Ben Hanowski and Anders Lee news bites from outside Minnesota

Here are what a few online papers out east had to say about two Minnesota high school players that were taken in the NHL draft over the weekend:

Ben Hanowski (Little Falls): Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, PA)

Anders Lee (Edina): Newsday (Long Island, NY)

Nick Leddy (Eden Prairie): USA Today

Articles worth reading about Minnesota players, high school players, and the NHL draft

Here are two articles out today that you may want to read related to the NHL Entry Draft:

Lee's untraditional chase of NHL dream - ESPN.com

High schoolers growing in draft popularity - NHL.com

2009 NHL Draft: Wild pick an Eagle; Predators pick a Hornet

Eden Prairie's Nick Leddy was the first player selected in the 2009-2010 NHL Entry Draft coming out of Minnesota at the high school level. On Friday night, he was selected in the first round as the 16th pick overall by the 'home' team, the Minnesota Wild. Leddy, a defenseman, was Minnesota's 2008-2009 Mr. Hockey and is verbally committed to play for the University of Minnesota.

Today, with the 41st pick in the second round, the Nashville Predators selected forward Zach Budish from the Edina Hornets. Budish did not play this last year due to an ACL injury that he had suffered during football season. Like Leddy, Budish is verbally committed to play for the University of Minnesota before pursuing his professional career.

Round 1:

Vancouver Canucks: 22nd pick overall: Jordan Schroeder (C) (St. Thomas Academy '05-'06): Schroeder currently plays for the University of Minnesota. In 35 games this past season, Schroeder scored 13 goals and assisted on 32 others as a freshman.

Round 3:

Pittsburgh Penguins: 63rd pick overall: Ben Hanowski (RW) (Little Falls '08-'09): He is Minnesota's all-time scoring leader and is verbally committed to play for St. Cloud State University.

Florida Panthers: 67th pick overall: Josh Birkholz (RW) (Blake School '07-'08): Played for the Fargo Force of the USHL in 2008-2009. He is verbally committed to play for the University of Minnesota.

Edmonton Oilers: 71st pick overall: Troy Hesketh (D) (Minnetonka '08-'09): Hesketh, a junior at Minnetonka High School, scored 22 points for the Skippers this past season scoring 7 goals (4 powerplay goals) and assisting on 15 in 28 games. He also collected 42 penalty minutes and had a +23 plus/minus. Hesketh has verbally committed to the University of Wisconsin.

Chicago Blackhawks: 89th pick overall: Dan DeLisle (C/LW) (Totino-Grace '08-'09): The 6'4", 222 pound DeLisle is verbally committed to the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Phoenix Coyotes: 91st pick overall: Mike Lee (G) (Roseau '07-'08): Lee decided to fore go his senior season at Roseau and play for Fargo of the USHL. He has verbally committed to play for St. Cloud State University. He will also be on Team USA at the World Junior Championship in December and January of this coming year. There was an article out today about Lee on the ESPN website.

Round 4:

Nashville Predators: 110th pick overall: Nick Oliver (C/LW) (Roseau '08-'09): Oliver has verbally committed to St. Cloud State University.

New Jersey Devils: 114th pick overall: Seth Helgeson (D) (Faribault '06-'07): Helgeson played for the Sioux City Muskateers of the USHL the last two seasons. Helgeson is verbally committed to play for the University of Minnesota.

Round 5:

Detroit Red Wings: 150th pick overall: Nick Jensen (D) (Rogers '07-'08): Jensen skipped his senior season at Rogers and played for the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. Jensen is verbally committed to play for St. Cloud State University.

Round 6:

New York Islanders: 152nd pick overall: Anders Lee (C) (Edina '08-'09): Lee, the star center for the Edina hockey team and the star quarterback for the Edina football team, has verbally committed to play for Notre Dame University.

Round 7:

Ottawa Senators: 191st pick overall: Michael Sdao (D): Sdao was born in Minneapolis, MN but played minor hockey in Colorado through his freshman year of high school. As a sophomore, he left Colorado and attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana until he graduated. He has played for the Lincoln Stars of the USHL since '07-'08. He is verbally committed to play at Princeton University.

