Backes, MSU alumni & other notes

A few news and notes, now that I'm back in Kato ...

Former Minnesota State captain and standout forward David Backes on Monday was named to the U.S. National Team's orientation camp that will help determine next winter's Olympic Team. The camp is scheduled to take place at the end of August near Washington, D.C. Backes, the St. Louis Blues' captain, played for Team USA in the 2010 Winter Games, helping that team to a silver medal. There has been talk in the Twitter world that Backes might be a candidate for a captain's spot at the February games in Sochi, Russia.

Meanwhile, several other MSU alumni were in Mankato on Monday for the annual Dan Meyer Blue Line Club Golf Classic. The group included NHLers Ryan Carter and Tim Jackman. Other former players present included Andy Hedlund, Aaron Forsythe, Justin Martin, B.J. Anderson, Todd Kelzenberg, R.J. Linder, Brian Kilburg and Matt Tyree. Read more about their visit in my Free Press column here. As I wrote in the column, Mavericks coach Mike Hastings had some high praise for the alumni who came back for the event.

Finally, if you've taken a peek at MSU's roster for the upcoming season, you may have noticed that Charlie Thauwald's name was missing. Thauwald, the Rochester native and walk-on who would be a junior, is transferring to Division III Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The Blugolds won the national title at that level last year, so he's going to a good program. Watching him in practice the last two years, I think he will be an absolute beast in that league. Thauwald played in just eight games for the Mavericks, one last season.

A commitment ... and other notes

Minnesota State received a verbal commitment from Totino-Grace junior Jason Krych on Wednesday. Krych announced the commitment on Twitter:

Proud and excited to announce I have committed to play my college hockey at Minnesota State University, Mankato! #Mavericks
— Jason Krych (@Krych17) July 11, 2013

Krych, '97 defenseman who is also a future Tri-City Storm (USHL) player, had 27 points, including seven goals, in 29 games last season for a Totino-Grace team that went 21-7-1.

Numbers game
The 2013-14 roster has been posted on the MSU website. So what will this year's rookies be wearing?

3-Blake Thompson (transfer from Minnesota will be eligible after the first semester ends).
5-Carter Foguth
6-Casey Nelson
11-Sean Flanagan
16-Jordan Nelson
17-Michael Huntebrinker
25-Zach Stepan
34-Cole Huggins

Going camping
A few MSU players are attending NHL rookie/prospect camps this summer. Trying to track down as many as I can.

Eriah Hayes (now graduated), Max Gaede and Zach Palmquist are at San Jose's camp.

Dylan Margonari will be attending Winnipeg Jets camp.

Zach Stepan is attending Nashville Predators camp, and Teddy Blueger is scheduled to attend Pittsburgh Penguins camp.

Recently drafted Stephon Williams was not listed on New York Islanders camp roster.

Looking ahead
As for potential future NHL players yet to come to Mankato, Eden Prairie defenseman and MSU commit Hunter Warner was listed on the NHL Central Scouting Service's Future's List. He is one of 11 Minnesota high school players (nine non-Shattuck) on the watch list.

Looking for a trainer
MSU hockey athletic trainer Sean Donley emailed me this week and said he has accepted a position at Summit Ortho in Woodbury. Donley has been with the Mavericks since 2007. So it looks like MSU is in the market for a new trainer.

Going off the grid
Finally, I'll be off on a real vacation for about a week. I'm talking off the grid. No blog. No Twitter (gasp!). Will I survive?

All in ... Huntsville hires coach

Alabama Huntsville hired a new coach on Monday, naming former Air Force assistant Mike Corbett. That fills the final Division I opening of the offseason. Read the UAH press release here.

Corbett has spent the last 10 years with Air Force, including last season as associate head coach. Corbett played at Denver and was a junior coach after that.

Corbett also interviewed for the Alaska Anchorage opening this spring (twice!), and his name was once floated as a possibility for the Denver job after George Gwozdecky was let go.

Huntsville will play in the "new" WCHA next season. Here is a list of the WCHA teams and their coaches:

Minnesota State, Mike Hastings (second year)
Alaska Anchorage, Matt Thomas (first year)
Bemidji State, Tom Serratore (13th year)
Michigan Tech, Mel Pearson (third year)
Alaska, Dallas Ferguson (sixth year)
Bowling Green, Chris Bergeron (fourth year)
Ferris State, Bob Daniels (22nd year)
Lake Superior State, Jim Roque (ninth year)
Northern Michigan, Walt Kyle (12th year)
Alabama Huntsville, Mike Corbett (first year)

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.