Brodziak Fan Club wrote: ↑Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:15 am
Benilde may very well put the pieces together and play to their level of talent, but that would go against the trend of recent seasons. They have the ability to be ranked higher than #12, but I'm going to have to see it to believe it.
I agree with some of the points being made about Maple Grove. They have a ton of depth, and will be good. I think the top of the state is really deep and somewhat interchangeable this year. I don't see much of a gap between Edina at #3 and Maple Grove at #10.
edit: I flipped Lakeville South and Prior Lake. When I did my first set of rankings, I knocked South a bit for the instability of the Janne situation. Now that things have settled down, I think #8 is where they belong.
BSM has top 5 individual talent but they need to find some grit / physicality to make a playoff run.
Do they have some quality transfers/JV players? I see the high-enders (Marshall, Stewart, Sarsland, Yakesh), but don't notice a ton of depth.
They have 3 juniors who will be pretty good this season (1 from varsity last season and 2 coming up from JV). Their D will be very good with 5 seniors and the 3 sophomore forwards should be good this season. I'm curious to see what will they get out of the senior class outside of Yakesh, Marshall and Sarsland...they're kinda "meh" and lack physicality.
To me goaltending will be the biggest question mark...yes, they got the soph from Wayzata who helped BAA team win title...but this isn't BAA anymore. Junior from Edina is solid, not spectacular.
Last year’s Maple Grove senior class (plus Faber-Gophers and Janicke-NTDP and Reller-WHL) won Bantam AA state championship as 9th graders. Next years’s Maple Grove senior class won Bantam AA state championship as 9th graders. Next year’s Maple Grove junior class was the favorite to win Bantam AA state championship as 9th graders before COVID canceled state tourney. Next year’s Maple Grove sophomore class lost Bantam AA state championship game to Wayzata (whose goalie, as highlighted in this thread, is very strong and won game for them). Maple Grove will be the top public school high school hockey team next year.
Well, I tested positive for Covid and am trying to fend off boredom during my 10-day isolation period. I feel completely fine... had a minor sore throat and the sniffles but now feel like I could climb a mountain. Shout out to the vaccine.
Things seem to be pretty in-flux across the high school hockey landscape right now. Normally I wouldn't feel great about editing my rankings at this point but,
1. It helped me kill 20 minutes
2. I'm just a random guy on a message board. Who cares.
Brodziak Fan Club wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:38 pm
Well, I tested positive for Covid and am trying to fend off boredom during my 10-day isolation period. I feel completely fine... had a minor sore throat and the sniffles but now feel like I could climb a mountain. Shout out to the vaccine.
Glad to hear you are doing well despite the minor inconvenience of quarantine. My sister and one of my friends (both teachers, coincidentally or not) had breakthrough Covid cases and were in bad shape for a solid week.
Brodziak Fan Club wrote: ↑Mon Oct 25, 2021 3:38 pm
Well, I tested positive for Covid and am trying to fend off boredom during my 10-day isolation period. I feel completely fine... had a minor sore throat and the sniffles but now feel like I could climb a mountain. Shout out to the vaccine.
Glad to hear you are doing well despite the minor inconvenience of quarantine. My sister and one of my friends (both teachers, coincidentally or not) had breakthrough Covid cases and were in bad shape for a solid week.
Hope they're on the mend. I'm a teacher as well. Weird...
ironranger2 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 23, 2021 1:25 pm
Grand Rapids is too low
Andover is too high
Roseau is too high
Duluth East should not even be an honorable mention
Andover just got Elk River's best player - Cayden Casey
I think the top 10-15 spots will be very fluid this year during the entire season. There doesn’t seem to be as much top end talent as in previous seasons, so team chemistry will be important instead of relying on the star players for scoring.