Badgers @ the NHL Draft

With the NHL draft coming up this weekend, there have been various articles about Badgers at the NHL draft.

• Uwbadgers.com discusses three Badgers who may be drafted this year: sophomore forward Jordy Murray, incoming freshman defenseman John Ramage, and incoming freshman forward Craig Smith. Two other incoming freshman have already been drafted (defenseman Justin Schultz and goaltender Brett Bennett). In addition, the Badgers have 9 other players who have already been drafted (Geoffrion, Hickey, McDonagh, B. Smith, Turnbull, Gardiner, Gouloubef, Stepan, and P. Johnson).

• Andy Baggot talks specifically about Craig Smith's potential in this year's draft. He additionally mentions Murray, C. Smith, 2010-11 recruit Tyler Lapic, and 2011-12 recruit Troy Hesketh. Baggot also has a post comprised of various Badger/WCHA-related NHL draft items.

• If you're interested in other WCHA players who might be drafted, take a look at the WCHA's official release regarding this year's draft.

• This last item isn't really draft-related, but I figure I might as well post it here. Uwbadgers.com takes a look at the Badgers' top-5 NHL scorers: Chris Chelios, Gary Suter, Scott Mellanby, Brian Mullen, and Dany Heatley.

No Badgers are expected to go in the 1st round this year, but I'm all right with that. I'm sure that Gandalf/Chuck/EoDS will keep all of us informed on Badger draft selections this weekend. (It's always fun to volunteer others to do all the work for you, isn't it? Thanks, boys!)

Jackie MacMillan named 1st head coach of CSS Women's Hockey

"I was extremely blessed to be a part of the inaugural team at the University of Wisconsin. What I remember are many of the first moments: the first practice, game, road trip and all of my teammates who were a part of those first four years. I hope to help the first women's hockey players at St. Scholastica realize how truly unique they will be in the first years of the program."

-- Jackie MacMillan

A big thanks to BTD for pointing this out: Badger alum Jackie MacMillan was named head coach of St. Scholastica's new DIII Women's Hockey program. St. Scholastica, which previously had a successful club team, is elevating to the DIII level for the 2010-11 season and will be joining the NCHA. Current NCHA teams include UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Superior, Concordia, Finlandia, and Lake Forest College. Also joining the NCHA will be current independent Adrian College (2009-10) and new programs at Marian University (2009-10) and St. Norbert College (2010-11).

About her new position, MacMillan says the following:

"I am extremely honored to be a part of building a program at such a great institution as St. Scholastica. Duluth is such a great hockey community and I am excited to be a part of something special. The kind of team we will hope to put together in these first few years is one that is determined, disciplined, unified, and out-works their opponents. I strongly believe if we can find student-athletes with those qualities, we will see success quickly in our program."

CSS AD Don Olson is highly complimentary about MacMillan:

The College of St. Scholastica is very excited to be initiating a women's intercollegiate hockey program.To be able to embark on this venture with a coach of Jackie MacMillan's experience, knowledge, energy, and leadership qualities only add to our enthusiasm. Jackie has a thorough understanding of the balance between academics and athletics at the Division III level and will be an excellent role model for her athletes.

MacMillan, who played in goal for the Badgers for 4 seasons, was part of the Badger Women's inaugural team and made 50 saves in the Badgers' 1st-ever game. She was named 1st-Team All-WCHA in 2000 and 2nd-Team All-WCHA in 2002, and her name is prominent in the Badgers' record book.

Congratulations, Jackie, and best of luck!

Badgers on the Move: Chris Chelios

First of all, I want to thank 60min and the rest of the No Alibis crew from
bringing me on. I look forward to contributing here, and I can only hope
to be half as interesting as Minnesota
Sucks week.

With free agency set to begin July 1st, and the NHL Draft around the
corner, we're more than likely to see a lot of player movement in the NHL over
the coming weeks. As has been reported here
and elsewhere, Chris Chelios is going to be one of those players. His deal is up in
Detroit, and Ken Holland will not be looking to resign him.

