2011 Recruit Patrick Daly Named Mr. Hockey Finalist

The Wisconsin Badgers have a history with the Minnesota Mr. Hockey Award. Two recent winners have gone on to have great success with the Badgers. In 2004, Centennial forward Tom Gorowsky would take home the award before moving on to a nice career at Wisconsin. In 2007 it was former Badger, and current New York Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh who was presented with the hardware.

This year 2011 Badger recruit Patrick Daly of Benilde-St. Margarets has been named a top 10 finalist for the award.

According to the Minnesota Minutemen website: "The Mr. Hockey Award is given to the outstanding senior high school hockey player in the state of Minnesota and is selected by a panel of National Hockey League Scouts, Division One coaches and selected media members from around the state. Three other awards will be presented at the banquet: The Frank Brimsek Award, The John Mariucci Award, given to the Class A and Class AA high school coaches of the year and The Cliff Thompson Award, presented to the “Old Timer Coach” of the year."

Daly, who committed to the Badgers on January 10th is having an outstanding senior season for Benilde. Daly had 34 points in 21 games for the Red Knights including an incredible 31 assists.

Daly, who will join Jake McCabe from the NTDP as recruited 2011 defensemen has gotten rave reviews from people around the state. I was able to speak with Fargo Force beat writer Ryan Clark who managed to see him when Benilde was in Moorehead and gave a glowing review, "A-freaking-mazing. He's ungodly fast and his only weak spot, to this point, is he does not shoot. You guys got a good one. He's always checking, he's active with his stick, gets in the passing lane and can take a shot. Best HS d-man I've seen (this year)."

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Badgers land Minnesota prep defenseman Patrick Daly

Editors Note: Bumped the Daly story back up to the top since it's the most important news of the day.

I started hinting around on twitter earlier in the week that Wisconsin may be looking for another defenseman for the 2011 class. Little did I know this gem was about to fall in our lap.

Thanks to Todd Milewski, we've learned that Wisconsin has landed the services of Benilde-St. Margaret's defenseman Patrick Daly for the 2011-12 season.

According to a press release sent from the school, Daly leads his club in plus/minus with a +27 in only 11 games so far this season. He has 3 goals and 15 points as well. In his career for BSM, Daly has 53 points and is a +112 in 73 games.

Daly sounds excited to join the Wisconsin program next season. “I felt the coach staff there is phenomenal and it’s a dream come true to playin the WCHA, especially for a program held in such high esteem." Daly said in a release.

The 6'0, 180 lb defenseman joins Jake McCabe and Troy Hesketh as committed defensemen in the 2011 class.

Accroding to an article from the Minnesota Hockey Hub, Daly turned down an offer from Nebraska-Omaha and was also receiving serious interest from Minnesota-Duluth.

Benilde-St. Margaret's head coach loves the way his senior captain gets up and down the ice. "Anyone who sees his game always comments on his skating,” Head coach Ken Pauly said. “He has such high-end skating ability that he really is a great prospect for the future."

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