I was gone for a couple days, and missed another exciting round of the fight between the NCAA and CHL, this time in the form of College Hockey Inc.'s proposal to make signed commitments binding for at least a year. It's an interesting discussion and one that deserves its own post, so expect that, hopefully tomorrow.
Western Michigan is hosting an online auction as part of their Ice Duchenne Weekend, a cause started by assistant coach Rob Facca, whose son was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. David Drew has a great article on the Facca's and what life is like as they deal with the disease.
The NHL officially announced that next year's Winter Classic will be held at Michigan Stadium between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. Michigan basically sold over complete control of their stadium to the NHL for about $3 million. Alcohol will be allowed to be served on site.
Meanwhile, other events held at Comerica Park also became a reality, including next year's GLI. Western Michigan was announced as the fourth team in the tournament, making it an all-Michigan affair. The games will be Michigan's fourth and fifth outdoor hockey games in four years, so the novelty has somewhat worn off, but the GLI will have the distinction of being the first title decided in an outdoor game in many, many years.
The finalists for Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Award were announced this afternoon. They are: Justin Kloos, Lakeville South, Will Merchant, Eagan, Grant Opperman, Breck, Judd Peterson, Duluth Marshall, Jake Randolph, Duluth East, Charlie Sampair, Hill-Murray, Eric Schurhamer, St. Thomas Academy, Jared Thomas, Hermantown, Dom Toninato, Duluth East, Michael Zajac, Eagan
I tweeted out (@ChrisDilks if you're not following) my top ten last night, and got 7 out of the 10. They appeared to put a little more emphasis on Central Scouting's mid-term rankings, going with Sampair and Merchant, over my choices of St. Paul Johnson's Jay Dickman and Brainerd's Matt Pohlkamp, which seems silly given both players were/are in not-getting-drafted territory on those lists. The other one I missed was Eagan's Eli May instead of Schurhamer. Both good players, I like May a little better, but they weren't going to have 30% of the list be from Eagan.
The two finalist for the Brimsek Award for Minnesota's top senior goalie are Moorhead's Michael Bitzer and Maple Grove's Kyle Koop. Koop getting the nod over Elk River's Anders Franke is pretty shocking, but both goalies were only nominal contenders behind Bitzer anyway.
The London Free Press' Morris Della Costa is usually as pro-CHL/pro-London as you're going find, which is why is was strange to see him being one of the last ones to jump on board the CHL players are property bandwagon.