AJS

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UND's losses are broken into two groups, Seniors and Early Departures. I've felt this entire time that the coaching staff is using the transfer portal to replace the early departures. (For that purpose I'm excluding Ferner replacement of Rieger). Let's pretend there was a subjective Madden ranking type system for college hockey. Early Departures (Pinto / Blaisdell / JBD / Scheel) Additions via transfer portal (Ford / Calder / Jandric / Driscoll) Taking emotion out of it, do you think the average for the "Additions" would be higher than the "Early Departures"? I'm not starting a who would you rather want conversation. Just that simple question. UND is absolutely in the conversation in the NCHC and Nationally next year.

The NCHC is going to be tough next year no doubt. If UND is able to procure another legitimate Top-6 guy from the Portal, I think they'll still have as good of a chance as anyone next year. One of the major components you have to look at when analyzing how a team will be is their performance this year. I'm going to pick on Western. They were awful this year. The players that are returning are great players, but, unless they really upgrade elsewhere, I still don't think they are a Top half team.

It's a fun comparison. Don't get me wrong, I think UND's D-Core is going to be really good next year. I've said it before, but Sanderson as a Sophomore makes UND's D-Core so unique as he'll be the most dominant player in College hockey next year.

Talent wise their top four were Johnson (Sophomore), LaCombe (Sophomore), Faber (Freshman), Koster (Freshman). Compare that with who UND is going to lose (Seniors / JBD who stayed until his Junior year). This place is so weird most of the time.

#1 Seed this year. They return. Jack LaFontaine (Mike Richter Award Winner). Elite Goaltending. Defensively, it was my understanding that they were on Par w/ UND last year. They return everybody but Rossini. They'll be better next year than this past year with LaCombe / Faber / Koster / Johnson / Brinkman all being a year older. Goaltending / Defensively they were elite last year and return everyone of importance. Offensively. They do lose Ranta / Reedy / McManus, but return a lot as well. Have one of the best recruiting classes, plus just picked up Cruikshank. They are stacked. Far from a guarantee they'll win it all, but it's hard to argue they aren't one of the favorites.

Minnesota / Michigan on paper will be the two favorites going into next year. I see Minnesota next year as this past years UND team. Guaranteed #1 seed type team.

Huge get for the Gophers. All eyes on Calder.

I'm taking a very simplistic look at this. This might be the wrong thread for this conversation, but we have the now and the Fall. The now, of course they won't be better without Hergel, but I think they'll be fine. You surround Kilty (who has received rave reviews) with four veterans. This wasn't a unit that struggled this Spring, they've been so good. I'm fired up to see what Kilty brings. Expectations for Saturday have not changed at all. Looking ahead to the fall. They have a lot of things going for them (1) Everyone can comeback. I'm not sure what Tobin or Nguon's plans are (2) O-Line Coach (3) Young talent.

Since his intentions are to transfer, I'm very happy he did it now. Get reps for the new starter. Can someone else confirm the if transferring to FBS they need to be enrolled by May? If true that's actually really nice. At least then you know you won't be losing any other starters who don't jump before then.

Let the chips fall where they may. As much as I hope for a home playoff game of course, I'm ok with wherever they end up. I know I'll be in the minority, but for some reason I was really excited with Haley's projected first round matchup sending UND right back to Fargo. Fully realizing that for whatever reasons right now (current NDSU team) that I still think that UND has the lowest % to win their over any other place in FCS, the game on March 20th was so bad, that I want them to have another shot. Excited for it. Side note: I have no problem with Weber / SHSU as undefeated Conference Champs getting seeded. Zero. It would be weird with no real non-conference games to seed 2 teams from one conference. I really do have a problem with SDSU getting a seed over UND. What are we doing if head to head doesn't matter. It really is bizarre that nobody seems to be bringing this up (Regional / National level outside of UND Fans).

Potentially jumped the gun with Calder jumping Cruikshank as hopefully the #1 target, although I still agree with a 1a / 1b scenario. I was excited to see him in the portal. There are not many that really fit the mold of what I believe the coaching staff is looking for. Since Calder does, I hope the full court press is on. As far as S. Jandric, I'm not worried at all about how the top talent in the WCHA translates to the NCHC. It might not be a slam dunk like Cruikshank would, but at the same time, we would all have to take a deeper dive into what didn't work this year with S. Jandric and Denver. I know you aren't saying it, but just generally speaking the coaching staff is not just looking at stats when they are offering. Getting ahead of myself here, but I really do think Calder or Cruiskhank would change the outlook for next year. Either one would be huge.

