SpudsSioux

Lindberg or Magnussen? Lindberg will a perfect bottom 6. I’m not really sure on Magnussen and don’t love if he’s coming in to fill a top 6 spot.

The other thing I didn't think about until Schloss's article was Lindberg's penalty killing. I said earlier I felt like this was an upgrade from Littler, Klee and Andrew for a similar role (bottom 6 guy), but I hadn't thought about the fact that neither Littler or Klee kill penalties. Schloss said Lingberg was CC's top penalty killing minute eater at forward. It's so nice when you can use your bottom 6 to kill penalties and next year UND should have plenty of that with Lindberg, Croal, Zakreski (and Ollie if he's not in top 6).

For sure. Schloss is in a tough spot because he likely already knows this stuff too but is held to a higher reporting standard (needing named sources to be able to print). He also is respectful about the players' and coaches' timelines for when they want it announced.

Wish they could have landed Wiebusch but Lindberg is a nice add. An upgrade from any of the three forwards that portalled out, in my opinion. Good size still, but better speed than any of them.

If Lindberg is a fit, this staff is going to know as well as anybody. Played for Smaby in Waterloo for two years.

100%. It's also hard when you're talking top 10 (and even top 5) picks because you don't know for sure if they'll even be playing in college until you see who drafts them. Obviously a lot of NHL orgs have come around to the NCAA route but there are still a few that if they draft Verhoeff or Carels top 5 that you worry about. It really feels like Carels is going to be at North Dakota unless the team that drafts him just wants to sign him right away. It will be interesting to see if he'll commit before that or wait. It makes Bryn's job that much harder (and really makes you respect a guy like Tyler Young that was willing to wait so long)

Bingo

It will be, but you can't do that in one year when you inherit a roster with 0 incoming junior forwards and 2 junior defense that are pro ready. This freshmen class is a really really good mix of high-end 2 year type guys and great 3-4 year guys. Klee was my least favorite of them so I'm not worried about losing one and keeping Verhoeff, Laurila, Reschny, Ollie, Kernan, Zakreski and Spoon. Now any of those portal out...then I'll change my tune.

Hard to fault any of these and we don't know how many are suggested/being pushed out. It's hard because I really liked this group, but also with their current pipeline and their big strong freshmen class, something had to give. They need to get a little more balanced in grades and roles (they are young with a lot of bottom 6 type guys. I would look for things to start getting more stable in the next couple years

I agree. If we miss out on the remaining big 3 (Carels, Dupont Rudolph) or lose Emery I'll be more nervous, but to get one of those guys, we needed to lose 3 so this makes sense. I think Verhoeff and Laurila were further along as Freshmen than Emery and Strathman were a year ago so I'm really optimistic about how big of a jump those two can take. If Emery take another jump like he did from Freshman to Sophomoreyear he could be a defensive defenseman of the year candidate next yaer. While "young" grade wise, they won't be terribly young by age. Laurila and McKenzie will be 20 years old, Lindberg 19.

Love Zakreski but I don't think he's playing over Croal. He's a +17...gotta be top 10 in Plus/Minus in the entire conference.

I know this is a great problem to have, but who sits if this team is healthy?? It's going to be hard to break up that Swanson - Reschny - Kernan line after the way they clicked last weekend. They could keep those same top two (Swanson - Reschny - Kernan and James - Rickwoord - Zellers) together and move Strinden back with Croal and Ollie. That line was awesome together early and would be a mismatch nightmare for other teams. I think Young is probably locked in down the stretch here to so you likely have Littler and Klee fighting for the last center spot and Zakreski and Menghini fighting for last wing spot. That's a tough line-up to crack and an even tougher line-up to play against

I'm pretty hesitant to compare anyone to Sanderson...haha. Players like him just don't come around very often. Playing style though, I would say closer to Sanderson than Kleven. He's huge, but he's also a very good skater and has a ton of poise/calmness to his game. Prototypical two-way defenseman.