St. Louis Blues: 202nd pick overall: Max Tardy (C) (Duluth East '08-'09): Tardy has verbally committed to play for the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

The Minnesota Wild selected the following players during the draft:

Round 1: Pick 16: D-Nick Leddy (Eden Prairie HS) - 5'11", 179 lbs, 03/20/91
Round 3: Pick 77: G-Matthew Hackett (Plymouth - OHL) - 6'2", 170 lbs, 03/07/90
Round 4: Pick 103: LW-Kristopher Foucault (Calgary - WHL) - 6'1", 202 lbs, 12/12/90
Round 4: Pick 116: RW-A Fallstrom (Shattuck-St. Mary's Prep) - 6'2", 192 lbs, 09/15/90
Round 6: Pick 161: G-Darcy Kuemper (Red Deer - WHL) - 6'4", 195 lbs, 05/05/90
Round 6: Pick 163: RW/LW-Jere Sallinen (Blues Jr. - Finland Jr.) - 6'0", 183 lbs, 10/26/90
Round 7: Pick 182: LW-Erik Haula (Shattuck-St. Mary's Prep) - 5'11", 170 lbs, 03/23/91
Round 7: Pick 193: C-Anthony Hamburg (Dallas Stars AAA) - 6'1", 185 lbs, 08/30/91

Coaching changes 2009-2010

Here are the Minnesota high school boy's varsity coaching changes so far for the upcoming 2009-2010 season:

Bloomington Kennedy - Dave Dillon

His former coaching experience has been working with youth and junior varsity players.

Champlin Park - Pat Janostin

Janostin returns for a second stint as the Rebels head coach. He has been involved with the Champlin youth program for several years. He also has his own hockey camp, Janostin Hockey Training. His bio on the website states that he played Division I hockey for the University of Minnesota-Duluth where he was also captain, a New York Rangers draft pick, and has eight years of Minnesota high school varsity coaching experience.

East Ridge - Doug Long

East Ridge? Who? East Ridge is a brand new school located in Woodbury that will have a hockey program ready for 2009-2010. They will start out in Class A (Section 4A) since only grades 9 through 11 will attend the new school this year. Seniors, who have been attending Woodbury and Park of Cottage Grove high schools, will remain at those schools in 2009-2010.

Now, back to Coach Long. He was a former head coach for Stillwater. He has coached the Section 2A/3AA High School Elite II Team. This past season he was a White Bear Lake assistant coach working with the goalies and the junior varsity.

Mankato West - Curtis Doell

Doell has been the assistant for the Scarlets varsity since 2000-2001. Doell played for the University of Minnesota-Duluth from 1996-1998. He then went on to play two seasons in the AHL with Kentucky in 1998-1999 and Louisville in 1999-2000.

Ken Essay stepped down as head coach for 10 years and stepped up to become Mankato West's new athletic director.

North Branch - Randy Gendreau

Gendreau's resume includes being an assistant coach for both the varsity and the junior varsity for Chisago Lakes Area in 2008-2009. He has also been involved with the Centennial Youth Hockey program for over 20 years along with several years of AAA summer hockey at both the youth and high school levels.

The North Branch School District decided that it was best for the boys hockey program to go in a new direction and former head coach Darrell Schulte was let go at the end of the season.

Prior Lake - Joe Pankratz

Pankratz takes over the head coaching duties for the Lakers. He had been serving as the head coach for the Prior Lake Peewee A team. Prior to that, he was the head coach for the Florida Jr. Panthers Midget AAA Team from 2001-2006.

If his name sounds familiar, it should if you remember the Bloomington Jefferson high school teams from the early 1990's. He was a member of the 1991-1992 Tier I state championship team as a sophomore. The Jaguars went a perfect 28-0-0 that season. However, instead of returning back to the Jaguars, he decided to give the USHL a try and played for the Omaha Lancers. Pankratz became the 1992-1993 USHL Rookie of the Year and was a member of an All-Star team. If that wasn't enough, he helped the Lancers win the Clark Cup Championship and the Anderson Cup (award for the team with the best overall regular season record). Ironically, the Jaguars went back to the state tournament that season and won another championship without Pankratz. The Jaguars went 25-2-2.

Pankratz also won state championships with his Pee Wee A and Bantam A teams playing for Bloomington. He played on the USA National Under-18 and Under-17 teams. And, he played in the National Olympic Festival.

Pankratz then moved on to play college hockey for the Golden Gophers for one season in 1994-1995 and then went on to play one season in the WHL with Seattle in 1995-1996. He finished his professional hockey career in Germany.

Pankratz replaces Dan Germundson who stepped down after nine seasons with the Lakers.

Rochester Lourdes Eagles - Josh Spaniol

Spaniol takes over after three seasons as an assistant coach in the Lourdes hockey program. He also served two years prior to that with Rochester John Marshall in a similar role. Spaniol is a 1994 graduate of Rochester Mayo High School.

