Saturday, July 12, 2008

USHL News

Some USHL Teams released their 25 man roster. The teams include the Chicago Steel, the Lincoln Stars, the Sioux Fall Stampede, and the Tri-City Storm.

Tri-City has their leading scorer back in Mike Cichy who had 45 points and including 16 goals. He was a highly touted player a few years ago for the 2008 NHL Draft when he selected by the National Team Development Program. Two years ago he left the program to rejoin the Boston Junior Bruins of the EJHL. He was selected by the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL and almost joined them when he was in hot water with the NCAA. There was an incident where the NCAA said he took endorsement money but he didn't. He's committed to North Dakota. After all that he went undrafted. Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Folks Herald did an interview with him not too long ago.

Cichy will be joined by former teammates Matt and Joe Zarbo. They are both committed to Clarkson.

USHL isn't my strong suit but I believe Chicago has the best returning group of players. They upset the Indiana Ice in the first round of of the playoffs last season. Andrew Miller is returning and he had 41 points including 17 goals.

Another guy that I think will have a big year is Mark Anthoine. It's a homer pick as I was giving him some high quality H2O as the St. Doms manager when he was a freshman. The interesting this with Mark is, this will be the first year he has played in the same league twice in a row. As a high school freshman he played varsity hockey, his sophomore year he joined the Portland Jr. Pirates B Team, his junior year he played for Pirates A team, and last year he played for the Steel.

Max Nicastro is heading Boston University and was a draft pick of the Stanley Cup Champions, the Detroit Red Wings.

I don't know too much about Sioux Falls or Lincoln but Sioux Falls website has coaches comments when you click on the player's name.

A couple of Blogs and the Denver Post are reporting that Patrick Wiercioch of the Omaha Lancers has signed on with the Denver University Pioneers for this upcoming season. He was originally heading to Wisconsin in 2009 but a spot opened up when David Carle retired because health issues. Wisconsin had a solid group of defenseman already and the good news they have a year to find another recruit. Omaha Lancers will be hit the hardest as they were expected to have Wiercioch back. Wiercioch was a second round pick of the Ottawa Senators in the 2008 Draft.

That's My Take

(Nathan also is a writer for MVN.com. He's the writer for the Asylum which covers the Lewiston Maineiacs of the QMJHL. He's also a regular contributor to the NHL Source also at MVN.com. He can be reached at fbbhgfan@aol.com)

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