UND's Andrew MacWilliam and Nate Ewell on the Pipeline show

Andrew MacWilliam was on the Pipeline show on this past weekend on September 1st, 2012 and this is what the UND captain had to say.

The audio is a little broken up at times due to the cell phone that MacWilliam was talking on. I don't know if it was talking on a Verison cell phone or not... Can you hear me now?

You can listen to said podcast of UND defenseman Andrew MacWilliam and his appearance on the Pipeline Show with Guy Flaming. All you have to do is clicking on this link to the right of this paragraph. Also, you can down load the Pipeline Show by down loading it from ITunes if you want to listen to their show on a weekly basis. [Click to Listen]

Guy asked Mac what it means to be the captain at UND.

“It’s awesome – it’s a great honor,” MacWilliam said.

“Like I have said… there have been a tremendous amount of guys that worn the “C” throughout the years. I have played with two of them – it’s a great honor and an absolute privilege and it’s something that I take a lot of pride and I take very serious.”

Guy asked Andrew MacWilliam about the goaltending situation at UND with Aaron Dell and Bard Eidsness moving on.

“Yeah were excited... We have some good new guys coming in…” MacWilliam said.

"Like you said we have couple of fresh faces in net and that will be good… They’re going to compete hard and have a completion through the week and they’re going to push each other which is going to make everyone better. So they are both good goalies. You have Zane Gothberg that played at Fargo in the USHL and Clarke Saunders that is actually a transfer from Alabama Huntsville.”

Guy asked Andrew MacWillam about the big changes coming to college hockey landscape and college hockey re-alignment. Is it a little bit different because of this being the last year in the WCHA?

"It is, but it’s not a huge thing on our minds – but it’s definitely something that we’re thinking about leaving our mark on the WCHA for North Dakota especially being a senior and our senior class," MacWilliam said.

"I know we have kind of talked about it and it would be kind of nice to be the last ones that MacNaghten [Trophy] and that Broadmoor [Trophy] … and just kind of leave our mark on the WCHA and the University of North Dakota."

During the last segment of the same show - Nate Ewell from College Hockey Inc was also on the Pipeline Show with Guy Flaming and you can listen to that segment by clicking on this link. [Click to listen]

Nate Ewell on the upcoming CBA and the impact on college hockey… Guy asked Nate to give a bit of a perspective from the college hockey point of view.

“A lot of the thought coming out of the last CBA agreement was that it would benefit college hockey because of the rookie salary cap,” Ewell said.

“The sense was okay, it’s not as lucrative now for a player to leave school for example and so they were more likely to stay. Well… In fact, it made it smarter for NHL teams to stock up on young players; more and more often they were signing players out of school early – even a lot of players that weren’t quite ready for it. So from a college stand point, it was bitter sweet to see guys sign and then get stashed in the minors because they weren’t ready. “

“What we are hopeful for with the…first of all we are hopeful that they sign an agreement soon so we can get some NHL hockey back going. Hopefully, it can address some issues that we think could help the college game and really help developmental hockey on a wide scale. Just a few things that we have sort of asked about, is the possibility of assigning deadlines so that colleges can have a sense of what their roster will be you know before say July or August.”

“Some looks at the draft, I know the 19 year old draft has been talked about a lot. We feel like that would benefit college and really benefit the pros because they get another year to look at the prospects before they select them. You know there are any numbers of things that could change and as we see from the last experience a small change could have a big effect.”

Skrudland, 'Rocco at 90 Percent'

I am just catching up with a few things after being in Orlando, Florida this past week. There were a few people that were concerned about Rocco Grimaldi's knee and how he was progressing.

I know Brad E. Schlossman had posted somewhere earlier this summer that everything is going fine for the UND forward Rocco Grimaldi and that he should be ready for the start of the season.

I know this tweet from Chris Peters has got a few people concerned as well. I would imagine if Grimaldi has a strong first half of the season he will get a look from Team USA for the WJC. I am hoping that Chris can get us some more details as the summer goes along.

On the 14th of July the Florida Panthers' Director of Player Development Brian Skrudland was on the Pipeline show with Guy Flaming asked Brin Skrudland if Rocco Grimaldi was able to take part in the Panthers prosepect camp.

“No… He [Grimaldi] has been on skates – he has been training hard – the decision was just in a sense that he is that he is just really starting to feel comfortable and the one things about these kids even though it’s a development camp the competition is incredible ,” Skrudland said.

“That’s what makes this guy’s such quality people, here we are and we are out having some fun but I will tell you that each one of these kids hates to lose. I would have hated to play marbles with these guys when I was younger cause they are all bigger stronger and they probably would’ve all beat the living crap out of me especially with the mouth I had when I played the game of hockey.

But you know – they … I think for in Rocco’s case and in Carter Brickley’s case these two dealt with some injuries this past season, they were working hard off the ice and on the ice with their trainers. …To come to camp and have a setback wouldn’t be the right directions. We want them both to go back to their teams this year have a fabulous year and next year will be another opportunity.”

Guy asked Skrudland, “any reason to think that he won’t be ready to start the regular season, Rocco I mean?”

“None what- so-ever, none what-so- ever; he’s… his rehab has been tremendous, he’s almost working at 90% right so, throughout the remainder of the... the summer that strength should continue he should be just fine.”

You can listen to this podcast from July 14, 2012 by clicking on this link. 

This past Tuesday, Dillion Simpson was on the Pipeline show this past week... [segment 1], [segment 2], [segment 3]

Brian Skrudland not concerned with Bjudstads development at Minnesota

Miami Herald photo

Guy Flaming co-host of the Pipeline show 1260 A.M. out of Edmonton, Alberta interviewed Brian Skrudland the Director of Player Development for the Florida Panthers. Guy asked Skrudland  if Bjugstad staying in Minnesota for another year would hurt his development as a hockey player. Here is what Skrudland had to say about the matter.

I'm not sure so I asked Brian Skrudland the question to see if the Panthers organization shared the same concern.

"Well... that is a concern," Skrudland admitted, "But when you've got such a quality organization as [the University of] Minnesota has provided there... the off ice strength and conditioning coach, Cal Dietz, has done a fabulous job with Nick. There are a lot of positive things about him going back. The only negative is that he won't be wearing a Panthers jersey and helping us score some goals next year."

"It's an opportunity for him to finish something that he started and we love that as far as the character of the person," continued Skrudland, "And it's an opportunity to go back and maybe win the Hobey Baker and hopefully a national championship as well."

It would appear that the Florida Panther don’t have the same concerns about Minnesota like Garth Snow of the New York Islanders had. That being said, it would appear that the Panthers wanted Nick Bjudstad to sign a professional contract.

Just for the record Guy Flaming and Dean Millard are very fair hosts and are by no shape of the imagination anti-NCAA hockey but in this case I also think that Guy might have a point…

Flaming posed this question Bjugstad… “Could his progress stagnate, or even regress, playing at a level that in many ways, he is already a dominant player?”

I think that is a good question and only time will tell – I think the Gophers will definitely benefit from another season of having Nick Bjugstad on their roster and his presence will make them one of the top teams to beat in the WCHA this season if the Gophers can figure out who is going to be the man between the pipes for the Gophers.

[click to listen to podcast]