Section 7AA 2010-2011

[TheHockeyDJ]

What will Section 7AA look like in terms of quality teams this season? Will it look like a one horse race, or the 2006-2007 seasons where you had 4 teams in the top 20 and 7AA was arguably the best section in the state? Who are the best players and who are the players that you don't know now, but will know by January 1?

[northwoods oldtimer]

I think that Cloquet will resurrect again (from some lean years) and enjoy some success and manage to knock off East in the playoffs. Forest Lake will be a very tough team to beat this season in 7AA. Forest Lake is my early pick for going to state in 2010-2011. This section will be pretty good this year and very tough in 2011- 2012 season

[TheHockeyDJ]

Glad to hear it, I miss those awesome years when GR had White and Stejskal, East had Leis and Rob Johnson, CEC had Tyler Johnson and Reid Ellingson, and Elk River had a decent goalie, can't remember his name at the moment, and that defensemen with the booming shot....gosh, can't remember his name either. Anyways 05-06 and 06-07 were the best seasons ever.

I would love to see another semi-final saturday like this: 1. Duluth East vs. 4. CEC early game, late game: 2. Elk River vs. 3. Grand Rapids.

[wblhockeyfan8]

I really think Forest Lake is gonna take it this year, I just have that feeling.

Watch your back Karl!

[DMom]

I really think Forest Lake is gonna take it this year, I just have that feeling.

Uhoh, the pressure is now on to define exactly what a Ranger is!

I have to agree that this is going to be an exciting year for Forest Lake HS hockey.

[old goalie85]

Rangers sophs turned into Jrs. Kohls, Franklyn,Tyson should be able to keep up with East. Need a big year out of Skoog in the net. Still might be one year away.

[TheHockeyDJ]

I think I confirmed this on another thread, but just to let everyone know again, the 7AA semi-finals and Championship will be held at the new Amsoil Arena. (http://arena.decc.org) The place seats nearly 7,000. Would be cool to see it filled to capacity for the playoffs.

[old goalie85]

I think we have Rapids at home to start the year off. What do they have returning? Moving up?

[TheHockeyDJ]

I'm not an expert as I don't live in the area anymore, but they do have the best goalie in the Elite league statistically speaking after one week, for whatever that is worth. So they should be very solid in goal. Patrick Moore is also on Team North Elite Leage, so he'll lead the way for offensive punch I'm sure. Their bantam A team made it to the state championship last year, so they should get some decent contribution from some solid Sophmores this year. I'm sure northwoods_oldtimer can give a bit more indepth and accurate analysis on GR hockey 2010-11 than me though.

[old goalie85]

A little off topic-- we play in a X-mas tourny in Duluth @ the Heritage anyone know who is in it. [besides F.L., Buff]

[hockeyrocks87]

Pretty sure Hill City will take it this year or maybe Deer River

[northwoods oldtimer]

I think we have Rapids at home to start the year off. What do they have returning? Moving up?

Forest Lake - Key Returners:CJ Franklin, Luca Kohls, Paige Skoog goalie. Key Losses in Danny Fick and Christian Gaffney. Deep talented Junior class. Return an experienced group lots of depth at Junior class makes Forest Lake my top pick.
Duluth East - Key Returners: Randolph, Tonninato, Repensky, Schendel. Always tough and in contention for title. Key loss in Andy Welinski. Talent coming out of Bantams Miers Moore. Love em, hate em Randolph senior can coach.
Cloquet -Key Returners: McFarlane, Ben Michaud, Chase Jokinen. Talent coming out of Bantam group. Never count an Esse lead team out of it. Bringing back some swagger in 2010-2011, welcome back Lumberjacks!
Elk River - Anders Franke, Ryan Jaremko, Mike Katchmark, Nick McCormick. Loss of Jaermko brother Ben hurts along with Hennum 56 and 35 points respectively. With Franke in net the Elks can weather any storm. Talent out of Bantam group makes them tough.
Grand Rapids - Patrick Moore, Dom Deguiseppi, Travis Underwood. Key Loss of John Skrbec and AJ Merritt, Kyle Kleinendorst. Defense an uncertainty with losses. Deguiseppi must answer the bell in net for this team. Bantam talent coming in to help with scoring.
Andover - do not know. Hopefully some folks can fill in the rest for me.
Cambridge -
St Francis -
Princeton -

Comments: There might be more upside to 7AA this season than ealier thought. Still some unproven holes to fill which makes me think that 2011-2012 is the break out year for 7AA. Stay tuned though as 2010-2011 should make for quite a year in 7AA. I am looking forward to it as I hope all fans of 7AA are eagerly anticipating a banner season.
Denfeld/Central: chicken blank....nuff said I am ticked off they chose 7A when they belong in 7AA with some very good talent. Needed to vent!

[old goalie85]

Thanks Northwoods. you were right on base with f.l.

[karl(east)]

You always know hockey season is finally coming up when we have a good 7AA preview thread.

On paper, this section is East's once again, as much as some of our number love to hate them. This year's East team should be stronger than last year's, and though they took a couple of lumps last year, they were not seriously challenged in sections. The talent pool at forward, though perhaps without a superstar (yet), is deeper than any in recent memory, and there just aren't any pressing weaknesses. They can't take anything for granted, and they're going to be a rather young team, but the title is theirs for the taking.

