Eaves Signs Five, Rumpel Anointed Next Starter

Head Coach Mike Eaves and the University of Wisconsin has announced the signing of five players during the early signing period. Eaves has signed a goalie, Joel Rumpel (Swift Current, Saskatchewan), and four forwards, Tyler Lapic (New Prague, MN), Cody Strang (Madison, WI), Brendan Woods (Palmyra, Pa.), and Matt Paape (Appleton, WI).

Defensemen Jake McCabe (Eau Claire, WI), and Troy Hesketh (Minnetonka, MN) are expected to sign letters of intent during the spring signing period.

Eaves comments from UWBadgers.com

Tyler Lapic (Chicago, USHL)
“Tyler is a power forward, big lad, who brings a nice skill set to the rink. We expect him, hopefully right away, to be a contributor.”

Matt Paape (Sioux City, USHL)
“Matt is a Wisconsin born and bred young man who brings a nice skill set to the game. He has a knack for being around the puck, and the puck finds him. We expect him to bring some offense to our team."

Cody Strang (Youngstown, USHL)
“Cody’s a local boy. He was the leading point getter in his senior year at Edgewood. He’s really a crafty player with the puck and for not being a very big lad, he has the heart of a wrestler. He knows how to spin away, he’s not afraid to go to the hard areas and he’s a good teammate. We expect good things from him offensively.”

Brendan Woods (Muskegon, USHL)
“He’s from a hockey family. His dad [Bob] played in the NHL and now coaches with the Washington Capitals. He can be a power forward for us. He plays at top tempo and gives us good size. He will play hard.”

Joel Rumpel (Penticton, BCHL)
“He brings a nice pedigree related to the Badger family with his uncle, Roy Schultz, who was an All-American goaltender here back in the early 1980s. He’s a really good athlete. He’s a tremendous track and field athlete so he’s got natural physical abilities, and he’s putting those abilities to work in the game of hockey. He’s going to come in next year as a freshman and going to jump right into the pipes and play immediately for us.”

Andy Baggot spoke with Eaves about the recruits and noted that Rumpel is expected to start in goal from day one next season with both of our scholarship goaltenders graduating after this season.

Eaves also noted that he does not plan to bring in another scholarship goalie in the 2011 class, instead he plans on promoting Mitch Thompson, the current walk on third stringer next season. He noted they will bring in another walk on to take Thompson's spot.

I couldn't be more frustrated by this news. While I feel that Rumpel is going to be a very good goaltender for the Badgers, why not take a shot on one of the two transfers that were available this season. Former UMD goalie Brady Hjelle and former Minnesota State goalie Kevin Murdock were both available and would have been perfect. (Assuming they didn't have WCHA transfer restrictions)

Hjelle has recently committed to Ohio State and Murdock, who has posted a 6-3 record with a 2.59 GAA and a .918 save percentage is still available.

chuckschwartz@live.com
Follow me on Twitter

Bill McCoshen on Matt Paape, Cody Strang

Gandalf's Much Needed Recruit Update has inspired me to finally write a bit more about a couple of other future Badgers, Matt Paape (whose name Gandalf intentionally pronounces incorrectly because he knows it bugs me) and Cody Strang. This is a long time coming, as way back in September I had the pleasure of speaking with Team Wisconsin GM Bill McCoshen about the boys but never got around to posting his remarks -- my excuse at the time (in addition to being quite busy myself) was that there was a ton of other Badger news happening, and anything I wrote about Paape/Strang would get buried. I have no such excuse now.

So, without further ado, here's what McCoshen had to say:

Cody Strang and Matt Paape are two of the top high school players in
Wisconsin. Both players are highly skilled and they have the ability to
completely control the game when they are on the ice. I would not be
surprised if one of them wins the Mr. Hockey award at the end of the
WIAA season.

Cody and Matt have been part of Team Wisconsin for the past three years.
They continue the tradition of players staying home and playing for
their high school while gaining high level development and exposure as
members of Team Wisconsin. The Badgers have been watching them closely
over the past year. I expect them to be big contributors for the
Badgers after some time in the USHL."

Thanks again to Bill McCoshen for taking the time to chat and for sharing his remarks.

I was going finish this post with a few links for those of you who (like me) are all fired-up again about Paape and Strang but (again like me) whose recollections are a bit fuzzy due to all the talk about more recent commits. Unfortuantely (or fortunately from my standpoint), I gotta finish getting ready and head down to Madison, as nubeetle has graciously agreed to take me to Chicago with him to see the Wolves v. Icehogs. In case it slipped your mind, Badger Don Granato is head coach of the Wolves, Badger Alex Brooks plays for the Wolves, and Badgers Jake Dowell and Jack Skille play for the Icehogs. Go BADGERS!

Team Wisconsin weekend results

I've neglected TW a bit lately and failed to mention that last week TW Minor was were ranked #2 by both MyHockeyRankings and ushsho.