The question of what Chelios wants to do now didn't go unanswered
long. Cheli held a press conference last week at his chili bar in Detroit to announce his intentions:

[Chelios] and his agent will start contacting teams July 1, when he officially becomes a free agent. "I just want to see if I can get the opportunity with another team and if I can contribute," he said, adding that he would prefer to play with a team in the Eastern Conference because travel would be easier than in the far-flung Western Conference. But Chelios also said if things aren't going well and he's not playing a month or two into next season, he would retire.

The sentimentalist (or the rabid BadgerHawk fan... one of the two) secretly hopes that he'll head back to his hometown Chicago Blackhawks. His radio interview with ESPN 1000 Wednesday (linked via espn.com above) certainly gave the impression that his preference for the Eastern Conference is just that, a preference: "I'm not ruling out any of the Western Teams, either". He openly stated that he'll probably be giving Dale Tallon of the Blackhawks a call, and that "[he has] a soft spot in [his] heart for Chicago".

There were some moments last season where Chelios looked his age, but considering how sparingly he played, one can hardly blame him for being out of rythym. And although he is certainly slower than he was in his prime, we live in a day and age where Hal freakin' Gill can be the main shut down defender on a Stanley Cup winning team. As long as his positional play is solid (I think it still is), and his icetime demands are consistent but low (they are), I think he can find that third pairing role he's been talking about. But that doesn't solve the million dollar question: Who will be in the market for Cheli?

Teams looking for Chelios will probably have to satisfy several, if not all, of the following characteristics in their defensive corps: youth (see also: inexperienced), lack of experienced leaders, lack of stay-at-home defensemen, lack of depth beyond their top four.

Who fits that bill? Atlanta, Toronto, New York Islanders and Tampa Bay stand out, if only because they had the worst GA in 2008-09- but they all fit at least three of those four virtues. Chicago would certainly be a sexy option (there's a phrase you don't see often) if not for the valuable experience that Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook got during this spring's playoff run.

LA certainly has an interesting hodge podge of defensemen in their system, including a lot of ex-college players (such as UW's own Davis Drewiske), but it might be a challenge for Cheli to crack that lineup consistently, even if very few of the Kings are head and shoulders above him.

There are numerous other teams that simply just don't have the depth at defense and are teetering on the edge of having a decent playoff run/appearance in them (Columbus, St. Louis, Buffalo, etc.). But the truth with Cheli is this: starting July 1st, he's got a lot of calls to start making, and this probably won't be settled quickly, unless Chicago actually (for some reason) makes an agressive offer. Just about all we know for sure is that he's not playing for Detroit.

Drama In Gopher Nation

In what's becoming an increasingly alarming trend, there is more drama in the Gopher Nation. In case you haven't heard, Minnesota assistant coach Mike Hastings has stepped down to take a lateral position at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Hastings will be the top assistant for the Mavericks. Former North Dakota head coach Dean Blais was recently hired as head coach. Hastings was one of a handful of finalists for the head coaching job. Prior to his one year stint at Minnesota, Hastings was the head coach for the Omaha Lancers for 14 seasons.

The stability in the twin cities has been less than stellar over the past few seasons. Minnesota will be on their 4th assistant coach in the past 6 seasons. There are rumors on the WCH Blog that John Hill might be next, taking the Sioux City coaching job in the USHL. Gopher Nation is in full spin control right now.

Anyone else in favor of having a reality TV show on the Gopher hockey team? Watching them over the past 6 seasons has been better drama than whats been on TV lately any ways.

Didn't Jamie already win . . . ?

Whoever puts together the weekly polls for uwbadgers.com seems to be a bit behind this week. Jamie McBain has already received the Badgers Male Athlete of the Year Award. But that very award is the subject of this week's poll. I think the poll would've been more interesting and more relevant (I won't say meaningful, because we know these things aren't) if done before the actual award was given. But hey, I got nothin' better to do (for the next few minutes, anyway), so I figure I might as well vote.

