2016-17 top teams?

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backcheck9
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Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2015 2:06 pm

Post by backcheck9 » Wed Mar 09, 2016 7:50 am

Section 8 guy wrote:I'm curious to hear what Elliot sees in Section 8 next year.

Bemidji has some fantastic high end back at all positions but seems to lose a good chunk of depth. Seems like they will be a solid threat to threepeat at the X but will drop off a bit from this year. Moorhead loses most of an experienced D Corp, but should be strong up front and good in net and have some high end D coming off of the current Bantams to fill in, along with some depth from JV. Spuds should be on an uptick with last years 3rd at state Bantam team becoming juniors.....but they are probably a year away from hitting their full stride. Brainerd loses a lot of scoring so I don't see them making a major move and I don't see Roseau being a major factor......along with Buffalo or Rogers.

The seniors to be at STMA had a strong outing as 2nd year Bantams so I could see them contending for a section title as well.......but I don't know much about their roster and if they've lost any parts since then.

Put all that together and I'd see a pretty open race between Bemidji, STMA and Moorhead without a clear front runner in the group. If anyone knows more about next years STMA group it'd be great to hear more.
STMA should have a competitive team again next year but I'm not sure they will be a threat to win section 8. They lose 8 seniors. 4 on D, and 4 fwds. They'll have quality players to replace the seniors but no stars. This program has had 1 player make the HS elite league (to my knowledge) since it started and he left early so high end players are not plentiful at STMA yet. Putting them in the 3-5 range (in section) for next season seems about right. Coaching is a major question mark also!

goldy313
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Post by goldy313 » Wed Mar 09, 2016 6:10 pm

1AA
If Enebak and Poehling come back Lakevilke North should be the clear favorite. If not Lakevilke South should win it, Farmington lost a lot of good players and would be an upset to win 1AA, let alone make the finals. JM graduated their best class in over a decade, Century is still a year away from being top 4, Mayo lost their coach and some really good players. The bantam AA team made state albeit on upsets so there may be some good talent coming up.

Owatonna is my dark horse pick to make the finals, but as of now North should win the section with South close behind.

As of today I'd rank them: North, South, Owatonna, Farmington, Century, Mayo, JM, Dodge County.

Ridingthepine29
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Post by Ridingthepine29 » Thu Mar 10, 2016 3:10 am

How about single A?

rainier
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Post by rainier » Thu Mar 10, 2016 3:35 am

Ridingthepine29 wrote:How about single A?
Hermantown will be awesome again, unless there are some serious defections to juniors. They do lose 3 of their top 4 D and their goalie, but they return 5 of their top 6 forwards, the goalie will be a talented senior, there are some bantam stars that will be contributors next season, and this team has a ton of depth returning that allowed them to roll 4 lines against even the best teams like Breck.

Hibbing and Greenway are top ten teams that will both be better next season, provided everyone returns. But beating Hermantown will still be a tall order.

TRF and EGF lost their stars to graduation, so I don't see them as a threat at state.

Breck I'm sure will be top 3 again.

Cathedral, SPA, Orono, Totino are some possible top ten teams.

The A title is Hermantown's to lose.
"You can't triple stamp a double stamp." -Harry Dunn

Hermit
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Post by Hermit » Thu Mar 10, 2016 4:19 am

Delano looks to be a very strong single A team next year as the junior class this year provides a lot of depth and talent.

Assuming all the juniors return, I expect 2016-2017 to be the year they finally get past Breck in the section final

Ridingthepine29
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Post by Ridingthepine29 » Thu Mar 10, 2016 4:26 am

When do they switch he single A sections, I feel like that they need to switch them soon to have a more competitive state and section tournaments.

SFA1992
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Post by SFA1992 » Fri Mar 11, 2016 4:28 am

Hermit wrote:Delano looks to be a very strong single A team next year as the junior class this year provides a lot of depth and talent.

Assuming all the juniors return, I expect 2016-2017 to be the year they finally get past Breck in the section final
That would be huge, how long has this group been building towards this? I mean, have they always been good or did this really take off once they got to high school?

stromboli
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Post by stromboli » Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:26 am

Hermit wrote:Delano looks to be a very strong single A team next year as the junior class this year provides a lot of depth and talent.

