Sizing up the Gophers' D-men

With the latest commitment -- Blake Thompson's -- the Gophers now have nine defensemen and are getting bigger on the blue line. Five of the defensemen are 6-2 or taller.

Here are the D-men expected to be on the roster next season (with their year of eligibility in 2011-12):

6-5, 217 Seth Helgeson, jr. ... third year on varsity, stay at home D-man.

6-5, 205 Chris Rial, fr. ... played for Kenai River in NAHL last season

6-3, 220 Blake Thompson, fr. ... three-year USHL veteran, last two seasons with Waterloo

6-3, 194 Mark Alt, so. .... biggest hitter on team last season, got better as season went on

6-2, 180 Justin Holl, so. ... showed flashes first season, joined U right out of high school at Minnetonka

5-10, 188 Jake Parenteau, so. ... played off and on first season

5-10, 166 Ben Marshall, fr. ... USHL all-star for Omaha, also member of league's all-rookie team

5-9, 170 Chris Student, so. ... exchange student from Northeastern, practiced with U last season but had to sit

D corps will be made up of one junior, five sophomores and three freshmen. ... Rial, Holl and Marshall all could benefit by adding a 5-10 pounds -- of muscle. ... Schmidt is the most versatile defenseman and, if all nine stay healthy, could be moved to forward like he was last season.