Speaking of polls, the current poll on the men's hockey homepage is "How far do you see the Badgers going in the postseason?".

Today in Badger Hockey History: Dany Heatley

6/24/2000

Freshman Dany Heatley is selected second overall by the Atlanta Thrashers in the NHL Entry Draft.

Heatley is the highest drafted Badger hockey player in Wisconsin history.

-- uwbadgers.com

No Alibis No Regrets presents . . . EoDS!

Exile on Dayton Street, whose name you'll recognize from his caption contest win and from his comments for various posts here, has agreed to join us here on No Alibis No Regrets. You may have noticed that EoDs has a tendency to scoop us on alumni links from tsn/espn/nhl, and I think he's hilarious, so I'm happy to welcome EoDS onboard.

Welcome, EoDS!

More Cheli news: no longer a Red Wing

The article we posted earlier today about Chris Chelios' role with the 2010 US Olympic Team mentioned that Chelios would like to play another year in the NHL. But apparently it won't be with the Red Wings. Nicole from cutesports was kind enough to forward to me this blurb:

Chelios free to seek new deal elsewhere

Associated Press
DETROIT -- Chris Chelios won't be with the Detroit Red Wings next season.

Wings general manager Ken Holland tells The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press he met with the 47-year-old and Chelios wouldn't be offered another contract.

The Associated Press left a message for Holland Monday evening seeking comment.

Holland tells the News it was "kind of understood last summer" when Chelios signed a one-year deal that it would be his last.

Holland says Chelios wants to play another season and believes the veteran player can still play.

Detroit signed Chelios in 1999, and Holland calls him "just a perfect role model for young players."

He had no points and a plus-1 rating in 28 games this season.

Deluce, Prévost win championship at Prospects Super Series

I'm a little late on this, as the Prospects Super Series took place June 5-7, but honestly until today I had no idea what this event was, and it wasn't posted on the uscho fan forum until a few days ago. (Thanks to those who posted on the uscho thread.)

The Prospects site isn't the most the straightfoward site for those who aren't familiar with the Prospects events, but from what I can tell there were two tournaments -- the Showcase Camp and the Super Series -- with the former being younger players and the latter being older players from DI, DIII, CIS, CWHL, etc. If I can count (and sometimes I can't), 9 teams competed in the Super Series.

Badgers Mallory Deluce and Carolyne Prévost played for the Summer Storm. The Prospects site doesn't have scores for the round-robin play (schedule only as far as I can tell), but the Summer Storm defeated Total1 6-0 in the quarterfinals, defeated the Blue Streak 12-0 in the semifinals, and defeated the Slashers 3-2 in the championship game.

Here are the rosters for the 2 teams in the championship game. As you can see, the Summer Storm was almost entirely comprised of DI players, whereas the Slashers was comprised of more players from DIII and other leagues.

Slashers
First Last 08-09 Team Division
Danielle Beattie SUNY Plattsburgh NCAA D3
Jenna Sosnoski Kitchener Int AA
Jennifer Hitchcock ZSC Lions Swiss A league
Leah Craig
Nicole Goguen
Martine Garland
Shannon Clement
Stephanie Holmes Cornell University NCAA D1
Maggie Joyce University of New Hampshire NCAA D1
Lindsey Brown SUNY Plattsburgh NCAA D3
Danielle Blanchard SUNY Plattsburgh NCAA D3
Jordan Pyers St. Lawrence University NCAA D1
Alex Blackwell Manhattanville College NCAA D3
Ellie Seedhouse U of Western Ontario CIS
Ainsley Brien SUNY Plattsburgh NCAA D3
Katy Walker Elmira College NCAA D3

