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Discussion of Minnesota Girls Youth Hockey

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zambonidriver
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:31 am

Post by zambonidriver » Wed Jul 06, 2016 10:54 am

Mavs wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:
InigoMontoya wrote:
seems somewhat inflated
And every year the stories from kids returning from national camp, both boys and girls, include comments about how many of the kids that were not selected were better than most of the kids attending the camp from other USAH districts.
interesting comment. We just returned from the CanAm U 14 camp in NY. There were 5 MN girls there and they were easily the best players on the rink.
I think the MN teams in the National Championship this year erased all doubt. If they truly took the top 102 (or whatever the number is) at a given birth year I would expect 60+ to be from MN. The 40 that they take still allows for a lot of kids (which is fine) from other states that are not even close to MN kids that didn't make it.
While we were there they had their version of Winny's prospects going on. Again there were roughly 5 Minnesota girls there I thin Burton, Benek, Parent, Delandis, and one other they once again stood out against much older kids. I know Parent lead her team in scoring.

Mavs
Posts: 448
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:35 am

Post by Mavs » Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:32 am

zambonidriver wrote:
Mavs wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:
InigoMontoya wrote:
seems somewhat inflated
And every year the stories from kids returning from national camp, both boys and girls, include comments about how many of the kids that were not selected were better than most of the kids attending the camp from other USAH districts.
interesting comment. We just returned from the CanAm U 14 camp in NY. There were 5 MN girls there and they were easily the best players on the rink.
I think the MN teams in the National Championship this year erased all doubt. If they truly took the top 102 (or whatever the number is) at a given birth year I would expect 60+ to be from MN. The 40 that they take still allows for a lot of kids (which is fine) from other states that are not even close to MN kids that didn't make it.
While we were there they had their version of Winny's prospects going on. Again there were roughly 5 Minnesota girls there I thin Burton, Benek, Parent, Delandis, and one other they once again stood out against much older kids. I know Parent lead her team in scoring.
Did you get invited or just sign up?

zambonidriver
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:31 am

Post by zambonidriver » Wed Jul 06, 2016 12:26 pm

Mavs wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:
Mavs wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:
InigoMontoya wrote:
seems somewhat inflated
And every year the stories from kids returning from national camp, both boys and girls, include comments about how many of the kids that were not selected were better than most of the kids attending the camp from other USAH districts.
interesting comment. We just returned from the CanAm U 14 camp in NY. There were 5 MN girls there and they were easily the best players on the rink.
I think the MN teams in the National Championship this year erased all doubt. If they truly took the top 102 (or whatever the number is) at a given birth year I would expect 60+ to be from MN. The 40 that they take still allows for a lot of kids (which is fine) from other states that are not even close to MN kids that didn't make it.
While we were there they had their version of Winny's prospects going on. Again there were roughly 5 Minnesota girls there I thin Burton, Benek, Parent, Delandis, and one other they once again stood out against much older kids. I know Parent lead her team in scoring.
Did you get invited or just sign up?
Invite

NORTHWOODS HOCKEY
Posts: 188
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:13 am

Post by NORTHWOODS HOCKEY » Wed Jul 06, 2016 12:57 pm

zambonidriver wrote:
Mavs wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:
Mavs wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:
InigoMontoya wrote:
seems somewhat inflated
And every year the stories from kids returning from national camp, both boys and girls, include comments about how many of the kids that were not selected were better than most of the kids attending the camp from other USAH districts.
interesting comment. We just returned from the CanAm U 14 camp in NY. There were 5 MN girls there and they were easily the best players on the rink.
I think the MN teams in the National Championship this year erased all doubt. If they truly took the top 102 (or whatever the number is) at a given birth year I would expect 60+ to be from MN. The 40 that they take still allows for a lot of kids (which is fine) from other states that are not even close to MN kids that didn't make it.
While we were there they had their version of Winny's prospects going on. Again there were roughly 5 Minnesota girls there I thin Burton, Benek, Parent, Delandis, and one other they once again stood out against much older kids. I know Parent lead her team in scoring.
Did you get invited or just sign up?
Invite
A player can just sign up.

zambonidriver
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:31 am

Post by zambonidriver » Wed Jul 06, 2016 1:05 pm

NW now you guys are off to Boston in two weeks?