As a player, Spaniol played junior hockey at Jackson Hole, Wyoming and was an All-American at Hibbing Community College.

Aaron Gill stepped down after two season with the Eagles. He went 42-16 in those two season and took Lourdes to the Class A state tournament this past year where they finished fifth. Gill reportedly resigned to devote more time to his personal life.

Roseau Rams - Andy Lundbohm

Lundbohm graduated from Roseau High School in 1995 and has been an assistant coach for the Rams the last four years.

Scott Oliver resigned after six seasons.

Shakopee Sabers - Jeff Vizenor

Vizenor steps down as the Minnesota State University-Mankato women's head coach and stepped up to take the Shakopee's new boys varsity head coaching job. Prior to Mankato, Vizenor headed up other prominent women's hockey programs at the University of Wisconsin and St. Mary's University.

He is no stranger to the boys high school coaching scene having headed up programs at Mora and St. Cloud Apollo before coaching women's hockey. He took Mora to the Class A state tournament in 1995-1996. They did not place.

Ed Loiselle, who coached the Sabers for 16 years, resigned in March.

St. Cloud Apollo Eagles - To be determined

Kris Dougherty decided home, social studies, and Fargo North girls varsity hockey were three things that he wanted more than staying another season with the Eagles. The former St. Cloud Apollo head coach will be going back to his alma mater to teach social studies and become the new girls varsity head coach at Fargo North High School. Dougherty will leave St. Cloud Apollo after only his second season as head coach. He compiled a 16-35-2 record with the Eagles. A new head coach has yet to be determined.

St. Cloud Tech Tigers - To be determined

Chad Hommerding's contract was not renewed.

Vizenor hired as new Shakopee boys hockey coach

Jeff Vizenor has been hired as the new boys hockey coach for the Shakopee Sabers.

Vizenor's coaching resume:

Minnesota State University-Mankato women's head coach
University of Wisconsin women's head coach
St. Mary's University (Winona) women's head coach
Mora High School boys head coach
St. Cloud Apollo High School boys head coach

2004 WCHA Coach of the Year
1998-1999 MIAC Coach of the Year at St. Mary's University
1995-1996 Minneota state tournament berth with the Mora Mustangs

Ed Loiselle resigned as head coach in March after 16 seasons with Shakopee.

Hockey Day Minnesota moves north in 2010

Hockey Day Minnesota 2010 will be on January 23 up in the Hermantown/Duluth area.

Games will include:

10:00 AM: Boys: Duluth Marshall vs. Hopkins
1:30 PM: Boys: Hermantown vs. Eden Prairie
4:30 PM: Girls: Duluth Stars vs. Proctor/Hermantown/Duluth Marshall

Location has yet to be determined.

The coverage on FSN would then move to a Minnesota Wild game at Xcel Energy Center and then to a Minnesota Gophers vs. St. Cloud State game.

Fox 21 of Duluth covered the announcement and had some quick interviews with the coaches of the teams in the event.

The Next Level: 2008-2009 NHL 20-plus goal scorers

It's the slow season when it comes to Minnesota high school hockey. The only burning question coming up soon will be how high Zach Budish (Edina) and Mr. Hockey's Nick Leddy (Eden Prairie) will go in next week's NHL entry draft.

In the coming weeks, I'm going to throw some stats at you from the leagues at the next level starting with the NHL.

120 NHL players made the 20-plus goals club in 2009. Of those 120 players, 22 were born in the United States, six players in Minnesota. New York and Michigan followed Minnesota with four players each and then Wisconsin with three.

1. Zach Parise - New Jersey Devils | 45 goals
Born in Minneapolis, MN on 07/28/1984 | Played for Shattuck-St. Mary's Prep School

2. David Backes - St. Louis Blues | 31 goals
Born in Minneapolis, MN on 05/01/1984 | Played for Spring Lake Park High School

3. Jamie Langenbrunner - New Jersey Devils | 29 goals
Born in Cloquet, MN on 07/24/1975 | Played for Cloquet/Esko/Carlton High School

4. Jason Blake - Toronto Maple Leafs | 25 goals
Born in Moorhead, MN on 09/02/1973 | Played for Moorhead High School

5. Matt Cullen - Carolina Hurricanes | 22 goals
Born in Virginia, MN on 11/02/1976 | Played for Moorhead High School

6. Blake Wheeler - Boston Bruins | 21 goals
Born in Robbinsdale, MN on 08/31/1986 | Played for Breck School
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From the 120 players in the 20-plus goals club, I put a list together of the total number of goals by country. Canada, of course, had by far the most players with 20-plus goals in the league in 2009. Canadian-born players made up 42.5% of the 120, or 51 players.