Flake is on the rise, certainly, and could definitely be a top-15 team. They have one very deep class, yes, but past experience suggests teams with one good class (take Andover last year, for example) usually generate a lot of hype but don't ever make the big leap. Depth is key--to have a big year, they'll need to fill in the gaps via contributions from the less-hyped senior and sophomore classes, and also erase that ugly end to their season last year from their memory.

Grand Rapids has a strong bantam crop coming in and enough other returning parts to be a threat. A lot will depend on how quickly the younger players develop, and to what extent they can ride DiGiuseppi. Never a team to be ignored, but they too have to prove they can rise above what they've done come playoff time these past few years.

Cloquet is the wild card in this section. After a year and a half in the toilet they came on strong at the end of last year, and with McFarlane coming back and a nice added boost from the youth program, I suspect they'll be back. They may not have the overall talent of the above three, but anyone who's followed Dave Esse's Cloquet teams over the past decade knows that what's "on paper" rarely matters. I'm very curious to see how their year plays out.

Elk River does return its very strong goalie, who gives them a chance to steal any game, but they also lost 7 of their 8 top scorers from last year, which means they have a lot of replacing to do. It's a deep program, so they may come around by the year's end, but they have plenty of questions that need answers.

Andover lost just about everything (as did St. Francis), and I believe Cambridge lost a ton of seniors, too. I don't know much about Princeton, but for all intents and purposes, this is a 5-team race.

There's an awful lot of young talent in this section, which makes it a great one to watch. The big questions revolve around whose sophomores grow up fastest. If it's East's, it'll be another methodical march to the X for the Hounds. If it's someone else's, we have the makings of a great final 4 at the DECC.

[BigWorm]

Any truth to Cloquet getting a forward from Duluth East?

[interestedbystander]

Hearsay says its Nolan Meyer

[karl(east)]

Hearsay says its Nolan Meyer

Yes, this is official.

[BigWorm]

Hearsay says its Nolan Meyer

Yes, this is official.

Meyer will be a nice player for Cloquet, I bet he's their second leading scorer this season. Nice upgrade.

[formerplayer37]

This is the Hounds' section until someone proves otherwise

[EHSHack]

Hearsay says its Nolan Meyer

Yes, this is official.

Meyer will be a nice player for Cloquet, I bet he's their second leading scorer this season. Nice upgrade.

Second in penalty minutes maybe

[northwoods oldtimer]

Lets get back on topic here boys and discuss 7AA teams.

[MrBoDangles]

You always know hockey season is finally coming up when we have a good 7AA preview thread.

On paper, this section is East's once again, as much as some of our number love to hate them. This year's East team should be stronger than last year's, and though they took a couple of lumps last year, they were not seriously challenged in sections. The talent pool at forward, though perhaps without a superstar (yet), is deeper than any in recent memory, and there just aren't any pressing weaknesses. They can't take anything for granted, and they're going to be a rather young team, but the title is theirs for the taking.

Flake is on the rise, certainly, and could definitely be a top-15 team. They have one very deep class, yes, but past experience suggests teams with one good class (take Andover last year, for example) usually generate a lot of hype but don't ever make the big leap. Depth is key--to have a big year, they'll need to fill in the gaps via contributions from the less-hyped senior and sophomore classes, and also erase that ugly end to their season last year from their memory.

Grand Rapids has a strong bantam crop coming in and enough other returning parts to be a threat. A lot will depend on how quickly the younger players develop, and to what extent they can ride DiGiuseppi. Never a team to be ignored, but they too have to prove they can rise above what they've done come playoff time these past few years.

Cloquet is the wild card in this section. After a year and a half in the toilet they came on strong at the end of last year, and with McFarlane coming back and a nice added boost from the youth program, I suspect they'll be back. They may not have the overall talent of the above three, but anyone who's followed Dave Esse's Cloquet teams over the past decade knows that what's "on paper" rarely matters. I'm very curious to see how their year plays out.

Elk River does return its very strong goalie, who gives them a chance to steal any game, but they also lost 7 of their 8 top scorers from last year, which means they have a lot of replacing to do. It's a deep program, so they may come around by the year's end, but they have plenty of questions that need answers.

Andover lost just about everything (as did St. Francis), and I believe Cambridge lost a ton of seniors, too. I don't know much about Princeton, but for all intents and purposes, this is a 5-team race.

There's an awful lot of young talent in this section, which makes it a great one to watch. The big questions revolve around whose sophomores grow up fastest. If it's East's, it'll be another methodical march to the X for the Hounds. If it's someone else's, we have the makings of a great final 4 at the DECC.

Princeton switched to class A

[brickhouse19]

"Andover - do not know. Hopefully some folks can fill in the rest for me."

Andover is two years away from being relevant in this section. As Karl said they lost most of their team from last year.

[karl(east)]

Princeton switched to class A

Ah yes, I remember this now.

I wonder if this means someone else (Anoka?) will be added to this section after the realignment at the end of this season. Or some other team could opt up, of course... *coughDenfeldcough*

[gamer19]

Hearsay says its Nolan Meyer

Yes, this is official.

If he is transfering to Cloquet from another school, wouldn't he need to sit a year or play JV for a year before being Varsity eligible? Or is he a 9th grader? Any ideas...