HighSchoolHockeyForums.com

DmanDad1980 wrote:Sniper...

Pure and simple, sniper...

Gophers have a need for snipers, and this young man should fill that bill in two to three years...

No youre wrong. I believe the gophs have enough players who are snipers. Not saying bjugstad wont be a great addition.. but they have nobody who is willing to go into the corners and hit. Granted budish will be one.. but the gophs need some big guys who are willing to hit and not just score goals. UMD can hit AND score goals.. look where they are...

Jigs your exactly right.. the problem with the gophers is they recruit only the goal scorers. Not saying that, that is a problem but it would help that team greatly if they recruited kids that would go in the corners and get the puck to those scorers. Hopefully Nick learns how to use his size and is able to bash some guys in the corners in order to be the complete package.

Nick has always been a great player in his age group growing up. He is looked up to by all the kids in Blaine Youth Hockey. I think he will stay at Blaine until graduation because rumor has it he wants nothing more then to be the 2011 Mr. Hockey. Also being to state twice and not winning it, Im sure he is dying for another shot.

I have been around kids who lack size but use their leverage well. Nick has size, speed, and the talent to be a dominant player. He needs to use his size and bash some bodies while he is scoring goals. Even Gaborik was hitting last night..

Hockman21 wrote:Jigs your exactly right.. the problem with the gophers is they recruit only the goal scorers. Not saying that, that is a problem but it would help that team greatly if they recruited kids that would go in the corners and get the puck to those scorers. Hopefully Nick learns how to use his size and is able to bash some guys in the corners in order to be the complete package.

Nick has always been a great player in his age group growing up. He is looked up to by all the kids in Blaine Youth Hockey. I think he will stay at Blaine until graduation because rumor has it he wants nothing more then to be the 2011 Mr. Hockey. Also being to state twice and not winning it, Im sure he is dying for another shot.

Are you seriously trying to tell me that Joe Miller is a pure goal scorer? I don't think so. He's a big kid (I guess he's a man now) that uses his body and hits. I know this is off topic and in the wrong forum but I just thought I needed to say something.

K I aplogize I was exaggerating when I said only goal scoroers. I'll change it. They need more guys who are willing to go in the corners. Better?

pondpucker13 wrote:

Hockman21 wrote:Jigs your exactly right.. the problem with the gophers is they recruit only the goal scorers. Not saying that, that is a problem but it would help that team greatly if they recruited kids that would go in the corners and get the puck to those scorers. Hopefully Nick learns how to use his size and is able to bash some guys in the corners in order to be the complete package.

Nick has always been a great player in his age group growing up. He is looked up to by all the kids in Blaine Youth Hockey. I think he will stay at Blaine until graduation because rumor has it he wants nothing more then to be the 2011 Mr. Hockey. Also being to state twice and not winning it, Im sure he is dying for another shot.

Are you seriously trying to tell me that Joe Miller is a pure goal scorer? I don't think so. He's a big kid (I guess he's a man now) that uses his body and hits. I know this is off topic and in the wrong forum but I just thought I needed to say something.

And he's from Wayzata, and we know Lucia loves his home boys from Wayzata. Let's face it, Miller, Wehrs, and his kid Tony are all marginal D1 players at best.

BTW: Joey Miller has got the ugliest skating stride I've ever seen in a Gopher uniform.

BodyShots wrote:

pondpucker13 wrote:

Hockman21 wrote:Jigs your exactly right.. the problem with the gophers is they recruit only the goal scorers. Not saying that, that is a problem but it would help that team greatly if they recruited kids that would go in the corners and get the puck to those scorers. Hopefully Nick learns how to use his size and is able to bash some guys in the corners in order to be the complete package.

Nick has always been a great player in his age group growing up. He is looked up to by all the kids in Blaine Youth Hockey. I think he will stay at Blaine until graduation because rumor has it he wants nothing more then to be the 2011 Mr. Hockey. Also being to state twice and not winning it, Im sure he is dying for another shot.

