Mr Hockey - Nick Leddy

[bardown30]

Maybe the Gophers just get better players...

They must have just missed out on Gleason, Gardiner, Lee, Everson, Baker, Lapic...

[hockeyfanatic99]

Congratulation to all the finalists! After watching Mr. Leddy in the state tournament (which didn't matter in the voting) I was convinced that he was worthy of winning. I will not take anything away from Mr. Hanowsky - you can't argue with numbers. If this is such a concern maybe we should have a Mr. Hockey A and a Mr. Hockey AA, as well as keep the statistic separately. I think short of that we will always have arguements about strength of schedules and the like. I think that if we are not careful we stand the risk of assuming that this award labels these players for the rest of their careers - we could not be more wrong! This award is for this snapshot in time. The big dance hasn't even started for these gentlemen. Can't wait to see what they grow in to!

[Gopher Blog]

Maybe the Gophers just get better players...

They must have just missed out on Gleason, Gardiner, Lee, Everson, Baker, Lapic...

With only 18 scholarships, nobody is going to get every candidate. But as long as a team gets most of the ones they actually target, they are in pretty good shape. Given you only named one guy they were actually interested in enough to possibly make an offer (Everson), I am not sure they are hurting too much.

[O-townClown]

Go to the list of past winners and you tell me, how many out of how many winners went to the Gophers and then get back to me with your stats.

I guess you can make up any message you want and say that the Mr. Hockey award sends it. Scott Bloom led Burnsville to back-to-back state titles but Mr. Hockey went to Pelawa. Did that send the message that individual dominance outweighs team play?

As far as school choice, I don't think anyone should be surprised when the best player in the state goes to State U.

[bardown30]

As far as school choice, I don't think anyone should be surprised when the best player in the state goes to State U.

Oh, you mean Budish.

[Mite-dad]

The fact that you are arguing about this choice is ludicrous. Several players were deserving of this award. I'm a Hanowski fan, being from Little Falls, but I wouldn't argue with any of several candidates if they were chosen. Its very difficult to compare players that play A or AA or that play totally different schedules. I assume the people who made this choice knew what they were doing. Despite Ben's accomplishments, Leddy was higher on the NHL scouting list. Leddy's a great player. Congrats to him. Ben's a great player too. Can't wait to see them all at the next level.

And quit yer bickering!

[Teak]

Go to the list of past winners and you tell me, how many out of how many winners went to the Gophers and then get back to me with your stats.

I guess you can make up any message you want and say that the Mr. Hockey award sends it. Scott Bloom led Burnsville to back-to-back state titles but Mr. Hockey went to Pelawa. Did that send the message that individual dominance outweighs team play?

As far as school choice, I don't think anyone should be surprised when the best player in the state goes to State U.

Yeah, there are several ways to interpret that list of past winners and the universities that recruited them. I see a list that shows that in the 1990s, the U of M was good in recruiting the supposedly best player in Minnesota, whereas that recruiting success appears to have dropped off in the post-2000 period.

[Gopher Blog]

I see a list that shows that in the 1990s, the U of M was good in recruiting the supposedly best player in Minnesota, whereas that recruiting success appears to have dropped off in the post-2000 period.

You apparently don't follow college recruiting much. If you look at Minnesota's recruiting over the time that you say it "dropped off", it was more about the fact they changed their philosophy on who they were targeting.

In the 80s/90s, Woog was all about recruiting kids right out of HS. The joke used to be that he would just wait til the Mr. Hockey list came out and then pick the five guys he wanted. Of course, that is an exaggeration but it does go to show the way it was with his recruiting philosophy. He almost never looked outside of the MN HS ranks for players. So it was natural he was going to have a greater proportion of players up for the award.

Since Lucia entered the picture, the program has made far greater use of scholarships on players who went to the USHL, NTDP, etc. Given that fact, odds are they are going to tend to have less candidates among the Mr. Hockey pool in any given year.

A kid like Jordan Schroeder could have hypothetically been up for the award this year. Would that be a "drop off" when he could be a top 10 NHL pick this summer?

[Lakeviewing]

Yeah I believe that it should be more of a Mr Hockey award which would include all the years of high school.

Not a Mr. Tournament award.

Good player in Leddy who deserves it... but Hanowski also did alot with his overall career.

Hanowski racked up great numbers, but play someone other than out state teams

[nipe 6]

Hanowski didnt choose his schedule. At least he did stay loyal to his hometown. He either stays and gets ripped on for his schedule or leaves and gets ripped on for transfering to another school. Congrats to Leddy however.

