the draft, in an attempt to aid my fellow GMs, and more importantly, shamelessly lure potential readers to my blog. Last year I was able to get away with scribbling a few names on a scrap piece of paper, but with 17 GMs in each league this year, as well as more people who follow the CCHA and WCHA playing, as well as the pressure of being the defending regular season champion, I figured a bit more research would be in order.

There’s just a few notes and warnings I want to get out of the way first:

1. This list probably isn’t all-encompassing. I’ve tried to make it as complete as possible, but I’ve probably left a few guys, especially from out East, off that deserve to be on here, so be careful.
2. These aren’t really rankings. There’s so many names that I had to sort of do this Chris Heisenberg-style. The bigger names are towards the top, but after that, the names are pretty much thrown on there. It’s really more of a guide to players you could draft
3. These are *my* rankings, so personal biases are in play here. For example, I’d never draft Chris Harrington under any circumstance, so he’s not on my list.
4. I’m not holding myself to just these players. I’ve tried to be as thorough as possible, but there’s the possibility that in the draft, something crazy might happen and I’ll end drafting someone not on the list. If I do, it’s not because I’m sand-bagging or anything. In fact, I don’t think I’ve compiled enough names to cover every draft pick.

I hope this list helps as a good start to the daunting task of picking a team. Best of luck to all the GMs this year.



Forwards

Marty Sertich- Colorado College
Brett Sterling- Colorado College
T.J. Hensick- Michigan
Gabe Gauthier- Denver
Robbie Earl- Wisconsin
Phil Kessel- Minnesota
Joe Pavelski- Wisconsin
Bill Thomas- Nebraska-Omaha
Scott Parse- Nebraska-Omaha
David Backes- Minnesota State, Mankato
Brent Walton- Western Michigan
Matt Moulson- Cornell
Dan Irmen- Minnesota
Tom Fritsche- Ohio State
Jack Skille- Wisconsin
Travis Zajac- North Dakota
Matt Christie- Miami
Drew Stafford- North Dakota
Jacob MikFlikier- New Hampshire
Rastislav Spirko- North Dakota
Paul Statsny- Denver
Rod Pelley- Ohio State
Chad Kolarik- Michigan
Pierre-Luc O’Brien- Sacred Heart
Marty Guerin- Miami
Tim Stapleton, Minnesota-Duluth
Marco Peluso- Minnesota-Duluth
Curtis Fraser- Alaska-Fairbanks
Dan Bertram- Boston College
Tyler Burton- Dartmouth
Dan Knapp- Ohio State
Domenic Maiani- Ohio State
Andrew Ebbett- Michigan
Daniel Winnik- New Hampshire
Brett Hemingway- New Hampshire
Ryan Potulny- Minnesota
Nathan Davis- Miami
Andrew Cogliano- Michigan
Ryan Carter-Minnesota State, Mankato
Travis Morin- Minnesota State
Jason Bloomingburg- Wayne State
Stavros Paskaris- Wayne State
Mike Howe- Minnesota
Jon Smyth- Colgate
Nick Johnson- Dartmouth
Mike Ouellette- Dartmouth
T.J. Trevelyan- St. Lawrence
Brian Boyle- Boston College
Darin Olver- Northern Michigan
Dustin Sproat- Princeton
Grant Goeckner-Zoeller- Princeton
Mike Santorelli- Northern Michigan
Elias Godoy- UMass-Lowell
Kirk MacDonald- RPI
Kevin Porter- Michigan
Bruce Mulherin- Alabama-Huntsville
Bryan Marshall- Nebraska-Omaha
Dirk Southern- Northern Michigan
Drew Miller- Michigan State
Colton Fretter- Michigan State
Jonathan Matsumoto- Bowling Green
Justin Abdelkader- Michigan State
Chris Conner- Michigan Tech
Alex Foster- Bowling Green
Derek Merkosky- Air Force
Joey Crabb- Colorado College
Ben Cottreau- Mercyhurst
Kevin Croxton- RPI
Ben Nelson- Quinnipiac
Brad Mills- Yale
Michel Leveille-Maine
Jimmy Kilpatrick- Colorado College
James Unger- Bowling Green
Kyle Greentree- Alaska-Fairbanks
Greg Moore- Maine
Brock Bradford- Boston College
Kelly Czuy- Alaska-Fairbanks
Ryan McLeod- Alaska-Fairbanks
Michael Gergen- Minnesota-Duluth
Rob Cirianni- Bemidji State
T.J. Oshie- North Dakota
Eric Ehn- Air Force
Bryan Lerg- Michigan State
Blake Wheeler- Minnesota

