Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Winter Classic Closer to Reality; NHL Midterm Rankings Released

Picture this, but with Wings/Leafs maybe?
Photo: Tim Williams
As the Wolverines prepare to take on Ohio State outdoors this weekend, another outdoor game at the Big House may be drawing closer to reality.

Jeff Arnold, formerly of AnnArbor.com, reported for Yahoo that the NHL is in "advanced discussions" with the University of Michigan to host the Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium in 2013.

One source told Arnold that Dave Brandon was initially against the idea but "something happened to make it go from looking like it could happen to [a point where] it probably will."

It was also reported that the NHL will make an announcement by January 29th and that they said next year's event will "break records". It's hard to think of any non-sarcastic record that a game at Comerica Park would break, so it's sounding like the NHL at the Big House is a very real possibility.


A source also told Arnold that if the game does happen at Michigan Stadium, it will be the only event played. That makes sense, given that the GLI would be just a couple of days earlier, and that's a Detroit event.


In other news, the NHL released their midterm rankings for the 2012 draft. Seven future Wolverines appear on the list, with the highest-ranking player being Jacob Trouba.

Here is the list:
North American Skaters:
9-Jacob Trouba (6'2", 193 defenseman from the NTDP)
28-Phil Di Giuseppe (You know who he is)
31-Cristoval "Boo" Nieves (6'2.75", 184 forward from the Kent School)
82-Alex Kile (5'11", 189 forward from the Green Bay Gamblers)
157-Connor Carrick (5'11", 185 defenseman from the NTDP)
175-Justin Selman (6'0", 190 center from the Sioux Falls Stampede)


North American Goalies:
36-Jared Rutledge (5'10.5", 171 from the NTDP)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Also- per Bruce Ciskie- UNO is talking about an outdoor game in 2013 in Omaha against North Dakota.

Packer487 said...

Interesting...The more outdoor hockey the better as far as I'm concerned!

Charlie said...

If you have the means, please think about making a donation to The Jack Jablonski Fund. Jack is the Benidle-St. Margaret's (Minnesota) high school player who was hit from behind and paralyzed wo weeeks ago.

For a link to Jack's Fund and for more information about Jack and the reverberations his injury is causing, please see http://www.hockeybias.com/hockey-news-past/Jack-Jablonksi-News-Summary.html

Both a former Benilde student and current Benilde student have each written songs in honor of Jack. They can be found here and also have links to The Jack jablonski Fund:

http://www.hockeybias.com/hockey-news-past/2012/January/In-Our-Hearts-song-by-Willie-Falk-For-Jack-Jablonski-video.html

http://www.hockeybias.com/hockey-news-past/2012/January/-We-ll-Watch-Over-You-by-Rob-Shaver-Ryan-Etten-Lyrics--video.html

streaker said...

Condundrum, Tim: U-M football possibly in NYD bowl game vs. Winter Classic game.

Decisions, decisions. :)