Despite off-season defections to NHL organizations, most observers remain optimistic about Gopher hockey for the 2007-2008 season. It’s not a positive to lose underclassmen Erik Johnson, Alex Goligoski and Jim O’Brien but the Gophers returning and incoming players are so numerous and talented that even national championship speculation isn’t unreasonable.
Former Gopher coach Glen Sonmor, now a WCCO radio color commentator on Minnesota broadcasts, thinks the Gophers, who last year won a second consecutive WCHA championship and were a top five ranked team nationally, will be “awfully good” again. Five of last season’s leading scorers, all forwards, return. Included in the group are the two top scorers, leading scorer Jay Barriball and Kyle Okposo (all conference as a freshman).
“The Gophers have got just a tremendous depth at forward coming back,” Sonmor said. “Proven scorers and everything. That’s not a problem at all for them. Their problem is going to be they lost their three top defensemen (Johnson, Goligoski and Mike Vannelli) and they were just tremendous defensemen. …”
The Gophers have minimal experienced defensemen with returnees like senior David Fischer and sophomore Derek Peltier and Sonmor is optimistic about newcomer Cade Fairchild, a freshman from Duluth who has drawn talk of being a No. 1 NHL draft choice. Optimism about defense includes the return of senior goalie Jeff Frazee who could be among the best at his position in college hockey.
“They’re going to be very, very good,” Sonmor said. “I don’t think they’re going to start the season off 22-2 or something like they have the last couple years but I think that might be good if they don’t, and they may be coming really strong a little later in the year. They got a tremendous boost when Kyle Okposo decided to come back. I think he’s going to immediately become a Hobey Baker candidate. I think he probably should have been one last year to tell you the truth. …”
Coach Don Lucia and the Gophers open their season next month in the College Hockey Ice Breaker Invitational at Xcel Energy Center. Can the schedule eventually include winning the national championship? Sonmor thinks it’s a possibility but cautions about injuries and how the seeding develops in the NCAA playoffs. “I always admire Don Lucia, the way he puts it,” Sonmor said. “He says…you know sometimes you win when maybe you weren’t the best team, and sometimes you lose when you were the best team. It takes a whole combination of things to win the championship. …”