Elite "D" League

Task Force 34 · Post by **Task Force 34** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 1:55 pm

Anyone know when or if these rosters will be posted?

pioneers · Post by **pioneers** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:10 pm

Might be posted here at some point

http://www.mnhockeyhub.com/page/show/18 ... ent-league

JC97 · Post by **JC97** » Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:48 pm

I tried out and they said Thursday night

nosoupforyou · Post by **nosoupforyou** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 6:44 am

Rosters and schedule on line.

http://www.mnhockeyhub.com/page/show/18 ... ent-league

A lot of Blue and White in the Metro SouthEast. A lot of Green and Black in the Metro NorthEast.

preferhockey · Post by **preferhockey** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:59 am

Wow, 9 STA on a team. Forget that really no surprise. Just a lot of other teams without a single representative in either league for this team have such a high number.

SidneysDogHouse · Post by **SidneysDogHouse** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 8:28 am

Many surprises...things that make you go hmmmm....!

dogeatdog1 · Post by **dogeatdog1** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 8:38 am

JC97 wrote:I tried out and they said Thursday night

Did you make it?

JC97 · Post by **JC97** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:10 am

dogeatdog1 wrote:
JC97 wrote:I tried out and they said Thursday night
Did you make it?

Yup

Nuts&Bolts · Post by **Nuts&Bolts** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 3:50 pm

What I found interesting during my drive by the rink to watch a few sessions was how players are assigned to a region for tryouts. STAA has 9 making one team that raises questions every year but all STAA kids appeared to tryout out for only the SE team. I give more credit to the Edina's, Wayzata's, BSM's and HM's for spreading there kids out into 4 or 5 different regions. A bit more creative approach and less obvious when looking at total numbers. In reality the overall leader appears to be Edina with 12 kids making a "Elite" D team while not a single kid makes it from SSP, Rosemount, Northfield, CG, etc. Really?

The other humorous item just like the "Elite" league is seeing many of the same evaluators from the "Select" teams and the parent coaches/assistants including a new HC from...... you guessed it..... Edina that coaches his AAA summer team. The one fact I'd like to know is how many players made a team without having to tryout and shouldn't this information be disclosed before parents cut the check thinking there are 20 roster spots available?

nosoupforyou · Post by **nosoupforyou** » Sat Aug 17, 2013 9:23 am

Crunching some numbers on the rosters:

# of players (Primary) -> 160
# of schools (Primary) -> 69

# of players (Alternates) -> 46
# of schools (Alternates) -> 33

Total # of schools represented across all rosters -> 75

Top 10 schools on primary rosters
1. Edina - 12
2. STA - 9
3. Wayzata - 8
4. Bemidji - 7
5. Grand Rapids - 6
6. H-M - 6
7. Lakeville North - 5
8. Elk River - 4
9. Maple Grove - 4
10. WBL - 4

13 Teams with 3 players

Easy to raise eyebrows about the large number of kids from the top couple schools, but when 75 schools have participants it's hard to say the process is too exclusive. At least part of the process is working when Austin, Pine City, Moose Lake, and New Ulm are represented. Not perfect, but what is???

NLHockey · Post by **NLHockey** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:05 am

Turn out for the tryouts North is not great - not much interest in this league up North. Grand Rapids seems to have taken the reins on the NE having the most interested players (No players from Cloquet or Hermantown (dont think any tried out), just a few from Denfeld/East/Marshall - a few more than last year, but still not great).

HappyHockeyFan · Post by **HappyHockeyFan** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 3:11 am

Does anyone know if Jason Smallidge from St Thomas is the brother of Nick Smallidge who played for Eagan ??

mnhockfan99 · Post by **mnhockfan99** » Sun Aug 18, 2013 10:57 am

Yes he is!

[quote="HappyHockeyFan"]Does anyone know if Jason Smallidge from St Thomas is the brother of Nick Smallidge who played for Eagan ??[/quote]

greybeard58 · Post by **greybeard58** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:05 am

I saw the players list any idea who the Coaches are?

Bluewhitefan · Post by **Bluewhitefan** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:03 am

greybeard58 wrote:I saw the players list any idea who the Coaches are?

SW - Bellows
S - Lawton

Not sure about the others.

NLHockey · Post by **NLHockey** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:23 am

greybeard58 wrote:I saw the players list any idea who the Coaches are?

http://www.mnhockeyhub.com/page/show/188925-contacts

Not sure how current this link is

greybeard58 · Post by **greybeard58** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:10 pm

Thank you

TheMayor · Post by **TheMayor** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:20 am

I watched a game between SW and S last weekend. My kid plays for south, so I wasn't paying a great deal of attention to the other bench, but it sure seemed to me that the former NHLer was making sure his kid and a couple others got excessive amounts of playing time. Is anyone else geting tired of this guy's act? His kid also got kicked out for a mis-conduct, and I was told that he had three penalties the day before. The larger question is why are the Elite League people tarnishing their league by letting parent coaches in? The kid is a perfectly fine player - but who wouldn't be with the amount of playing time his dad makes sure he gets? He's on the U16 team that was picked the first weekend even though he wasn't there. Probably deserves a spot, but I'm not sure about the rest of his summer team kids that made the team. Now, I've been told that he's going up to Grand Rapids with an Elite League team this weekend. For those that were complaining about 10th graders in the Elite league - this kid is a 9th grader - he skipped a year at Shattuck when he was there for two weeks. Apparently, he's the best player in the entire league, even though he hasn't finished a game yet. Can't wait to see Edina leading the Lake conference in penalty minutes.