Defense

Matt Carle- Denver
Brian Yandle- New Hampshire
Reid Cashman- Quinnipiac
Nathan Oystrick- Northern Michigan
Jack Johnson- Michigan
Jamie Milam- Northern Michigan
Andy Greene- Miami
Sean Collins- New Hampshire
Dan Knapp-Nebraska-Omaha
Alex Goligoski- Minnesota
Brian Salcido- Colorado College
Matt Hunwick- Michigan
Justin Fletcher- St. Cloud State
Tom Gilbert- Wisconsin
Kyle Peto- Minnesota State
Lars Helminen- Michigan Tech
Brian Gineo- Air Force
Michael Hodgson- Bowling Green
Kyle Hood- Ohio State
Kyle Klubertanz- Wisconsin
Mike Campaner- Colgate
Dylan Reese- Harvard
Nate Guenin-Ohio State
Mike Lundin-Maine
Casey Borer- St. Cloud State
Andrew Thomas- Denver
Sasha Pokulok- Cornell
Taylor Chorney- North Dakota
Matt Niskanen- Minnesota-Duluth
Derek Peltier- Minnesota
T.J. Fast- Denver

Goalies

David McKee- Cornell
Dave Caruso- Ohio State
Cory Schneider- Boston College
Joe Fallon- Vermont
Adam D’Alba- Brown
Peter Vetri- UMass-Lowell
Wylie Rogers- Alaska-Fairbanks
Billy Sauer- Michigan
Matt Zaba- Colorado College
Dominic Vicari- Michigan State
Matt Climie- Bemidji State
Scott Munroe- Alabama-Huntsville
Peter Mannino- Denver
Brian Elliot- Wisconsin
Jordan Parise- North Dakota
Kellen Briggs- Minnesota
Jeff Frazee- Minnesota
Jeff VanNynatten- Niagara
Bobby Goepfert- St. Cloud State
Bill Zaniboni- Northern Michigan
Jimmy Spratt- Bowling Green
Justin Mrazek- Union
Jeff Jakaitis- Lake Superior State
Shane Connelly- Wisconsin
Phillippe Lamoreaux- North Dakota
Jeff Lerg- Michigan State
Ben Bishop- Maine
Charlie Effinger-Miami
Jeff Zatkoff-Miami
Nathan Lawson- Alaska-Anchorage
Chris Clark-Minnesota State
Noah Ruden- Michigan
Dan Tormey- Minnesota State
Derek Janzen-Northern Michigan

Random Links

Since I'm in the process of moving to a new apartment, I haven't had much time to update. Luckily, some dedicated readers have sent me a couple links so I can put up a post with minimal effort.

Earlier, I posted a Michigan article from CSTV and was sent an email, saying that CSTV put up a bunch of other good links surrounding college players in the NHL draft.

Here's one article featuring Paul Statsny, and there's links to a bunch of other articles on that page.

The Ann Arbor News had a nice article on Al Montoya's departure as well as some quotes from the new goalie Billy Sauer.

Hopefully Michigan fans take it a little easier on Sauer than they did on Al Montoya. This post and the resulting replies are basically a bunch of Michigan fans saying "good riddance" to Montoya. Montoya was called good, but not great, mediocre, and the most overrated goalie in Michigan history.

And of course, they bring up a good point. What use does a team like Michigan have a goalie with a save percentage under .900, that gives up a ton of soft goals, doesn't really play that well in the regular season, wanders out of his net, occasionally getting into trouble, and really only plays his best in the NCAA tournament?

Hey, wait a minute. That sounds really,really, familiar.

Sigalet to Become a Bird of a Different Feather?

Bowling Green could be facing a major defection this summer, if the team's top defenseman, Jonathan Sigalet leaves BGSU to play for the Portland Winter Hawks of the WHL.

This article from Portland's website states that Sigalet has been attending camps and keeping contact with the Winter Hawks. That's not a good sign for the Falcons.

The timing would be right for Sigalet, now that his older brother Jordan has graduated. Sigalet will also be an early round draft pick in the NHL Draft this Saturday, and perhaps a year in the WHL will better prepare him for the professional game.

Sigalet played an important role in helping Bowling Green rebuild their program and go from 11th in the CCHA to home ice in the playoffs. Bowling Green will miss his presence on the blueline, especially as they break in freshmen goalie Jimmy Spratt.

Update from Yesterday

The New York Post changed their tune on the whole Montoya thing, saying he would likely sign. They also kept up with that whole bin Laden cocaine story. Despite that, they remained the most credible of Rupert Murdoch's holdings.


Montoya did officially sign his contract with the Rangers though, as shown by this press release. The terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Mark me down for a +1 on the flight risks scorecard.