Assuming all the juniors return, I expect 2016-2017 to be the year they finally get past Breck in the section final
Delano will have about the same chance they've have the past few years. No better. No worse. They won't be favored, but will be the strongest challenger, and could definitely win the section.

Even with Breck's top line graduating, their other lines bring back as much point production as Delano. I think that's a draw.

The difference has and will likely continue to be on the backend. Breck's D is just deeper and more skilled and they return a stronger performing goalie.

Early departures from either team could sway things one way or the other, with kids from both teams having other options -- but I'm hoping they'll all come back.

edgeless2
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Post by edgeless2 » Fri Mar 11, 2016 11:41 am

I don't think anyone knows how stacked Tonka is next Year. They will have bantam and JV players that could play for any varsity team in the state

WestMetro
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Post by WestMetro » Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:38 pm

Edgeless, agree , Tonka Bantam team might have cracked Top 20 AA ranking.

But wondering about goaltending. Hanson was key part of Tonka success, he kept them in every game

Will Muller will step right in to the starting job,( not many varsity minutes.)

Or will Howe start varsity as a sophomore?

Or rotate?

DrGaf
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Post by DrGaf » Mon Mar 14, 2016 3:10 am

edgeless2 wrote:I don't think anyone knows how stacked Tonka is next Year. They will have bantam and JV players that could play for any varsity team in the state
they're going on a 4 year stretch here where they will be serious favorites. Don't care who may or may not head to Shattuck.
Sorry, fresh out, Don't Really Give Any.

kniven
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Post by kniven » Mon Mar 14, 2016 6:09 am

DrGaf wrote:
edgeless2 wrote:I don't think anyone knows how stacked Tonka is next Year. They will have bantam and JV players that could play for any varsity team in the state
they're going on a 4 year stretch here where they will be serious favorites. Don't care who may or may not head to Shattuck.
It seems like the Skippers are always good. Their stretch seems to run continuously

Hermit
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Post by Hermit » Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:10 am

SFA1992 wrote:
Hermit wrote:Delano looks to be a very strong single A team next year as the junior class this year provides a lot of depth and talent.

Assuming all the juniors return, I expect 2016-2017 to be the year they finally get past Breck in the section final
That would be huge, how long has this group been building towards this? I mean, have they always been good or did this really take off once they got to high school?

I believe next years senior class took 3rd at Bantam state (without Meyers who was already playing varsity as a freshman) and a good number of next years seniors have been playing significant varsity minutes since they were sophs.

I would give Delano the edge on offense but recognize that Breck does have some strong defenders and has had Delano's number for years so they may have the mental edge as well.

Section 8 guy
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Post by Section 8 guy » Mon Mar 14, 2016 6:19 pm

WestMetro wrote:Edgeless, agree , Tonka Bantam team might have cracked Top 20 AA ranking.

But wondering about goaltending. Hanson was key part of Tonka success, he kept them in every game

Will Muller will step right in to the starting job,( not many varsity minutes.)

Or will Howe start varsity as a sophomore?

Or rotate?
A very Interesting Bantam AA State tournament given how powerful Tonkas AA team was this season. Tonka repeated but had two very difficult games to get it done. After beating Elk River 6-1 in the opener....They beat Cloquet in the semis in triple OT on a very fluky goal that was pretty much a Cloquet own goal. This was a very good game.

Then on Sunday they needed Double OT to beat a Moorhead team with 7 first years in a fantastic up and down game that saw both teams with multiple scoring chances to win it before a nice rebound goal by Tonka ended it.

The other semifinal game saw a 4 OT thriller between Moorhead and Wayzata. 9 Overtomes to solve the three winners bracket games with a powerhouse team like Tonka in the field seems to bode very well for the quality of hockey we'll see a few years down the road.

MrBoDangles
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Post by MrBoDangles » Sun Mar 20, 2016 9:32 am

WestMetro wrote:Edgeless, agree , Tonka Bantam team might have cracked Top 20 AA ranking.

But wondering about goaltending. Hanson was key part of Tonka success, he kept them in every game

Will Muller will step right in to the starting job,( not many varsity minutes.)

Or will Howe start varsity as a sophomore?