Are you seriously trying to tell me that Joe Miller is a pure goal scorer? I don't think so. He's a big kid (I guess he's a man now) that uses his body and hits. I know this is off topic and in the wrong forum but I just thought I needed to say something.

And he's from Wayzata, and we know Lucia loves his home boys from Wayzata. Let's face it, Miller, Wehrs, and his kid Tony are all marginal D1 players at best.

BTW: Joey Miller has got the ugliest skating stride I've ever seen in a Gopher uniform.

And that's why he was a scratch for most of the games this year. I'm not saying Miller is a good player but it was said that the gophers only go after goal scorers and I was saying it wasn't true. And I think Tony is a better player than people give him credit for. But seeing as this is the HS forum I won't get into it here. I would love to discuss it more so PM me if you really want to.

I disagree that the U has too many snipers. They have many who skate beautifully and go up and down the ice making great passes but oftentimes have difficulty finishing (which snipers do by definition). From what I've seen of Bjugstad, this is one of his strengths and so at this point in his career it looks to be a promising acquisition by the Gophs.

For anyone who might have missed this article in today's StarTribune:

Blaine junior's goals within reach

http://www.startribune.com/sports/preps ... anchO7DiUr

pondpucker13 wrote:

BodyShots wrote:

pondpucker13 wrote: Are you seriously trying to tell me that Joe Miller is a pure goal scorer? I don't think so. He's a big kid (I guess he's a man now) that uses his body and hits. I know this is off topic and in the wrong forum but I just thought I needed to say something.

And he's from Wayzata, and we know Lucia loves his home boys from Wayzata. Let's face it, Miller, Wehrs, and his kid Tony are all marginal D1 players at best.

BTW: Joey Miller has got the ugliest skating stride I've ever seen in a Gopher uniform.

And that's why he was a scratch for most of the games this year. I'm not saying Miller is a good player but it was said that the gophers only go after goal scorers and I was saying it wasn't true. And I think Tony is a better player than people give him credit for. But seeing as this is the HS forum I won't get into it here. I would love to discuss it more so PM me if you really want to.

Look you may or may not be right, i don't know. But using Joey Miller as your guy that the Gophers didn't recruit as a goal scorer I don't think is accurate. 36 goals his senior year of high school seems to speak otherwise. So maybe he hasn't come to the U and tore it up like he did in his high school years, but it would be tough to say they didn't recruit a 36 goal scorer as just that, a goal scorer.

Tonly Lucia has proven himself to be a legit Div I player. He's far from elite of course but he has earned his place in Div I without question.

Papa Bergundy wrote:But using Joey Miller as your guy that the Gophers didn't recruit as a goal scorer I don't think is accurate. 36 goals his senior year of high school seems to speak otherwise. So maybe he hasn't come to the U and tore it up like he did in his high school years, but it would be tough to say they didn't recruit a 36 goal scorer as just that, a goal scorer.

The problem with your line of thinking is Miller wasn't recruited until pretty late into his junior career. He wasn't offered a scholarship right after his high school days. You don't tend to recruit a guy aimed at a big scoring role at that late of a stage in his junior career.

He was hardly a scoring terror his first full year in the USHL (under 10 goals for the entire year). He did do better as an older guy in his second season in the league but you would somewhat expect that of a 20 year old in that league. Miller was brought in as a character guy. Hard worker, do some of the dirty work, and maybe show some leadership as he matures in college. But his recruitment was not to fill in a top six forward slot and see ample amount of power play time. If you think that, you are very much out of touch with what is going on there.

Well lets put this to rest. Nick is going to graduate early. He is taking classes this year so he will finish high school a year early just like Ness did when he was in high school. Nick will play for the gophers next year and not play a year of juniors.

BlaineJGA wrote:Well lets put this to rest. Nick is going to graduate early. He is taking classes this year so he will finish high school a year early just like Ness did when he was in high school. Nick will play for the gophers next year and not play a year of juniors.

