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"In a rebuild, it's a bitter pill to swallow to watch your on-ice performance and your record is tough to look at," said general manager Blake Wendt. "With the passion we have in our fan base, we also have dialed-in, keen fans who know what we were actually accomplishing in what on the surface was a dismal season."
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What was being accomplished was top-notch players were being traded for a plethora of young, elite hockey players in mass quantity.
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Some of that youth will start arriving as full-time pros in the 2014-15 CCHL season.
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Nick Bjugstad. Star power forward honed his craft at the University of Minnesota for three years. Last season the 6'6", 220 pound giant played big minutes for the Duluth Leifs and got his seat at the adult table at the end of the Norsemen season. He is expected to center the second line behind Antoine Vermette.
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Valeri Nichushkin. Drafted 2nd overall in last year's draft by the Norsemen, Nichushkin is a budding star from Russia that played top-line minutes in the KHL as an 18 year old. The young Russian came over to North America after being drafted and participated in the Norsemen Training Camp before ultimately adjusting to the professional game in Duluth. Nichushkin will likely play on top-6 minutes, presumably on the second line.
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Nino Niederreiter. Picked up in a trade with Victoria in August, the Swiss forward plays anything but a neutral game. At 6'2" 210 pounds, there is some room to grow, and the Norsemen are hopeful that El Nino's rough and tumble game, combined with explosive speed and crafty hands will shore up their overall depth for years to come.
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Brock Nelson. Another big-bodied, homegrown power forward. The Warroad, MN-native was acquired last month from Halifax with another Minnesotan, Justin Faulk. The Norsemen love the potential of his game that looks pro-ready for next season
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Beyond the connections to the state, a lot of these upcoming players have previous connections as teammates with each other and current established Norsemen.
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Along with Bjugstad, his linemate at Minnesota, Erik Haula could make this team out of Training Camp. Both played with defenseman, Aaron Ness who might also play spot games next season. Add Keith Ballard and it looks like a Norsemen factory over in Minneapolis.
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Matt Niskanen and Justin Faulk were both stud blueliners at the University of Minnesota-Duluth (although not at the same time). Some of Faulk's teammates from their National Championship team, Justin Fontaine and JT Brown have legitimate shots at making the Opening Night roster.
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Brock Nelson joins Matt Greene as North Dakota alum
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Ian Cole looks like he might finally have an opening in the D-pairings for a full-time shot in the CCHL. The former Notre Dame captain might be joined by another Irish captain, Anders Lee this season.
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All of this and we still haven't talked about the other youngsters on the club. Tomas Tatar, Marcus Kruger, Jonas Brodin and Semyon Varlamov. Or the younger Anthony Mantha, Nic Kerdiles, Hudson Fasching, Tom Wilson and Justin Sefton.
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"We expect bumps next season," said Wendt. "With this amount of youth coming in at once, you cannot avoid it. But we feel we have surrounded these players with enough experience and talent to bring success now and continue to build on year after year. We are very excited about the future in Minnesota."
