The 2007-08 National Hockey League's regular season begins in earnest this week and three University of Minnesota Duluth puck alums will be a part of the action for the first time.
Matt Niskanen is expected to be in the lineup for the Dallas Stars tonight when they take on the Colorado Avalanche in Denver, while fellow 2006-07 All-WCHA first team selection Mason Raymond is slated make his NHL debut Friday when his Vancouver Canucks open up against San Jose at home.
Another one-time Bulldog, Craig Weller, is being listed by the Phoenix Coyotes as a third line right winger for their Thursday night engagement at St. Louis.
Niskanen, who gave up his final two years of college eligibility by signing a professional contract with Dallas last spring (he subsequently spent the rest of the year with their minor league affiliate, the Iowa Stars of the American Hockey League) concluded the 2006-07 regular season ranking second in both scoring and goals among all WCHA defensemen and was also second in the league to Raymond in power play points. In 39 games last winter, the Mountain Iron, Minn. product had a career-best 31 points on nine goals -- seven of which came on the power play -- and 22 assists. The last UMD blueliner to produce a larger scoring harvest was senior Andy Reierson in 2001-02 (35 points). Niskanen, who was just the second first-round NHL draft pick to don a Bulldog uniform (Dallas Stars in 2005), collected two points -- both assists -- in six preseason games this fall.
Raymond, a native of Cochrane, Alberta and the Vancouver Canucks' second round draft pick in 2005, reigned as the WCHA’s second-leading overall scorer during the 2006-07 regular season while also topping the league in both assists and power play points. The 2005-06 WCHA All-Rookie Team selection rolled up 46 points -- the most by a Bulldog in three years -- on 14 goals 32 assists and also had a hand in more of his team’s total goals (44.7 percent) than any other WCHA player. On Jan. 20, 2007, he set a WCHA 2006-07 single-game high with five assists (one shy of the UMD record) at St. Cloud State University. Raymond, who skated in all 79 games since joining the Bulldog program one year ago (he, like Niskanen, also passed up his final two years of competition at UMD), scored one goal in four preseason outings with Vancouver.
Weller skated at defense for the Bulldogs during the opening half of 2000-01 season before joining the Western Hockey League's Kootenay Ice. The Calgary, Alberta native was selected in the fifth round by the St. Louis Blues in the 2000 NHL draft and had one point in six career games at UMD.
Coming into this season, some 36 former Bulldog players had done time in the NHL, the latest being 2003-04 Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Junior Lessard one year ago with the Dallas Stars.