Summer Storm
First Last 08-09 Team Division
Lauren Dahm Clarkson University NCAA D1
Carlee Eusepi Clarkson University NCAA D1
Mallory Johnston Burlington CWHL
Britni Smith St. Lawrence University NCAA D1
Tara Gray U of Minnesota Duluth NCAA D1
Lori Antlick Northeastern University NCAA D1
Vicki Bendus Mercyhurst College NCAA D1
Mallory Deluce Wisconsin University NCAA D1
Katie Stewart Colgate University NCAA D1
Carolyne Prevost Wisconsin University NCAA D1
Jacquie Colborne Colgate University NCAA D1
Melissa Waldie Clarkson University NCAA D1
Britney Selina Clarkson University NCAA D1
Elin Brown Colgate University NCAA D1

Men's Hockey Video Series: Part 1

History tells us to a degree that when you're an upperclassman team you have an excellent chance of doing something special.

-- Mike Eaves

Not quite sure how I missed this; the date on the release is dated 6/19, but I just noticed it today. [Hangs head] Anyway, Mike Eaves is featured in a 3-part video series previewing the 2009-10 Badger Men's Hockey season. In Part 1, he discusses the makeup of the team, including returning players and incoming freshman. Here are the questions he addresses:

- What are your thoughts on having a largely upperclassman team?
- How do your defensemen look this year?
- Who do you see stepping up offensively this year?
- What can fans expect to see from the goaltenders?

So, is anyone besides me starting to get a little bit fired-up yet? (Gandalf, of course, doesn't have to "start" getting fired-up, because he's already there. I, of course, have been dormant lately, so I'm just waking up and getting started.)

A bit about this month's US Women's evaluation camp

(Kerry Weiland takes her turn on the treadmill during a fitness test. Photo from usahockey.com.)

We previously posted that 9 players with Badger ties (Engstrom, Weiland, Zaugg, Lawler, Duggan, Vetter, Knight, Decker, Gunn) participated in the USA Hockey Women's National Performance Camp earlier this month (June 8-13). But I neglected to link a couple of articles about the camp.

The first article is the official announcement for the camp which briefly describes the camp. The second article, which is pretty interesting, talks about the intense competition at the camp.

The next upcoming event is the August 18-23 Olympic Tryout Camp in Blaine Minnesota. Approximately 32-36 players will be invited to the camp, and the 23-player 2009-10 US Women's National Team roster will be named at the end of the camp. The roster will be pared down to 21 players for the Olympic roster in early January.

Shortly after the Tryout Camp,the team will play in the National Women's Invitational Tournament (Aug 26 - Sept 6, Vancouver), a test event for the 2010 Olympic Games. The Qwest Tour starts Sept 25 and runs through Feb 4.

In addition to the National Women's Invitational and the Qwest Tour, the team will also play in the Four Nations Cup (Nov 2 -8) in Finland.

Chelios joining Olympic Team in off-ice role

The greatest warrior of all was Chelly. All I know is, I want him involved. - Team USA GM Brian Burke

Burke admits the role isn't yet clearly defined, but he's adamant on wanting Chelios involved.

Burke says that next week he'll announce more coaching staff members, as well as the approximately 30 players who will be invited to the August 17-19 orientation camp. Regarding the camp invitees, Burke says, "Some people are going to be shocked at the names that are not included."

(Thanks to EoDS for the link!)

Alev Kelter named ADN Female Athlete of the Year again

Because she "dominated statewide in all three of her sports and achieved national-class status in two of them", incoming Badger freshman Alev Kelter was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Anchorage Daily News last week. Kelter played boys hockey, girls soccer, and girls flag football for Chugiak High. She also represented the US internationally in hockey and soccer. You may remember that in January she captained the US U18 team that won gold at the IIHF WW U18 Championship. While winning gold, Kelter led all defensemen in scoring, led all skaters in +/-, and was named top defenseman of the tourney.

Kelter also was also named ADN Female Athlete of the Year last year.

Photo by Dan Shepard, ADN (12/11/08): Chugiak senior defender Alev Kelter spreads a South Anchorage opponent along the dasher boards of the McDonald Center. It was the Wolverines, however, with the last word, winning 3-0 Saturday.