Alas! WCHA Previews......10. Michigan Tech

Michigan Tech University

Key losses: Colin Murphy, F; Cam Ellsworth, G; Ryan Markham, F
Key Returnees: Chris Conner, F; Lars Helminen, D; Brandon Schwartz, F; Tyler Shelast, F
Key recruits: Michael Lee-Teslak, G; Alexandre Gagne, F; Justin St. Louis
Projected leading scorer: Brandon Schwartz

Grades:

Offense: C-
Defense: C-
Goalie: C+
Coaching: C+

Analysis:

It’s been a rough um……..decade for Michigan Tech. There hasn’t been a winning season in Copper Country since Bob Mancini’s first season in 1992-1993. Therefore, Michigan Tech gets to open up the WCHA previews by way of Western College Hockey’s “Lake Superior Rule” which states that they automatically gets slated in last until they prove otherwise.

Things started to look a little more positive last season with road sweeps at Duluth and Minnesota. They also totally dominated Canadian school Lakehead in three exhibition games. Despite that, Michigan Tech still finished tied for last in the WCHA, even with St. Cloud actively trying to earn last place.

Head coach Jamie Russell will be heading into his third season and looks to be rebuilding Tech’s team. He was a bit handcuffed in his first season, because former coach Mike Sertich didn’t hand out a number of scholarships, so that Russell could rebuild the program with his own players. It was a great idea on Sertich’s part for the future, but it certainly didn’t help Russell in college hockey’s toughest league only having a CHA number of scholarships. It was like bringing a knife to a gunfight.

The pressure will begin to be turned up on Russell both this year and next year now that he is starting to get his own players in. Last year, many of his freshmen were too young to carry the team, but now that they have adapted to college hockey, they will be expected to carry the load.

Tech lost the lone bright spot of their team, Colin Murphy to graduation. Two seniors, Chris Conner and Brandon Schwartz will have to help pick up the scoring slack. As with any rebuilding team, the freshmen will also be asked to contribute right away.

On defense, the Huskies are led by offensive defenseman, Lars Helminen, who is the team’s leading returning scorer. Traffic cone John Scott will miss the first 14 games of the season as a result of his drunken driving incident this offseason.

The Huskies will also have to replace starting goalie Cam Ellsworth, who was the victim of Michigan Tech’s ineptness for the past four years. There were high hopes for Bryce Luker when he arrived in Houghton two summers ago, but he’s been shaky at best so far in his career. It’s likely that the starting job will be handed over to freshmen Michael Lee-Teslak out of the BCHL. Teslak was very highly respected in the BCHL and should help keep Tech in a few games.

Things will always be difficult for Tech. Being in Houghton, Michigan keeps them cut off from the USHL, which serves as the WCHA’s prime recruiting grounds. It’s also hard to lure talented players to Houghton. Despite this, I think Jamie Russell will be able to turn the program around and bring them back to respectability once he gets his own players into the program.

Michigan Off-season update

Since no one took up my call to arms for other college hockey blogs, I don’t feel so guilty about shamelessly posting an update on the team I follow closest: Michigan.

Western College Hockey has already predicted that Montoya will leave this offseason, and as the days go by, it’s looking more and more likely that I’ll be correct.

A poster on the Michigan Rivals site spoke to Montoya at the New York Rangers PR Day in New York yesterday. Montoya didn’t say much about his situation, but perhaps provided a hint when he signed autographs with the number 33 at the end, which is not his number at Michigan.

Head hockey guru at Rivals Michael Spath also posted that there have been major rumblings at Yost today that Montoya is a goner.

About the only positive news for Michigan fans is that the New York Post’s head hockey guy, Larry Brooks, stated that he thought the Rangers would lowball Montoya on an offer and that Montoya would probably return to Michigan. The New York Post also gave us interesting stories today like “bin Laden Coke Plot” and “Doc Cop a Big Bopper,” so take the Montoya story for what it’s worth.

Overall, it’s gotten to the point that I’d be very surprised if Montoya returned. The next issue facing is who will take over in goal if Montoya leaves.

It will either be Billy Sauer, or Steve Jakiel. Recruiting guru Bob Miller, said that at the beginning of the summer, the coaching staff was leaning more towards Jakiel simply because Jakiel was a little older and more mature than Sauer. It now looks more like the coaching staff is leaning towards Sauer, who will gain valuable experience as a member of the United States U18 team this summer. Sauer won Western College Hockey’s confidence with his performance at the Select 17 Festival in St. Cloud this summer. Sauer seems ready for the task, as he expects to be playing for Michigan in the fall.

One person that Michigan won’t need to worry about replacing is forward Jeff Tambellini. According to the poster that spoke to Montoya at the Rangers PR day, Montoya confirmed Western College Hockey’s prediction, by saying that Tambellini will definitely be returning to Michigan in the fall.