Wet Paint · Post by **Wet Paint** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:37 am

It is called the Elite D league yet I don't see any D (assuming D means developmental) going on. No coaching, no practices, sloppy play..... etc. No D just $$$$$$.

Bluewhitefan · Post by **Bluewhitefan** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 9:49 am

Wet Paint wrote:It is called the Elite D league yet I don't see any D (assuming D means developmental) going on. No coaching, no practices, sloppy play..... etc. No D just $$$$$$.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!! Now that they've let the inmates in to run the assylum, this league is a complete and total embarrassment. As for Bellows - shame on the league for not seeing this coming. Either they're impressed with his "celebrity" status, or he bullied his way in as usual.

Nuts&Bolts · Post by **Nuts&Bolts** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:35 am

How about the former NHL-er/parent coach yelping at bench after his son got a little shot from an opposing player half his size after a whistle and NHL-er/dad wanting to be sure his team never turns there back on his son and to grab a guy? I can't make this stuff up. Or how about dad's summer AAA team making up half of the "Elite" D league "all-star" roster being coached by his friend and assistant "Elite" D league director. Kieffer is a nice player but if he's really the first kid called up to the "Elite" league, this story only gets better. The only question I have is what "Elite" coach will the dad be replacing next year?

Deep Breath · Post by **Deep Breath** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 1:07 pm

I don't have a horse in this race but i tend to agree with the latest sentiments. Not sure why, other than the "celebrity factor" the D League would want ANY parent on one of its benches. Benches should be run like a 3on3 game anyway; next line up, regardless of situation. Give all the players a chance to "develop" their power play and penalty kill skills. Do people actually care that much about who is winning these games? And if so....why?

nosoupforyou · Post by **nosoupforyou** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 1:20 pm

Deep Breath wrote:I don't have a horse in this race but i tend to agree with the latest sentiments. Not sure why, other than the "celebrity factor" the D League would want ANY parent on one of its benches. Benches should be run like a 3on3 game anyway; next line up, regardless of situation. Give all the players a chance to "develop" their power play and penalty kill skills. Do people actually care that much about who is winning these games? And if so....why?

For what it's worth, the Metro NE coaches did just that in the game I watched vs Norway last weekend. They rolled all 4 lines for the entire game up to the last shift when they threw Giller/Welsh/Mills out early to tie the game. Kudos to them for keeing the 'D' part of the league in the forefront.

dogeatdog1 · Post by **dogeatdog1** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 3:15 pm

nosoupforyou wrote:
Deep Breath wrote:I don't have a horse in this race but i tend to agree with the latest sentiments. Not sure why, other than the "celebrity factor" the D League would want ANY parent on one of its benches. Benches should be run like a 3on3 game anyway; next line up, regardless of situation. Give all the players a chance to "develop" their power play and penalty kill skills. Do people actually care that much about who is winning these games? And if so....why?
For what it's worth, the Metro NE coaches did just that in the game I watched vs Norway last weekend. They rolled all 4 lines for the entire game up to the last shift when they threw Giller/Welsh/Mills out early to tie the game. Kudos to them for keeing the 'D' part of the league in the forefront.

I'll say it again. 20+ kids on the roster= $150,000 in elite D league development budget. UNREAL!

almostashappy · Post by **almostashappy** » Fri Sep 13, 2013 4:24 pm

dogeatdog1 wrote:
nosoupforyou wrote:
Deep Breath wrote:I don't have a horse in this race but i tend to agree with the latest sentiments. Not sure why, other than the "celebrity factor" the D League would want ANY parent on one of its benches. Benches should be run like a 3on3 game anyway; next line up, regardless of situation. Give all the players a chance to "develop" their power play and penalty kill skills. Do people actually care that much about who is winning these games? And if so....why?
For what it's worth, the Metro NE coaches did just that in the game I watched vs Norway last weekend. They rolled all 4 lines for the entire game up to the last shift when they threw Giller/Welsh/Mills out early to tie the game. Kudos to them for keeing the 'D' part of the league in the forefront.
I'll say it again. 20+ kids on the roster= $150,000 in elite D league development budget. UNREAL!

Well I had a horse in that race, and the coaches on my son's team rolled all of the lines the same way...all five of them!

The reasons provided for rostering so many players and alternates on each team was that each week D-leaguers get called up to fill Elite team rosters. But that didn't work all the time, and there were healthy scratches for about a third of the games, just to keep it to 4 lines per game.

As for the league budget...those guys aren't getting rich off of the d-league, that's for sure. I suspect that there is a rather large budget to cover the hotel/meals each weekend for the coaches on half of the teams (either Northern coaches traveling down to the Cities, or Metro team coaches traveling up to play weekend series in Crookston or Grand Rapids).

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