With a 7-3 victory over 8A/AA on Saturday and a 6-0 victory over Team North Dakota on Sunday, tdd informs me that TW Minor may be ranked #1 this week. (I think MyHockeyRankings will release their rankings tomorrow, and ushsho will release their rankings on Friday.) Nice job, boys!

On Saturday, TW Major lost to Minnesota N 5-4 and defeated Minnesota NW 7-4. On Sunday, TW Major tied Minnesote SE 2-2. Badger recruit Matt Paape had 2 goals and 3 assists on the weekend, and Badger recruit Cody Strang had 1 assist. Potential Badger recruit Wes Wauters had 2 goals and 4 assists.

Team Wisconsin weekend scores

Yesterday, TW Major defeated MN SE 6-3 and lost to MN SW 3-2. Today, TW Major tied SSM 4-4.

I can't find game stats, so I don't know who scored the goals. But of course you'll remember that future Badgers Cody Strang and Matt Paape play for TW Major. And TW Major is coached by Badger alumnus Tony Scheid!

I can't find game results for TW Minor on their website, but No Sleep Til Madison is reporting that they won the 1st Saturday game v. West Metro 7-4, the 2nd Saturday game v. 1A/AA 5-0, and lost a close game today v. 6A/AA 2-0 (EN). Perhaps TW Minor has some future Badgers, and (you must know this by now) they're coached by Gary Shuchuk.

Team Wisconsin Minor Mad City Shootout

Team Wisconsin Minor (U16), coached by Badger alum Gary Shuchuk, won the Mad City Shootout this weekend. This is Shuchuk's first season coaching TW (he had previously coached in the Wisconsin Elite Hockey League (WEHL)), and TW GM Bill McCoshen told me that Shuey is doing a great job for them and that all the kids love him. Nice to hear!

Anyway, I had a chance to make it to a couple of the games this weekend, and I gotta tell ya, it was a good time. (I wore my gameworn Shuchuk jersey. It was a big hit, lol.) TW was pretty dominant -- I looked at the standings before the last game, and TW had already wrapped up the festival. They won all 4 of their games and outscored their opponents 21-2. Nice! Here are the results from the Caps website:

EDIT - I can't explain it -- some of the numbers in the below table that I copied and pasted don't show up very well. But if you highlight the table, you'll be able to see all the numbers!

The Mad-City Shootout Scoring

The Mad-City Shootout will be scored in a festival format. Teams will be awarded points as follows.

4 points for a game win

2 points for a game tie

2 points for each period won

1 point for each period tied

1 bonus point for a game shutout

	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Total Points
Madison Capitols	1	7	3	1	12
Russell Stover	10	0	1	2	13
Team Wisconsin	11	9	11	9	40
Affton Americans	0	0	3	8	11
Milwaukee Jr. Admirals	10	10	7	0	27

Shootout: if the score is tied at the end of regulation there will be a 5 round shootout to determine the winner. If the teams are still tied at the end 5 rounds each team is awarded 2 points for a tie. A player may only shoot once during a shootout.

US Hockey rules and penalties will apply to all games.

Games are 15-15-20 minute stop time periods, 5 minute warm-up and one resurface between the second and third periods. If a team is ahead by 6 or more goals in the third period it will be running time for the balance of the game. Each team will be allowed a single one (1) minute timeout per game.

For all games, the home team listed shall wear its home, light colored jersey and the visiting team listed shall wear its away, dark colored jersey

Mad-City Shootout 2008, U16 Division September 26-28
Madison Capitols		Milwaukee Jr. Admirals
Team Wisconsin		Affton Americans
Russell Stover
Friday	Home		Visitors
7:30 PM	Milwaukee Jr. Admirals 5	vs.	Affton Americans 1	Rink A
9:30 PM	Russell Stover 3	vs.	Madison Capitols 0	Rink A
Saturday
8:30 AM	Affton Americans 0	vs.	Team Wisconsin 7	Rink A
10:30 AM	Russell Stover 2	vs.	Milwaukee Jr. Admirals 7	Rink A
2:20 PM	Madison Capitols 3	vs.	Affton Americans 1	Rink A
4:20 PM	Team Wisconsin 5	vs.	Russell Stover 1	Rink A
8:10 PM	Milwaukee Jr. Admirals 3	vs.	Madison Capitols 2	Rink A
Sunday
8:00 AM	Affton Americans 6	vs.	Russell Stover 2	Rink A
8:10 AM	Team Wisconsin 5	vs.	Milwaukee Jr. Admirals 0	Rink B
2:10 PM	Madison Capitols 1	vs.	Team Wisconsin 4	Rink A

Moving along . . . Team Wisconsin Major (U18) had a nice weekend as well, winning all 3 of their games. As you know, TW Major includes future Badgers Cody Strang and Matt Paape. Their head coach, by the way, is Badger alum Tony Scheid. Badger alumni everywhere! (Too bad I don't have a gameworn Tony Scheid jersey!)

