More on Williams and the NHL draft

PucKato talked to Stephon Williams on Monday, the day after he was drafted by the New York Islanders. The third time was indeed the charm for him, as he was passed over during his first two years of eligibility. While Williams' had an unprecedented season for an MSU goalie (at least at the D1 level), he credited the entire team's accomplishments for getting him noticed:

"All of this is due to the fact that our team was successful last year," he said. "None of this would have happened if I wasn't part of that team last year, with coach Hastings coming in and the guys buying in on the deal and playing the way they did ...

"Look at Eriah Hayes and where he's going [Hayes signed a free-agent deal with the San Jose Sharks after the season]. I feel a lot of credit has to go to the team we had."

Williams is the first MSU goaltender to get drafted and the 13th Mavericks player since 2001 to get taken. But getting drafted is no guarantee of future (or current) success. Here's a look at Minnesota State-related draft picks:

Tim Jackman (2nd rd, 2001, Columbus) ... 390 NHL games, last season: Calgary Flames
Jake Brenk (5th rd, 2001, Edmonton) ... 0 NHL games ... last season: pro linesman
David Backes (2nd rd, 2003, St. Louis) ... 494 NHL games ... last season: St. Louis Blues
Chad Brownlee (6th rd, 2003, Vancouver) ... 0 NHL games ... last season: out of hockey
Travis Morin (9th rd, 2004, Washington) ... 3 NHL games ... last season: Texas (AHL)
Andrew Sackrison (5th rd, 2006, St. Louis) ... 0 NHL games ... last season: South Carolina (ECHL)
Jon Kalinski (6th rd, 2007, Philadelphia) ... 22 NHL games ... last season: Hershey (AHL)
Justin Jokinen (4th rd, 2008, Buffalo) ... 0 NHL games ... last season: out of hockey
Tyler Pitlick (2nd rd, 2010, Edmonton) ... 0 NHL games ... last season: Oklahoma City (AHL)
Max Gaede (3rd rd, 2011, San Jose) ... currently at MSU
Teddy Blueger (2nd rd, 2012, Pittsburgh) ... currently at MSU
Zach Stepan (4th rd, 2012, Nashville) ... currently at MSU
Stephon Williams (4th rd, 2013, NY Islanders) ... currently at MSU

Isles draft Williams (updated)

Pat Christman/The Free Press

Stephon Williams appeared on some rankings leading up to the NHL Draft in 2012, but he was not picked during the summer before his freshman year at Minnesota State.

The goaltender's stock seemed to skyrocket during his first college season, but that year, his name was left off the public rankings.

On Sunday, some observers thought there was an outside shot that last season's WCHA rookie of the year and first-team all-conference goaltender might get taken.

Sure enough, Williams got his name called, as the New York Islanders drafted him in the fourth round Sunday evening in New Jersey. Williams was the 106th overall pick and the 10th goaltender selected (and the second by the Isles — the first was third-rounder Eamon McAdam, a Penn State recruit and a junior teammate of Williams in Waterloo).

Shortly after being picked, the sophomore-to-be tweeted: Truly an honor to be drafted by the Islanders! Wanna thank everyone for all the support it is a dream come true #nhldraft

Williams finished his freshman season at MSU with a 21-12-2 record, a .923 save percentage and a 2.00 goals-against average in 35 games.

Williams will be one of four draft picks on next season’s MSU roster, joining junior Max Gaede (San Jose, third round, 2010), sophomore Teddy Blueger (Pittsburgh, second round, 2012) and freshman Zach Stepan (Nashville, fourth round, 2012). The last time the Mavericks had four NHL draft picks on their roster was in 2004-05 when they had David Backes, Travis Morin, Chad Brownlee and Jake Brenk.

Williams was the first player from the "new" WCHA (probably time to stop calling it that) to be drafted on Sunday. With the departure of the Big Ten and NCHC schools, the WCHA had just three players taken. The others were Michigan Tech's Dane Birks and Jacob Jackson, who were taken in the sixth and seventh rounds, respectively.

For a complete list of current and incoming college players drafted on Sunday, College Hockey Inc. has a list.

News and notes

Catching up a bit ...

Taking some vacation time (I know, the blog looks like I've been off for awhile) but thought PucKato ought to catch up on a few things ...

The WCHA held meetings in Bemidji last week, and, while a ton of news wasn't made, the presidents and athletic directors were presented a potential league-wide broadcast package that would offer every game online on multi-platforms (computer, tablet, smartphone). Sounds like it would be a free app, and games would be streamed in HD. If this works out, it would be a big step in the right direction for the league. It's ideas like that that make WCHA commissioner Bruce McLeod encouraged about the conference in what will be his 20th season and possibly final season in charge.