How old is Nick? Was he held back along the way? Ness didn't graduate early! He just made up for being held back in his younger days. I believe at his age, he should have been with the Senior class all along.

BodyShots wrote:

BlaineJGA wrote:Well lets put this to rest. Nick is going to graduate early. He is taking classes this year so he will finish high school a year early just like Ness did when he was in high school. Nick will play for the gophers next year and not play a year of juniors.

How old is Nick? Was he held back along the way? Ness didn't graduate early! He just made up for being held back in his younger days. I believe at his age, he should have been with the Senior class all along.

Nick will now be graduating high school as a 17 year old and starting college as an 18 year old. If he hadn't accelerated, he would have graduated as an 18 year-old and started college as a 19 year-old. Either way can be considered normal.

Slap Shot wrote:Tonly Lucia has proven himself to be a legit Div I player. He's far from elite of course but he has earned his place in Div I without question.

I completely agree. Let's remember he did have offers from other D1 schools, I think Notre Dame and CC were the other big names.

GopherBlog, is Lucia on scholarship or does he go for free because his dad is an employee and the scholarship goes to some one else?

scoreboard33 wrote:

Slap Shot wrote:Tonly Lucia has proven himself to be a legit Div I player. He's far from elite of course but he has earned his place in Div I without question.

I completely agree. Let's remember he did have offers from other D1 schools, I think Notre Dame and CC were the other big names.

GopherBlog, is Lucia on scholarship or does he go for free because his dad is an employee and the scholarship goes to some one else?

Children of University of Minnesota employees do not get free or even reduced tuition so he would have to be on scholarship.

MNHockeyFan wrote:I disagree that the U has too many snipers. They have many who skate beautifully and go up and down the ice making great passes but oftentimes have difficulty finishing (which snipers do by definition). From what I've seen of Bjugstad, this is one of his strengths and so at this point in his career it looks to be a promising acquisition by the Gophs.

Thank you MNHockey...

I said it before in this thread, because that is exactly what we need...

A sniper, pure & simple...

How many games have we watched, where the Gophers put up 45 shots, score 2 or 3 goals and lose in recent years...

A sniper is just what we do need, and I hope Bjugstad is that kid for the Gophs

bugstad will be a big help for the gophers, but if you look back to the past 10 years or so the gophers are the best when they have a solid core of northern boys who love contact. I think they are in big need of a few more scrapers especially after seeing friday night of there series with the sioux.

I think Bjugstads biggest impact could be on the PP. Blaine had a super high success rate on the PP last year at over 40%. The Elite team he plays on is having a very high success rate. Maybe his line is a big reason for that. He has great ability to control the puck under pressure and create opportunities.

The Gophers need more experience on D. Not necessarily better players.

I dont understand why the gophers what to try to be something they are not. They almost always have more talent then the team they are playing. it just seems dumb to me to tell players like that to stop doing what got them where they are and start hitting everything in sight...also 22% is not a very high success rate.

my2cents wrote: The Elite team he plays on is having a very high success rate. Maybe his line is a big reason for that. He has great ability to control the puck under pressure and create opportunities.

.

I wasn't up North this weekend, but I heard from some parents that Bjugstad was getting double shifted regularly.

Little blurb in the StarTribune this morning:

"The International Scouting Service released its top 30 skaters for the 2010 NHL draft list for the month of October, and Blaine wing Nick Bjugstad is ranked as the 24th best skater.

Derek Forbort, a defenseman from Duluth East who is playing with U.S. Developmental Program in Ann Arbor, Mich., is ranked No. 15 and defenseman Jarred Tinordi, son of former Minnesota North Star Mark Tinordi, is ranked No. 23."

22% is comparitively high in the Elite League. Only Shattuck ranks higher. Also, since there are multiple lines running power plays, it is possible his line success rate is better than 22% - or worse.

This is a way misplaced comment but can someone throw up a link to the elite league teams stats?

Also Nick is extremely talented, cannot believe how natural it looks.