Scratch

These three are who I had in mind. Of those three, 1 is a high end NHL player. And he's the only high end NHL player UND has developed since the championship. The other blue bloods have had single years recently where they've developed as much NHL talent as UND in a decade.

Unfortunately I suspect those that think of UND as top notch are mostly those that don't pay close attention--UND hasn't been top notch at winning or developing high end players in nearly a decade

Well it looks like I'm wrong about the expectations for next year and agree that "skilled" is a pretty vague descriptor that didn't even make sense in the way I was trying to use it (Swanson is skilled, but at this point is not a player who would add to a team being "loaded" in my mind). To me loaded roughly means 4 players on offense reasonably expected to put up big points-say high 30s+-based on draft status or past college production. For example, 2 freshman that are first rounders or have a resume like Zellers, in combination with at least 2 older players who are also first rounders or have already put up high 30s-ish points at an NCHC, BIG10, or HEA school. I'd say 4 players that are 2nd round or higher could make for a loaded team, especially if the middle 6 is rounded out with other players capable of putting up 25+ points. Hopefully next years team plays D like UMD 5 years ago.

When Michigan is loaded they usually make the frozen four tho, like the loaded BU BC and MN teams lately and most of our teams under Hak. No disrespect to the new guys but at least on paper this team appears to have either zero or one skilled player depending on how Zellers works out. If they were loaded the frozen four would be an expectation. I think most here would agree this team making the frozen four would be somewhere between surprising and miraculous

whoops that was meant to be in response to

If the only reason Sanderson played here is because he was kidnapped and held hostage by the coaches for 2 years I'd take it over not having him. Lots of people are very good at their jobs without liking their companies.

Me too, id love to watch some firepowrr

In my estimation losing Boisvert is the dagger for next season as a whole, much like losing Blake was. It appears the only way this roster will have a single first line talent is if Zellers is lights out from day one. The anticipated forward group to me looks like one second line, two third lines, and one fourth line. Livanavage could be the highest scorer like the Wolanin year, roster reminds me of the 18-19 teams that were depressing. I'd be shocked if this forward group averages more than 3 goals per game. Not sure where the optimism that our D should be good next year is coming from, its the same slightly worse than average D from this year. Hopefully Jackson can get our players to improve as they get older.

I think this is exactly right, but in a bad way. With NIL, UND is now a Western/Penn State type program, where we will never have elite talent and everything has to come together to make the frozen four, which will happen maybe once a decade like it does for all the second-tier programs. The only teams that habitually make the frozen four (BC, BU, Denver, Mich, and MN) now are only going to make it more often when a player like Boisvert is their third line center. To those still denying NIL's impact or even its existence in hockey-do you think Ausmus and Schloss and everyone plugged in to college hockey is making all these numbers up?

Will be criminal if Buium doesn’t win the Hobey. Especially if Leonard wins guy has whiffed on at least 3 shots this game

Matt Davis owns BC like Nathan Gerbe owns Joe Finley

I think we've been conditioned to think loaded teams are overrated, but I would bet no with 4+ first rounders has ever missed the tournament.

My concern is that going forward we aren't even considered by first round picks because why would they come here when they are offered six/seven figures elsewhere. Schloss says so what who needs em, and sure you can win with a team of untalented 25 year olds, but who wants to watch that? For me, first round talent is often the difference between a Sioux team I enjoy watching and one that seems to be a chore to watch (then you have option c this years team with first rounders but still painful to watch).

I don't have a link, but in Schlossman's latest pod and liveinfive appearance he describes the opt in vs opt out rules and how the big difference is paying people directly. He seems to know what he's talking about

I suspect Denver will directly pay their players like the other big dogs, but if not, I'd guess they'll be in the same unfortunate shape as us.

On Schmaltzs podcast last week Schloss said he knows of a player this year who was paid directly by a school the equivalent of a year of ELC to stay another year. The minimum ELC is 775k. If that’s right, the whole “hockey nil will only be in the single/tens of thousands” idea that people seem to believe and which Schloss somehow continues to argue holds true, can’t be. In his podcast a couple weeks ago, Schloss couldn’t even remember the name of UNDs collective, and the school has already said they won’t pay players directly (albeit that decision will be addressed annually, apparently). Schloss then essentially posited that players are being misled by the supposed big money and that UNDs $5,980 Alston awards are essentially of equal value to a 100k nil offer because the players full ride is gone if they take the nil. This is without considering the advantageous position schools that are only D1 in hockey will start to have next year. All I’ve heard from the Bismarck diehards is that they haven’t heard of any big money donors and have no reason to believe UND players are receiving any nil at all. If any of this is true, can anyone explain how UND can possibly remain competitive regardless of the coach? We will never get a Jake Sanderson again even if they want to go to UND-saying no to 10k is one thing but when the offer is instead quickly approaching one million the decision makes itself. I’m on the fire berry wagon but looking forward I don’t think even Herb Brooks could fix it through recruiting and coaching alone. But I certainly could be wrong about any of this. Last, Schloss bringing up the “last first round picks to win the title were from UND” thing is becoming more indefensible every time he says it. How many first round picks do the teams that make the frozen four every other year the last decade on average (BU, BC, Michigan, and MN) have Schloss? I don’t understand why the media wants us to compare ourselves to Mankato unless that’s where they think we’re headed.

One of the announcers called James “one of the premier players in the country” earlier. Blowing smoke up our asses harder than Schloss

If im a potential recruit and i see the pained look on the freshmen players faces when they’re being forced to play video games with Budge im going anywhere else

In the games he was able to play his sophomore year I think Sanderson was either the most dominant Sioux player I’ve ever seen or second to parise

Good point, I agree that’s as critical as I’ve heard them too. I just think their harshest opinions are far too charitable. How has the fact this season happpens half the seasons with Berry never been discussed. They know what the fans are talking about and dance around engaging with it in my view

Update on second half of schlosscast- basically recognize this season is over by talking about how good this team could be next couple years with current commits. Say Zellers will be good, but every other forward recruit either doesn’t score or isn’t close to ready for college lol. Hammer portal hard per usual.

Half way thru this week's Schlosscast. So far its another week of "if I cherry pick a couple power play goals and pretend they didn't give them up, they would be 16 in the pairwise right now." Then bringing up UND's history of going on second half runs in the second half "over the last 20 years" while leaving out that all of those runs were between 10 and 20 years ago with a different coach. Groundhog day for the team and the media apparently. At the end of the year I'm sure we'll here about how the the champion team had 0 first rounds picks while omitting that, like every year lately, the other frozen four teams were a combination of BU BC MN and Michigan.

I disagree that UND looks great even for moments. The only skilled plays UND makes are Swanson and Perron occasionally toe dragging a guy 50 feet from the net

All but impossible