More Nick Pryor, Matt Paape

(It looks like Gandalf and I were posting at the same time, except I write slower!)

I've gotta admit, I'm pretty bummed about this whole Nick Pryor situation about which Chuck previously reported. Here are some more links:

Milewski: Pryor out, Paape in among UW recruits
Milewski: More from Pryor
Baggot: Badgers add one, lose one


Obviously Pryor is not telling everyone the same story about his reasons for de-committing (and he's not even talking to Baggot), but so be it. Maybe it was academics (hey, would you want to admit to everyone that you couldn't get into school?) or maybe it was something else, but regardless Pryor is gone.

I was looking forward to his joining the Badgers. Seemed liked a nice kid and a good enough hockey player who would've been a nice addition to the Badgers. Sure, he wasn't a top-end guy like Goloubef, Smith, Gardiner, etc, but I figure he would've been a solid guy that we could've counted on for 4 years.

I'm sure Eaves has something in the works, but next year on D is looking a bit scary. And not in a good way. You gotta figure that McBain won't stay his senior year, and you gotta have doubts about Goloubef, Smith, and McDonagh sticking around for their junior years. I'm waiting to hear who Eaves will now bring in on D in 2009, but I'm afraid I won't be waiting patiently as the D is looking pretty thin for that year.

On the other hand, the offense certainly isn't looking thin. The Badgers recently picked up a commitment from Appleton winger Matt Paape for 2010 or 2011. All the idiots will be screaming over-recruiting, but the huge class of Geoffrion/Davies/Mitchell/Bendickson/Grotting/Bohmbach will be gone after the 2009-10 season, and you've gotta allow for a couple of early departures. Still not a lot of room for Strang and Paape to come in 2010 season, but they committed for either 2010 or 2011, so I'm ok with that.

Recruit Pipeline at Even this week

We lose one recruit, we gain another this week. I'll cover Matt Paape first. The Appleton United forward will join the Badgers in 2010 or 2011 after spending a year or two in the USHL following this season. Matt is playing w/ Team Wisconsin in the High School Hockey Elite League, and is teammates w/ recent verbal Cody Strang. Matt was receiving initial interest from CC and North Dakota.

You can read more about Matt here, and more about Nick Pryor as well. Todd of TCT talked w/ Nick about his decommitment and some new information has come to light. Here are some quotes:

said he made the decision in the last week that Wisconsin "wasn't a good fit for me anymore."

Asked why, he said: "I don't really know. I don't really have anything to say about that."

"It's kind of hard for me to explain, still, right now," Pryor continued. "It's hard for me to explain to my parents. They understand where I'm coming from. But it was just a decision I made. It didn't seem to be a good place for me."

He denied rumors that his decommitment had something to do with academics. "I could have gotten in if I wanted to," he said.

He said he liked everything about Wisconsin, including the hockey coaching staff. "It had nothing to do with them because they're all first class and a first-class program," he said.

This contradicts what Nick told Chuck earlier about academics being the main reason why he couldn't get in. Todd did a followup w/ Nick and here is the whole post.

** On whether he's looking to play somewhere else: "Now I'm just playing whatever I can get and wherever I can go. I'm keeping everything open right now."
** On whether he's heard interest from other schools: "I've gotten calls. I'm keeping my options open right now. I don't have my mind set on anywhere right now. I'm just going to play - I've got a tournament coming up this weekend, the USHL Fall Classic, and see how everything goes after that. Nothing too serious at all right now."
** On how he made the decision not to play for UW: "I don't know where it came from, but it was a choice that I made and it's over with now as far as I'm concerned, and I've got to move on."
** More on the decision: "It was a tough decision, but I'm going to be able to play hockey somewhere. I just want to play hockey. It doesn't really matter where I play hockey. As long as I have a good fit for me and I'm enjoying myself there and having fun, that's fine with me."

The interesting thing for me was that when I asked Pryor what made him now think that UW wouldn't be a good fit for him, he paused for a few seconds before basically saying he didn't have an answer. Fair enough, but it keeps you wondering.

I wonder too Todd, no doubt. This doesn't all add up to me. He's still a kid so I cut him slack, but I have to wonder how you can make a big decision like this and don't know why. If its an issue w/ playing time, well the chances of McDonagh and McBain being back in Madison a year from now are pretty slim. That doesn't even account for some part of Brendan Smith, Cody Goloubef or Jake Gardiner making an unexpected though possible jump to the pros. Obviously as a fan, I'm not owed anything by the players, especially recruits, but I'm not overly happy when you say academics is a reason and then you tell Todd at TCT that you just changed your mind. Tell the truth right away, people might not be happy w/ you, but at least they know you were up front about things. Down the road in life that is important, whether you are an NHL prospect or a janitor.