Alaska Anchorage ended 81 days of tumult this week when it finally hired a hockey coach. The Seawolves, who fired Dave Shyiak, went through two searches, and fired their athletic director over the last 2 1/2 months, went with veteran ECHL coach Matt Thomas to lead the way. There's definitely a lot of work to do with that program right now.

Thomas' hiring leaves the WCHA and college hockey with one coaching vacancy, and that's at Alabama Huntsville. A stunning, perplexing, irony-of-all-ironies report came out on Wednesday that former Denver coach George Gwozdecky was in Huntsville and is possibly a candidate for the job. Stay tuned!

Back in Mankato, women's hockey coach Eric Means hired a new assistant coach, former Concordia (Moorhead) women's coach Brett Bruininks. Bruininks led the Cobbers to three winning seasons, including 2012 when he was MIAC coach of the year and took the program to the NCAA tournament for the first time. The former Notre Dame and minor-league player replaces Jon Austin, whose contract was not renewed. Means recently received a two-year contract extension after his original four-year deal expired. He retained Shari (Vogt) Dickerman as the team's the other assistant.

Stepan stories

In case you missed it ...

Here is my story on Minnesota State's latest recruit, Zach Stepan, who says the No. 1 reason he chose Minnesota State was to be close to his family (his mom recently moved to Rochester). But other factors included the chance to play with his "best buddy" Teddy Blueger, with whom he was on a line at Shattck-St. Mary's School, and his good impressions and credentials of MSU coach Mike Hastings.

Stepan says that Ohio State gave him his "full release," which means there were no restrictions on his landing place once he decommitted. "They gave me my full release on my papers," he said. "THey were nice enough to let me be closer to my family and let me play where I wanted to play. I really appreciated that. It was more of a family thing than anything else. I have nothing against (OSU's new coach Steve) Rohlik."

This wasn't in the story, but when I asked Mike Hastings if he's thought of pairing Stepan with Blueger (they were quite successful on a line together at Shattuck), the coach said he's made no promises. "I'm sure there will be a day when they knock on my door and say, 'Coach can we talk? ... But it's a two-way street."

Here is Minnesota State's release about Stepan. He will be part of a class of seven freshmen, which includes his Waterloo Black Hawks teammate Mike Huntebrinker.

Earlier this week, I wrote a column about Stepan's commitment and how that should create even more excitement about the next year's Minnesota State team. And the excitement ought to be there regardless of what conference the Mavericks are playing in or what their home schedule looks like. Too many people get hung up on MSU's opponent rather than the home team. And next year the home team's going to be pretty darn good.

This week Stepan was one of 40 forwards and defensemen selected for the U.S. World Junior Team evaluation camp, which will take place in August in Lake Placid, N.Y. If he makes that team, he will be the first MSU player to do so (Blueger was the first to play in the World Junior Championships, playing for Latvia last year). He'd also play against his Minnesota State teammates in an exhibition game in Mankato scheduled for Dec. 17. So that could be fun.

Stepan will have a busy summer. He's moving to Mankato at the end of the month and taking two classes as he begins offseason workouts. He'll attend the Nashville Predators' prospect camp in July and the U.S. World Junior camp in August.

Buckeyes' loss is Mavericks' gain

predators.nashville.com

Minnesota State landed a prized recruit on Thursday, as Zach Stepan opted for the Mavericks after decommitting from Ohio State, U.S. Hockey Report reported. Apparently, Stepan, who signed with OSU in November, decided not to be a Buckeye after that school fired coach Mark Osiecki last month.

So who is Zach Stepan? A 5-foot-11, 165-pound center from Faribault, he was third in the United States Hockey League in scoring this past season with 78 points, including 32 goals. The 19-year-old was a third-round draft pick of the Nashville Predators last summer after his second season on the Shattuck-St. Mary's prep team where he was teammates with MSU's Teddy Blueger. He compiled 129 points in two seasons for that team.

He is the cousin of another Shattuck product, the New York Rangers' Derek Stepan, who played college hockey at Wisconsin.

In an article on the Predators' website, Nashville assistant general manager Paul Fenton said: "When Zach Stepan was available in the draft we knew we had a very intelligent, two-way player that we couldn't pass up. He thinks through the game and sees the ice better than a lot of players that were available at that point."