The other story for Michigan over the summer is the NHL draft that will take place this Saturday. CSTV put up a nice story on the potential Wolverine draft picks.

As for Wolverines in the draft, Jack Johnson will obviously be the first Wolverine selected. The Minnesota Wild have hinted that if Johnson is still available at 4th overall, they will select him. The question is whether Carolina or Anaheim will select him before that, and more importantly for Michigan fans, is if they will want Johnson’s services right away. The coaching staff has already prepared to bring in an extra defenseman in either 2006 or 2007 for when Johnson leaves school early. If Johnson doesn’t play next year though, it could be devastating to Michigan’s defense.
There’s a lot of mystery in where the other Wolverines will be drafted. Andrew Cogliano and T.J. Hensick have been rumored to be going anywhere from the late first round to the 6th round. T.J. Hensick was quoted as saying that he would like to be drafted by the Red Wings, but given the Wings history of not liking college players, and loving anyone from Europe, I highly doubt that will happen.

Jason Bailey and Zac MacVoy will be the other two players to be drafted. Both are big, powerful forwards with potential to make it in the pros. Bailey will be a good grinder type that can hit people, while MacVoy has nice hands and the ability to score goals.

A final note is that Michael Spath has a friend that has been skating with a few of the Wolverines over the summer.

The first that he mentioned specifically was Andrew Ebbett. Ebbett has been a solid, quiet playmaker for Michigan in his first three seasons. It looks like he’s trying to take his game to the next level in his senior year. He’s basically lived at Yost over the summer, and has taken his captain role very seriously. He could make the jump from a guy who quietly picks up a bunch of assists, to a top player in the CCHA.

The other player that he mentions is Matt Hunwick. Hunwick is a decent all-around defender, but doesn’t really have an area of his game where he stands out. He’s apparently worked very hard in the weight room and has gained a lot of muscle. Not only will this help him at Michigan this season, but some newfound physicality may help him earn a spot on the Bruins blueline in the future along with a couple other physical collegians in Mark Stuart and Andrew Alberts.

The Michigan coaching staff is interested in matching Hunwick up with Jack Johnson, which would be the top defensive pairing in the CCHA. There is also the possibility that he’ll be matched with freshmen Mark Mitera. Michigan will need Hunwick and Johnson to play a large number of minutes next season.

Who? From where???

So the first player born in the 90’s has committed to college. That player is Fredrik Csisar, who has committed to Nebraska-Omaha.

Confused? I was too.

Until I found a helpful little site called Norges Ishockeyforbund . Western College Hockey’s official Norwegian translator(Yes we have one. Suck it, INCH) says that means Norwegian Ice Hockey for Kids. Apparently the Omaha coaching staff got on the wrong plane to go to the Select 14 Festival in Rochester, and ended up in Norway. The website chronicles their national 14 and under tournament, in which Csisar had 4 goals and 2 assists, which was good for third overall in the tournament.

I can’t really comment too much on this signing because I’m not all that familiar with my Norwegian hockey. To be honest, I couldn’t tell Dag Jonas Lande from Pal Magnus Stensholt. But if Omaha has committed to this kid this early, he must have something going for him. Given the talent Omaha has brought in over the past couple years, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.

This isn’t the first early committmnt for the relatively young program. Earlier this year, they got a commitment from ’89 forward Anthony Peluso for the class of 2007. While Peluso is still technically committed to the Mavericks, he was drafted 10th overall in the OHL Draft by the Erie Otters, and was quoted as saying he was excited to play for the Otters. That’s why I haven’t bothered adding the talented forward to the 2007 Top Prospects list.

Mutt and Jeff Recruiting Update

North Dakota got a big signing, in the most literal sense, on Tuesday when 6’7” 233 lbs. defenseman Joe Finley committed for next season.

Finley had completed his junior year of high school in June, but with the possibility of playing college hockey this upcoming season, Finley decided to accelerate his studies. He should graduate from high school in August, allowing him to start at North Dakota immediately.

Finley was offered a scholarship by North Dakota and Boston University, as well as a partial scholarship to Minnesota. With the likelihood of defenseman Matt Greene leaving for the NHL, as well as the off-chance of Matt Smaby going pro, and the uncertainty of Robbie Bina’s health, North Dakota was in need of another defenseman.

At 6’7”, Finley will be the tallest player in college hockey, along with Michigan Tech defenseman John Scott. He’ll join three other freshmen defenseman on the Sioux blueline this year, in Zach Jones, Brian Lee, and Taylor Chorney, all of whom made Western College Hockey’s Top 10 Defensive Recruits for this year. Finley will add a lot of bulk and toughness to the Sioux blue line to complement the other, more offensive-minded defenseman. The Sioux are also trying to recruit 6’5” hitting machine Tysen Dowzak for the class of 2006 to help fill that role.

