Minnesota State released its 2014-15 roster on Tuesday, and it includes the numbers that will don the jerseys of the five incoming rookies:
10—Zeb Knutson, F
15—C.J. Franklin, F
19—Brad McClure, F
22—Jaden Schmeisser, D
29—Aaron Nelson, G
It does not appear that any other players are changing numbers for next season (always a good thing for the beat writer), although the roster does confirm that Taylor Herndon and Matt Knoll are not returning next season. Herndon played in eight games last season, and Knoll played in 11.
There are 26 players on the roster. Breaking it down, it includes 14 forwards, 9 defensemen and 3 goalies; 6 seniors, 8 juniors, 7 sophomores and 5 freshmen.
New athletic trainer
Minnesota State announced on Tuesday that it has hired Masayasu Takaiwa as its new assistant athletic trainer. Takaiwa, whose primary duties will be with the men's hockey team (he'll also work with the baseball team), had been at Nebraska Omaha, working with the hockey team and other sports there, since 2009. Obviously, that means he and Mike Hastings are familiar with each other.
A native of Tochigi, Japan, Takaiwa also spent time at Eastern Michigan and Lake Superior State. He's a Nebraska Omaha grad and got his master's at Kent State.
Takaiwa replaces Chad Brinkman, who worked with the MSU men's hockey team last year, and will be the Mavericks' third athletic trainer in as many years.
Read more about him here.
Adding recruits
While we have a few months to see how the above-mentioned freshman, the Mavericks are already making moves on the future with a couple of commitments.
On Tuesday, Wenatchee Wild (NAHL) coach/GM Bliss Littler tweeted that Parker Tuomie committed to MSU. Tuomie, according to Chris Dilks' SB Nation blog, is a German born player with Minnesota ties. He was second on the Wild in scoring with 24 goals and 25 assists in 49 games a season ago. The 5-foot-9, 178-pound 18-year-old also played for Germany's World Junior team. Sounds like he'll be in the USHL at least one more season before joining the Mavericks.
The Mavericks received another commitment from a former NAHL/future USHL player in defenseman Michael Bigelbach last week. Bigelbach, an 18-year-old Red Wing native, started last season in Minot before being traded to Janesville. The 6-foot-2, 175-pound blueliner had 16 points and 73 PIMS in 62 games.
3 comments:
Frigo and Fetzer both appear to be aged out of the USHL. Are they still coming to Mankato?
So when you say that Herndon and Knoll are not returning, are we to assume that was the team's decision or the decision of the players? It seems like every year there are a couple of casualties. In recent years it has been pretty clear why they left/whose decision it was. I'm a bit confused on these two, especially Knoll who played in a decent number of games last year.
I'd be curious to find out. Regardless, I'm excited about this year's freshmen class. Having attended plenty of Stampede games this past season, Franklin and Knutson will be big additions. McClure sounds like he's got some scoring talent too.
Are teams allowed up to 26 or 28 scholarship players?
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