Monday, June 11, 2007

Luka Vidmar Commits to Seawolves

The USHL Blog is reporting that Chicago Steel left-handed defenseman Luka Vidmar is coming to UAA this fall. Luka (6ft 200lbs) just turned 21 on May 17th and played with Chicago the last two seasons. This season he was the teams 4th leading scorer overall and was the 19th leading scorer among USHL defensemen with 6g-22a in 57 games many of which came on the power play. He was named USHL player of the week for February 20th, 2007. USHL Blog said he ...
"...was easily one of the better players on a not so great Steel team and will be a nice addition to the Seawolves."
Luka was a member of both the 05 and 06 Slovenian Jr. National Team and is from Ljubljana. Interestingly he is listed as a forward on this Eurohockey website player profile. And for you Suzanne Vega fans ... I have no idea if he lives on the second floor.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Luka came to Cedar Rapids (prior to joining the steel) as a forward and I think he started with the Steel as a forward in his first USHL season.

Donald Dunlop said...

I'd have to say that sort of versatility is a good thing. At the very least he's probably a responsible player on both ends of the ice as a result.

Anonymous said...

Two consecutive years without an Alaskan recruit. Sad, very sad.

Donald Dunlop said...

You bring up a good subject for discussion. It's something I've considered writing about recently.

I think there's a number of things to include when I do write it:

Talent pool fluctuations ...
Practices at other schools ...
Overcoming past local predjudices (reputation) ...
Elite level local recruits choosing other schools ...
Best player vs. loyalty to locale and finding a balance ...

Thats most of what occurs to me on the spur of the moment ...

My first thought is that such a post might be best made over at the College Hockey (and other stuff) Blog but I can decide that once I've got something (and I think it needs to be extensive) "on paper".

Donald Dunlop said...

If anyone has any thoughts about this please email me.

Anonymous said...

hey so i was noticing that the alaska avs up in wasillia drafted a kid named pailin is this gov palians kid and do you think he will start getting recrutied by uaa or uaf?

Donald Dunlop said...

He is the Gov's (Palin) kid and though I haven't heard anything specific I have the impression he's a decent player. His first name is "Track" ... fwiw.

Anthony Allen Pollreisz said...

After seeing Track play in a multitude of HS games here on the Peninsula, he seems like an OK (not particularly great) player. He does, however, have some serious goonish tendencies that must be addressed before making the jump to a higher level of hockey, IMHO.

With that said, it has been about a year since I've last seen him play, so perhaps he's evolved into a better player than he was back in his HS days.

Time will tell if he's good enough to play at the collegiate ranks. But judging from what I've seen of him in the past, I'd probably say "no" right now. Again, time will tell.

Jeff said...

I'm curious where clinton pettapiece is going to commit. he finished #6 in scorring in the bchl, but i dont see a commitment yet.

Lucas and Rachel said...

there are lots of reasons why there aren't many local boys signing to the seawolves. first off, recognize that it doesn't mean they aren't good enough.

it has to be a perfect fit. coach has to want the kid, his style needs to fit with the team style, and most important, he has to want to play in anchorage which has a piss poor fan base and terrible UAA facilities.

lots of 19-20 yr old kids want to go experience life outside of Alaska, and i think it's a tough sell to keep them here.

Lucas and Rachel said...

I've watched track palin play since he was a little kid. he has very obvious talent and is capable of putting up good #s, but he defiantly a rough player and gets into penalty trouble a lot. Avs coach said he sees track as a physical player who will get dirty in the corners.

i think he'll do well for the avs, not sure bout college.

Donald Dunlop said...

lucas:
Without a doubt you're correct. I also believe that there is inconsistency in the positive reputation that UAA should have in the local youth hockey community. The coaching changes since Brush retired are part of that negativity as well. But moreso, it depends what parents are exposed to in regard to the coaching and advice they get from their youth coaches and organizations.

I guess what I'm saying (in addition to your good points) is that local youth hockey has a lot of politics and as Shyiak seems to have the train on the right tracks then the "buzz" (if you will) in the local community should improve. That is something that is going to be directly related to performance. If folks and their kids with hockey ambitions have options then UAA hockey will have to perform to get their consideration.

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