The blog, Twitter and Facebook updates might be scarce in the next few days as I’m heading out of town to take one last vacation before the start of the season. On the agenda is Twins-Indians, Canes-Buckeyes, Reds-Pirates and Canton. Today, I stopped out to the rink to compile some interviews for the annual season preview. Here’s all I’ve got in the meantime:
- Defenseman Jake Martois back on skates. Marto was sidelined for a little bit this summer because of a broken ankle. He also was coming off of a shoulder injury to end last season. It has got to feel good to finally be healthy.
- With his health cleared up, the biggest question for captain Chay Genowaywill be how he rebounds on the ice after not playing a hockey game for a year. Genoway and the rest of the team are doing some three-on-three stuff right now to get in the swing of things.
- I believe the coaches are allowed a couple of hours per week with the team beginning next week. The NCAA seems to change things all of the time, but to the best of my memory, these are classified as “skill sessions.” The first official day of full practice is in October.
- A Los Angeles television station had three or four people at the rink today doing a feature on Derek Forbortand the UND program. I believe they interviewed several UND players, including Forbort, Genoway and Brett Hextall. One of the reporters also asked me aboutMiles Koules, so perhaps he’s working his way into this feature.
- Bruce Ciskie of Duluth radio is taking over the WCHA media poll this year. It was previously done by Todd Milewski and Andy Baggotin Wisconsin. Sounds like Ciskie will release the media poll the same day as the coaches poll: Wednesday, Aug. 29.
- Grand Forks native Ryan Potulny, who played college at Minnesota, has signed a new NHL contract — a two-way deal with the Chicago Blackhawks. Read more about that here.
Former UND captain Rylan Kaip has signed a one-year contract with the Houston Aeros of the AHL. Houston is the minor league affiliate of the Minnesota Wild.
The Atlanta Thrashers draft pick played two seasons with their AHL team, the Chicago Wolves. His first pro game was against the Aeros in 2008.
Kaip, 26, was a restricted free agent this offseason. Atlanta declined to send a qualifying offer. Kaip is known for his toughness and leadership.
I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I’ve been taking some time off here and there, while working on preseason projects.
Next week, I’ll be sending out the annual Grand Forks Herald WCHA coaches poll. I’m expecting to release it on Wednesday, Sept. 29th. Word is that UND also will hold its media day that afternoon at Ralph Engelstad Arena, so we should have some videos from that day.
The next day (Thursday, Sept. 30th), the annual 12-page Grand Forks Herald college hockey preview is scheduled to come out. Work has started on this year’s version.
I’ve continued to do interviews for our project that documents the last 10 years of Fighting Sioux hockey. Zach Parise and Shattuck coach Tom Ward both had very interesting things to say last week.
What else has been happening in hockey?
- The head coach of the Kamloops Blazers had some nice things to say about Corey Fienhage and UND. He says that Fienhage has been great early in camp and that he’s had a great attitude. They also said he’s a real team-oriented guy and that probably comes from his college program at UND. Read the story here.
- Grand Forks native and former UND forward Steve Johnson has accepted a job as an assistant at St. Cloud State. Johnson coached the Fargo Force to the USHL finals last season. Fargo will have its third coach in three years.
- Bemidji State lost recruit Zach Franko to the WHL. Franko was a former teammate of UND recruit Brendan O’Donnell.
- ESPN’s E.J. Hradek says that Zach Parise is the biggest bargain in the NHL right now. That may change. Parise is a free agent after this season and should command big dollars.
- I did an interview with UND associate women’s coach Peter Elander about his experience speaking at the World Hockey Summit. He had some interesting things to say about the future of the women’s game. I’ll post that later.
UND received another verbal commitment from a forward who helped Team USA to gold at the Five Nations festival in Switzerland last month.
First, it was Illinois forward Jack Rowe, now it is Los Angeles forward Miles Koules, a former Shattuck-St. Mary’s player who will play for the U.S. Under-17 team this season.
It appears that this a recruit directly from the Shattuck pipeline. Koules mentioned the tradition of great Shattuck players going to North Dakota and he said it has long been his goal to follow the same path.
For more info on Koules, whose father is the former part owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the producer of several movies and television shows, check out the story posted to the Herald’s site here.
UND will hold a second annual Fan Fest on Sept. 11 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at ice level of Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Both the men’s and women’s teams will be in attendance and will take part in an autograph session, a skills station and Q&A sessions. Special features highlighting men’s captain Chay Genoway and the Olympic experience of Monique and Jocelyne Lamoureux.
A free lunch will be provided courtesy the Midco Sports Network. The first 500 fans also will receive a free t-shirt. Door prizes also will be drawn throughout the event.
Fans will be limited to one outside item for autographs. UND athletics will provide an autograph card as well.
Other options:
- Get your picture with the Broadmoor Trophy.
- Sign up for a chance to ride the Zamboni during men’s and women’s games.
- Purchase a grab bag full of Sioux memorabilia for $3. Random bags will be stuffed with tickets to hockey games.
For more information, call (701) 777-2237.
UND has received a commitment from 1994-born forward Jack Rowe of Cary, Ill.