The only two players in the USHL with more points than Stepan this season were his teammates Taylor Cammarata and Justin Kloos, both of whom are Minnesota recruits. Stepan was also third in the USHL in shots on goal with 221 in 56 games.

That's a pretty darn good get for the Mavericks and coach Mike Hastings. I hope to have more on this in the near future.

UAH coach quits; UAA AD fired

Wednesday was a newsy day for the WCHA (we can stop calling it the "new" WCHA, right?) and not necessarily a good one for the schools involved.

In the afternoon, Alabama Huntsville announced that coach Kurt Kleinendorst has resigned after one year on the job. Remember, he got the position just before last season started after Chris Luongo stepped down. However, despite helping get the Chargers into a more stable situation with WCHA membership (even with a ) college hockey is not Kleinendorst's passion. Previously, he was a head coach in the AHL and an NHL assistant and scout.

"This has been a great experience for me — my first in collegiate sports," he said in a UAH press release. "I've grown to really respect the college game. This is just about me being true to myself, and my passion is for pro hockey."

Huntsville went 3-21-1 last year as a D1 independent last season, including a loss and a tie against Minnesota State. It will be interesting to see who the Chargers hire to take the program into the WCHA.

Meanwhile, in Anchorage, Alaska, the folks there were on Day 61 without a Seawolves hockey coach (still shooting for June 15!), and they decided to fire athletic director Steve Cobb due to distractions caused by criticism of Cobb, UAA Chancellor Tom Case said in a press release.

It's a mess in Anchorage. Dave Shyiak was fired as head coach on March 29, and the search since then has been a circus. First, four finalists were brought on campus for interviews in late April/early May. But an outcry from boosters and alumni — including a vote of no-confidence in Cobb by the Alaska State Hockey Association — caused the search to be suspended and restarted. Since then, there was an open forum for interested and passionate parties to express their views on the program and even a letter from Alaska's governor telling UAA to "take a stand" on athletic issues. Oh, did I mention that it came out that Shyiak had been accused of hitting a player with a hockey stick and that there had been an investigation into that by Cobb two years ago?

Whew.

As for Cobb, he's going down swinging. Besides threatening a lawsuit, he got out the flamethrower, saying University of Alaska President "Patrick Gamble may be mentally ill." He said Gamble has given the university to a lobbyist and "a few local scoundrels," which is "by definition insane and I intend to prove it in court."

Cobb has not been afraid to speak his mind. When six teams broke away from the WCHA two years ago to form the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, Cobb called their plan a "sneaky back-door deal."

So which program — Huntsville or Anchorage — is more stable right now? Two years ago, Huntsville's program was on the brink of elimination, only to get a last-second reprieve. Financial commitments and a spot in a conference have righted the ship, even though it's looking for its fourth coach in five years. Then there's Anchorage, which has bungled its coaching search after firing Shyiak following eight losing seasons.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/05/29/2919938/uaa-fires-athletic-director-cobb.html#storylink=cpy

Mid-May news, notes

Minnesota State unveiled its 2013-14 schedule on Tuesday (you can see the full slate of games in this blog's right-hand column). After playing a TBA exhibition game at home during the first week, the Mavericks will open the season Oct. 11-12 at Providence. I'm guessing that will be a matchup of a couple of ranked team; should be a good one. Their home opener is the following week (Oct. 18-19) against Connecticut. MSU will begin the "new" WCHA season Nov. 1-2 at Bemidji State.

When the Mavericks take the ice at the Verizon Wireless Center in five months, expect to see some changes to the arena. The most significant change will be the size of the rink, which will go from Olympic-size (200x100) to one that is at or closer to the width of an NHL sheet (200x85). There also will be much-needed new boards and safer glass and a new floor and ice-making system. Preliminary work is underway but the main renovation is scheduled to begin sometime in June. Other changes officials hope to have in place by the start of the season include modernized concessions and new (purple) seats. For sure, the seating around the narrowed rink will need to be reconfigured.

Connecticut will come to Mankato with a new coach, having recently hired Boston College assistant Mike Cavanaugh. That's one of several coaching changes we've seen this spring, including Denver (Jim Montgomery) and Ohio State (Steve Rohlik). Maine and Alaska Anchorage are still searching for their new coaches, and the long wait (especially at the mess that is UAA right now, certainly gets one thinking about how well Minnesota State's search went 13 months ago.

At Anchorage, not only did the school suspend and then restart its coaching search process after interviewing four finalists following complaints from alumni and others in the hockey community, but now there is a report that recently fired coach Dave Shyiak has been accused of violently striking one of his players with a hockey stick during a practice.