Official Press Release From The University of MNOkposo Departing Hockey Team to Sign With New York IslandersUniversity of Minnesota sophomore Kyle Okposo has chosen to forgo the remainder of the 2007-08 season and his career with the Golden Gophers to sign a contract with the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League.Okposo was the Islanders’ first-round draft choice and the seventh player taken overall in the 2006 entry draft. He is the eighth Minnesota player to leave college early for the professional ranks since the end of the 2005-06 season. Okposo is departing today for the Czech Republic as a member of the United States’ under-20 national team that is competing at the International Ice Hockey Federation world championships and will join the Islanders following the tournament.
“While I’m disappointed Kyle is leaving at this point of the season, his dream has been to play pro hockey,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “It is unfortunate that the Islanders put him in a very difficult position. I think our team has made strides the last few weeks and I’m looking forward to the second half of the season.”
A St. Paul native who attended Shattuck St. Mary’s in Faribault, Minn., Okposo burst onto the collegiate scene last season with 19 goals and 21 assists in 40 games as a freshman. He earned second-team All-WCHA honors and was named to the league’s All-Rookie Team. Amid speculation that he would leave for the NHL after his freshman season, Okposo announced on June 6 that he would return to the Gophers.Okposo had a slow start to the 2007-08 season with an eight-game scoreless streak after a three-point game in the season opener against Rensselaer. He scored points in six of the last nine games, totaling seven goals and four assists over the team’s first 18 games as Minnesota currently owns a 9-8-1 record.
This twat just went from one of my top 10 all time gophers to one of my most hated. I now think of Jeff Frazee in higher standards than Okposo. Bobby Petrino would be proud......f'ing acne faced quitter!
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10 comments:
Maybe your dumb-ass coach and his little Nazi assistant Guentzel, shouldn't have alienated their star player.
If I were coaching him, I wouldn't play him out of position, only to watch his numbers drop and see him become more disinterested week after week. I would've played him where he felt comfortable and where he thrived as a player. That way he wouldn't grow to completely resent me and how I was hurting his development and his future earing power. Hell, he would probably even appreciate how I had helped him, he might even show a little loyalty towards me.
Face it, Lucia doesn't know how to develop NHL talent and everyone knows it. Blake Wheeler, former 5th pick in the NHL draft, will play all 4 years in maroon and gold, but will be lucky to play that long in the NHL. Maybe Lucia should learn how to utilize the skills of a 6'4" player, instead of trying to teach him how to skate around the rink like Martin St. Louis.
P.S. I'm looking for a gig, if the university is looking for a coach in the spring, let me know.
This post is far too rational and intelligent to be anyone I know. Welcome to the blog.
Or, Lucia could continue to worry about trying to win college hockey games and not to give two shits about what some self centered 19 year old kid wants to do. How did turning Okposo into a shut down forward hurt his development??? The thing that has killed Okposo is him trying to skate around everyone on the ice and spinning around like kristi yamaguchi. Goals in college don't equal NHL success.
WWWWWW, seriously, that was an intelligent comment???? With that reasoning Mons was a good coach because he worried more about developing Humphry than he did winning games. Stop drinking.
I didn't mean the content. I meant the use of proper grammar, spelling, and paragraph breaks.
Development or not, what Okposo did is complete horseshit. He quit on his team because things weren't going the way he wanted and he wanted to play wing. Okposo had to play out of position last year when Hirsch went crazier then a Sioux fan at suite 49, so he should have tucked tail and left before the season. Okposo's lack of development might have more to do with his effort then playing center or coaching.
That being said, it is also time for Lucia to start catching some heat. The program has been a laughing stock the last three years and that falls right on Don's shoulders. "Get your program in order before you turn into Doug Wood or send Blais an application asap."
Also, Okposo is a Douche Bag and Bogart is now stuck with him forever on NHL PS2 because he called Islanders for life last year. Bogarts teams are now anchored by a quitter and player who is only good "in space". Enjoy your Okposo/Bush sandwich retard!
P.S. Paragraph breaks are overrated!
Not wanting to play center in hockey is like saying "I'm so mad that coach has me playing short stop and batting lead off. I hate that stupid jerk!"
What a whiney f-ing tit.
Well now my 2 new favorite players Hoeffel and Howe will get a chance to shine. The Gophers will be fine without him.
I think it might be an exaggeration to say that the program is a laughing stock over the last three years. A bad first round loss two years ago, playing to a OT loss last year in the 2nd round and off to a slow start with a young team, especially on defense, does not make any team a laughing stock. It pretty much makes it a regular team that will have ups and downs. Let’s hope they keep the chins up and work harder than ever to right the ship. BTW, Lucia has about the same chances of being fired as the head coach as WWWW has of making the Olympic high jump team. That doesn’t mean people can’t question his methods or that he is above being scrutinized but I don’t think he has had a truly disappointing season for years, this year might end up to be very disappointing but only time will tell. Keep the faith...
dawg- you dont even like hockey
I don't recall T. Vanek ever back-checking or worrying about becoming a shut down forward. Now that I think about it, he never put a skate inside his own blue line. You have players like T. Lucia and M. Hoeffel to do the team's dirty work, not your offensive superstars. You don't put AP/AD in to pass block.
black people play hockey?
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