A few grumpy Gopher fans have recently written me e-mails complaining about the U’s approach to recruiting: All the recruits are from Minnesota. The Gophers need to recruit the best players, wherever they are, to win national titles, they say, like other teams do.

A prime example of that other approach has to be Denver, the Final Five champion this past season.

DU signed four players from widely scattered parts of the continent and world in one case, the school announced Monday. They are:

* David Carle from Anchorage, Alaska: He was a 6-1, 185-pound defenseman for Shattuck-St. Mary’s this past season. He had 10 goals and 35 assists for 45 points in 55 games for the Sabres. SSM was 42-11-3 and won the USA Hockey Tier I under-18 championship. He is the brother of San Jose Sharks defenseman Matt Carle.

* Joe Colborne from Calgary, Alberta: He led the Camrose Kodiaks to thier second consecutive Alberta Junior Hockey League title this season and was the AJHL playoffs MVP. The 6-5, 195-pound Colborne had 33 goals and 47 assists in 55 games. He had eight of those goals and eight assists in the AJHL playoffs.

 * Nate Dewhurst from Johnston, Iowa: The 5-9, 170-pound forward played for the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL. He had nine goals and five assists.

* Stepan Novotny from Prague, Czech Republic: He had four goals and 11 assists for the Indiana Ice of the USHL. He is a 6-1, 190 forward. He helped the Ice win the East Division regular-season title.

There is also a fifth incoming recruit for next season, who signed in the fall. He’s a Minnesota kid, defenseman John Lee of Moorhead. Lee was a finalist for Mr. Hockey in 2007.

He is 6-2, 185 and had one goal and 11 assists in 59 games for Waterloo of the USHL this past season. Lee also led the Black Hawks with 106 penalty minutes. His brother, Brian, played for North Dakota from 2005-07.

Obviously, the Pioneers are not going to find all their players in Colorado. [Seven of 27 players on the 2007-08 roster were from Colorado.] DU has to look in a lot places.

“These four young men are talented hockey players and quality students,” Denver coach George Gwozdecky said in a DU news release, “who will represent the University of Denver in a first-class manner.”

I’m sure GG would say the same about Lee, too, but he was talking just about the recent signings.

The Gophers incoming class is up to 10 players, one from Pennsylvania, the rest from Minnesota, and coach Don Lucia will start interviewing goalies when he returns from Florida next week. He wants to add two, one to back up Alex Kangas, another to be a practice goalie. Â

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 8:28 am and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.