College Hockey Freshmen

With the startup of the college season just on the horizon, I've taken the opportunity to put together my pre-season ratings for the incoming freshmen. In the coming week I'll also try and assemble a listing of my pre-season all-rookie teams and all-conference teams.

I assembled this listing blind, meaning I did not refer back to the order in which they appeared on my 06 listings. While there are a few differences in order, that can best be attributed to the fact that this is more of an "art" than a science. With this listing I also tried to focus more on initial college impact, rather than overall impact, meaning that players such as James O'Brien and Michael Forney, younger freshmen, may struggle initially, while others will impact sooner.

Forwards
1.Kyle Okposo, Minnesota
2.Billy Sweatt, Colorado College
3.Blake Gallagher, Cornell
4.Andreas Nodl, St.Cloud State
5.Ted Purcell, Maine
6.Michael Carman, Minnesota
7.Rhett Rahkshani, Denver
8.Ryan Flynn, Minnesota
9.Ryan Lasch, St.Cloud State
10.Matt Butcher, Northern Mich
11.Blake Geoffrion, Wisconsin
12.Michael Forney, North Dakota
13.Chris Auger, UM-Lowell
14.Doug Rogers, Harvard
15.Dion Knelsen, Alaska-Fairbanks
16.Mike Davies, Wisconsin
17.Josh Gillam, Dartmouth
18.David McIntyre, Colgate
19.Aaron Lewicki, Ferris State
20.James O'Brien, Minnesota

Defensemen
1.Erik Johnson, Minnesota
2.Kevin Montgomery, Ohio State
3.Jamie McBain, Wisconsin
4.Kris Fredheim, Colorado College
5.Brian Strait, BU
6.Alex Biega, Harvard
7.Chris Summers, Michigan
8.Nick Schaus, UM-Lowell
9.Keith Seabrook, Denver
10.Michael Ratchuk, Michigan State
11.Carl Sneep, BC
12.Ed Del Grosso, Nebraska-Omaha
13.David Fischer, Minnesota
14.Eric Gryba, Boston University
15.Jason Lepine, Ferris State


Goalies
1.Joe Palmer, Ohio State
2.Alex Stalock, Minnesota Duluth
3.Brett Bennett, BU
4.Brad Theissen, Northeastern
5.Ryan Simpson, Providence