Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you?

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

So it looks like Eaves sure made a mistake on Crandall, at least at this point. UW is still in a very tight spot next year in goal. Rumpel will be great, but you need more than goalie on the roster.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

So it looks like Eaves sure made a mistake on Crandall, at least at this point. UW is still in a very tight spot next year in goal. Rumpel will be great, but you need more than goalie on the roster.

In terms of letting him walk? I'm not so sure.

On a different note, the fall signing period is this week. Will be interesting to see who signs LOI's this week. McCabe, since he is accellerating to come here next year might not be eligible to sign yet. I would assume Woods, Lapic, Hesketh, and Strang will sign this week, the rest in the spring.

[UWisco]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

I can see Rumpel signing this week.

[GoBucky]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

Sending letters to 7
http://host.madison.com/sports/colle...cc4c002e0.html
The forwards: Winger Brendan Woods with Muskegon of the U.S. Hockey League (3 goals, 2 assists, 5 points, minus-1 in nine games this season); winger Tyler Lapic with Chicago of the USHL (1-4-5, plus-3, eight games); winger Matt Paape with Sioux City of the USHL (1-0-1, plus-4, 11 games); and center Cody Strang with Youngstown of the USHL (2-3-5, plus-2, 12 games).

The defensemen: Troy Hesketh with Chicago of the USHL (0-0-0, minus-5, 12 games); and Jake McCabe with the U.S. National Team Developmental Program (0-0-0, minus-1, one game due to injury).

The goaltender: Joel Rumpel with Penticton of the British Columbia Hockey League (8-4, 2.67 goals against average, 90.5 save ratio, one shutout).

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

I can see Rumpel signing this week.

yeah I meant to include him, my bad.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

As I noted on Twitter Friday thanks to a tip from Dave Lundey, one of the top 1995 born players in the country Will Butcher was added to the Dubuque Fighting Saints (USHL) roster. Butcher is a kid that's been talked about many times on this site and is a Sun Prairie native. He's been playing with the Madison Capitols and would be a 2013 recruit.

Admittedly having no inside knowledge of the situation on this kid, It's safe to assume that he's a priority target for Mike Eaves and company. Eaves has slowed his recruiting approach a bit lately after taking a lot of criticism for over-recruiting in the past. At this point we have no recruits committed for the 2013 season yet (Tim Davison is for 2012 or 2013). Butcher would be a great start to that class.

I'm not sure if Butcher has joined Dubuque for the rest of the season or if it was just for the weekend but he was plus 3 on Friday night and had an assist. There are rumors floating around that Butcher has been offered a NTDP spot already for next year and has accepted and that's why he didn't play with Sioux City of the USHL who drafted him but who knows how credible those reports are at this point. Would be interesting to see if he plays the rest of the season in the USHL if he would move to the NTDP next year or not.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interestingly enough, another 1995 born Wisconsin defenseman made his USHL debut this weekend as well. Ian McCoshen (pictured), who is from Hudson played for Waterloo this weekend. McCoshen has been playing at Shattuck St. Mary's the past few seasons and was with on the Shattuck Bantam team last season.

I was becoming a bit concerned about what was going on with McCoshen. Waterloo has had him on the roster all season but he didn't play in any games. When Shattuck released their rosters this fall and he wasn't there, no one know what was going on. With McCoshen playing this weekend I guess we've finally located the young man and I'm almost positive McCoshen will be with Waterloo for the rest of the season.

As an August birthday, I'm not sure if McCoshen is going to end up as a 2013 or a 2014 recruit but like Butcher, McCoshen needs to be considered a top priority for the Badgers, and I'm sure he is.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Practice for Wisconsin high school hockey starts tomorrow and the odds on favorite to win this seasons Mr. Hockey award Brad Navin from Waupaca might not be there. I just noticed that Sioux City of the USHL has him on their roster.

He has not played a game yet for them so let's pump the brakes because being rostered doesn't necessarily mean that hes going to the USHL for sure. He played the fall season with Team Wisconsin (and was awesome) and played this past weekend in the season ending Bauer NIT tournament.

Navin finished third this fall in the Upper Midwest High School Elite League scoring race, and led the state of Wisconsin in scoring last season at Waupaca and I have to assume that their schedule didn't get that much better for this season. If he is indeed making the move to Sioux City, I think he would please the NHL scouts that are trying to evaluate him for the upcoming draft as well as the potential colleges who are recruiting him.

Wisconsin has been identified as one of a host of schools who are currently courting the 6'2, 192 pound forward.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another interesting note from the weekend is that 2011 Badger recruit Jake McCabe returned to the team and played a game over the weekend against Muskegon on Saturday night. McCabe if you remember, had a stress fracture in his L-5 vertebrae and was scheduled to miss 8-12 weeks with the injury. It looks like it's just past the 8 week mark so that is a great sign.

