AJS

That's completely true, but I would also ask, what do you have to lose? It would be one thing if every recruit made it to campus, but they don't. I'm not for the old Wisconsin approach either of having 40 recruits lined up, but I would say some HS players would be worth the "risk".

Do you think the D-core as a whole has played well this year? Who would he replace? Take your pick for most of the year. I would say outside of Jandric and Frisch, there have been nights where every other player has played poor enough where if the coaching staff was consistent, would have sat the following night. You see Farmer in Denver? He was a one-man lowlight that entire weekend. What I've noticed this year over any other is some players can make mistakes over and over and their roll isn't affected. Others don't get that luxury.

Johnson's developmental curve was looking good based on his Freshman year. Never witnessed a situation like his before, got so few chances this year. Where would this team be if they played him regularly? Out of contention in the pairwise and on the road for the first round? Could really use a RH defenseman for next year. At least this coaching staff can go to the portal. So unbelievably frustrated with this Coaching staff.

If you're an NHL draft pick, your goal is to play after college. Actually playing is an important part of development. Just my opinion, but what was unique about this year (there's no close 2nd either) was the roster management. The number of locks that I didn't understand. Why some players could make a mistake and not miss a shift, while others won't play another shift after. There were just so many decisions that I didn't get. @Siouxfancrazy92 you're not wrong, I would add 24 as well to the list. I thought he was really good as a Freshman. Basically hasn't played this year. I want to clarify; I don't think this has been a pattern previously for Berry. This is the first time I'll worry about young talent leaving this program for the Portal. I won't blame any of them for thinking they could develop better elsewhere.

Fair, we can remove him from the list.

I don't think 18, 21 or 29 would have problems finding a new home. Hope all three return, really talented young players. I wouldn't blame any of the three though if they left.

I would add an extra category. Potential Portal Guys: 5, 11, 18, 21, 29 I think Berry did an exceptionally bad job with his roster management this year.

It comes down clearly to this team not winning. It feels like this coaching staff is adding insult to injury by stunting development of young talented players in lue of veteran, very average players. Not just in who is in the line-up, but also situations and playing time.

Where would this team be if the Coaching staff decided at the beginning of the year to ride DeRidder like they have post Western Michigan series (remember the one that they started Johnson and he gave up 7)? The Coaching staff deserves a lot of criticism for how they handled the goalie situation. Not hindsight either. He's the only D1 goalie they have on the roster. You could pivot though, this team has given up 3 Goals in the last 3 Games and they have 0 regulation wins, so scoring is an issue also. Take your pick, this year has been a disaster.

10 guys weigh less this Spring than last Fall. Down 10lbs: Fischer Down 5lbs: Bishop, Romfo, Strandell, Ziebarth, Hackel, Buckner, Schultz, Norby, Carroll The only two that jump out are Carroll and Schultz. On the opposite side. Up 25lbs: Olson Up 20lbs: Anderson Up 15lbs: Baretz, South Up 10 lbs: 11 Players Up 5 lbs: 16 Players No Change: 37

A couple of notes. O-Line returning all 8 players that started a game last year. Anderson being up to 305 is notable. Looking at weights. ILB - All 6 are between 230 / 235. Young group. No 5th Years / Seniors. OLB - All 6 are between 220 / 225. NT - Depth is bigger. Return 4 of 5 from last year. Lose Morrison (290), pick up Griffin Jr. (305). Beach / Orlando stay at 290, but Olson (280) and Schweigert (275) both now R-FR are getting closer. Need more RB's. Need a transfer with size. They are really thin at that position. Questions: Wait and see approach with the D-Line. A lot depends on the production of Griffin Jr. / Saltonstall. Is Teiken ready to take that step? Will Schultz take that next step? Will be an improved group. Good news is they will be better regardless, but the key is by how much. What do they have with the underclassman @ LB (Parks / McNeal / Baretz / Feterl)? They need at 3 of the underclassman to hit this year. Is that realistic? What do they do at Safety? Are they all in on Buckner hitting his stride year 2 in the program (possibility). Fort being the #1 guy (possibility). Ball / Davis being improved. Sutton? I'm more pro-KK than most, just not sure he's one we can expect this huge improvement with.

Notable weight movers. Olson (DL) - 280 from 255 Carroll (OL) - 280 from 285 Baretz (LB) - 230 from 215 Schweigert (DL) - 275 from 265 Parks (LB) - 230 from 220 Anderson (OL) - 305 from 285

Here is a list of players who were not on the Fall 2022 roster, who are on the Spring 2023 roster. Griffin Jr (5th) - DL <Northern Illinois> Saltonstall (Sr) - DL <New Mexico> Eliodor (5th) - WR <South Dakota> Egunjobi (Jr) - OL <Manitoba> German (Jr) - OL <Purdue> Guys that I didn't see anything reported on, potential surprises. German

Spring Roster is out. Here is the list of players who were on the 2022 Fall roster who are not on the Spring 2023 roster. Agyekum (So) - DB Coley (Jr) - DB Lennon (Jr) - DL Keech (Jr) - DL Thorsness (Jr) - DL Morrison (Gr) - DL Ledbetter (Fr) - DL Fenelon (5th) - K White (Sr) - LB MVJ (Sr) - LB Kimball (Jr) - LB Cooper (Gr) - LB Lehman (Fr) - LB Krzanowski (5th) - LB Christian (Sr) - OL Weber (So) - OL Neustel (Jr) - OL Oliphant (Gr) - OL Kelzenberg (Fr) - OL Peterson (5th) - P Mitchell (So) - RB Hoosman (Gr) - RB Moe-Tucker (Fr) - RB Steckler (Sr) - TE Zavalney (Jr) - TE Burian (Sr) - WR Preston (Jr) - WR Maag (5th) - WR Guys that I didn't see anything reported on, potential surprises. Agyekum, Lennon, Weber, Kelzenberg, Mitchell.

