AlphaMikeFoxtrot

Middlestadt showed perfect dive formation when he got hit by Olson

Passed the litmus test fast

Hopefully somewhere that he plays against BU again. With only two forward reserves there's a good chance Wolanin plays forward sometime this season.

Stecher is also local and had a free pass to being a fan favorite. Any links to an instance where he shows his bias? This would explain why Boeser didn't get to go to China with the team.

What is the cut off for playing as a 21 year old in the USHL? As a January 98 birth day he can play another year in Juniors, correct?

Senden and Keane have to pick it up if they are ever going to make it to campus. We've had some duds and de-commits among our recruits that are NHLer's kids. Obviously not all, but not as solid as you'd expect.

Gardner needs a defining moment to erase the memory of the dirty penalty in the BC game. Laying out a player on the Gophers with a clean yet booming check is his best chance in the near future. Bonus if it's a marquee player.

He looks like he's gonna be tough to push around despite being short. Built Ford tough.

Can someone fill Tucker's shoes playing 30 minutes a game? Wolanin went from occasional scratch his first year to the number 2/3 guy last year. Can he be the man this year? This could be the thinnest we've been at D in a while, depending on how last year's freshmen D play this year. They showed promise but it's still a big question mark.

If anything worry about Tychonick bolting to MJ. His rights were traded to his hometown team, and he's ranked 30ish for the draft by future considerations.

At least it's no longer in Ann Arbor. They've gotten some duds out of the program too though. Unless someone's a blue chip out of the program we haven't been afraid to tell them to develop more in the USHL.

They aren't the only state with public pension funding issues, just the foremost example. But the money for their team will be private donations anyways.

Illinois will have a D-1 team announced by the end of the decade. B1G doesn't need us. We're fine in the NDHC.

Maryland's fate is like Oregon, all it takes is Under Armour (or in the Ducks' case, Nike) wanting a team and it'll happen. Does UA own a hockey brand a la Nike/Bauer or Adidas/Reebok? Some East coast college hockey teams have UA jerseys. BC is the only one I can think of.

Both are schools that should explore the possibility, since they serve major metros that support hockey but don't have a nearby college team. But Maryland and Penn are more likely candidates in each metro.

Or "Dakota"

If I recall correctly Pac 12 network aired the series Air Force played against ASU last year. They could have an eye on being a founding member of Pac 12 hockey conference.

Agreed about the secondary market. Back in the WCHA days, someone I knew with student tickets was able to pay for their season by selling a single Gopher game. He wasn't being a shrewd micro-economist either, it's what he was offered.

Looking at rosters for who will likely play at the Wild and Moose exhibitions, Poolman should get a nice applause. More importantly, quite a few rostered players should get showered with boos, including Brendan Lemieux and Mario Lucia. Let's hope they wind up as starters.

Haha, touché

This begs the question: These days, is it more satisfying to poach from the cities, or Duluth?

As pointed out Frattin's team is based in China. There are other KHL teams not based in Russia; Genoway's team last year, Jokerit, is based in Finland. You may have seen when he did this:

Best of luck to Frattin. Playing in China he has a chance to be an ambassador for the game. Between the NHL and the local gov't there are a lot of resources being pumped in to hockey in China. I still remember his classy and non-chalant celebrations. The sign of a true goal scorer.

That's gotta be an auto correct mistake. Haha

Other big name schools in the same metro areas as NHL teams with at least decent fan bases include Vanderbilt, Georgetown, USC, U Penn.