Top Freshmen Classes

Inside College Hockey just released their ranking of the incoming freshmen and freshmen classes as a whole. Here is how St. Cloud State stacked up:

Top 20 Forwards:

19. Mitch MacMillian


Top 20 Defensemen:

7. Nick Jensen
8. Kevin Gravel

Top 10 Goalies:

*Yep, we have this one covered.

Top 15 Recruiting Classes (WCHA Teams):

1. Denver
4. North Dakota
5. Minnesota
7. St. Cloud
8. Minnesota Duluth
9. Colorado College
12. Wisconsin
14. Nebraska- Omaha

My Reflection:

First, look at all those WCHA teams with "best recruiting class". Eight out of the top fifteen recruiting classes come from WCHA teams (roughly 53.3%). Interpretation---The best young hockey players want to play in our league. Way to go WCHA!

As for the "Top Forwards", I would also place SCSU freshmen Cam Reid and Nic Dowd in the top 20. Cam Reid was a 4th round pick in the 2009 NHL draft for the Nashville Predators and had a high scoring career in the BCHL. Nic Dowd was a seventh round draft pick for the Los Angeles Kings in the 2009 draft and most recently played in the USHL (Indianapolis) scoring 48 points in 46 games and 6 points in 9 playoff games.

I can't say that I have much of an argument with the "Top Defensemen" category. Jensen and Gravel were very important players for SCSU to pick up and should be high quality players for our program. As the defensive position is often one of SCSU's "weaker" spots, I am glad to have two freshmen defenders so highly ranked on this list.

As for St. Cloud's position at #7 on this list of recruiting classes, I personally believe that SCSU should be a little higher. I might not place them as high as Denver or North Dakota, but they should be higher because of the high potential of forwards Reid and Dowd.

Other Quick Links:

• Husky Alum Ryan Malone was featured today on NHL.com for his OT game winning goal against Montreal. You can watch the video below.
• The Minnesota Wild home opener is tonight. You can read several good articles about it over at the Star Tribune.

*Or go here if the video does not work: http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hlp=8467988&event=MTL812