NORTHWOODS HOCKEY
Posts: 188
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:13 am

Post by NORTHWOODS HOCKEY » Wed Jul 06, 2016 1:37 pm

zambonidriver wrote:NW now you guys are off to Boston in two weeks?
Yes.

zambonidriver
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:31 am

Post by zambonidriver » Wed Jul 06, 2016 1:54 pm

NORTHWOODS HOCKEY wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:NW now you guys are off to Boston in two weeks?
Yes.
Make sure you take time to do the freedom walk it starts at Paul Reveres house

massalsa
Posts: 588
Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2013 6:37 pm

Post by massalsa » Wed Jul 06, 2016 2:02 pm

zambonidriver wrote:
Mavs wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:While we were there they had their version of Winny's prospects going on. Again there were roughly 5 Minnesota girls there I thin Burton, Benek, Parent, Delandis, and one other they once again stood out against much older kids. I know Parent lead her team in scoring.
Was their version of "Prospects" similar in set up with varied mixed graduation years playing together or was it organized by class?

Did it look like it was similar to Winny's from a talent standpoint? I believe that all of those girls mentioned are 2001's and a mix of rising 9th and 10th graders. I think that all of those girls played in the 2nd tier of the OS version of Prospects with the first tier being Committed girls mixed in with girls attending Select 66 & U19 National camp. I believe all the girls previously mentioned are heading for U15 National Camp.

Is this the same tourney that the MachineOS played in?

zambonidriver
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:31 am

Post by zambonidriver » Thu Jul 07, 2016 5:54 am

massalsa wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:
Mavs wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:While we were there they had their version of Winny's prospects going on. Again there were roughly 5 Minnesota girls there I thin Burton, Benek, Parent, Delandis, and one other they once again stood out against much older kids. I know Parent lead her team in scoring.
Was their version of "Prospects" similar in set up with varied mixed graduation years playing together or was it organized by class?

Did it look like it was similar to Winny's from a talent standpoint? I believe that all of those girls mentioned are 2001's and a mix of rising 9th and 10th graders. I think that all of those girls played in the 2nd tier of the OS version of Prospects with the first tier being Committed girls mixed in with girls attending Select 66 & U19 National camp. I believe all the girls previously mentioned are heading for U15 National Camp.

Is this the same tourney that the MachineOS played in?
The prospects was not as big so they mixed all the kids up nothing by grade or birth year. also all the teams played each other mor of a tournament. It was not the same tournament that the 02's were playing.

zambonidriver
Posts: 697
Joined: Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:31 am

Post by zambonidriver » Fri Jul 08, 2016 9:10 am

NORTHWOODS HOCKEY wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:NW now you guys are off to Boston in two weeks?
Yes.
Have you guys thought about what you are going to do when Winny moves some of the girls to JWC?

NORTHWOODS HOCKEY
Posts: 188
Joined: Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:13 am

Post by NORTHWOODS HOCKEY » Fri Jul 08, 2016 10:36 am

zambonidriver wrote:
NORTHWOODS HOCKEY wrote:
zambonidriver wrote:NW now you guys are off to Boston in two weeks?
Yes.
Have you guys thought about what you are going to do when Winny moves some of the girls to JWC?
Nope. Just enjoying this year.

titleist
Posts: 165
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:12 am

Post by titleist » Mon Jul 25, 2016 9:16 am

U15 Nationals camp just ended...what an incredible turnout of college coaches...it was crazy seeing so many people and so many clipboards. I was really impressed/surprised at the quality of some of the outstate kids, but I was very happy with how the MN kids performed...Kudos to the MN kids!!

Mavs
Posts: 448
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:35 am

Post by Mavs » Mon Jul 25, 2016 11:40 am

titleist wrote:U15 Nationals camp just ended...what an incredible turnout of college coaches...it was crazy seeing so many people and so many clipboards. I was really impressed/surprised at the quality of some of the outstate kids, but I was very happy with how the MN kids performed...Kudos to the MN kids!!
anyone jump off the page well above the MN kids?

titleist
Posts: 165
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:12 am

Post by titleist » Tue Jul 26, 2016 12:39 pm

Mavs wrote:
titleist wrote:U15 Nationals camp just ended...what an incredible turnout of college coaches...it was crazy seeing so many people and so many clipboards. I was really impressed/surprised at the quality of some of the outstate kids, but I was very happy with how the MN kids performed...Kudos to the MN kids!!
anyone jump off the page well above the MN kids?

