Late Season Mr. Hockey Picks

EREmpireStrikesBack · Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:16 am

breakout wrote:Interesting that there are only 4 D on the list of 20 candidates listed.

Why no goalies!?!?

PuckU126 · Post by **PuckU126** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:12 pm

EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:
breakout wrote:Interesting that there are only 4 D on the list of 20 candidates listed.
Why no goalies!?!?

There really isn't any standout goalies this year; no surprise none made the cut.

D6Rocks · Post by **D6Rocks** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:47 pm

PuckU126 wrote:
EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:
breakout wrote:Interesting that there are only 4 D on the list of 20 candidates listed.
Why no goalies!?!?

There really isn't any standout goalies this year; no surprise none made the cut.

Because Goalies can't win this award. They have their own goalie award. the Frank Brimsek Award.

PuckU126 · Post by **PuckU126** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:57 pm

D6Rocks wrote:
PuckU126 wrote:
EREmpireStrikesBack wrote: Why no goalies!?!?

There really isn't any standout goalies this year; no surprise none made the cut.
Because Goalies can't win this award. They have their own goalie award. the Frank Brimsek Award.

Thanks D, totally forgot.

HockeyMN1 · Post by **HockeyMN1** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:23 pm

EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:Kyle Rau.

He's a Gopher.

You do realize only half of the last 10 Mr. Hockey's have gone to the Gophers right? And that is about right considering they would logically attract the top players in the state.

MNHockeyFan · Post by **MNHockeyFan** » Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:48 pm

HockeyMN1 wrote:
EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:Kyle Rau.

He's a Gopher.

You do realize only half of the last 10 Mr. Hockey's have gone to the Gophers right? And that is about right considering they would logically attract the top players in the state.

That and the fact that UMD, BSU, MSU and SCSU all recruit a much larger share of non-Minnesotans than the Gophers. If you're Canadian you can't win the Mr. Hockey award!

EREmpireStrikesBack · Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:11 am

D6Rocks wrote:
PuckU126 wrote:
EREmpireStrikesBack wrote: Why no goalies!?!?

There really isn't any standout goalies this year; no surprise none made the cut.
Because Goalies can't win this award. They have their own goalie award. the Frank Brimsek Award.

Just gotta set the hook.

EREmpireStrikesBack · Wed Feb 02, 2011 12:14 am

HockeyMN1 wrote:
EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:Kyle Rau.

He's a Gopher.

You do realize only half of the last 10 Mr. Hockey's have gone to the Gophers right? And that is about right considering they would logically attract the top players in the state.

4 of the last 5.

14 of the last 19.

Pretty wicked odds considering there are 4 (now 5) D1 programs in the state along with 2 on bordering states. You'd be a fool if you were to bet against Mr. Hockey not being a Gopher.

siouxforce19 · Post by **siouxforce19** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:04 am

MNHockeyFan wrote:
HockeyMN1 wrote:
EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:Kyle Rau.

He's a Gopher.

You do realize only half of the last 10 Mr. Hockey's have gone to the Gophers right? And that is about right considering they would logically attract the top players in the state.
That and the fact that UMD, BSU, MSU and SCSU all recruit a much larger share of non-Minnesotans than the Gophers. If you're Canadian you can't win the Mr. Hockey award!

There's a reason for that.

It's called Gopher brainwash. All the high caliber Minnesota high school kids want to be Gophers. It's a fact. It also explains why a lot of the Mr. Hockey recipients are Gopher recruits. Other schools go elsewhere for equivalent talent. And...as for your Canadian comment... the number of Canadians to WCHA programs like the schools you mentioned has dwindled significantly.

EREmpireStrikesBack · Post by **EREmpireStrikesBack** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:08 am

siouxforce19 wrote:
MNHockeyFan wrote:
HockeyMN1 wrote: You do realize only half of the last 10 Mr. Hockey's have gone to the Gophers right? And that is about right considering they would logically attract the top players in the state.
That and the fact that UMD, BSU, MSU and SCSU all recruit a much larger share of non-Minnesotans than the Gophers. If you're Canadian you can't win the Mr. Hockey award!
There's a reason for that.