Or rotate?
Cracked the top 20 in AA? About fell over... :shock:

They had a first line caliber sophomore and a few freshmen that could have cracked a third/fourth line this year on a top 20 team.

Luverne.. maybe??

zamboniexhaustinhaler
Posts: 292
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Post by zamboniexhaustinhaler » Mon Mar 21, 2016 2:11 am

rainier wrote:
Ridingthepine29 wrote:How about single A?
Hermantown will be awesome again, unless there are some serious defections to juniors. They do lose 3 of their top 4 D and their goalie, but they return 5 of their top 6 forwards, the goalie will be a talented senior, there are some bantam stars that will be contributors next season, and this team has a ton of depth returning that allowed them to roll 4 lines against even the best teams like Breck.

Hibbing and Greenway are top ten teams that will both be better next season, provided everyone returns. But beating Hermantown will still be a tall order.

TRF and EGF lost their stars to graduation, so I don't see them as a threat at state.

Breck I'm sure will be top 3 again.

Cathedral, SPA, Orono, Totino are some possible top ten teams.

The A title is Hermantown's to lose.
TRF is going to be a non-factor for a looong time to come.

Warroad could come back to making noise, but their true local numbers have dropped off dramatically last few years.
Rumor has it, it's because the locals are tired of, after years in youth hockey, getting bumped by imports in high school.
True or not, I don't know, you know how rumors are.
But if they're tired of the last few years they've had of poor teams, they may kick in the imports again, for a run.
The last attempt at that blew up in their face though :lol:

Egf is in the same boat as trf.

8a is a weak section to begin with, and will be even weaker in the future.

MrBoDangles
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Post by MrBoDangles » Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:30 am

Hermit wrote:
SFA1992 wrote:
Hermit wrote:Delano looks to be a very strong single A team next year as the junior class this year provides a lot of depth and talent.

Assuming all the juniors return, I expect 2016-2017 to be the year they finally get past Breck in the section final
That would be huge, how long has this group been building towards this? I mean, have they always been good or did this really take off once they got to high school?

I believe next years senior class took 3rd at Bantam state (without Meyers who was already playing varsity as a freshman) and a good number of next years seniors have been playing significant varsity minutes since they were sophs.

I would give Delano the edge on offense but recognize that Breck does have some strong defenders and has had Delano's number for years so they may have the mental edge as well.
It will make for an interesting section. Agree that Breck has some very good defensemen.

Section 8 guy
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Post by Section 8 guy » Mon Mar 21, 2016 6:24 pm

Inhaler.....I think you need to quit inhaling.

Not sure where you are getting your info on EGF but their Bantams ended the year rated 4th in the state in the final LPH rankings and their PeeWees ended the year rated 5th. Considering some of the teams above them are AA in high school and some are metro teams that will lose kids to privates, which EGF likely won't, they would likely move up even further if you were to project forward to high school.

If you don't believe the LPH rankings the YHH Now rankings tell much the same story. They are rated 11th in both of those but have many metro second team A teams ahead of them in those ratings so when you peel those away the end results look very similar to LPH.

Not only does it look like EGF will be relevant.........it looks like they could be on the verge of a powerful run.

Time will tell I guess.

zamboniexhaustinhaler
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Post by zamboniexhaustinhaler » Tue Mar 22, 2016 12:08 am

Section 8 guy wrote:Inhaler.....I think you need to quit inhaling.

Not sure where you are getting your info on EGF but their Bantams ended the year rated 4th in the state in the final LPH rankings and their PeeWees ended the year rated 5th. Considering some of the teams above them are AA in high school and some are metro teams that will lose kids to privates, which EGF likely won't, they would likely move up even further if you were to project forward to high school.

If you don't believe the LPH rankings the YHH Now rankings tell much the same story. They are rated 11th in both of those but have many metro second team A teams ahead of them in those ratings so when you peel those away the end results look very similar to LPH.

Not only does it look like EGF will be relevant.........it looks like they could be on the verge of a powerful run.

Time will tell I guess.
I know.

And while they stand a better chance than trf or warroad, I stand by my comments.