Minnesota also added a new recruit to their team. It’s being reported that Academy of Holy Angels forward Jay Barriball will become the first member of the Gophers class of 2007. I don’t have much on Barriball other than that he was the leading scorer on a very good high school hockey team, and at 5’7 140 lbs, he probably isn’t being brought in for his physicality.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

The NHL lockout is over, or close to over, or something. I don’t really know. I hear announcements that it’s finally over every day, yet for some reason, I hear the same announcement the next day. It’s like they keep announcing it, hoping that one of these days someone will care. Regardless, it looks like it will get done officially sometime soon and that means that it will be open season once again on some of the top players in college hockey.

Insidecollegehockey.com published their annual list ofplayers most likely to sign pro contracts over the summer. I took a look at their list and here’s my opinion on those most likely to leave college early this summer.

David Backes, Minnesota State(St. Louis)

INCH makes it seem like he’s a lock to go, but I disagree. Backes is the consummate student athlete with a perfect grade point average in Electrical Engineering. He’s seemed very intent on playing all four years for the Mavericks. There’s always the possibility that he’ll leave, but I’d be very surprised if he didn’t.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Backes will stay and lead Minnesota State to a great season

Matt Carle, Denver(San Jose)

It’s hard to believe his stock would ever be higher after his great performance last year. If San Jose offers him the rookie maximum, it would probably make sense to leave since it’s not like he could make any more money with another year of school. I think Carle is ready for the NHL, as well.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Carle is gone. The rest of the WCHA will be relieved.

UPDATE: An anonymous tipster(no, it's not Karl Rove) that reads this blog emailed me and informed me that Matt Carle planned on returning to school at the end of last season. It remains to be seen if he'll feel the same way once the Sharks make him an offer. Certainly other players have committed to coming back at the end of the college season, and are in the pros by next fall. It wouldn't be a shock to see Carle pass on the Shark's offer and return to DU for his junior year.

Robbie Earl, Wisconsin(Toronto)

Earl is a very good player, but I don’t think he’s quite ready for the NHL with the type of game that he plays. He could use another year or two with Mike Eaves working on becoming a better defensive player. Plus, with the talent that the Badgers have returning, as well as coming in, Earl would be better served helping Wisconsin making a run in the NCAA tournament, which would really help his pro prospects.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Earl will commit to go Toronto and then back out at the last minute and stay at Wisconsin

Matt Greene, North Dakota(Edmonton)

Probably one of the most likely to go. North Dakota fans were pretty much expecting him to if the NHL ever came back. His physical style is more suited for the pro game. Plus, a change of scenery might help him move past his drunk driving arrest last year.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Greene will be inhabiting a whole new set of penalty boxes in the AHL

Al Montoya, Michigan(New York Rangers)

Michigan fans went through this saga last summer. Al says he’s still deciding, while coach Red Berenson was quoted as saying that he’s optimistic about Al’s situation. At the beginning of the summer, I thought it was probably 50/50 that Montoya would leave, but now, I’ll agree with The Great Jim Hunt and say the chances are probably 60/40 in favor of him leaving. Leaving and playing a year in the AHL may be the best decision for Montoya. If he stays at Michigan, he’ll be criticized for every goal, much like he was last year, and if he goes directly to the Rangers, he’ll have the same pressure, times ten from the New York media. If the Rangers end up winning the draft lottery and getting Sidney Crosby, that would ease the pressure on Montoya quite a bit as it would take much of the spotlight off of him.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Montoya leaves and they name a sandwich after him in Hartford

Ryan Potulny, Minnesota(Philadelphia)

I mentioned in an article for GopherPuckLive that I did how much Ryan Potulny disappeared towards the end of last season. I’ve said that I won’t be completely sold on Ryan Potulny until he proves he can play well for a whole season, and I have to think the Flyers will think along the same lines. I think they give him another year or two to prove that it was just a slump, and not a pattern. Besides, I think he’d be foolish to jump ship now because a year or two alongside Phil Kessel will earn him a lot of extra money.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Potulny will stay, average a point per game, and be 5th on the team in scoring.

Marty Sertich, Colorado College(Undrafted)

He wasn’t drafted, and will face an uphill climb trying to make it in the pros, but I have the feeling that some team trying to save some cash and desperate for players will make him a nice offer. Sertich’s stock will never be higher than it is, so it would probably be in his best interests to sign now.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Sertich catches on with an NHL team and goes on to have a nice NHL career.