It's called Gopher brainwash. All the high caliber Minnesota high school kids want to be Gophers. It's a fact. It also explains why a lot of the Mr. Hockey recipients are Gopher recruits. Other schools go elsewhere for equivalent talent. And...as for your Canadian comment... the number of Canadians to WCHA programs like the schools you mentioned has dwindled significantly.

Says the guy with Sioux in his screen name. I'm sure you're completely impartial.

MNHockeyFan · Post by **MNHockeyFan** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 10:33 am

siouxforce19 wrote:There's a reason for that.

It's called Gopher brainwash. All the high caliber Minnesota high school kids want to be Gophers. It's a fact. It also explains why a lot of the Mr. Hockey recipients are Gopher recruits. Other schools go elsewhere for equivalent talent. And...as for your Canadian comment... the number of Canadians to WCHA programs like the schools you mentioned has dwindled significantly.

There is some truth to what you say here. A little off topic, but I thought I'd spend a few minutes going over the rosters of the teams in the WCHA and running some numbers. Here are the number of Minnesotans and the (percentages) of Minnesotans, by team:

U of M - 23 (85%)
UMD - 17 (65%)
MSU - 15 (58%)
SCSU - 14 (56%)
UND - 6 (23%)
BSU - 6 (21%)
Wisc - 5 (19%)
UNO - 5 (19%)
CC - 5 (19%)
MTU - 4 (14%)
DEN - 2 (7%)
AK-A - 1 (4%)

So the U of M does have more Minnesotans than the last 6 schools combined. But UMD, MSU and SCSU (combined) has twice as many as the U of M, so everything else being "equal" you would think that on average a Mr. Hockey winner would be headed to one of these three schools roughly every other year (figuring in the Minnesotans who go east to non-WCHA schools also). Are the voters giving undue weight to where the candidates will be playing their college hockey? Or is Minnesota just recruiting way more than their share of players who were dominating at the high school level here in the State?

Also, you were right in pointing out that the number of Canadians playing in the league has come down compared to what it used to be. I was surprised at how much, remembering that at one time schools like North Dakota, Denver and Michigan Tech were just about all Canadian. Adding up the numbers for all teams, here is where the players are coming from:

U.S. excluding MN - 122 (38%)
Minnesota - - - - - - 103 (32%
Canada - - - - - - - - 83 (26%)
Europe - - - - - - - - 12 (4%)

Pretty interesting...

gitter · Post by **gitter** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:28 pm

I love the Mr. Hockey/Gopher conspiracy. Really. The team attracts the cream of the crop whether they are competitive or not. Year in and year out they get the top MN players. Chances are, Mr. Hockey is one of them. Here's a fun stat:

12 out of 26 Mr. Hockey winners have made it to the NHL. Most, if not all, have been drafted by an NHL team. So, Mr. Hockey is generally a good enough player that he gets drafted....so lets look at the current number of draft picks on each team in the WCHA (start of the season):

MN - 19
UND - 16
SCSU - 10
UMD - 7
Denver - 9
CC - 2
UW - 9
UNO - 2
BEM - 0
MSUM - 2
UAA - 0
TECH - 0

Now consider that of MN 19 NHL draftees, 17 are from MN. of UND has 5 from MN. SCSU has 4 from MN. UMD has 5 from MN. Denver has 1 from MN. CC has 0 from MN. UW has 3 from MN. UNO has 0 from MN and MSUM has 2.

So you add up every team in the WCHA and they have a combined 20 draft picks from MN....while MN has 17 themselves. I just can't see why the Gophers would land MR. Hockey so frequently.

I'm sure it's a conspiracy too that so many Gophers are drafted by the NHL compared to other teams in the WCHA.

HockeyMN1 · Post by **HockeyMN1** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 4:25 pm

EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:
HockeyMN1 wrote:
EREmpireStrikesBack wrote:Kyle Rau.

He's a Gopher.

You do realize only half of the last 10 Mr. Hockey's have gone to the Gophers right? And that is about right considering they would logically attract the top players in the state.
4 of the last 5.

14 of the last 19.

Pretty wicked odds considering there are 4 (now 5) D1 programs in the state along with 2 on bordering states. You'd be a fool if you were to bet against Mr. Hockey not being a Gopher.