Rankings are like opinions.......<g>

Goose21
Posts: 242
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Post by Goose21 » Tue Mar 22, 2016 9:08 am

Section 8 guy wrote:Inhaler.....I think you need to quit inhaling.

Not sure where you are getting your info on EGF but their Bantams ended the year rated 4th in the state in the final LPH rankings and their PeeWees ended the year rated 5th. Considering some of the teams above them are AA in high school and some are metro teams that will lose kids to privates, which EGF likely won't, they would likely move up even further if you were to project forward to high school.

If you don't believe the LPH rankings the YHH Now rankings tell much the same story. They are rated 11th in both of those but have many metro second team A teams ahead of them in those ratings so when you peel those away the end results look very similar to LPH.

Not only does it look like EGF will be relevant.........it looks like they could be on the verge of a powerful run.


Time will tell I guess.
I agree on the Peewees. Saw them a couple times this year and they were one of the better A/AA teams in all Northern MN, only behind East and Cloquet, right there with GR and Roseau, and ahead of Bemidji, Moorhead, and Hermantown.

kniven
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Re: next year

Post by kniven » Mon Aug 01, 2016 11:22 am

blueblood wrote:Section Finals predictions for 2017

1AA - Farmington vs. Lakeville South
2AA - Ep vs. Tonka
3AA - STA vs. Rosemount
4AA - Stillwater vs. Hill
5AA - Anoka vs. Blaine
6AA - Wayzata vs. Edina
7AA - Grand Rapids vs. East
8AA - Bemidji vs. Brainerd
Interesting off-season so far. Scrimmages well on their way and Elite league rosters released. Do these events confirm or change any previous thoughts? For 7AA you got to see the Greyhounds and Indians as favorites. Others will definitely nipping at their heels though.

blueblood
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section finals

Post by blueblood » Mon Aug 01, 2016 12:00 pm

kniven:

Have seen many of these teams this summer at PL and Edina tournaments. Here are some additional thoughts:

Sec 1 - loss of Coach May could affect Tigers. Wouldn't shock me to see North vs. South in finals

Sec 2 - addition of two players from Edina to the Fire make this a very deep section. Wouldn't be surprised to see Ep vs. HF in finals

Sec 3 - no change here

Sec 4 - no change here

Sec 5 - Centennial is a threat hereto replace Anoka

Sec 6 - no change here

Sec 7 - ER is always in the mix, but they have come up short so sticking with GR vs. DE

Sec 8 - I will slot in Moorhead and take out Brainerd

kniven
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Re: section finals

Post by kniven » Mon Aug 01, 2016 12:30 pm

blueblood wrote:kniven:

Have seen many of these teams this summer at PL and Edina tournaments. Here are some additional thoughts:

Sec 1 - loss of Coach May could affect Tigers. Wouldn't shock me to see North vs. South in finals

Sec 2 - addition of two players from Edina to the Fire make this a very deep section. Wouldn't be surprised to see Ep vs. HF in finals

Sec 3 - no change here

Sec 4 - no change here

Sec 5 - Centennial is a threat hereto replace Anoka

Sec 6 - no change here

Sec 7 - ER is always in the mix, but they have come up short so sticking with GR vs. DE

Sec 8 - I will slot in Moorhead and take out Brainerd
Thanks Blue. Hey! Edina loosing players to privates. Up north here, I don't here about big public powers loosing players to privates. Is this more common than I think? My thoughts were generally the smaller/struggling programs loose players all the time and not the big public powerhouses. Is that Farmington that lost their coach? Was it an ugly divorce ?

blueblood
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Section predictions

Post by blueblood » Mon Aug 01, 2016 1:49 pm

Farmington coach is now the Assistant AD and head hockey coach at Blake.

kniven
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Re: Section predictions

Post by kniven » Mon Aug 01, 2016 2:18 pm

blueblood wrote:Farmington coach is now the Assistant AD and head hockey coach at Blake.
Interesting. AD's can actively recruit at Blake. Sounds more interesting working for a private. It would be like working for a Div 1 school recruiting players. There aren't many privates in A anymore. Hermantown the only serious contender year in and year out in A. With Blake and the Hawks both eventually in AA, what school(s) will rise to the top? Hibbing. Laverne. Would be fun to watch A state tournament again.

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