Monday, January 18, 2010

Derek Docken To UAA: Albert Lea Thunder Defenseman

Chris Heisenberg has listed a new commitment for UAA on his website.  Defenseman, 19 year old Derek Docken (5ft, 11in 190lb -- June 12th, 1990) of the Albert Lea Thunder is listed as a 2011 arrival.

Docken leads the Thunder in +/- at +14 with the next highest player at +4.  That's a pretty interesting stat on a team that is at the very bottom of the NAHL standings.  He is their leading scorer from the blueline with 2 goals and 11 assists in 34 games.

As best I can tell, Derek joined the Thunder last season after finishing the Minnesota High School season where he was named an 2008 All-Conference Player (Missota) from Northfield High School as an 11th grader.  He had 2 assists in 26 games last season with Albert Lea.

Derek is scheduled to play for Team Central in the NAHL Top Prospects Tournament which actually starts today in Ann Arbor.  The tournament features 4 teams representing each division.  It will be interesting to see how well he does there.

His excellent +/- rating is most interesting to me because typically a defenseman of his size would be looked at as more of an offensive prospect versus a defensive defenseman who would be more likely to accumulate a high + rating.  Then again he is clearly the best offensive blueliner on Albert Lea's team.  Perhaps that just means that the kid is excellent on both ends of the ice.

His appearance on the High School All-Conference list with many more well known (to me anyway) D1 prospect names is promising as well.  I'm assuming that on a better team that Derek would get stats that would indicate him as one of the top defensemen in the league.

So being on Albert Lea and perhaps somewhat unoticed makes him a bit of a steal.  We'll see.  There are lots of Minnesota folks that follow High School and Elite League who likely have seen Derek play.  Perhaps someone will offer more insight than my remote location allows.

15 comments:

Suze said...

Excellent job Donald. I too was thinking he may be flying under the radar.

(His team has had some major problems with the coach being accused to taking money from parents in exchange for their sons playing time). Derek is not one of those players!

Donald Dunlop said...

Yeah ... I notice that. Figured it was best left out of my post. But as you say ... all indications are that he was in NO WAY involved.

Donald Dunlop said...

He scored a go-ahead unassisted shorthanded goal in their first game of the tourney.

Jeff said...

Looks like insidecollegehockey.com didn't find Clark's performance noteworthy or their weekly player of the week award. Grant got consideration and the guy who got player of the week only played one game. those bastardos!

Anonymous said...

We will see today if clarky gets the wcha offensive player of the week award.

Anonymous said...

He should. Let's hope the Seawolves give another week-end performance with more Seawolves worthy of a wcha award.
Go Seawolves!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a solid recruit, from Minnesoda..........nice

Congrats to Kevin on a great weekend, awards or not, and......

#9 only needs 9 more points to become the first Seawolf to accomplish 100 points since Jack Kowal in 1996.

And, true you can't say UAA in on a roll, but we are defintely starting that roll at the least.

Anonymous said...

Also, Derek Donald are you gonna let your rival school to nearly all sports one-up you? C'mon man:

http://nhl.fanhouse.com/2010/01/19/video-alaska-fairbanks-hockey-bear-returns-for-vengeance/

And D, your "favorite" college blogger set up a link to you: Will this lead to anything *wink* *wink*

http://www.westerncollegehockeyblog.com/2010/1/19/1258784/new-commits

Anonymous said...

Tommy Grant was a runner up for player of the week...
http://insidecollegehockey.com/inch/2010/01/19/inch-first-shift-week-15/

Anonymous said...

So weird, just went from 9th to 8th place in my 2nd fantasy hockey league. Couldn't make it to the live draft, so I got screwed. And, I got Curtis Glencross, anybody else play fantasy hockey? Have XCross?

Anonymous said...

Just got the UAA newsletter stating that this weekend is parents weekend? I hope they don't introduce the parents at the start of the game before fans show up. It was flat out embarrassing last year.

Anonymous said...

Parents are being introduced around 6:45 saturday before the game. Families committed to being there so far are Tuton, Lafranchise, Grant, Leinweber, Selby, Naslund, Backstrom and Olthius. Remember if you see me fall going out on the ice, and you are behind me, it would be courteous of you to make your fall more spectacular than mine. Thanks in advance. See you all there! Go Seawolves!

A parent.

Anonymous said...

Parents are being introduced this year at the end of the first period instead of before the game so please stay in your seats and support the players and their parents.

Unknown said...

Remember if you see me fall going out on the ice, and you are behind me, it would be courteous of you to make your fall more spectacular than mine.

Now that would be taking one for the team.

As the proud owner of a Tuton game worn (Freshman year number not current) It honor to have watched him for the last 4 years. I met his mom once, and I hope to see her again on Saturday.

Let's cage the Tigers

Anonymous said...

gdsfgdgf

Post a Comment