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Gopher Blog wrote:

DmanDad1980 wrote:Gophers do not have big players coming in, but highly skilled offensive players that display better puck control than the current roster...

Kloos and Connor Reilly should be solid to good scorers in college. Maybe not right away but in time. Lucia was smart to spend wisely on forwards for the 2012 class because they knew the 2013 class had the potential to be special (and they were right as they landed their major targets for that class). If they spend too much on 2012, they would have had a tougher time landing the boatload of talent they got for 2013.

Skjei and Mike Reilly will be major additions next fall. I think people don't entirely realize how good they are. Reilly was at Shattuck (and now Penticton) so many locals aren't overly familiar with him since he didn't go through the usual MN HS route but he has a better PPG average in the BCHL that Laleggia at DU had the prior season (and Leleggia has been a stud at DU this year). Skjei is going to give them size and great speed from the blue line. Likely a 1st round pick this summer.

What might be an interesting idea would be to move Marshall up to forward for one season next year. Sort of play an Erik Westrum kind of role where he could play forward or defense. I say that because the team is going to be pretty deep on defense and maybe Marshall's dynamic offensive skills would be better suited at forward for next year's team. I guess we'll see.

If Marshall is anything close to Westrum, Gopher fans should consider themselves lucky. Besides, didn't Westrum only play defense on special teams?

sinbin006 wrote:FYI:

http://www.pentictonherald.ca/stories_l ... ?id=405138

Yes, I know about that. We'll see how long he is out. Could affect next season.

Murray Chadwick wrote:If Marshall is anything close to Westrum, Gopher fans should consider themselves lucky. Besides, didn't Westrum only play defense on special teams?

Westy played some defense during "normal" situations as well.

Trying to figure out how the U did not go after Besse. Very smooth skater, decent size and seems to have that sniper mentality. You may need role players, but doesn't hurt to have a guy with skill and can score!

mulefarm wrote:Trying to figure out how the U did not go after Besse. Very smooth skater, decent size and seems to have that sniper mentality. You may need role players, but doesn't hurt to have a guy with skill and can score!

Lucia is obviously very familiar with Besse's game since Mario used to play on the same line as the kid. If Lucia doesn't feel it is a good fit, odds are it probably isn't. He knows this kid well.

Not to mention, Besse really doesn't fill any specific need better than what the Gophers already had lined up for commitments.

The best player on the ice for that game last night was Horn. He's the one to watch for moving forward. He has a better all around game than Besse and is a more complete player.

Horn is still uncommitted...

Like him as well GB... Seeing in person the last two days, has been impressive, and was wondering why no one has offered or received a commitment from this nice player...

Gopher Blog wrote:

mulefarm wrote:Trying to figure out how the U did not go after Besse. Very smooth skater, decent size and seems to have that sniper mentality. You may need role players, but doesn't hurt to have a guy with skill and can score!

Lucia is obviously very familiar with Besse's game since Mario used to play on the same line as the kid. If Lucia doesn't feel it is a good fit, odds are it probably isn't. He knows this kid well.

Not to mention, Besse really doesn't fill any specific need better than what the Gophers already had lined up for commitments.

The best player on the ice for that game last night was Horn. He's the one to watch for moving forward. He has a better all around game than Besse and is a more complete player.

Don't know of all the gophers future commintments. What players do they have lined up that fill the need that Besse would bring.

mulefarm wrote:Don't know of all the gophers future commintments. What players do they have lined up that fill the need that Besse would bring.

Kloos, Cammarata, and Guertler are all scoring centers that will be in the program by 2013.

Gopher Blog wrote:

mulefarm wrote:Trying to figure out how the U did not go after Besse. Very smooth skater, decent size and seems to have that sniper mentality. You may need role players, but doesn't hurt to have a guy with skill and can score!

Lucia is obviously very familiar with Besse's game since Mario used to play on the same line as the kid. If Lucia doesn't feel it is a good fit, odds are it probably isn't. He knows this kid well.

Not to mention, Besse really doesn't fill any specific need better than what the Gophers already had lined up for commitments.

The best player on the ice for that game last night was Horn. He's the one to watch for moving forward. He has a better all around game than Besse and is a more complete player.

With all due respect I watched the semifinal game and the championship game. Now I did not watch the whole season and maybe there is a body of work that needs to be seen to form a proper opinion, BUT based PURELY on the semifinal game and the championship games there was not a single player on the ice better than Besse. Again if I had seen an entire season maybe I would be seeing what you see in Horn but based just on those two games (and not just the goals scored but the puck pressure and defense he played as well) Besse was head and shoulders better than everyone else on the ice in those two games. I watched both on TV, I did not see them live, but TV is sometimes a better angle than live sometimes it's not but that is what I saw and the fact that Horn has no offers or committments and Besse has accepted an offer from a college super power tells me that the coaches that matter probably see the same thing right now.....