Drew Stafford, North Dakota(Buffalo)

I can’t really think of a reason for him to leave. With Brady Murray leaving, he’ll be the Sioux’s go-to-guy. He’ll get a chance to develop for another year and make himself a more attractive pro prospect.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Stafford bucks the North Dakota trend and stays in school

Brett Sterling, Colorado College(Atlanta)

Atlanta General Manager Don Waddell has proven that he doesn’t mind letting college players develop while in college. He didn’t make a big push to sign Jim Slater, and has apparently said Atlanta doesn’t mind letting Northern Michigan defenseman Nathan Oystrick finish up his career in Marquette. I’m assuming he’ll let Sterling stay in CC one more year.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Sterling will stay. I won’t be able to pick him in the 4th round of my fantasy college hockey draft again

Mark Stuart, Colorado College(Boston)

Stuart really wants to play pro hockey and Boston would love a young defenseman that they can get for relatively cheap. It would be shocking if Stuart comes back for another year.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Stuart signs with Boston, but the Bruins infamous pencil as him spending most of the year in Providence.

Jeff Tambellini, Michigan(Los Angeles)

He may be the most ready for the NHL out of any of the forwards in college hockey. His speed and shot will make him a lot of money in the NHL some day, but I don’t think it will be next year. Tambellini has had opportunities to jump ship before, both with the NHL and WHL, and he’s seemed pretty intent on playing at Michigan.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Hobey Baker

Travis Zajac, North Dakota(New Jersey)

He had an excellent freshmen season, but he needs another year to prove that he can be one of the best players in college hockey. The Devils won’t be in any hurry to sign him either.

Western College Hockey’s Guess: Zajac improves upon his great freshmen season and bolts next summer

More rumors as well as a 2007 recruiting board update

I know people are getting sick of hearing about WCHA players leaving(I'm working on that Tech preview, I promise), but I don't make the news, I just report it. There's a "Michael Gergen to Everett of the WHL" rumor floating out there, but as of right now, it doesn't look all that credible. Gergen was the 10th ranked forward on Western College Hockey's list of 2005 recruits. I'll keep an eye on out, but I'd be surprised if he doesn't end up Duluth.

A slightly more credible rumor is Ohio State back-up goalie and sophomore-to-be Ian Kesserich leaving Ohio State for Plymouth of the OHL. Kesserich is a talented goalie, but will be stuck behind incumbent starter Dave Caruso again next year. In 2006, Ohio State will bring in Joe Palmer, the best goalie in that class, who will likely win the starting spot. It sounds as though Plymouth would have a lot of ice time for him next year if he bolted. Right now, the odds of him leaving are probably 50/50.

My journey to the Select 17 festival helped me add to the 2007 Top Prospects list as well. I've added the following names to the list: Ben Ryan(USHL, Notre Dame), Carter Camper(NAHL), Aaron Marvin(MN HS), Corey Toy(USHL), and Ben Youds(MN HS, MSU-M)

Select 17 Festival Recap

So the USA Select-17 Festival got under way on Sunday, and since it was held in St. Cloud , I got to go. Not a huge deal for most people, but for a wannabe hockey recruitnik like me, this was like a trip to DisneyWorld. Not only was it great to see some hockey in the middle of the summer, but I got a great look at some of the future stars of college hockey.

It was a great setting. 5 straight hours of non-stop hockey between two rinks, with nobody besides coaches, scouts, players, and parents in the crowd.

Armed with a list of potential college players to check out, I tried to get a good look at as many as I could. Here were my thoughts and opinions.

Game 1 Black vs. Gold

This game had the most guys that I was interested in looking at, so I spent a lot of time watching it. I was surprised Gold didn’t win this one. They probably would have won it going away if both teams hadn’t switched goalies.

From the Gold team:

Joe Palmer(Commited to Ohio State ‘06)- I thought he was the best goalie in his class before today and nothing changed that today. He’s pretty big, but amazingly quick getting down into the butterfly. He’d be pretty much impossible to beat low. He stills tends to make the occasional mistake handling the puck, but is really going to be a great goalie.

Tysen Dowzak(No commitment yet ’06 recruit)- Very big guy, and he loves to use his size. He had a couple very nice hits where he laid people out. Not exactly going to blow anyone away with his skills, but that’s expected for someone his size. He’ll be a very good defensive defenseman.

Ben Ryan(Committed to Notre Dame for ’07)-Didn’t really do anything to stand out for the good or the bad

Michael Ratchuk(Committed to Michigan State for ’06)- He looks like an amazing offensive defenseman. He has great hands, great skating skills and a good passer. He loves to pinch up and join the rush, sometimes to the detriment of his defense, but he’ll probably learn to pick his spots a little better with time. His defensive skills could probably use a little work. He got beat clean one on one to give up a goal for his team, but made up for it the next shift by making a nice pinch to turn a play into a 2 on 1 and scoring a goal. Overall, I was pretty impressed with his skills.