How much scoring is coming back?

Thursday it was age, yesterday was NCAA games played, today its goal/pts as a % returning next season compared to the last four Badger teams. I was surprised by a few of these numbers.

Returning Goal Scoring (% of pts returning)

2005/06: 124/127 = 97.6% (97.7%)
2006/07: 64/145 = 42.8% (43.9%)
2007/08: 47/93 = 50.5% (52.5%)
2008/09: 90/114 = 78.9% (70.5%)
2009/10: 112/131 = 85.5% (80.6%)

When I started this, I didn’t think I’d learn so much about the past several seasons. I really wanted to compare next year’s team w/ the 2006 Champions, w/ everything else just being filler.

The 2006 Championship team only lost 3 goals scored from the previous season! That is amazing! Nothing like having all your best players back from a team that was pretty good the season before.

W/ all the data now in play, I’ll draw a conclusion about the 06/07 team. The team was older and had a ton of NCAA games under their belt, but the deathblow they couldn’t overcome was the stat above, the team returned less than half of their scoring from the previous season. Had Pavelski OR Earl returned roughly 16% more of the goal scoring would have came back w/ them. This has been hashed over in many places, but their early departures could not easily be cured. That freshman class that will be seniors next season, didn’t really contribute much offensively, (Davies the exception) even Geoffrion was a frosh bust. Mitchell and Bohmbach have turned into offensive threats now, but were nothing to replace Pavs and Earl when they departed for the pros.

The 06/07 team was one spot away from the NCAA tourney in the PWR and would have made it had they not changed the formula and this while scoring a pathetic 2.27 goals/game. The greatness that is Brian Elliott is that much more obvious.

The 07/08 team started at a disadvantage as well. There wasn’t much scoring the previous season and those that did score (Dowell, Joudrey & Skille) were gone. Couple that w/ how young that team was and the lack of experience they had, and I almost think they overachieved by making the NCAA Tourney. All the #1 picks in the world don’t do much when on paper there wasn’t much returning to help them. McBain, Mitchell and Geoffrion all come into there own which was the difference. If only Skille had stayed one more season; I often wonder what the line Geoffrion/Turris/Skille could have done.

Last season the cards were lined up for a successful season…and we see where that went.

Looking at these indicators, next season’s team has a lot going for it. They are the oldest team since the Championship team, they have a lot of experience in games played and they return 85.5% of the goal scoring from last season. McBain is a big loss on the blue line, but there are four guys ready to step up into that role.

The indicators didn’t look bad last season either, so I don’t know what to say. It’s obvious the team lacked something which does not have any statistical value to it. What caused all the 3rd period meltdowns? Lack of leadership? Poor coaching at critical times? The Hockey gods being pissed about something and taking it out on the Cardinal and White? Global Warming? Whatever it is, heading into next season, I’m not worried about this team scoring goals (3.28 goals/game last season, 3rd in the WCHA), nor the defense and goaltending. All the indications are that the pieces are in place for a highly successful season, w/ a run at the MacNaughton Cup and an NCAA berth as givens. Givens if the talented team last season hadn’t been missing that “something” important that separated them from a berth in the NCAA tourney by the slimmest of margins.

Doubt has been lodged in the hearts of all Badger fans now; the team needs to come out early and remove it from the vocabulary.

Coming up, one last comparison of returning offense w/ the Badgers WCHA foes.

Congratulations, Jinelle and Mike!

Jinelle Zaugg, one of my favorite Badgers, and MSOE defenseman Mike Siergiej got married on June 6th. Congratulations, Jinelle and Mike!

Mike will be a junior at MSOE this year. He also staffs Jinelle's Crazy 8's Hockey Camp (along with Jessie Baker (Jinelle's sister) and Jessie Vetter.)

Speaking of Crazy 8's, it sounds like a pretty cool camp, so if you're a parent and have a girl who plays hockey, you might want to check it out.