Horn has no offers? He hasnt committed anywhere yet, but has loads of options.

Tigers33 wrote:Horn has no offers? He hasnt committed anywhere yet, but has loads of options.

Great player, couldn't find his offers on line so assumed he didn't have any official offers yet. But the kid is really good no doubt and i have no doubt he'll find himself at a real good D1 school after a year of juniors. he is a year older than Besse and Besse is 2014 recruit so I could see Horn being a 2013 recruit somewhere good. Both will likely play one year of juniors before heading to school, both are excellent but I stand by my statement that in those TWO GAMES and those two games only that Besse was the best player on the ice

I've seen these players multiple times in person (beyond just TV) so I am going off of that. I don't live too far away from BSM so their games are sort of in my wheel house of HS hockey teams I tend to see.

Yes, one game to the next can be different for any observer (that's why scouts watch players so many different times). Besse is no doubt the flashier player. But if you want a guy that brings a complete game to the table, Horn is your man.

As far as using who is committed to college and who isn't as a partial argument... you need to understand Horn's situation better before using that.

A big reason Horn's situation with college wasn't clarified earlier is because there was some confusion about whether he wanted to play lacrosse or hockey in college. Horn is a very good lacrosse player. BSM won state the last few years and Horn is an all-conference/all-state lacrosse player. In fact, he was dropped off of the Omaha Lancers protected list last year because he chose to play in the lacrosse tourney instead of attending Omaha's tryouts. So you can see why there may have been questions about what he was going to do. It is the same sort of dilemma we saw with Anders Lee a few years ago with regard to football or hockey. It dragged out and he didn't commit until midway through his senior year even though it was clear Lee would be a D1 player far sooner than that.

I can assure you Horn is receiving interest (and offers) from some top programs.

What will the Gophers lineup look like next year?

Gopher Blog wrote:I've seen these players multiple times in person (beyond just TV) so I am going off of that. I don't live too far away from BSM so their games are sort of in my wheel house of HS hockey teams I tend to see.

Yes, one game to the next can be different for any observer (that's why scouts watch players so many different times). Besse is no doubt the flashier player. But if you want a guy that brings a complete game to the table, Horn is your man.

As far as using who is committed to college and who isn't as a partial argument... you need to understand Horn's situation better before using that.

A big reason Horn's situation with college wasn't clarified earlier is because there was some confusion about whether he wanted to play lacrosse or hockey in college. Horn is a very good lacrosse player. BSM won state the last few years and Horn is an all-conference/all-state lacrosse player. In fact, he was dropped off of the Omaha Lancers protected list last year because he chose to play in the lacrosse tourney instead of attending Omaha's tryouts. So you can see why there may have been questions about what he was going to do. It is the same sort of dilemma we saw with Anders Lee a few years ago with regard to football or hockey. It dragged out and he didn't commit until midway through his senior year even though it was clear Lee would be a D1 player far sooner than that.

I can assure you Horn is receiving interest (and offers) from some top programs.

Very interesting.

Gopher Blog wrote:

mulefarm wrote:Trying to figure out how the U did not go after Besse. Very smooth skater, decent size and seems to have that sniper mentality. You may need role players, but doesn't hurt to have a guy with skill and can score!

Lucia is obviously very familiar with Besse's game since Mario used to play on the same line as the kid. If Lucia doesn't feel it is a good fit, odds are it probably isn't. He knows this kid well.

Not to mention, Besse really doesn't fill any specific need better than what the Gophers already had lined up for commitments.

The best player on the ice for that game last night was Horn. He's the one to watch for moving forward. He has a better all around game than Besse and is a more complete player.

Lucia also passed on Mcdonagh, Gardinner and Stephan. Kyle Medvec from AV would have been a much better choice than David Fischer at the time IMO as well.

mulefarm wrote:What will the Gophers lineup look like next year?

A lot of five foot nothings coming in next year. Keep in mind UND has their worst team in years and they handed our asses to us last night. Not good. Time for change!

Worse thing for Minnesota if all the good players bail early for the NHL.

Why aren't these kids loyal to Minnesota to stay for 3-4 years? Money will always be there when they do turn pro.

Sats81 wrote:Lucia also passed on Mcdonagh, Gardinner and Stephan. Kyle Medvec from AV would have been a much better choice than David Fischer at the time IMO as well.

I wasn't saying he is infallible. Naturally with as many kids as MN produces for D1, there are going to be some pretty good players that end up at other locales. Some tough choices have to be made at times.

