Six players with Gophers ties were among the 25 current or future WCHA players selected in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft this past weekend in Montreal, Quebec.

Nick Leddy, Mr. Hockey in 2009 from Eden Prairie, was the first future Gopher picked at No. 16 by the Wild. He also was the first player with WCHA picked, a bit of a surprise.

Sophomore center Jordan Schroeder, rated No. 5 among North American players by Central Scouting, was taken at No. 22 by Vancouver.

Others with Minnesota ties picked:
* Zach Budish, a forward from Edina, No. 41, second round by Nashville
* Josh Birkholz, a forward for the Fargo Force (USHL), No. 67, third round by Florida
* Seth Helgeson, a defenseman for Sioux City (USHL), No. 114, fourth round by New Jersey

Those three are joining the Gophers this season.

* Erik Haula, a junior forward for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, No. 210 by Wild.

He will join the U in 2010.

In the past four years, 24 players with Gophers connectiions have been taken in the NHL Draft.

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Bruce McLeod, commish of the WCHA, was asked on Friday what Bemidji State and the University of Nebraska Omaha would add to the league.

He was quick to reply: “Bemidji State has a very storied program, with a lot of history to it. [And 13 small college national titles.] Bob Peters is legendary in out sport and what he has done. [Peters is a former BSU coach.]

“They are in the midst of erecting a new building which will be ready in the fall of 2010. If you spend much time up there, you know that’s hockey country. Hockey is in the culture of the community and of the region.”

And Nebraska Omaha?

“Down there they have a gorgeous building that seats over 14,000,” McLeod said. “It’s a vibrant community. They are going to be a player in hockey with the hiring of Dean Blais and [assistant] Mike Hastings. A lot of things they are doing tells us they will be a very competitive program over the years.

“That’s what the WCHA is all about. Ten institutions committed to quality programs. Both these groups, Bemidji State and UNO are committed to that type of thing. If you look around, other conferences don’t habe that. It takes a lot of things, like great coaches, buildings.”

SKED WOES

McLeod said integrating UNO and BSU into the WCHA schedule for 2010-11 won’t be easy. That’s a year earlier than first planned.

“Our staff is working on some scheduling models. Our goal, and we will get there, is to be as least disruptive as possible. We are committed to that.”

WCHA VOTE

McLeod was asked which school abstained from voting on expansion. He declined to say. The vote was 9-0, with eight yes votes needed.

“It [the abstention] was not about Omaha or Bemidji,” McLeod said. “They were concerned about the process.”

How was that process? “I don’t want to say it was easy, comfortable,” McLeod said. “It was not. Trev is a tough guy to deal with. I got some scars to prove it.”

As for what the WCHA schedules will look like, McLeod said there are about five different possibilites. None include divisions.

“The number of conference games vary” in those scenarios, he said. “Those are some decisions we will have to make relatively quickly.”

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The media will find out somehow. WCHA commish Bruce McLeod on Friday would not comment on what the admission price for University of Nebraska Omaha and Bemidji State was.

But it’s a safe bet that UNO got a better deal. The UNO Mavericks had a conference, were not necessarily looking to switch and were approached to leave the CCHA. That’s leverage.

Bemidji State practically got on its knees to get into the WCHA. The community, with state help, is building a Bemidji Regional Events Center but without a conference to form rivalries, attract recruits and get an NCAA tournament bid again, the Beavers might have trouble filling that new 4,000-seat arena.

BSU needed the WCHA much more than the conference needed the Beavers. No leverage there.

Bruce McLeod, WCHA commish, called it a watershed day. “The addition of these [teams] position us to bigger things in the future,” he said. “I am happy for all the parties involved.”

He called it a win-win situation all around. Even for the CCHA perhaps, which UNO left. “I hope their close in the CCHA can be filled by [Alabama-]Huntsville. But it’s not our decision. Then college hockey has done a great job of taking care of its down with the demise of the CHA.”