Because the number of goals by the Canadians were so much more than any other country, I am including the number of goals by Canadian provinces as well. Players from 12 different countries made the 20-plus goals club. Of the thirteen provinces and territories in Canada, five did not have a player represented.

Make note that these are players that were born in these countries and provinces and did not necessarily grow up there. These are regular season goals only.

1. Canada - 1415 total goals - 51 players
2. USA - 593 goals - 22 players
3. Ontario (Canada) - 565 goals - 19 players
4. Russia - 308 goals - 9 players
5. Alberta (Canada) - 297 goals - 11 players
6. Sweden - 266 goals - 10 players
7. Czech Republic - 264 goals - 11 players
8. Quebec (Canada) - 163 goals - 6 players
9. Saskatchewan (Canada) - 161 goals - 6 players
10. Finland - 124 goals - 5 players
11. Manitoba (Canada) - 80 goals - 3 players
12. British Columbia (Canada) - 67 goals - 3 players
13. Germany - 59 goals - 2 players
14. Slovakia - 51 goals - 2 players
15. Newfoundland (Canada) - 49 goals - 2 players
16. Ukraine - 46 goals - 2 players
17. Nova Scotia (Canada) - 33 goals - 1 player
18. Kazakhstan - 28 goals - 1 player
19. Slovenia - 27 goals - 1 player
20. Ireland - 25 goals - 1 player

NHL top 10 goal scorers and their birth country:

1. Alex Ovechkin (Born in 1985 - Russia) - Washington Capitals | 56 goals
2. Jeff Carter (1985 - Ontario, Canada) - Philadelphia Flyers | 46 goals
3. Zach Parise (1984 - Minnesota, USA) - New Jersey Devils | 45 goals
4. Ilya Kovalchuk (1983 - Russia) - Atlanta Thrashers | 43 goals
5. Rick Nash (1984 - Ontario, Canada) - Columbus Blue Jackets | 40 goals
6. Eric Staal (1984 - Ontario, Canada) - Carolina Hurricanes | 40 goals
7. Thomas Vanek (1984 - Austria) - Buffalo Sabres | 40 goals
8. Michael Cammalleri (1982 - Ontario, Canada) - Calgary Flames | 39 goals
9. Dany Heatley (1981 - Germany) - Ottawa Senators | 39 goals
10. Patrick Marleau (1979 - Saskatchewan, Canada) - San Jose Sharks | 38 goals
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Of the 120 20-plus goal scorers, here is how many goals were scored by the year the players were born:

1. Players born in 1984 - 425 goals - 14 total players in the 20-plus goals club
- The Top Five:
- 1. Zach Parise - New Jersey Devils | 45 goals
- 2. Thomas Vanek - Buffalo Sabres | 40 goals
- 3. Rick Nash - Columbus Blue Jackets | 40 goals
- 4. Eric Staal - Carolina Hurricanes | 40 goals
- 5. Alexander Semin - Washington Capitals | 34 goals
2. 1985 - 386 goals - 13 players
3. 1980 - 267 goals - 10 players
4. 1982 - 265 goals - 10 players
5. 1987 - 235 goals - 8 players
6. 1976 - 228 goals - 9 players
7. 1983 - 220 goals - 8 players
8. 1979 - 219 goals - 8 players
9. 1981 - 163 goals - 6 players
10. 1972 - 151 goals - 6 players
11. 1988 - 123 goals - 5 players
12. 1978 - 102 goals - 4 players
13. 1986 - 100 goals - 4 players
14. 1973 - 97 goals - 4 players
15. 1975 - 81 goals - 3 players
16. 1977 - 60 goals - 2 players
17. 1974 - 53 goals - 2 players
18. 1970 - 48 goals - 2 players
19. 1968 - 23 goals - 1 player
20. 1990 - 23 goals - 1 player

Ages 19 to 41 are represented in the 20-plus goals club.
Average birth year of the 120 players: 1981
Median birth year of the 120 players: 1979
Mean birth year of the 120 players: 1984
Oldest player with 20+ goals: Mark Recchi (41 years old) - Boston Bruins | 23 goals
Youngest player: Steven Stamkos (19 years old) - Tampa Bay Lightning | 23 goals