True. That and since he accelerated and committed early it happened before Schloss’s annual “top targets” article. He would have been near the top of that list.

Was thinking the same thing. Huge get. Maybe most felt it was a gimmie because of his UND bloodlines.

Yeah I don’t know why they changed it. It seemed like they always had Reschny up there before. Now that unit really doesn’t have any of the 3 big skill/playmaker guys (Swanson, Reschny, zellers).

And so many of them weren't even committed (some the recruiting process hadn't even started), by the time Jax took over. To hit on all of those with such little time to evaluate, get to them, etc, was remarkable. I'm sure a lot of that had to do with BC already having some of that evaluating work done from being a GM. Kernan, Spunar, Reschny, Verhoff, Engal, Josphefson, all being recruited in that short turnaround is remarkable. Excited to see what this staff can do with more time!

It's funny but that game seems SO long ago. It was one, if not the worst, games of his career. Many on here wanted him in a suit the next game and I think many of us watched to see how Jax would handle it. Would Ben get a free pass being a senior and captain? Or would a tone be set. He didn't sit him, but he did bump him down to the fourth line the next game and Ben responded by scoring his first shift. He hasn't looked back since. I think it shows two things. One, that Jax wasn't all talk. He showed very early that there weren't going to be free passes this year. It also shows that Ben is the type of leader we want and need. He didn't pout; he found another level. When Jax talks about there being a clear delineation between the type of guys that chose to stay and the type that chose to leave, this example sticks out to me.

Don't both Pilgrim and A. Schultz have another year of eligibility? i believe you have to be 20 or under as of December 31. Ashton will turn 20 next October and Pilgrim won't turn 21 until February. Not saying they'll want to defer them as both are looking like they'll be ready, but I think they do have the option.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I wouldn't mind Brooks. I actually think his game translates better to the NCHC than the B1G. He's also the type of guy this staff seems to like to build around. Big and strong, wins an unbelievable amount of draws, good defensively, no nonsense. He's like a mini Matt that will likely over achieve his whole career by just doing the little things right all the time. You need those players anyway which they've shown they want (Brock Schultz). Why not take one that also has the added benefit of two high end skill guys coming with?

Swanson’s game absolutely requires him to be playing with a stud to utilize him. He’s not going to burn past defenders or create a ton on individual efforts. The beauty of his game is that he gets guys the puck in space and in scoring areas better than almost anyone (a lot like what Shaugabay does). If Swanson was playing with the Plantes, you’d see the same numbers out of him). He has shown his best chemistry with Zellers IMO ( when they get together on PP, 6 on 5, etc). I get you probably can’t put those two with Reschny and not be a defensive liability (at least this early), but I do think he needs to play with one of them to best use his skillset.

Could not agree more. Not only does this team not have any full lines in tact from last season; they only have one line that even has two on it that have played together before this year (Croal and Littler). Funny that line is the one that showed chemistry the earliest. I like that DJ is letting them settle in a little bit and build some chemistry. That first weekend the 4th line carried them offensively, but by this weekend the Rickwood line looked to be building some chemistry. I said before the Saturday game that the optimistic part of this team is that so far I really felt like they were winning games solely on grit and being hard to play against; they really hadn't been overly sharp yet chemistry-wise. That will get better as the season goes on, but being able to start 3-1 while they're still figuring it out gives me a lot of optimism for this group.

I thought Emery looked a lot better that period. He really struggled in the first but seemed to shake the rust off. He had a couple great defensive plays

Felt this way too. For a 7th D with protected minutes I’d prefer to get the guy with the higher ceiling reps. That being said, if there’s a plan to rotate early and this isn’t the status quo for the year I’m ok with it. With how many D they could lose this year, keeping and developing Strathman, Laurila and Jubenvil is going to be important.

That’s true. The “3rd line” listed for them last night was their top as far as skill goes. I would think lines 1 and 3 are their top 2 though so still impressive for our 4th to take it to them like that.