AJS

Very few collegiate programs make money. NDSU has always had 16, compared to 21 at UND as of last year. Trimming 5 sports (including golf which pays its own way now) over the past year will save $4 million a year in the expense department. Long story short, NDSU had the right amount of sports for the school of its size, UND did not. They do now.

I think both Kawaguchi and Adams are going to be fantastic college hockey players. One thing to note is Adams is a year younger and plays in the USHL, where stats are much harder to come by. Regardless, love bringing in Top 10 scorers from either league. This is going to be a very good Freshman class.

Not any new information for anyone that has been following closely, but it was a great interview for someone who needed an overview. I want Faison on every radio station with the same questions. It's something the uneducated on the issues that are up in arms really need to hear.

Schlossman over the past couple years has turned into a clown. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, which I respect, but what he did yesterday was flat out embarrassing. As a reporter, you should lay out all of the facts and let people decide. You can absolutely have your own opinion, but get the facts out to the people. That wasn't the case yesterday, he found everything negative he could and spewed it to all his followers (The Reusse retweet was awful). He did his best to make UND look as bad as possible, while fueling the fire acting like he couldn't comprehend what happened (Olympians!!!). You can be mad, angry, but be professional and let people know this is why it happened. You don't agree with it for reasons A, B and C, but they did it because of D, E and F.

I really wish we could get a little more information on Poganski. In the article about Cam staying, Schlossman again words it in a way how they are waiting on Poganski / Gersich, but Poolman is basically gone, even though he hasn't signed. You would think it's more waiting on Gersich and Poganski / Poolman are basically gone.

That argument was said by only one person, but he said it over and over and over. Obviously wasn't true, which people tried to tell him, but he really stuck to it. I'll never understand things like that, preaching something like it's fact, when you have no clue.

Not in the least. Would this team be better with Jost and Boeser, of course. There's no denying they had an uphill battle to climb last year, but Schlossman said it best in the end of the year review, there were a lot of dominating performances that didn't go their way throughout. This was a very young team, that when the very large underclassman group (pretty much the entire team), got going, they were a Top 5 team in the country. I said it in another thread, but what impressed me at the end of the year was how solid they were up and down the lineup. They will need others to step up and they won't have a "star" player, but return a lot of very good players with a year or two under their belt.

Tom Miller's article was fantastic and he basically summed up my feelings. It's tough what happened to those three programs as peoples lives were affected. At the end of the day, this will be the turning point into what will make athletics at UND stronger than ever. The way it happened could have been handled better, but Kennedy stepped up like I never thought a University President at UND would. Taking emotion out of it, he made a decision that will benefit UND for years and years to come. Between him and Schafer they cut a bloated athletic department and got the number of sponsored sports down to a number that makes sense. We now sit at 17 (16 depending on Golf), are going to move to conferences that fit from a logistics standpoint, where UND will save another 1/2 million a year. We will finally be running a lean athletics department, where they can fund every team at a level that will be competitive. I couldn't be more excited for the future of UND athletics.

At the end of the season this team was playing as well as any team in the country and a major part of that was how well they were playing up and down the lineup, all 4 lines and all 3 D-pairings. Like last year, there will be a lot of players leaving. This is assuming Poganski and Poolman also leave, but everyone else stays. You lose: Forwards: Boeser, Jost, Poganski Defense: Poolman, Ausmus Goalie: Rinks Gersich - Kawaguchi - Bowen JJ - Gardner - Mismash Wilkie - Hoff - Yon Olsen - Simonson - Smith Gornall, Jones, Adams Poolman - Shaw Peski - Wolanin Johnson - Bast Rieger, Charland What's exciting is you have so many "solid" players up and down the lineup that will be young (only two seniors). We'll need to count on 2 of the 4 freshman forwards to come in and really contribute right away as well as some that take a big step. When you have a pool of players like Bowen, JJ, Gardner, Yon, Smith, ect.. it just takes a couple to take a big step and the rest to improve slightly. I'm extremely optimistic about the future. It's also exciting that this appears to be a group that there's not any for sure early departures after next year (outside of Wolanin). If this is a playoff team that's competitive next year, watch out the year after next.

Like Schmaltz last year, this really stings since I thought like many that we could get another year out of Jost. That being said, it's tough to turn down an offer to play in the NHL and that's where he'll be next year. Good luck to him and I hope he has a long successful career. Jost might be more valuable to UND with what he does after than what he did with his time here. Sign me up for a guy like him every year, even if it's only a year. We don't often deal with really high draft picks and there is a huge difference between someone drafted in the Top 10 and someone who is in the 20s (Boeser, Schmaltz, ect..). Like Keller with Arizona and Jost with Colorado, you are usually drafted by a team that isn't very good. Much more likely for you to make a roster for a team like Colorado than you would with a playoff caliber team.

I'm standing by it. I think when it comes to hot button issues, where something isn't necessarily black and white (like this shouldn't have been) and you jump in as a crusader for the "underdog", I don't think it's as a selfless act. We live in a very narcissistic society, everyone wants to look good. I absolutely think for this issue, it would have been brave to go against what the media / heroes thought as unjust and came at it from a more common sense perspective like most on this board have. That there are things they had to work on, but maybe USA Hockey has a point about not employing athletes and maybe what they asked for was absurd. How many people in the media / politicians / athletes (coaches) came out and publically stated that? 0. How many were crusaders? Everyone else.