McCabe will be going overseas to Sweden with his USA Hockey teammates to participate in the four nations cup which starts on Monday.

[UWisco]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

What's up with Rumpel this year i see he ain't playing every game. He matched with another good goalie or what.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

What's up with Rumpel this year i see he ain't playing every game. He matched with another good goalie or what.

He is sharing time with Billy Faust, who is 6-3-0, with a 2.43 gaa and a .918 save %. Rumpel this year is 8-4-0 with a 2.67 gaa and a .906 save %.

Last year Rumpel played in 24 games (19-3-0, 1.97 gaa, .92 save %) behind Sean Bonar (Princeton recruit), who played 39 games (28-9-0, 2.64 gaa, .91 save %).

So it looks like the Penticton Vee's use a tandem system, with about a 60-40 split in time.

Eaves and Crandall....he's 3-1 with a 1.48 gaa and a .937 save %. It's a long season, but for a guy who was sucking so badly in the USHL to get dirched by UW, those are excellent numbers. I am completely surprised by him so far. In 4 years we'll have the ultimate answer as to whether or not Eaves made a mistake. Not that I disagreed with Eaves doing what he did, but it still could be a mistake, though I am rarely wrong.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

He is sharing time with Billy Faust, who is 6-3-0, with a 2.43 gaa and a .918 save %. Rumpel this year is 8-4-0 with a 2.67 gaa and a .906 save %.

Last year Rumpel played in 24 games (19-3-0, 1.97 gaa, .92 save %) behind Sean Bonar (Princeton recruit), who played 39 games (28-9-0, 2.64 gaa, .91 save %).

So it looks like the Penticton Vee's use a tandem system, with about a 60-40 split in time.

Eaves and Crandall....he's 3-1 with a 1.48 gaa and a .937 save %. It's a long season, but for a guy who was sucking so badly in the USHL to get dirched by UW, those are excellent numbers. I am completely surprised by him so far. In 4 years we'll have the ultimate answer as to whether or not Eaves made a mistake. Not that I disagreed with Eaves doing what he did, but it still could be a mistake, though I am rarely wrong.

Talent was never an issue with Aaron Crandall, there was obviously a reason we recruited him, because coming up he was regarded as one of the best for his age in the country. But once he struggled in the USHL, he couldn't get himself out of the funk. It's not that he lost his talent, but there were obviously serious questions as to whether or not he had what it took upstairs to handle adversity. He finished his USHL career with a .870 save percentage.

With question marks like that, regardless of how his college career ends, there was no chance in hell a division one hockey coach was going to risk a full goalie scholarship on him. Eaves offered to let him come in last season in a walk on role with an opportunity to earn a scholarship later. He turned that down because he was embarassed. Duluth offered him the same thing, walk on with an opportunity to earn a scholarship.

I don't blame Eaves one bit. He also saw an opportunity to pick up Brett Bennett who was very good that season in the USHL. No one was quite sure what we had in Scott Gudmandson at the time but we knew we had a championship type team if we found a goalie. Picking up Bennett was the right move to strike while the iron was hot with last seasons talented squad. It just so happened to be that BB got hurt and Scotty played well but who could have predicted that?

I'm confident in Joel Rumpel and I'm confident that Eaves will find another suitable player to come in next season with Rumpel. Would love to see Kevin Murdock the Mankato transfer to supplement Rumpel.

[UWisco]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

We need to bring in another goalie, can't have 2. Murdock would be are best shot. I see you have Andrew Martin on your Recruits sheet any info on him he any good.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

We need to bring in another goalie, can't have 2. Murdock would be are best shot. I see you have Andrew Martin on your Recruits sheet any info on him he any good.

Not really. He is only listed because he was offered a walk on spot last year.

[UWisco]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

How many underclassmen are expected to leave and go pro.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

How many underclassmen are expected to leave and go pro.

Gardiner-90%
Murray-70%
C. Smith-50%
Justin Schultz-40%
John Ramage-30%
Mark Zengerle-30%

Those are the only realistic options at this point.

[UWisco]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

I agree with you all the way, but Schultz might be in the upper 50s he got some great potentail, anyway is there any uncommited goalie out there that Wisconsin might have there eyes on other than Murdock.

[MadCityRich]

Re: Wisconsin Recruiting: What are you going to do, when NHL-U, comes calling for you

We need to bring in another goalie, can't have 2. Murdock would be are best shot. I see you have Andrew Martin on your Recruits sheet any info on him he any good.

I know this isn't aimed at me, but I've watched Martin for years. Unless he has taken tremendous steps the past 2 years, IMO he's not D-1 material. Some guys do improve greatly, though.