From the Black team:

Blake Geoffrion(Committed to Wisconsin for ’06)- He started out looking a little too lanky and awkward, but he played great in the second half of the game. He plays a lot stronger than he looks, and should become a very good power forward. I’m more disappointed that he’s not coming to Michigan than I was prior to seeing to him.

Carter Camper(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- Not the most skilled player on the ice but he did impress me with his effort. He was a very hard-working player. I’d hate to see him playing against one of my favorite teams in a couple of years.

Aaron Marvin(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- Not on my list before the tournament, but caught my eye with his combination of size and skating ability.

Game 2 Green vs. Navy Blue

I didn’t really watch this game as much because I wasn’t that interested in the players playing. Colorado College coach Scott Owens and Nebraska-Omaha assistant Doc DelCastillo were glued to this game though. I have no idea who they were watching.

From the Green team:

Andy Miele(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- Short, stocky guy. Not a great skater, but works hard and is very scrappy, especially down low. Definitely a Brandon Kaleniecki-type player

From the Navy team:

I didn’t really get a good look at anybody. Ryan Flynn had a nice goal, and looks like he’ll be a very good power forward in the future. Kyle Okposo(Minnesota ’06) also had a goal, but I didn’t get a good look at it. He should be a great player.

Game 3 Maroon vs. Grey

This was probably the game I wanted to see the most for two reasons. 1)Billy Sauer 2) Pat Kane. Neither of them let me down either.

For Maroon:

Billy Sauer(Committed to Michigan either ’05 or ’06)- I made sure to watch the half of hockey that he played, because he was the only player there that could potentially play college hockey next summer if Al Montoya decides to leave early. Michigan fans have been a little worried at the prospect of him taking over, but after seeing him today, I feel much better about it. He had the save of the day, cutting across the crease and making a diving save to stop a one-timer on a two-on-one. He had a couple other solid saves, including a nice stop where he held his ground on the post while a player tried to stuff the puck in. Other than that, he wasn’t tested too much. Sauer and Palmer were the only two goalies there that looked ready for college hockey.

More good news for Michigan fans who were worried about Sauer de-committing if Montoya stays for his senior year. After his game, my girlfriend overheard a player ask Sauer where he was going to school, and he said Michigan in a pretty confident manner. Not that I expected otherwise, but there was no “Al Montoya qualifier” in there. Sauer was also wearing a Michigan hat after the game, so he seems excited about playing there.

Pat Kane(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- Very, very impressive. The Brendan Morrison comparison really isn’t that far off. His finishing ability isn’t quite there yet, but he’s a great playmaker. He ended up with two assists, but easily could have had 4 or 5. If he ends up committing to BU, like was rumored, I may end up curling in a ball in my room and crying, Tom Izzo-style.

From the Grey team:

Steve Kampfer(Committed to Michigan for ’06)- Oy vey. I must have muttered “it’s only one game” about 20 times while watching Kampfer. He just didn’t look that interested in playing. He gave up goals on his first two shifts on the ice, one caused by a Kampfer turnover. He missed passes and just had a sloppy game in general. He kind of redeemed himself with a late goal, but overall, it was not a performance to remember.

Kevin Montgomery(Committed to Ohio State for ’06)- He wasn’t as impressive as I expected he would be. He looked like he was kind of an awkward phase. His from could easily hold another 15-20 lbs, and once he gets used to his body, I think his skills will improve. Once he fully develops though, he should be a pretty good defenseman that can do just about everything.

Game 4 Royal Blue vs. Orange

This game was close for the first half, and then Orange absolutely blew it open in the second half. It was pretty much open season on the Royal goalie.

From the Royal team:

Corey Toy(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- For as bad as the Royal defense was in the second half of the game, Orange wasn’t generating chances and scoring goals when he was out on the ice. He was a solid defensive defenseman that really impressed me.

Jamie McBain(committed to Wisconsin ’06)- Somebody had to be out for all those goals. He looked a little lanky and awkward.

From the Orange team:

Dustin Gazley(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- Not very big, but very quick and feisty. Score a very pretty goal. He’ll be a very good college player.

Michael Fillinger(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- I was very impressed with his play. I really hope that a team that I cheer for ends up getting him. Every time he got involved in a scrum, he came away with the puck. He was a good skater with good size, and some very nice skills. He looked like a very good all-around player.

Justin Johnson(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- He was having a very good game until he ran into someone much bigger than him at full-speed and ended up getting what looked like a concussion.

Game 5 Purple vs. White

I wasn’t too interested in this game. Plus, towards the end of the long day, it was nice to sit back and watch some hockey.