Badger Hockey sweeps UW Athletes of the Year Awards

Congratulations to defenseman Jamie McBain and goaltender Jessie Vetter on being named UW Athletes of the Year! This is the first time that hockey players have captured both the male and female awards in the same year. McBain is the 3rd Badger Men's Hockey player to win the award (previously won by goaltender Marc Behrend in '83 and forward Gary Shuchuk in '90), and Vetter is the 2nd Badger Women's Hockey player to win the award (previously won by Sara Bauer in '06 and 'o7).

Reinprecht traded to Florida

The Phoenix Coyotes have traded Steve Reinprecht to the Florida Panthers in exchange for minor-league forward Stefan Meyer. The Panthers have signed Reinprecht, who would've been become a UFA if not signed before July 1, to a 3-year deal.

From the Panthers website: Official release, more on the trade

Panthers Assistant GM Randy Sexton: Steve is a smart, high character, hard working player who fits our club’s need for a second line center. We are constantly looking to upgrade our team speed and he brings this to our club as part of his skill set. He also possesses an ability to win face-offs, another area our team looked to improve on this off-season.

Reinprecht: It doesn’t matter where I play, who I play with, what the situation is, I make sure I go out there, work my hardest, try to provide some offense, and I take care of our defensive zone. I always want to play the best I can.

For schmucks like Gandalf (kidding!) who didn't get much of a chance to see Reino as a Badger, here's a bit of a refresher: A forward from Edmonton, AB, Reinprecht wore the Cardinal & White for 4 seasons (1996-2000). In 154 games, he recorded 72 goals and 90 assists for 162 points. During his All-American season, he recorded 26 goals and 40 assists for 66 points to lead the nation in scoring.

In addition to his All-American honors, he was 1st-Team All-WCHA and WCHA Player of the Year in 2000, Hobey Baker Finalist in 2000, and 2nd-Team All-WCHA in 1998. And in addition to leading the Badgers in both total points and assists during the 1999-00 season (Dany Heatley had more goals, but Reino had more points), he also led the Badgers in goals and and total points during the 1998-99 (16-17-33) and 1997-98 (19-24-43) seasons.

And, of course, he wore the "C" during his junior and senior seasons. He was named Team MVP during his sophomore, junior, and senior seasons, sharing the honor with Graham Melanson in 1998-99 and Joe Bianchi in 1997-99.

Reino sounds like a really nice guy, and he sure was a heck of a player for the Badgers. His line with Dany Heatley and David Hukalo was a major reason why the Badgers did as well as they did in ’99-’00, accounting for 43% of the teams goals that year. As far as the Hobey goes, he probably should’ve won, but he didn’t, and there’s nothing that we can do about it now.

After leaving Wisconsin, Reinprecht played part of a season with the LA Kings, 2 & 1/2 seasons with the Colorado Avalanche (where he won a Stanley Cup in 2001), 2 seasons with the Calgary Flames (with a year in France sandwiched in-between due to the NHL lock-out), and 4 seasons with Phoenix (where he served as an alternate captain).

WCHA Expansion Vote coming

The vote to expand the WCHA and who those teams will be could come as early as next week. It appears an informal vote will come first, which makes sense. The obvious frontrunners are Bemidji State and w/ the hiring of Dean Blais, Nebraska Omaha, though rumblings of Alaska Fairbanks being the 12th team exist if UNO is rejected or stays in the CCHA.

Bruce McLeod, WCHA Commish, actually made some sane statements about Bemidji.

"If the league had their druthers, we might stay at 10," McLeod said. "We're making money on the tournament, there's record attendances every year, and things are good.

"But when you throw in the obligations of college hockey in the big picture and the demise of the College Hockey Association, we've gotta try to do something. We can't let (Bemidji) fold the tent."