I've ripped Hakstol in a couple of my posts on this subject since I saw his tweet. It all comes back to my feeling that it's really easy to spend other peoples money. Hakstol (like Schlossman) want to play hero. Not look at things objectively and kind of pick it apart (i.e. wanting Travel / Companion to equal men's makes sense, the $70,000 salary doesn't). Hak isn't brave for his stance, he just wanted to feed his own ego by having tell everyone what a great guy he is for standing up. I mean who cares who has to pay for it, it's not coming out of my paycheck.

Like a lot of things, the way UND has handled this can be a case study in not what to do for other Universities looking to cut sports. I might be alone in this, but before the budget talk, I was in the dark on how much most programs at UND cost the University. I knew Women's hockey was expensive, but since there was no budget problems, it more or less didn't matter. When the budget crisis happened and there was a spot light on every programs finances, it became very clear which program needed to go. When that sport doesn't get cut today, it's going to go from a sport that was in the background for me, to one that I'll actively despise. It's not fair to them and I'm probably in the minority, but I wonder if there'll be any sort of resentment. Edit: I know there's no easy way to do it, but for everyone involved, you'd think they'd rather just get blindsided like Baseball / Golf. Have the powers that be sit down and make a decision and then announce. Not string it out like they did.

In general with early departures, the mass majority of the time, the saying where there's smoke there's fire holds true. I agree that it's a little weird that the only bit of news on the Poganski front has come from Strickland, where he used the term "likely". Today in Schlossman's blog, he talked about Poganski as if he were to leave ("If", not "he's gone"). Probably reading too much into it, but he doesn't talk about him the same was as Tucker, where he assumes he'll be gone. I just don't think Strickland or really any of those guys would tweet something out of the blue. I'm hoping the "likely" from Strickland meant he was leaning that way, but nothing concrete. I was hoping for a little information from Schlossman, but right now he's much too preoccupied worrying about what's going on with the US Women's national team.

I haven't followed this closely enough to know what USA Hockey has really countered with. I'll save them all time and have them do what you have in bold (they could have for all I know). Whatever the men currently receive as far as compensation / perks, match that. I know USA hockey has said that they are not an employer of hockey players, but they need to get this message out. We are offering everything the Men's team gets + extra pay for the 6 months prior to the Olympics. So, in fact the US Women's team is getting more than the Men as far as compensation goes. Keep telling everyone this until people finally get that what they are currently asking for is absurd. Edit: This topic has really rubbed me the wrong way, when it became clear with their lists of demands that this was nothing more than a money grab. They waited until the time was just right and the hot topic was Women's pay and they exploited it. Anyone who takes a step back can clearly see that. At the end of the day, they will get their way, because too many people (Heitkamp, Hakstol, ect..) would rather have everyone tell them how brave they are for stepping up for such an important issue. People are always heroes when it comes to spending other peoples money. I'm not going to say they lost a fan, because like everyone else, I never cared to begin with. It's just disappointing to see how this played out.

What really bothers me about this, is I think most people that are rationale would think that what they are asking for is absurd. The Women on this team aren't dumb and they knew exactly what they are doing. Make this a Women's rights thing and you can ask for the moon. Guess what, you are going to get your way in this climate. Why? Because of what you're seeing with the support from Senators and I can bet every other person that has a little spot light (Hakstol, Buccigross). The absurdity of what they are asking for doesn't matter, do you want to come off as anti-women? It's not like you have to pay out of your own pocket, so you can come off as a hero, pat yourself on the back and move on. Their only mistake was not to ask for more. This is going to be a slippery slope, because why shouldn't every Olympian get paid? Or is it only, because their male counterparts make millions of dollars?

Seems to be guessing like any of us, but not a bad read. http://milehighsticking.com/2017/03/27/colorado-avalanche-prospect-tyson-jost-likely-stay-another-year-college/

I'm in wait and see mode with this years early departures. So far, we have: Boeser - NHL ready Poolman - NHL ready Poganski - Graduated There's nothing surprising at all about those 3, now, the rest is where you hope you win some of the 50 / 50 battles. Jost, Gersich, Wolanin, Johnson. UND has always done a pretty good job of keeping players for the extra year (see Boeser, Poolman), of course, you'll have the Luke Johnsons, Keaton Thompsons, where they probably leave too early. It happens everywhere though. Did all 7 BC players that left early last year play in the NHL?

I didn't know that he'll graduate this Spring, definitely makes more sense that he'd leave. Now we really do have to cross our fingers with Jost, Gersich, Wolanin and Johnson. I talked about depth in another thread, but next years team had the chance for real depth for the first time in a long time next year at Forward. Let's hope Poganski and Boeser are the only two that are leaving.

That one hurts, really, really disappointing. I'd put this in the same boat as LJ leaving last year, would have been a key part of next years team. Now, I couldn't be more pessimistic about everyone else. I'll never understand a guy leaving early that will never play in the NHL.

The last month of the year, UND was finally clicking and proved without a doubt they were a Top 10 team in the nation. I think they could be truly dominant depending on who stays. If they only lose Ausmus, Poolman, Boeser and Rinks, I think they are one of the favorites going into next year. Losing only one other (even if Jost), I still think they are a Top 10 team, lose another and things get a little dicey. I think next year you could potentially see depth at forward that we haven't seen since 2011.

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They are talking about buying tickets through the other colleges. It worked last time. I think it's as easy as giving them a call.

Yep. Right now, it's anyone but BC in Hockey East and anybody but Wisconsin in the Big 10. The best situation would be Minnesota winning the Big Tourney.