BSU and Alabama-Huntsville are two of the four remaining CHA teams. That league will fold after this coming season.

He said the WCHA schools did what they should have in voting 9-1, with one abstention on expansion.

“In the end, they all looked beyond self-interest and rose to the occasion,” McLeod said.

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The WCHA on Friday admitted Bemidji State and the University of Nebraska Omaha.

With those two teams, the conference grows to 12 teams. This is the first expansion of the WCHA since Minnesota State Mankato joined in 1999-2000.

BSU, which will have a new arena to play in its first WCHA season, was desperately looking for a home. The CHA, the Beavers’ four-team conference, is disbanding after this upcoming season.

UNO, a member of the CCHA for 10 seasons, was approached by the WCHA to be the 12the member. UNO has a new athletic director, Trev Alberts, and a new coach, Dean Blais, and was interested in upgrading its program.

Everyone seemed happy with the expansion.

“This is a happy and proud day for me,” said Bruce McLeod, commissioner of the WCHA. “I’m happy because I think this is such a win-win circumstance for the WCHA, our new members and collegiate hockey in general.”

“This is a great day for the Beavers,” said BSU coach Tom Serratore, whose team surprised the hockey world by reaching the Frozen Four in March.

“We’re excited about becoming a part of the WCHA’s rich tradition of outstanding hockey,” Alberts said. 

The WCHA has scheduled a 5 p.m. teleconference today to break some big news. The University of Nebraska-Omaha and Bemidji State will be joining the 10-team conference in the 2010-11 season, according to a story in the Duluth News-Tribune.

The Beavers applied to the WCHA in April, but a vote on adding one team was tabled. Instead, commissioner Bruce McLeod made it his mission this summer to find a 12th team.

Apparently, he did in UNO. The Mavericks are members of the CCHA now. But earlier this month, Nebraska-Omaha hired a coach well-known in WCHA circles in Dean Blais.

Blais won two NCAA titles coaching at North Dakota. Many considered his hiring a sign of which way UNO was leaning as the WCHA openly courted the Mavericks.

With Bemidji State, the number of Minnesota teams in the WCHA will grow from four to five. The University of Minnesota was one of the Beavers’ strongest supporters on the issue of whether to admit them.

BSU belongs to the four-team College Hockey America conference, but that is disbanding after this coming season. So the timing is perfect for the Beavers to join the WCHA in 2010-11.

All the college hockey talk these days centers around Friday’s NHL draft and WCHA expansion. But recruiting will intensify soon. College coaches will be going to various hockey festivals to watch prospects.

The Gophers, despite the recent loss of the outgoing, charismatic Mike Hastings, might be OK. Hastings, an assistant coach for one season, has taken a job as associate head coach at Nebraska-Omaha. He left the program in reasonable shape from a recruiting standpoint.

The Gophers have 11 commitments. Eight of the players could join the program as soon as the 2010-11 season. The U of M recruits:

Class of 2010

Mark Alt                 Cretin-Derham Hall               D
Nate Condon           Fargo (USHL)                      F
Max Gardiner         Minnetonka                            F
Eric Haula                Shattuck-St. Mary’s             F
Christian Isackson  St. Thomas Acad.                F
Nate Schmidt          St. Cloud Cathedral             D
Ryan Walters          Des Moines (USHL)            F
Jake Youso              Des Moines (USHL)            F

Class of 2011

Seth Ambroz            Omaha (USHL)                    F
Nick Bjugstad           Blaine                                    F
Ben Marshall            Mahtomedi                           D

Trev Alberts, the AD at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, said recently that the WCHA’s interest in adding UNO may be lessening.

Bruce McLeod, commish of the WCHA, said he may have something to say about expansion as soon as Friday.

WCHA athletic directors talked — reportedly for a long time — on a teleconference call on Wednesday.

So what is happening: Maybe posturing. McLeod reportedly has some leeway on what kind of deal the WCHA can cut with UNO.

Alberts has said UNO is interested in switching from the CCHA only under certain conditions.

