Lucia has already announced that he will not follow the all-Minnesota policy
anymore, although he expects a high percentage of the players to remain
Minnesotans. That will not hurt support as long as the Gophs are winning.
But I have long said that the Gophers were quite successful with their
all-Minnesota policy until the last two years when a combination of early
defections (Crowley and Rasmussen), untimely injuries (Clymer, Day),
possible recruiting mistakes or failures (would it have been different if
Toby Petersen or Karl Goehring had been Gophs?) and possible lack of
development hurt the Gophers.  But it is not exactly as if they have spent
the 90's as WCHA cellar dwellers.  Woog had an excellent run even if he
never won the big one but Lucia should help the program.
 
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