But when it comes to 2013, it is very difficult to question what he's done. That is an amazing recruiting class with some extremely good forwards. The forwards they landed in that class could have written their ticket to pretty much any school. For instance, Guertler, Lettieri, Cammarata, and Fasching all had significant scholarship offers from North Dakota (since the poster after you mentioned them). I'm not sure if Kloos is coming next year yet but if he defers to 2013, it will be an amazing amount of skill coming in that year.

PS - To be fair, Gardiner's situation was bad timing for the Gophers as he hadn't made his position change to defense until after Lucia had already filled up his defensive needs for the prior year. It's a bit unfair to expect Lucia to know months ahead of time that a kid would change his position and blow up.

To get a player like Gardiner, Lucia should have been flexible enough to find a spot. He never even made contact with him.

Got our asses handed to us. Wow! Are you an unbelievable fair weather fan or what? The Gophers won the league championship! Remember that?

On the season the Gophers were 3-2 vs. North Dakota. I distinctively remember a 6-2 beating in North Dakota. Remember? And we arguably outplayed them up there on Friday night too.

Lets go back to Friday. We looked like the best team in the country through 30-35 minutes of hockey. Than we looked like the worst team. That is not on coaching!!! 90 percent on the 19 players that touched the ice, and the other 10 percent on the coaches. However, if you are going to blame the coaches than you should blame Guentzel the most. Those defenseman looked awful the 3rd period.

Next years top line might look like Haula - Rau - Budish
Second line could be Condon - Warning - Ambroz
They do lose a lot of senior forwards, but return all defenseman plus Reilly and Skjei. Reilly should be legit.
** I would say Bjugstad has a 90 percent chance to leave. Sounds like from sources that he is having a blast right now with his teammates. Could be a hobey baker finalist if he stuck around. I think goaltending issues will have a lot to do with those that choose to leave.

Tigers33 wrote:Got our asses handed to us. Wow! Are you an unbelievable fair weather fan or what? The Gophers won the league championship! Remember that?

On the season the Gophers were 3-2 vs. North Dakota. I distinctively remember a 6-2 beating in North Dakota. Remember? And we arguably outplayed them up there on Friday night too.

Lets go back to Friday. We looked like the best team in the country through 30-35 minutes of hockey. Than we looked like the worst team. That is not on coaching!!! 90 percent on the 19 players that touched the ice, and the other 10 percent on the coaches. However, if you are going to blame the coaches than you should blame Guentzel the most. Those defenseman looked awful the 3rd period.

Next years top line might look like Haula - Rau - Budish
Second line could be Condon - Warning - Ambroz
They do lose a lot of senior forwards, but return all defenseman plus Reilly and Skjei. Reilly should be legit.
** I would say Bjugstad has a 90 percent chance to leave. Sounds like from sources that he is having a blast right now with his teammates. Could be a hobey baker finalist if he stuck around. I think goaltending issues will have a lot to do with those that choose to leave.

I really think Bjugstad will leave. Skjei is better than you think too. He will step in with Reilly right away and make an immediate impact. Plus the pipeline of talented, but small freshman coming in the next 2 years and I think they are in really good shape.

Do they have a goalie coming in?

mulefarm wrote:Do they have a goalie coming in?

Wilcox
Been USHL last two years...

mulefarm wrote:To get a player like Gardiner, Lucia should have been flexible enough to find a spot. He never even made contact with him.

How do you do that when you've promised other players scholarship? I could see if you could convince a kid to walk on the first year but let's be honest... how many guys of Gardiner's stature are going to do that?

You're not being realistic. You don't toss other players under the bus just to land another. That's not the reputation you want to develop.

Gopher goaltending next year will be unproven on the college level but that doesn't mean it is going to be an issue. It hasn't been uncommon in the WCHA to have a rookie goalie come in and play very well. Especially considering many freshmen goalies come in as 20 years and two years of junior hockey under their belt. They've seen a lot of minutes and pucks in junior hockey by that point so the transition isn't as steep as many assume.

Gopher Blog wrote:

mulefarm wrote:To get a player like Gardiner, Lucia should have been flexible enough to find a spot. He never even made contact with him.

How do you do that when you've promised other players scholarship? I could see if you could convince a kid to walk on the first year but let's be honest... how many guys of Gardiner's stature are going to do that?

You're not being realistic. You don't toss other players under the bus just to land another. That's not the reputation you want to develop.

He had a year to get the situation figured out. He didn't honor the commintment for Jake Youso, Ryan Walters and I believe there was a goalie playing juniors that he let go. You at least make contact with the elite players in your state.