Tuesday, March 15, 2011

An "Aaron Ness" Mess?

Whoa! What did I miss yesterday on Twitter? You stick your nose in your computer for 8 hours straight working on finance and invoicing and you miss an entire College hockey drama.

Okay well Dom at Lighthouse Hockey had it covered here. But while the rumors were circulating, QuickFacts had a quote from agent Neil Sheehy on the situation which she put on Twitter.

Sheehy said to QF that reports by blogs or websites about Aaron Ness leaving for Islanders is "irresponsible journalism & a guess at best".


Ahh, okay. Just something to pass the time. However from all accounts by those who follow MN College hockey, survey says he should leave

Love this one, also from QuickFacts:
Aaron Ness was better as a freshman. That should tell you all you need to know about development of D at UMN.


Nothing out of the Islanders camp on the subject and rightly so. Last time GM Garth Snow said something about a college coach and a prized prospect out of Minnesota there was considerable ink lent to it along with debate.

Well, Guess we'll just have to see how this one plays out.

2 comments:

Neil said...

Didn't Kyle Okposo get brought up for the same reason?

Craig said...

It seems clear that Ness's development has stagnated at Minnesota, but I cannot pin that on Don Lucia. I saw two previous small, skilled defensemen who wore number 10 flourish at The U under Lucia. How is it that Lucia was able to develop Paul Martin and Alex Goligoski, but not Aaron Ness? I am inclined to believe that the fault lies with Ness, not Lucia's coaching.

Perhaps there is just a bad mix of personalities and that Ness didn't respond well to the way Lucia has related to his players. Maybe Ness needs a change of scenery to revive his development as a hockey player. That would make some sense.

But, if that isn't the case, I cannot think of a better place for a small, skilled defenseman to learn how to play hockey at a high level than on a big sheet in the WCHA.

We've seen too many guys leave college too soon and flounder. I don't want Aaron Ness to be the next player to end his college career prematurely.