Michigan Hockey w/ #2 Recruiting Class

Submitted by formerlyanonymous on

Rivals has a new college hockey mainpage CollegeHockey 24/7 and they've released their initial (being first ever, from what I can see) recruiting class rankings. Michigan is #2 ($) behind the Varmint Cong in Minnesota. The author of the list, Bill Miller, claims that it's really a two horse race for the #1 spot between those two programs.

(HT: Yost Built, who has his 10 things to know about State up.)

weasel3216

January 29th, 2010 at 11:58 AM ^

I guess this is pretty impressive with our under achieving season that we are having. Could also speak to Red and his staff as recruiters (fuck you Lombardi). Of course, it is Michigan hockey and i would argue that Michigan hockey is most the most tradition rich program in all of college hockey.

Trebor

January 29th, 2010 at 1:34 PM ^

Not to mention that hockey recruiting takes place far more in advance than, say, football. A vast majority of the top-rated kids commit to a school by the time they are 15-16. Jack Johnson committed when he was 14, if I remember correctly. The highest-rated kids in our class this year, Merrill and Moffatt, committed when they were 14 and 15 respectively.

Also, Minnesota has been struggling even more than Michigan, but still rake in tons of talent. Of course, Minnesota is to hockey what Texas is to football.

One thing to consider for hockey is that there are a lot of kids who start playing DI hockey after juniors, so a lot of mid- to lower-profile teams have a significant number of 20-21 year old freshmen. Those players don't have the NHL aspirations that the 17 and 18 year old freshmen do. Those young freshmen want to go to programs noted for producing NHL-caliber talent, such as Minnesota, Michigan, Boston College, etc. The opportunity to win NCAA titles isn't as big of a deal when you can leave for the pros whenever you want.

Mark682

January 29th, 2010 at 2:31 PM ^

If you mean that Minnesota is to hockey as Texas is to football, in that; Florida is better than Texas for football like Michigan is to hockey, then yes. Michigan has more hockey talent than any other state in the country (47,934 registered hockey players in Michigan, 44,498 for Minnesota). Minnesota is easily the second biggest hockey state in the country, but Michigan is the undisputed Texas of hockey.

Trebor

January 29th, 2010 at 2:56 PM ^

The reason I said Minnesota hockey = Texas football is because most kids in Minnesota grow up wanting to play for the Gophers, they are the only legitimately big program in the state, and the neighboring state schools are the primary competition for the elite players. The back-to-back National Title teams they had in 02-03 had, if I recall correctly, one player from outside Minnesota (Grant Potulny was from North Dakota).

Also, I doubt your numbers are accurate - if you're using USA Hockey's numbers, you're forgetting that a fairly significant portion of Minnesota's youth programs are not affiliated with USA Hockey. How many people show up to the Michigan HS playoff games? Minnesota sells out the Xcel Energy Center every year.