Among the West Regional attendees at the Pepsi Center on Saturday were a handful of NHL executives with blank checks in their pockets, and the so-called “family advisers” looking to formalize their relationships with players by becoming contracted agents.
The country’s most talented regional features Minnesota’s Erik Johnson and North Dakota’s Jonathan Toews, selected first and third overall in the 2006 NHL draft, respectively, plus a bunch of other high-round draft picks and many attractive undrafted free agents.
In a single-elimination tournament and NHL late-season opportunities underway, yesterday’s amateur stars could today become professional millionaires. And they don’t have to be seniors. Johnson, a freshman, and Toews, a sophomore, head the list of NHL-bound players performing at the Pepsi Center, but some athletes not even playing this weekend are negotiating from Denver.
Among those is junior Ryan Dingle, who has led the University of Denver in goal scoring the past two seasons. Dingle, according to his family adviser who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, has “a dozen or more” NHL teams seeking his services.
DU coach George Gwoz- decky also risks losing junior Geoff Paukovich to the Edmonton Oilers, sophomore Chris Butler to the Buffalo Sabres and junior goalie Peter Mannino (free agent) to the highest bidder.
Gwozdecky expects a decision from Dingle, who grew up in Steamboat Springs and Littleton, this week.
“He was going to take the weekend and early part of next week to decide,” Gwozdecky said. “Obviously, we’d like to know, and the teams interested in him would like to know.”
Lucia impressed
Minnesota coach Don Lucia, whose team rallied to defeat Atlantic Hockey Association champion Air Force 4-3 on Saturday, was impressed with the Falcons and their route to the NCAA Tournament.
Air Force was behind state rivals Colorado College and Denver for at-large berths but received an automatic bid by winning the AHA playoffs.
The relatively weak AHA and College Hockey America began getting automatic bids when the NCAA Tournament was expanded from 12 to 16 teams in 2004. None of those six combined teams would have gotten in otherwise.
“The teams that come out of the CHA and Atlantic Hockey deserve to be here and play well in these environments,” Lucia said. “We feel very fortunate that we were able to win today.”
Lucia’s Gophers lost a year ago in the NCAA first found to AHA champion Holy Cross. “I can’t compliment Air Force enough for how well they played,” Lucia said. “They certainly could have won.”
