As a somewhat frequent visitor, and since no one else has mentioned it,
I'll point out the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame is in Eveleth and well worth
a visit.

Doug Peterson wrote:

>Mostly it was that in the 1950's that the NHL closed its doors to college
>hockey players.  It may have been that it was any non-Canadian hockey
>players.  I can't say if there were no Canadian college players in the NHL
>during that time.
>
>It's hard to imagine that a player like John Mayasich was passed on by
>the NHL.  He was the first college hockey player to use a slap shot.  With
>it he averaged 2.7 points a game for four seasons at Minnesota during the
>1950s.  I don't have a Frozen Four program in front of me, but I think he
>still has at least one tournament scoring record.  Unfortunately, we will
>never know how really good he was.
>
>Prior to the 1950s there were U.S. college hockey players in the NHL.
>The first that came to mind was John Mariucci from Minnesota who
>played for Chicago in the late 1940s.  He was later coach for Minnesota.
>
>Elywin (Doc) Romnes played for St. Thomas College in Minnesota.
>During the 1930s he played for Chicago (where he won the Lady Byng)
>and later the Maple Leafs.  Romnes was later a coach for Minnesota.
>
>Frank Brimsek attended St. Cloud Teachers College, now St. Cloud State
>University.  He won the Calder and Vezina trophies in his rookie season
>on a Stanley Cup winning Boston team in the late 1930s.
>
>Mike Karakis played for Eveleth Junior College and played for Chicago
>during most of the 1930s, winning a Stanley Cup in the late 1930s.
>
>Sam LoPresti played for Eveleth and for St. Cloud.  He played for two
>years in the early 1940s for Chicago.  In a game against Boston, with
>Brimsek in nets, LoPresti had a record setting 80 saves.
>
>An interesting theme here is Eveleth.  All of the above players were from
>there.  Several of them are in the Hall of Fame in Toronto.  In 1928-29,
>the junior college there went undefeated and was the #1 ranked team in
>the country playing against all the traditional (at least now) big time
>college teams.  Their toughest opponent that year was the Eveleth high
>school team.  From 1928-1940 the JC's record was 171-28-7.  From 1948
>to1951, the Eveleth high school team (led by Mayasich) went undefeated.
>Not much is heard from Eveleth these days, but they have a storied past.
>
>Doug Peterson
>
>On 10 Apr 2005 at 17:01, Clay Satow wrote:
>
>The starting center on the last CC team to win the NCAA Tournament in
>1957 was Bill "Red" Hay, who to my knowledge was the first college
>player to make the NHL.  He played for the Black Hawks, and centered a
>line with Murray Balfour and a guy named Bobby Hull on the wings.
>
>He's currently the Executive Director of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
>
>
>
>
>
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