Lastly, Andy Baggot should read the following:

Driving the expansion is Bemidji State, which will have to play next season as an independent -- never an easy thing in the relatively small world of NCAA Division I hockey, where there are 58 teams. Independents historically have a difficult time putting together a quality schedule and winning bids to the NCAA tournament.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out, but I think we'll know soon who Wisconsin's new WCHA foes will be, and when they will join the conference.

Analysis: NCAA games returning

Yesterday it was the average age of the last four teams and next season’s projected lineup; today let’s take a look at the number of NCAA games played by the returning players for those same teams. I wish the Badgers would keep track of ice time, but games are what are available.

2005/06: 1,298 games
2006/07: 1,154 games
2007/08: 687 games
2008/09: 873 games
2009/10: 1,127 games*
* Based on the projected lineup and includes Brett Bennett’s games at BU.

Standing by itself, this correlates well w/ the age comparison yesterday, which makes sense.

I’m going to leave this by itself until tomorrow when I add in the % of scoring returning and hopefully I can draw some conclusions.

2009/10 Badgers will be old

When the Badgers take the ice this October, they will be the oldest Badger team in the past five seasons. Age obviously doesn’t equal experience, or success, but at this transitional stage of life, there will be more men on the ice for the Badgers than boys.

I’m looking for something to analyze as the summer begins, (I’m bored) so I’m going to take a look at a few indicators that should shed a positive light on the upcoming season. After teetering on the line between distress and elation the last three seasons, Badger fans need more positives to look forward to.

In my analysis I used October 1 as the start of the season to determine the team’s age. I believe that is usually the first day of practice for the teams by NCAA rules, and overall it’s a good baseline for comparison.

Below is the average age of the teams:

2005/06: 20.97 years
2006/07: 20.81 years*
2007/08: 20.49 years
2008/09: 20.69 years
2009/10: 21.04 years**

*Includes Nigel Williams on the roster, despite his early departure to the OHL.
**Assumes no one else is leaving or coming in.

There isn’t a HUGE difference in age, but when you add up 25+ players’ ages and divide, a half a year is a big amount. The 2006 Championship team was old, and similar in some ways to next season’s team. They had a core group of older players, w/ a talented sophomore forward, and unproven goaltending. Next season’s team has that old group of players, a talented sophomore forward in Derek Stepan and some questions in goal. Maybe the stars are all lined up for another highly successful season, just w/ a better blue line.

I forgot how old the 2006/07 team was. That wasn’t a bad team, and beating a nearly dead horse, if Skille, Carlson and Klubertanz don’t all go out w/ injury (along w/ Nigel Williams’ defection) at the same time early in that season that team coasts into the NCAA tourney. After all they were the first team on the wrong side of the fence much like last season.

The 2007/08 team was YOUNG. The difference doesn’t seem like much, but looking at that team that freshman class was just learning to walk. Five players started the season under 19 years of age, more than any other team in this comparison. If any team was inexperienced that was the one, which should show when I take a look at games played tomorrow.

A few months back I broke down the last few freshman classes by age, and the 2007 class were the youngest by far, w/ the incoming class being the oldest. Even w/ the change in players (Barnes back to the USHL, Bennett replacing Crandall and Thompson walking on in net), they’ll still be the oldest.

Last season…I don’t want to talk about last season.

I’m expecting some great things from next season’s team. The experience on this team is deep, and if some leadership that was lacking IMO last season develops (maybe Street’s return will facilitate this) the Badgers should be looking at a great season. The freshman class coming in doesn’t have 1st round draft pick names like the last few, but it makes up for that in older, arguable WCHA ready young men. Justin Schultz is a two time BCHL top defenseman (and 2nd round pick to boot), and Craig Smith was the best forward in the USHL last season. Derek Lee will be an immediate contributor as well, and I think John Ramage is a wild card because FINALLY there will be a talented stay at home defenseman on the team.

In the next couple days, I’m going to look at the amount of NCAA games played and goals/points returning for the same five year period, and compare the scoring returns to our WCHA foes. Maybe this will shed some light on the deficiencies of the last three Badger campaigns or just leave more question marks