[JUGlover]

just another AA player. Hano played an incredible season, a pretty showy career. but hats off to leddy

[breakout]

Good article in my Pioneer Press about Leddy.

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_11921344?source=rss

[FightingSiouxForever]

As a homer for AHA and a huge supporter of Danny Mattson, I have to say that Leddy was a n excellent choice. He stepped up his play in the tournament to prove he was the right choice.
The award was decided two weeks ago so forget the tournament for choosing him. As far as the bias to Minnesota, that is just coincidence. In 2006 the wrong player was chosen, but had the correct player been chosen the choice would again been a Gopher.

Congrats to Leddy and the rest of the EP team they deserve the awards they have been given. Good luck to next years participants.

Barribal didn't deserve it!!! Awesome your still bitter about it! I love how you explained your home team before you voiced your cherished opinion.

So how is Z man's team going to be next year? You getting four or five bantams from Lakeville??

MEOW!

[wbmd]

Good article in my Pioneer Press about Leddy.

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_11921344?source=rss

Even better article in the Star Trlibune today about Leddy.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/preps ... _Yyc:aUUsZ

[starmvp]

Hanowski didnt choose his schedule. At least he did stay loyal to his hometown. He either stays and gets ripped on for his schedule or leaves and gets ripped on for transfering to another school. Congrats to Leddy however.

Leddy stayed in his hometown too.

[bn68]

congrats to leddy but im a hanowski fan im just wondering (How could someone shatter the record for most goals and most points in a career & not get mr. hockey) its crazy i know that leddy is a very good player both ways but good luck to all of the kids that are going to the next level of hockey and more

[breakout]

From Fox Sports

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.

[warriors41]

I think it should go to a AA player. In AA there just aren't that many soft spots in the schedule while in A you can rack up huge numbers that would be impossible to match in AA because of the quality of play.

Also, if strength of schedule has such a huge impact on the award how come Aaron Ness won it his senior year. Not trying to take anything away from him, but his teams schedule was weak. There were quite a few class A teams that harder schedules than that Roseau team. Its a double standard.

[ACTUALFORMERPLAYER]

Hanowski will win the AP player of the year. Great honor that says you were the best high school player. The Mr. Hockey award has many people voting on a player's potential at the next two levels.

The Associated Press 2009 All-State team for Minnesota boys’ hockey, as voted on by statewide media.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Ben Hanowski, Little Falls

[hornetsnest]

From Fox Sports

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.

Congrats to Nick Leddy on a well deserved award! A quality player and person with a very bright future. Although the award is voting on prior to the state tournament, his performance more than proved he is the most deserving of this award. Congrats to Ben for his AP POY award as well.
Best of luck to all the others moving on to next level in their hockey careers.

[CasseauCougar]

Kind of a sad end of the year for Centennial. Personally I think Pitlick had a better chance earlier on, but as the end of the year approached the team and Tyler lost their fire.

Many congrats to Nick. He's a solid choice.

[summer]

hockeyfanatic99 Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 6:30 pm Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Congratulation to all the finalists! After watching Mr. Leddy in the state tournament (which didn't matter in the voting) I was convinced that he was worthy of winning. I will not take anything away from Mr. Hanowsky - you can't argue with numbers. If this is such a concern maybe we should have a Mr. Hockey A and a Mr. Hockey AA, as well as keep the statistic separately. I think short of that we will always have arguements about strength of schedules and the like. I think that if we are not careful we stand the risk of assuming that this award labels these players for the rest of their careers - we could not be more wrong! This award is for this snapshot in time. The big dance hasn't even started for these gentlemen. Can't wait to see what they grow in to!


I believe Leddy is a solid player, but nothing really outstanding to set him apart from the other finalists. I hear about the stength of schedule argument, but it really amounts to: the AA teams should have more good players, and a conference like the Lake Conference should have even more good players, so it should all even out. It should be easier playing with a better team, but you are also playing against better teams. Single A teams may only have one good player, which makes it hard for that player, but they play other teams with only one good player. That's what makes hockey such a great team sport, the better teams usually are successful over one superstar. It would be interesting, the influence Nick would have had if he played with South Saint Paul and Zach Palmquist had played with Eden Prairie.

[Goldy Gopher]

Hanowski will win the AP player of the year. Great honor that says you were the best high school player. The Mr. Hockey award has many people voting on a player's potential at the next two levels.

The Associated Press 2009 All-State team for Minnesota boys’ hockey, as voted on by statewide media.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Ben Hanowski, Little Falls

Personally, I would rather have people who know what they're talking about think that I'm going to be the best player at the next levels than a bunch of writers think that I'm the best HS player.