UND has one more Forward spot we all feel confident they'll use the Portal for. Ashton Calder (Jr) of Lake Superior State checks every box. All-WCHA 2nd team member this past year. Tied league lead with 16 Goals (w/ Ford). Junior. Wore letter. Lead the team in scoring this year with 29 points (outside of Veillette who is also in the Portal, nobody was close). 2nd on the team in scoring as a Sophomore (28 Points in 41 Games). Had 22 Points as a Freshman as well. This wasn't a situation where he just exploded this year. He was on the All-WCHA Rookie team. He's steadily improved every year. He might jump Cruickshank for me as the hopefully #1 Target. Regardless, he's one of the few handful right now in the Portal that would check all the boxes.

Quick Google search of a few Bracketology's (Dom Izzo's and Sam Herder of Hero sports) and I've readjusted my expectations for UND getting a seed. Neither of them had SDSU as a seed either. Both also think Weber State will get one of them.

Thinking out loud, but since the original rankings came out NDSU has gone 2-0 and SDSU has not played. I think it would be much cleaner for UND if NDSU beat SDSU this Saturday. Then UND has the head to head vs SDSU as well as 1 loss vs 2. There is zero argument for SDSU to be ahead of UND with an NDSU win. With the deserved reputation NDSU has as well as the head to head beatdown, it gets muddy if NDSU loses on Saturday. It's best for UND if NDSU beats SDSU this Saturday.

Thank you @Siouxperfan7 for the breakdown. Being practical, there should be no reason that UND is not slotted at the #4 spot come Sunday. That would be a huge deal.

Usually "depth" guys don't commit years before they are expected to arrive on campus. I would say the time frame is usually 6 months or less than when they arrive on campus.

I don't believe that is the case, given Feeney is the practice goalie and will only be a Junior next year. I am a big proponent of the "Extra" guy being local though.

I would have agreed with you before Costello. Even less so given he's a Goalie. I'm not saying he will or he won't, but they've shown recently that even if they are local, if they aren't going to add value, they won't be brought in.

UND loses (10 Players <Non-Goalies>) 59 of 114 Goals (52%) 115 of 194 Assists (59.3%) 174 of 308 Points (56.5%) UMD Loses (4 Players) (Since Sandelin said he wants the Seniors back, I am not counting them. We'll wait and see who returns. Below is making the assumption Noah is also signing, so it'll be only the 4 early signings) 46 of 84 Goals (54.8%) 66 of 140 Assists (47.1%) 112 of 224 Points (50%) Notes UMD played one less game, but scored 30 goals less goals than UND. 4 of UND's departures combined for 4 goals and 9 assists, so 6 players did almost all of the damage for the departing players

Duluth will be interesting to track this offseason. Sandelin said he does want his Seniors back, so that's an interesting wrinkle as outside of one-off guys, I haven't seen another program that has brought back a majority of their Senior class. I bring that up, because for the rest of the NCHC it's important that some of those key guys leave. Swaney / Jackson Cates is a nice start. One and two on the team in points. Hoping Koepke and Noah Cates aren't far behind.

What are they doing in the NCHC then?

Really surprised by the pushback from my post. I thought that would have been the general consensus. For those against it, is it both Bemidji and Mankato for Western / Miami? Would you support a Miami for Mankato switch? The NCHC was formed to compete with the Big 10 as the fear at the time was you would have big schools with big budgets and they would basically take over power in college hockey. That never came to fruition. The Big 10 is on the upswing, but we have enough data to know that the original fears will never truly materialize. Let's start over with Miami for Mankato. Who says no (outside of Bemidji and Western)? UND is trading one flight for a bus trip. NCHC Tournament there's one more team within close proximity.

Here to emphasize Win and You're in. This has been the perfect scenario for UND. Not only looking at Spring Football and the playoffs, but also ahead to Fall. You get a month off to heal and collect yourselves and then back to live action. From a total number of "regular" season games, 6 seems more manageable in the Spring than 8. Win and you pick up momentum. Playoffs. It's a very important game.

My ideal scenario would be Western / Miami goes to the new CCHA, Bemidji and Mankato replaces them in the NCHC. Who (outside of Western) says no? Waive any type of exit fee. It just makes sense. It would be more financially viable for all schools. Creating for the most part two bus leagues. Travel costs goes down, you'd see a slight uptick in ticket sales as easy road trips for the majority of schools fan base. If Western doesn't want to leave, then keep them and replace Miami with Mankato. It just makes too much sense for everyone to not do it.