The feeling is night and day different from where we were following the SDSU game. I really do feel good about the direction regardless of how they do in the tournament. Good point about keeping players though. On one hand, are there special situations / opportunities? BJ might have that. I would consider, IF he gets a chance to go to the UofM to be something you wouldn't blame him for taking that opportunity. On the other, nobody else that has previously left (Rebraca being the exception) leveled up to the point that would make sense to leave. Three years in a row of losing your best Freshman would absolutely be a trend. I will say, the difference this year would be, I like the rotation they have right now and only Danielson is gone for sure. Let's say you lose one but keep everyone else. That's still a win for me.

Hedquist is having another strong year in net for Aberni Valley. 2.78 GAA (7th in BCHL) // Last year 2.53 GAA .913 SV% (9th in BCHL) // Last year .909 SV% Hedquist has been solid for the past two years. Consistent. Hoping the plan is to bring him in next year. Have him compete for the starting job with a transfer goalie.

This year has been disappointing on so many levels. What I'll say is one of the things that is uniquely disappointing about this year is let's call it development for a handful of young, talented players. There are four underclassman all talented, that at different points in this season have been buried. Either scratched completely for large portions of the season or play so few minutes where the games played is deceiving. I hope they don't, but I wouldn't blame any of the four for transferring out. This has been a year of lost development. My personal opinion, and it's been something that has been frustrating to watch. Let's use #6 as it's the most obvious example. It would be one thing if the other 6 (or 7) defenseman were lights out. This is the same for the Forward group as well. There are a handful of locks in the line-up that I cannot believe are. The inconsistency is crazy to me. Player X makes a mistake and sits for the rest of the game, player Y makes the same mistake and doesn't miss a shift. Then makes it again. Also, the mismanagement of the Goalie situation when there's only one legitimate D1 goalie on the roster was insane. Remember when DeRidder didn't play at all when Western was in town? For me, not just the wins and losses. This has been a really bad season on so many levels.

There isn’t a coach on this planet that loves mediocre 5th year / Seniors more. The more average (or preferably) below average the better. He cannot wait to get 13 back for his 5th year! Culture!

If I'm misremembering this, please correct me. The first year Berry missed the playoffs, the rhetoric from the media was every run has to come to an end. Just won a National Championship, the program had just made 16 straight tournament appearances. What was the spin the second year? Why I use the word spin, is I'm already seeing a lot of, just won three straight regular season titles being used as a crutch to follow this year's disaster. Schlossman is as good as it gets, but we also know he's not going to ask the hard questions. We also know the radio / tv guys will not either. Berry does not have to worry about the media. I've tuned out Berry, because I find his interviews to be a whole lot of nothing and that just adds to the frustration. My question though, is does anyone recall any type of interview that Berry gave after the previous two times his teams missed the playoffs where he gave any sort of "we need to figure out what's not working" type of statement? "We need to get better at this position" type of deal? What I've always liked about Bubba (Football Coach) and his interviews is he's very transparent. It feels to me anyway that he's on the same page as the fan. He doesn't call out anyone individually, but he says what everyone else already knows. "We need to improve in these areas". I've never gotten that feeling from Berry. I would feel better if I felt Berry "got it". I'm not sure he does though.

Completely agree. As much as (rightfully so) the defense / goaltending has gotten much of the blame, too often there have been nights like last night where they’ve struggled to put the puck in the net. It’s one of those years where if it’s not one thing it’s another.

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Don't have a year where you have a positional group where you don't have a single player ready to come in. I don't think the ridiculousness of that truly resonates with everyone. You're the coach of UND, having two high level defensive recruits in a Freshman class shouldn't be hard. What happens now? You have to go back to the portal this upcoming offseason, because you can't have X amount of Freshman on defense.

I don't disagree with anything you said in the first two paragraphs. I do think the important distinction that you do point out is this year has been different than the two previous where they missed the playoffs. Where we might disagree, is I think Berry is an average coach. With UND's advantages, missing the playoffs (regardless of the reasons) 3 times in 7 years is concerning. You won't hear me ever talk negatively about recruiting (outside of the frustration with the head-to-head with Minnesota), because I think that's still been fine. Given UND's advantages, you should be able to recruit well. As to who I think would do better. To me the clear-cut favorite would be Brett Larson. What he's done at St. Cloud, given his resources has been incredible. Staffs in the NCHC that are better in my opinion, but probably wouldn't be interested. Denver clearly. Duluth maybe would be interested. How about Western? To me it really comes down to, I think Berry does less with more (UND advantages) and other programs do more with less. Why I'd be so high on Brett Larson. Call it the Motzko effect. Someone who had so much success at St. Cloud, but just look at what happens when you give him resources.

This times 100. It's frightening how bad he is at his job.

I'll slightly disagree with you here. If you were to rank, I would agree they'd fall into the Top 12 overall. I guess if they are two of the best players, then I can clearly see why this team is under .500. The issue I've had is there have been games where I would argue they've been some of the worst forwards. I do think they should be scratched if their play dictates that. I'm not the only one who feels this way. It's not just those two. One of the many things that Berry does that is frustrating is certain players have a lock on a roster spot, regardless of how they play. Senden and Hain are two of those. Others do not have that luxury.