Grant Besse Suits Up for Omaha Lancers

Minnesota Mr. Hockey Joins Lancers for Stretch Playoff Run

The Omaha Lancers got a relatively large and notable addition for their run into the 2012-13 USHL playoffs by acquiring rights to the current Minnesota Mr. Hockey, Grant Besse. Besse comes fresh off a performance in the Minnesota State AA Finals that you'll probably be hearing about (or more likely already heard) in which he scored all five Benilde-St. Margaret's goals - three of them being shorties. Probably a little difficult to believe that this isn't a video game but a YouTube link is embedded below:


With that introduction aside, Besse has signed an LOI to play for Mike Eaves and the Wisconsin Badgers this upcoming season. With the Lancers recently acquiring Besse's rights in a trade with Muskegon, he looks to at least get acquainted with a bigger, faster game of hockey prior to jumping into Division I in a couple of months. 

I took in a game against Des Moines on Sunday night at the Ralston Arena in which Besse started the game at right wing with UNO Maverick recruit Jake Randolph at left. If you recall, Randolph is a pretty decorated prepster himself and was a finalist for Minnesota Mr. Hockey last year. The pairing on Sunday night made for a clearly talented top line, with both playing on the top special teams lines too. 

For Maverick fans, and this is a Mavericks blog, the pairing of Besse and Randolph appear to be younger incarnations of Dominic Zombo and Josh Archibald. Besse has very soft hands and stickwork that could be successful in the NCAA right now. He showed that he was more quick than fast while being able to post in the crease for rebounds most of the evening. While that sort of ice position probably isn't going to happen in the Big Ten as a freshman, it does give a fairly positive projection assuming added physical size comes along in the future. Besse does pretty good job at avoiding garbage contact while driving to net and was a relatively consistent offensive threat while on the ice. 

Now I'll do a deeper post on Randolph but he appears to be a gem for Dean Blais. The USHL time has done him well as he now has a body type that play in DI today. He is a very aggressive, offensive-minded skater with quick wrists. The comp to Archie is totally there - even down to the temper. He took two bad penalties in a tightly officiated game that got chippy near the end. 

Even with the addition of Besse, the Lancers appear to be on the outside looking in with regard to the USHL playoffs. With his Omaha ice time seemingly drawing to a close, I'd recommend at least checking the kid out if you are interested in seeing the best of what Minnesota has to offer (at least in the opinion of the StarTribune). For fans of college hockey, you will at least get to see a pretty deep team that has a handful of notable prep players (like Jake Bischoff, Tucker Poolman) prior to them heading off to school.