A new recruit, other news and notes

According to several reports, including the United States Hockey League, the Mavericks landed a new recruit in Cedar Rapids Roughriders forward Tyler Thompson last week. A Wayzata native and former Benilde-St. Margaret's captain, Thompson is in his second season in the USHL and has 15 goals and 32 points in 35 games. That ranks him second on his team and 15th in the league in scoring. He's also ranked 149th among North American skaters on the NHL Central Scouting Service's mid-season rankings, which came out earlier this month.

In other news ...

St. Louis Blues president John Davidson says ex-Mav Steve Wagner deserves another shot with the big club. Wagner's promotion might even mean that the Blues are ready to trade another defenseman.

Here's a story from a couple of weeks ago about another former MSU player, Ryan Carter, who is making the most of his opportunities in Anaheim.

Grand Forks Herald hockey writer Brad Schlossman recently studied the WCHA's goal-scoring futility and even broke it down with a handy graphic. Teams are averaging an all-time low of 2.62 goals per game this season. Thirty years ago, they were averaging nearly five goals a game. That's each team!

Elsewhere around the WCHA, St. Cloud State senior forward Nate Dey, who missed Saturday's game against MSU, will have surgery on a knee that was injured in Friday's game at Mankato. ... WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod told College Hockey News that referee Randy Schmidt was suspended from working last week's games due to errors made on a pair of reviewed goals this season. The league apologized for both incidents. ...