AJS

I know there's a real long line of players that switch commitments. I have a more basic very broad question. How many of the commitments that switch actual poaching type situations and not either players deciding to decommit on their own and open up their recruiting (Donovan / Boeser) or the University decides that player is no longer a good fit (Mitchell Mattson), or is it pretty common place for every school (usually be "bigger" named schools) to still be putting out feelers seeing if guys would be interested in switching?

Absolutely. This is far from a rare situation, but this particular one will be very interesting to see play out. One one hand, it's a great place to be having two quality guys that could step in, but there's only one spot. The coaches will know better than anybody who they feel is most ready and trust the relationships they have. I'm more interested than anything what goes into a decision like this. If they feel player A is slightly more ready than player B, but they feel player B would be more likely to seek other options, do they go with B? Very important to add that who knows if either A or B would seek other options.

I went back to read his most recent article about Poolman staying as I remembered Frisch being apart of the article. "the Fighting Hawks will likely bring defenseman and former Moorhead High player Ethan Frisch to campus in the fall to fill Shaw’s void." Likely kind of left it open to some speculation. Honestly, the only reason I brought it up was @The Exiled One post a couple days ago. I immediately thought Randklev, but now that has me second guessing. I know it's just a rumor, but where there's smoke.

It will be interesting to see who the lone freshman d-man is next year, by all accounts it'd be a real coin flip between Bast / Frisch. Both appear to be more than ready step in.

Kawaguchi - Blaisdell - Pinto Mismash - Rizzo - Adams Hain - Senden - Smith Caulfield - Weatherby - Bowen Hoff - Keane - Albrechdt (Sp) - Yon - Johnson Just like the last couple of years, I actually like the forward group on paper. We'll see if it finally translates. Mix and match the high end freshman with the experienced forwards with talent until it works. Like most, I have high expectations for this Freshman class, give them a lot of ice time and a chance to acclimate. The most important part is they are bringing talent, which this forward group lacked last year.

I also have a very novice look at each season, going over the roster turnover by position, how each group performed last year, ect.. Especially for Football, assuming that injuries notwithstanding that a player should become better each year with more development / strength / reps. I gave a pretty detailed breakdown of the defense a couple weeks back. The back seven only lost 3 players, spread pretty evenly that contributed last year. Two starters (CB, OLB) and a depth ILB. That's about as good as it gets. DE lost one starter also. Big question is at NG. Touching on the OL. They basically had 7 guys who contributed and could be classified as "starters". Six of them return next year. It'd be my assumption that the group should be stronger next year having six players with experience. Five of those were underclassman last year as well. There's been a couple of other names thrown out there as well, who should be able to add to the depth.

Which IMO would be a mistake. Look at the NTDP camp going on right now, most are already committed and are currently the best players in the country in that age group. Can and will that change? Definitely, some will drop off and others will ascend. You'll still see a fair amount of those kids as the best in two years. To me, the recruiting philosophy should be going after the best 15 / 16 year old recruits and monitor from there. It's much easier to part ways with a recruit that didn't materialize and like you mentioned, there's a lot of them, then it is to find the next game changer at a later date. To be honest, it's kind of how things have been. It's been brought up ad nauseam, but it's true. I'm convinced this is a one class mess that was kind of a perfect storm. Misstep that had local players with the combination of Berry's nice guy personality and couldn't make the tough decisions to make changes when he should have.

From his expectation going into this year, he seems to have slipped, but really, he's put up pretty decent numbers this year. Blaisdell has gotten more attention (and will be a fantastic player), but Rizzo has had pretty comparable numbers. Seem to be different players, similar size wise, but Blaisdell seems to be more of a scorer, Rizzo a playmaker. Put them on the same line next year!

Poolman returning really is big news. The defensive unit was really good last year and will be even better next year. They should be lights out good, like sure fire Top 3 in the country good. They lose Shaw, who I thought was terrific last year, very underrated. When you have that deep of a core of guys and only lose one, that's about as good as you can ask for. Why the excitement for next year? Two separate true "Top Pairs" - Mix and match Poolman, Kierstad, JBD, Bast (Tychonick) - There's no real drop off Top End Talent: Poolman, JBD, Kierstad have a chance to be All-Conference in some aspect Upperclassman: The Top 7 will finally have more upperclassman (4) than underclassman (3) Depth: Besides the five I named above, Peski is really solid. A great 6th / 7th defenseman Huge Strides: As far as draft status, the two guys who should make huge jumps are JBD / Tychonick. JBD was really solid all year (as you should expect from a 1st rounder), but Tychonick was night and day better the 2nd half half of the season. Both were 18 year old Freshman last year. We all know Defense / Goaltending wasn't the problem last year, but what's in place for '19/'20 is really, really exciting. It's national championship type caliber stuff. I also realize that's just half the battle, but it's a great start.

Tell USCHO, they created the list.

Even though the year is over and for as frustrating as this team was offensively and the PP was the worst I've ever seen, it's crazy to think that if UND just didn't get swept by Western in Grand Forks, if they won the Friday game they dominated, they would have finished 3rd and not 5th in the NCHC.

