AlphaMikeFoxtrot

Keaton Thompson to Germany

It's a portmanteau of Zach Parise and Joe Mauer, two big name MN natives who signed massive contracts and were often injured. Credit goes to MN sports fan Negative Dave. I'm admittedly not in tune with baseball so I don't know if Mauer was a disappointment (he is in the HoF so probably not) but Parise definitely was. The buyout is only now off the books for the Wild.

Oh yeah, completely forgot about that. Probably for the best to get out of town for college.

Back to the Motzko talk, Mason West told the Strib he wasn't really recruited by the Gophers. Also said MSU being the first to reach out played a part in his decision.

Hopefully he takes a hometown discount and doesn't wind up another Zach Mauer situation. He brought us to the promised land, he would be a deity in the state of MN for doing so with the Wild. Side note: his draft class was stacked https://www.eliteprospects.com/draft/nhl-entry-draft/2015

It will never fail to amuse me how they recruited someone that another school thought wasn't ready for college hockey.

They don't even have any smoke on a CHL blue chip though. He may not have a roster full of Edina divas and alumni's offspring, but his roster management isn't nearly as strong as is was when he was recruiting to the concrete palace. His tenure would be viewed differently if Cooley hadn't taken one of the more ill advised penalties in college hockey history, but as of now all he's done is get them back to status quo after Lucia left it in worse shape than he found it.

It's kinda tongue in cheek on my part. We hold coaches to a high standard on this forum!

Minnesota announced a hockey-specific NIL. If Motzko wasn't in over his head that would have happened sooner!

Chuckled at Bryn holding out for a discount code on Gage's moving company. Well done on both ends of this discussion.

Bryn's following list is a good peek into who he is interested in. For instance, Dayne Beuker (longtime target) and Nolan Fitzhenry (would be a major coup).

Something hockey pundits keep mentioning regarding CHLers going the college route is that they may find the grass isn't greener and rejoin their MJ team mid-season. Players seeking the biggest payday seem like the biggest flight risks.

Laurila mentioned. https://www.nhl.com/news/10-players-on-draft-radar-passed-over-in-2024

https://www.uscho.com/recaps/2005/03/27/waiting-it-out-gophers-top-cornell-in-ot-for-berth-in-columbus/

Stecher in the lineup tonight for Klingberg.