I wouldn't say well above by any means....but there were a couple there that have apparently already committed to some schools....I saw them, I thought they were very solid players, but I wouldn't give them the stigma of way better. I don't remember their names off hand, but I thought our top end MN kids showed very well.

massalsa
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Joined: Tue Dec 17, 2013 6:37 pm

Post by massalsa » Wed Jul 27, 2016 4:48 pm

Mavs wrote:
anyone jump off the page well above the MN kids?
Well above can mean a lot of things to different people. I saw parts of several games over a couple of days. Here were some takeaways in addition to some players that were impressive to me (all my personal opinion thru what I saw and some of what I heard from other adults and participants):

1. The teams had 10 F and 6 D. Different than MN camp with 9 F, 6 D & 2 G. I thought that it was nice to be able to see slightly different line combinations with the extra kid sort of changing things up throughout the 2 periods. Think that it was a GREAT idea to rotate the goalies.

2. Less games than MN camp. Saw a practice (did not happen to see a MN camp practice). Liked what I saw as it appeared to be well organized and relatively efficient.

3. Overall the quality of play was higher than MN camp. Had heard that MN camp was going to be the better quality of play but it was NOT the case. There are definitely some kids from outside the state of hockey that can play. Not noticeably more rough (as in hearing over the years about how the East coast kids play a rougher style of hockey).

4. The program that was sold on site in St Cloud had listed: 2015/16 team, DOB, grad year, HT, and WT. Online info was only #, pos, hometown. Was interesting to see how far some of these kids travel to play hockey or go to boarding school.

5. Looked at all 12 teams and there was at most 4 MN kids on each and I think that 1 team had 2 or 3. Also grad years were mostly 2019. Between 4-7 kids on each team of 16 were 2020's.

6. After some google searches it appears as if a handful of girls are still playing boys at the bantam (checking) level. This did NOT necessarily translate to being a standout player in each case. One father whom I spoke with briefly commented how awful the girls hockey was in the area that they lived. That person is looking at boarding schools and/or possibly considering a move with part of all of family to the state of hockey. Another couple of parents that I had some contact with had a couple of meetings with boarding schools in the NE while in St Cloud.

7. LOTS of parents from out of state spent the week in St Cloud. In some cases it was mom/dad + a kid or 2 or in some cases full families.

8. LOTS OF COLLEGE COACHES FROM D1 SCHOOLS were watching games and also practices. BU, UND, UMN, Mankato, UMD, BSU, QU, Princeton, Harvard, Brown, Providence, OSU, UNH, RPI, Vermont, & Cornell to name some off the top of my head. Also several what I would presume are D3 and at least 1 scouting service.

9. Talked to the scouting service person (Neutral Zone something) and she was at U18 the week before, Select 66, and U15. She said that the play was much easier to watch at U15 than U18. Taking the top 60+ kids out of U18 makes a difference in the overall play. She also said that Zumwinkle of Breck was in her opinion the best player in the country. Said overall the MN girls are noticeably the best overall players in the country. She is an East Coast person and said that there are good players from many places but said, "Almost all of the best players are Minnesota girls."

10. It is both cool and helpful to see kids that have unique helmets/breezers/gloves from their teams. Most combinations with that Pink color were awful. The Little Caesars breezers were a particularly horrific combo with many colors. Fun to see Penguins breezers, NAHA, CYA, etc gear. Schools/programs you sort of hear about periodically over the years.

11. Lots of kids were fun to watch. Was overall impressed with some of the kids from the aforementioned Little Caesars team. I think that there were 5-8 of them from that team. Many nice players. Was NOT overly impressed with any of the Shattuck kids that I saw. I am always sort of imagining the SSM players to be superstars and most of the time they were solid but not impressive (MY OPINION).

12. Players: Danielle Hartje, 2019, of MI & Light Blue (played boys). Scored lots of points but was remarkable every time I had a chance to see Light Blue. Here and a Farmington girl (helmet was recognizable) always seemed to be out at the same time and were always making things happen offensively. She was the most impressive player I saw. Katelyn Knoll, 2019, of NY & Green was another one of the more remarkable kids I saw. Supposedly is committed to Northeastern and was super solid. kaitlyn O'donahoe, 2019, of PA & Teal was a nice player that was a high point scorer and heard a couple others mention her. Lastly the D combo of #2 Edwards of Pitt Penguins & OH & #3 England from MI for Green were both really good. Both 2019's. I am sure that there were others but I did not take notes and just remembered a few kids.

Overall was good stuff. I look forward to seeing how the vaunted 2002 class from MN does in their first real comparison (without the crutch of systems their crazy coaches have them playing!) to the rest of the USA next year.

Mavs
Posts: 448
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:35 am

Post by Mavs » Wed Jul 27, 2016 5:38 pm

Great recap, thank you

I guess it makes sense the 2019's were the most impressive being a year ahead in hockey and several months older/mature

Next year with the 02's the 2020 kids should be the cream of the crop

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