So what is being negotiated? The entry fee to join the WCHA and playoff revenue.

Minnesota State Mankato, when it joined the league, had to pay the WCHA $120,000 in three annual $40,000 installments. During those three years, the MSU Mavericks also did not get a share of the playoff revenue.

The split this year was about $90,000 per team.

The UNO Mavericks probably want a sweeter money deal than that to jump from the CCHA.

Gophers athletic director Joel Maturi is the chair of the WCHA’s structure and executive committee. He said the expansion focus right now is forming a general consensus on the direction to go.

That’s actually a must. Eight of the 10 WCHA schools have to approve expansion.

“No final votes have been taken,” Maturi said, “but we’ve had many discussions.”

Bemidji State has applied to join the WCHA, but the conference at its April meetings in Florida decided to wait on an expansion vote until a 12th possible team came forward.

UNO and Alaska-Fairbanks have emerged as the two likeliest possibilities. Both are CCHA teams.

Maturi said he expects the ADs to make a recommendation soon on expansion, maybe within days.

I think UNO, especially with Dean Blais as its head coach, will still be the 12th team, but Alaska-Fairbanks is not out of the realm of possibility.

Everybody agrees on one thing. They want a decision by August.

 As many as six players with WCHA ties could be taken in the first round of the NHL draft which starts on Friday in Montreal.

The two cinches, who could go real high, are Gophers sophomore center Jordan Schroeder. He is rated No. 5 among North American prospects by the Central Scouting Bureau. Defenseman John Moore, who has signed with Colorado College, is rated No. 6. Moore played for Chicago of the USHL last season.

Four incoming freshmen could go in the second half of the first round:

Zach Budish, who missed his senior season at Edina High School because of a knee injury, is rated No. 22. At 6-3, 229, he was the biggest prospect of the 104 at the NHL Combine in Toronto last month.

Budish has signed with the Gophers as has defenseman Nick Leddy of Eden Prairie. Leddy is rated No. 24.

Two other players are also rated in the top 30 — there are 30 picks in the first round. They are UMD defenseman Dylan Olsen, No. 27, and Denver forward Drew Shore, No. 28. Olsen played for Camrose of the AJHL last season, Shore for the U.S. national development team in Ann Arbor.

Six first-rounders would be a record for the WCHA. Five players with WCHA ties were taken three times recently, in 2006, ‘06 and ‘07.

Other WCHA blogs:

Alaska-Anchorage: UAA Fan Blog

Colorado College: Eye of the Tiger 

Denver: All Things Colorado Sports 

Michigan Tech: Huskies Hockey Blog 

Minnesota-Duluth: Rink and Run 

Minnesota State Mankato: Puckato

North Dakota: News, notes and comments

 St. Cloud State: Pucks and bats

Wisconsin: Badger Beat 

Gophers assistant men’s hockey coach Mike Hastings told his boss, Don Lucia, he was resigning on Tuesday.

The resignation is effective June 29.

“There is not an awful lot of college jobs out there, as far as head coaching positions,” Hastings said. “And you can never tell the future. [This] is an opportunity to work with somebody who is trying to build a program at a place I lived for 14 years.”

Hastings has taken a job as the associate head coach at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He will work for new head coach Dean Blais, who is 58.

Hastings, who is 43, said this job will put him in a good position to succeed Blais when he retires if all is going well. “If we are driving the program into a ditch, I will go somewhere else,” Hastings said.

“I’ve always felt if I was doing the job, doing well, things would work out.”

A SLEEPING GIANT?

Trev Alberts, the new AD at UNO, has said he wants a hockey program that can compete for conference and national titles.

So are the Mavericks capable of that? “I look at Miami Ohio,” Hastings said. “They started as what I would call a mid-major in the CCHA. The young staff in place built the program to the opportunities they have now.

“The competed for the CCHA championship, got a new facility and came within  how many seconds of winning a national title this year? So, can it be done? Yes, but it will take a lot of heavy lifting before it gets done.”

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