Count me in the group that is against making wholesale changes to the now Senior class, with the time it takes to acclimate to the college game and the time frame in which those you could recruit those extra players, I see it as a huge net negative. If I could wave a magic wand, my ideal off season for UND would be as follows. We know of 5 incoming Freshman forwards that have signed, four high caliber, true freshman and one overager, more of a walk on depth guy. There were only 3 Senior forwards on last years roster. My ideal summer with the forward group would be to cut two of the soon to be Senior forwards. There's two guys to me and it's glaring that have a roll that's either not needed or others can do it better. That would equal out the number of forwards leaving and coming in, while maintaining a pretty balanced roster by class. 3 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 4 Sophomores, 5 Freshman. On defense, not lose anyone early and replace Shaw with Frisch. I would be against replacing Rieger with Bast, although clearly a positive move talent wise, but I really feel you need the 8th guy as someone who really knows their role. If you replace Bast with Rieger I just don't think there's enough ice time to go around. Quick summary would be cutting two soon to be Senior forwards and replacing the other outgoing Seniors with incoming Freshman.

I can definitely get on board with that definition @Ogie Ogelthorp and the expectations that @The Sicatoka laid out to categorize them as "busts". I'll just never understand what went into the construction of the class once everything played out, meaning around Christmas the year prior. It was clear what this class was at that point. At that time it was nothing but making the tournament and Frozen Four performances, so there was obviously a lot of confidence (especially with Hak) that he could turn them into something. The huge misstep was last summer and I'll never understand how no changes were made.

The soon to be Senior 6 man forward class.

If he somehow misses the tournament again next year, I do think he's gone. I don't think it'll come to that though, I genuinely think things turn around next year and with the anchor being released a couple weeks from now next year, this will just be a bad two year dream.

Obviously meaning Forwards, but just wanted to clarify. My overall complaint isn't one of the 6 soon to be Forwards individually. I really like what Smith brings, I also like Bowen as a 4th line type guy. You could even make an argument for any other player individually, like Hoff has a chance to step up as we've seen flashes. Johnson you could stick on the 4th line in certain situations or be a guy who only plays because of injuries, same with Yon. The problem is under any circumstance you can't have all 6 as for the most part 5 of the 6 would have the same type role that in all reality you would only want 4 total on your roster having. The Freshman class this year (Senden / Hain / Keane) also play those type of roles and already do them better.

I have a problem with the term bust and this class, because what were people really expecting? This has been my problem with this class since Day 1, it didn't make any sense at the time and clearly it still doesn't make sense. I'm going to take Johnson out of the equation since he wasn't brought in as a forward. You had Jost (Blue Chip) and Hoff (Good recruit) coming in that should have been expected to contribute. Jost was a maximum two year guy, only was here for one, but met expectations. Hoff hasn't lived up to expectations and I'd consider so far a bust. Then we get to Bowen / Yon / Smith. I don't know what Bowen / Yon showed in Juniors that would have made anyone believe they were anything more than what they've become. Smith was the "lesser league" guy playing in the MJHL and has probably exceeded expectations. My ultimate point is you had 60% of the class that shouldn't have had expectations to begin with, that's not fine. You should never have over half of your class as role type players. Johnson switching to Forward has further put this class in a mess, because again, what would you expect? Side note: To bring in my post before about not seeing 3 underclassman cut (which won't happen), but would also be very frustrating to see a guy like Adams (possibly) transfer is I believe Berry has played favorites with this Junior class. This Junior class wasn't a "bust class", the writing has been on the wall, but given where some of the players were from basically has given them immunity to stay on the roster, even though last year a serious look should have been given to look for other options. Not taking that hard look helped put himself and this team in the position of (1) Not making the tournament again (2) Having 6 forwards who will now be Seniors that are all role players.

Really? The underclassman list is: Sophomores: Bast / Kierstad / Adams / Mismash / Kawaguchi / Rieger - There's no way in any world the four I have in bold would get cut, Adams transferring would leave a really bad taste in my mouth. Rieger would make sense given his current situation in the lineup and possibility of needing to find room for both Frisch and Bast. Freshman: JBD / Tychonick / Senden / Hain / Keane / Weatherby: Honestly, given the roles they had to have been brought in for, the only person who under performed was Weatherby, but cutting someone after just one year would be ridiculous. I don't see anyway the number is 3, I see Rieger as the only real possibility and Adams transferring as the other possibility.

For the most part, you're absolutely correct, my point more is on the emphasis that each player is so important. I'll add Luke Johnson to the list @hky added above. They've definitely kept players that had offers as well, looking to next year I'm looking at a guy like Poolman. IF they can keep a clean slate this summer, I think you'll see it do wonders next year.

I just can't emphasis how much each early departure truly matters when looking at next years roster (players sign pro contracts). UND losing the most players early over the past 3 years has played a huge part into missing the playoffs two years in a row. I'm in wait and see mode until that all gets worked out.

I would say a very positive first article regarding players leaving early. It'll be wait and see, of course, but I like that only Poolman was mentioned. https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/hockey/4586024-colton-poolman-wants-make-decision-future-fairly-quickly

UND winning one game against this Denver team in six games might be worse than getting swept at Canisius.

We've all seen it before, guys like Hextall and Johnson come to mind.