Hockey Futures breaks down the Sioux

Hockey Futures broke down the teams in the WCHA and talked each of the WCHA teams and about their NHL prospects. For comparison sake the Unversity of North Dakota Fighting Sioux have 13 NHL prospect on their team roster, on the flip side the Minnesota Golden Gophers have the most prospect at 17. On the other end of the spectrum UAA has one NHL prospect and MTU has 0.

Hockey Futures mentioned that the most pressing concern for the Fighting Sioux hockey team their goaltending situation. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the goaltending situaton is a major concern this season for the Fighting Sioux. In fact if you look at the stats of the returning goaltenders you will see a stat that kind of sticks like a sore thumb. The Fighting Sioux goalies on the Fighting Sioux roster have a combined total of one (1) start. The coaching staff this season will have to establish who is the starting goaltender before the meat of their conference schedule, if that does not happen it could be a long season between the pipes. Replacing Lamoureux will not be an easy task but I believe that Brad Eidsness can step up to the challenge.

University of North Dakota
(Number of NHL prospects on 2008-09 roster: 13)

The University of North Dakota capped their fourth straight season with a trip to the Frozen Four this past spring, but failed to come home with another National Championship. The Fighting Sioux are hoping to remedy that when they open their 2008-09 campaign on Oct. 10 at Agganis Arena against host Boston University in the Icebreaker Tournament.

There are a number of questions that face North Dakota coming into the season, the most pressing of which is in goal. Hobey Baker finalist Jean-Philippe Lamoureux has graduated. Lamoureux will go down as one of the program’s greatest goaltenders. He co-led the nation with six shutouts and posted a 27-11-4 record. His .932 save percentage and 1.74 goals against average were second in the nation. Senior Aaron Walski, who served as Lamoureux’s backup last season is the lone returning netminder. Competing with Walski for playing time will be Brad Eidsness, one of two incoming freshmen. Eidsness, a 2007 draft selection of the Buffalo Sabres, comes to North Dakota after a stellar campaign with Okotoks (AJHL) that earned him the league’s MVP honor.

“I think we’re probably going to end up with quite a battle for playing time in net,” said head coach Dave Hakstol. “Aaron Walski, our returning senior, even though he hasn’t had a whole lot of time in net, has certainly put himself in a position to play and earn minutes this year. Brad Eidsness was recruited into our program to do the job. So we’re pretty confident that he’ll be able to develop into that role. It’s a matter of how much time it will take him to do just that, to develop into that No. 1 role. But he’s certainly going to have every opportunity to compete for playing time.”