From the White team:

Nigel Williams(Committed to Wisconsin for ’07)- Wow. He’s the real deal. I stood next to him and he was a good inch or two taller than me(and I’m 6’3”), so he’s probably bigger than I have listed on the Top Prospects board, but what was most impressive is how fast of a skater he is for a guy that size. He reminded me a lot of Mike Komisarek. Wisconsin fans will love him, though I can’t see him staying there more than a year or two.

Also for what it’s worth, Chris Atkinson(Vermont ’06), really grabbed my attention even though I wasn’t specifically watching for him.

From the Purple team:

Rhett Rahkshani(Committed to Denver for ’06)- He played pretty similar to everything that I’ve heard about him. A little too skinny, but an excellent passer. He should be a good college player that racks up a lot of assists.

Game 6 Red vs. Teal

I was starting to get a little worn out from the marathon of hockey by this point, but I was still interested in watching this game to check out a few top players that have already committed to schools

From the Teal team:

Chris Summers(Committed to Michigan for ’06)- He looked pretty good out there. I stood next to him before the game and he’s a very solidly built kid for someone his age. He never really got a good chance to jump up into the play, but he was much more physical than I expected. He stepped out and put a nice on a couple of guys. I liked his game and think he’ll fit in well at Michigan.

From the Red team:

Michael Carman(Committed to Minnesota for ’06)- This guy is gonna drive me, and everyone else that doesn’t the Gophers nuts, but Gopher fans should love him. He’ll probably spend four years of college walking that thin line between very physical player and goon. He just loves to hit people. During the play or after the play, legally or illegally, it doesn’t really matter. You’ve gotta respect anyone that draws an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in one of these things though.

Ben Youds(Committed to MSU-Mankato for ’07)- Both my girlfriend and I admitted that we were both worried that the one guy that had committed to the Mavs was going to look horribly out of place out there. Luckily, we were both way off. Youds played a pretty great game. He was solid on the blueline, and didn’t do anything too flashy. He scored a poewrplay goal with a nice low, hard wrister from the point, then had another nice shot that almost got through on the next shift. He also jumped into the rush and almost scored on a pretty shot that just missed the net. He wasn’t Nigel Williams or Mike Ratchuk, but he was a very solid all-around defenseman. I think he’ll need a year or two in the USHL to get used to defending against faster players, as his foot speed could probably use a little work, but I think he’ll be a very solid player for the Mavs.

Garrett Roe(No commitment yet ’06 recruit)- I had heard of him described as a young Mike Comrie, which to me at least, is pretty high praise. He certainly wasn’t the next Mike Comrie by any stretch, but he did look like a very solid playmaker that should do well at the college level.

Ryan Santana(No commitment yet ’07 recruit)- Pretty big forward that can skate fast and is pretty strong on his skates. He also did pretty well on face-offs yesterday. He could probably improve some as a finisher, but he should be a pretty solid college player.

Boll bolts

USHL forward Jared Boll started this summer as the number 19 ranked forward on Western College Hockey's top forwards in the class of 2005. It's been a long summer though.

First, Boll wasn't able to make it into Minnesota-Duluth for next year, and his committment was pushed back to 2006, while UMD brought in USHL defenseman jay Cascalenda in his place.

Now Duluth won't be getting the physical power forward in 2006, or ever for that matter. Boll became the second WCHA forward recruit to leave for major junior in as many days after Peter Mueller officially announced he was joining Everett of the WHL yesterday.Boll signed with the Plymouth Whalers of the OHL.

Duluth loses a very good player that would have added a lot of grit and toughness to their lineup. Boll's being pushed back to 2006 may be a blessing in disguise for Scott Sandelin though because this now gives him time to find another forward to replace Boll.

Mueller Gone

So remember a couple weeks ago when I stated that Peter Mueller was most likely signing with Everett of the WHL and Gopher fans had a hissy-fit saying it was every player’s ultimate dream to wear a Gopher uniform and guaranteeing that he would play for the Gophers? Guess who ended up being right?

ushr.com has a subscription article up that includes quotes from Don Lucia saying that Peter Mueller called him yesterday saying that he’ll be heading to the WHL next season, thus ending his college eligibility.

That’s a tough break for the Gophers and the rest of college hockey to lose a player the caliber of Mueller. Of course, I’m sure programs like Michigan State and Nebraska-Omaha are standing by playing the world’s smallest violin for them.

As Lucia noted in the article, it’s good that this was resolved this summer as it still gives them time to bring in a talented player. If I had to take a guess, I would say that Ryan Flynn, a very big forward from the NTDP program will end up taking Mueller’s spot at Minnesota. He’s a Minnesota-born kid that has strong aspirations to play in the WCHA. He won’t match the skill that Mueller would have brought, but he brings a little more size, and would probably stay four years, as opposed to Mueller’s one or two.