The Rise of the North in Coming Years?

[ozz]

Depth will be the biggest hurdle to overcome for northern teams. Many can assemble a great top line, or have an amazing goaltender. But an ability to have 4 lines playing at the level you can find in the metro is going to make it tough. Not saying it can't happen. Look at a Roseau, for example. They may produce a fantastic top line periodically, or even a couple of very good to great lines. But is that going to hold up in the Tourney when you go up against an Edina or Hill where they can roll 4 lines? Not sure. Moorhead and even Duluth are slightly different stories IMO. They are big enough communities to produce a team with good depth.

GR had no issues disposing of those cities teams with their top line in 2017

Little Greenway nearly rode their top line to a class A title recently.

Depth will always be the key in smaller communities but with TV timeouts during tourney time its a lot easier to rely on 1 or 2 lines to carry a team.

Those 2 teams were so much fun to watch!

[stateofhawkey]

Don’t worry Hermantown will steal a Hibbing player or two and make their annual trips. It’s what they do

I was going to say something similar. As long as Hermantown keeps landing the top players from Duluth, Hibbing, Virginia, pretty much anywhere in the Northern Minnesota area, Hibbing won't go anywhere.