Rowe just returned from the Five Nations tournament in Europe where he was the top scorer for first-place USA. He was the tournament’s third-leading overall scorer.
Rowe has strong ties to Grand Forks. His father, Jack Sr., graduated from Grand Forks Red River. His grandparents, Cleo and Neil Rowe, still live in Grand Forks.
Rowe said he received recruiting calls from about 20 college programs, but his top choices were UND, Michigan State and Michigan. He will graduate from high school in 2012.
“I’m just really excited to play for the coaches and be a part of the program, because it’s the best in the country in the opinion of a lot of people,” Rowe said.
He’ll play for Team Illinois midget major this season and the plan is to go to Cedar Rapids in the USHL in 2011. Cedar Rapids drafted Rowe in the second round.
I’ll have more on Rowe later on.
UND athletics announced today that there will be a weekly TV show called “Inside Fighting Sioux hockey” that will debut this season.
The show is set to run at 7 p.m. on Fridays and 6:30 p.m. Saturdays on the Midcon Sports Network – so it will run a half hour before UND’s games begin.
The program will feature game highlights, interviews with players and coaches and a look back at great moments and players in the program’s history. Tim Hennessy will be the host of the show, which will debut the week of Oct. 4.
The show will run through March 21 with a week break for the holidays. It also will air on Fox College Sports on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m., Fridays at 1:30 a.m. and Saturdays at 12:30 a.m.
One interesting note about the 2010-11 team is that this will be the first UND squad made up entirely of players who committed when Dave Hakstol was the head coach. It comes in his seventh season.
Chris VandeVelde was the final commitment when Dean Blaiswas head coach. He committed about a month before Blais left for Columbus. VandeVelde then played two years in the USHL before coming to UND.
The first commitment after Hakstol took the reins was Zach Jones. He was followed by Matt Watkins, Andrew Kozek and a guy named Jonathan Toews.
Of course, Hakstol was a major player in landing all of the guys he’s had early in his tenure. He was the top assistant under Blais and was a big part of recruiting all of those players. But it’s probably worth noting that — for the first time – every player on this year’s roster committed with Hakstol as head coach and Cary Eades as an assistant.
Every year, The Hockey News ranks the top 50 players in the world.
This year, the magazine says that UND’s Jonathan Toews is one of the five best hockey players in the world and that UND’s Zach Parise is top 15.
Toews is coming off of a historical season, one in which he won an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup. He was named the best forward in the Olympics and the MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. He is ranked No. 5. Parise is widely considered the best all-around American skater. He is ranked No. 15. Only one other former WCHA player cracked the top 50. Wisconsin’s Dany Heatley is at No. 38.
The Hockey News top five:
1. Sidney Crosby
2. Alexander Ovechkin
3. Ryan Miller
4. Pavel Datsyuk
5. Jonathan Toews
Top college hockey players:
3. Ryan Miller, Michigan State
5. Jonathan Toews, UND
7. Duncan Keith, Michigan State (also played major juniors)
15. Zach Parise, UND
31. Ryan Kesler, Ohio State
34. Dan Boyle, Miami
38. Dany Heatley, Wisconsin
49. Mike Cammalleri, Michigan
In addition, The Hockey News also listed T.J. Oshie as one of the five players to watch this season. Oshie will be entering his third professional season and will be a restricted free agent next summer if the Blues don’t lock up him before then.
In trying to take some time off over the last few days, I’ve been forgetting to post several newsy items. So, here they are:
- Grand Forks native and former UND defenseman Andy Schneider has been hired as an assistant coach for the Lincoln Stars. That also means his pro playing career has come to an end. Schneider most recently played in the German Elite League. He was hired by a fellow Grand Forks native and former Sioux player, Chad Johnson, who is the first-year head coach in Lincoln.
- Former UND defenseman and forward Brad Miller has signed with Elmira in the ECHL. Miller was injured for most of last season. It appears that Miller will continue to play defense with the Jackals. Read the release here.
- I’m not sure what took so long for this to become official, but David Toews has signed with the Brandon Wheat Kings in the WHL. Here’s the release. This move was reported several months ago.
- Zach Parise,Jordan Parise and Drew Stafford took batting practice with the Minnesota Twins this week at Target Field. Zach also held a Q&A with fans on the Devils’ website this week. He answered a question about UND and said that Travis Zajac is one of the funniest players on the Devils. Read it here.
- One website did a profile of UND recruit Mike Parks. Read it here.
- And in the world of the WCHA, St. Cloud State forward David Eddy will be ineligible for the first half of the season, KVSC radio reported. Eddy is a smooth-skating player who led SCSU in freshman scoring. He also was the team’s fourth-leading goal scorer.
- The CHL says, in other words, it would like to call a truce in its war of words with the NCAA and College Hockey Inc.’s Paul Kelly. The quotes from CHL leaders are rather ridiculous and Chris Dilks sums it up here.
- On the women’s hockey side, the U22 festival is going on in Toronto right now and the Lamoureux twins have been dominating. It’s definitely a good sign for the Sioux.
Brad Schlossman