And 5 out of the last 10. See, I can manipulate statistics too. But in all seriousness, these sort of numbers should not be unexpected. The conspiracy theorists are confusing correlation with causation. The reason they are Gophers is because they are Mr. Hockey. The reason they are Mr. Hockey is not because they are Gophers. Top end talent in this state is attracted to the U, plain and simple.

DubCHAGuy · Post by **DubCHAGuy** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:10 pm

The only year I can think of a legitimate argument of a Gopher recruit receiving the award over a non-Gopher recruit would be Aaron Ness over Jake Gardiner in 2008, and even that is a stretch. Ness had a great HS career.

Rau is the best player this year and has had the best career, IMO.

Slap Shot · Post by **Slap Shot** » Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:22 pm

siouxforce19 wrote:There's a reason for that.

It's called Gopher brainwash.

Why do Halo fans take any award or comment that doesn't kiss the Sue's behind as an affront to their entirety? Get over it and be happy that your program has 7 NC's and another solid team this season.

High Flyer · Post by **High Flyer** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:38 am

DubCHAGuy wrote:The only year I can think of a legitimate argument of a Gopher recruit receiving the award over a non-Gopher recruit would be Aaron Ness over Jake Gardiner in 2008, and even that is a stretch. Ness had a great HS career.

Rau is the best player this year and has had the best career, IMO.

Everson has had the same career, shuts down Rau, turned down the Gophers for Harvard, will draft higher than Rau and will be Mr MN this year.

gitter · Post by **gitter** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:14 am

High Flyer wrote:Everson will draft higher than Rau.

Because he is 6'1" and Rau is 5'8". VERY FEW 5'8" players in the NHL.

High Flyer · Post by **High Flyer** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:21 am

gitter wrote:
High Flyer wrote:Everson will draft higher than Rau.
Because he is 6'1" and Rau is 5'8". VERY FEW 5'8" players in the NHL.

Their projected "draft position" or pro potential is one of the factors that will be taken into consideration for the Mr. MN award.

EREmpireStrikesBack · Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:07 am

HockeyMN1 wrote:And 5 out of the last 10. See, I can manipulate statistics too. But in all seriousness, these sort of numbers should not be unexpected. The conspiracy theorists are confusing correlation with causation. The reason they are Gophers is because they are Mr. Hockey. The reason they are Mr. Hockey is not because they are Gophers. Top end talent in this state is attracted to the U, plain and simple.

Says the guy who initially posted the "stats"...

Go ahead and tally up the entire history of the award. No manipulation there.

EREmpireStrikesBack · Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:09 am

High Flyer wrote:
gitter wrote:
High Flyer wrote:Everson will draft higher than Rau.
Because he is 6'1" and Rau is 5'8". VERY FEW 5'8" players in the NHL.
Their projected "draft position" or pro potential is one of the factors that will be taken into consideration for the Mr. MN award.

I don't think there are any HS hockey kids trying to win the Mr. Minnesota award.

gitter · Post by **gitter** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:27 am

High Flyer wrote:
gitter wrote:
High Flyer wrote:Everson will draft higher than Rau.
Because he is 6'1" and Rau is 5'8". VERY FEW 5'8" players in the NHL.
Their projected "draft position" or pro potential is one of the factors that will be taken into consideration for the Mr. MN award.

Yes. One. One of MANY.

TheClipper · Post by **TheClipper** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:39 am

let's think clearly here.

If you're the kind of player being considered for "Mr. Hockey", you've been courted by a number of D1 schools prior to your junior year. The Gophers would probably be among these teams. A "Mr. Hockey" winner who happens to be a Gopher, was so well before he won the award.

EREmpireStrikesBack · Thu Feb 03, 2011 11:08 am

TheClipper wrote:let's think clearly here.

If you're the kind of player being considered for "Mr. Hockey", you've been courted by a number of D1 schools prior to your junior year. The Gophers would probably be among these teams. A "Mr. Hockey" winner who happens to be a Gopher, was so well before he won the award.

They might have been a Gopher first. By making that decision, they decided they wanted to win Mr. Hockey.

TheClipper · Post by **TheClipper** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 11:27 am

Erempire.

You use the word they three times. Who is they?

019 · Post by **019** » Thu Feb 03, 2011 12:06 pm

Who is the sponsor or organizer for this award?