Brim006

Agreed. Statistically speaking, playing middle of the road ball in the MV and BS for as many years as UND has, they should have had at least twice as many as they have. So even without improvements they would've been bound to have more in the future just by the laws data playing at that level and conference. But with improvements added into the mix as well, I think UND is about to see it happening much more often.

Ah yes, I forgot about Toivonen and Maag. I recall Toivonen getting some playing time and even a few catches in pre-season games. His body type got him the opportunity and he did quite well with his opportunity, but it still wasn't enough for a roster shot unfortunately due to a pretty stacked roster that year. Still pretty wild that quite a few local NSIC D2 teams have been producing comparable numbers of NFL talent as UND. Mankato, Augustana, UMD, and even the late St. Cloud team had a few recently. Mankato likely the most impressive list since 2010 in Thielen, Chris Reed and Shane Zylstra who all had/have substantial playing time holding starting positions for multiple years. Hell even lowly late UMC had a kid who played there for 2 years before they folded and he transfered to NDSU and is still playing in the NFL (Mason Miller).

That's a bummer for Bo, I was optimistically thinking he would at least sneak onto a PS somewhere. I didn't count Kenny G. since he transferred to NIU after UND. But the other guys in that bucket would include Kyle Hergel and Kilty too. Before that I think we have to go all the way back to around 2004-2005 for Chris Kuper. Crazy Nice to see UND winning some of the recruiting battles that they would've been losing in the recent past though. That is a small step in the right direction!

I haven't seen a peep about Bo during or after the draft, so it must be safe to say he doesn't even have a shot at a practice squad or anything at this point? Despite UND being mediocre since the move to FCS, it's actually quite surprising how few NFL players they have produced just solely due to playing in the MV and BS before that. 1 OL draftee who was through and through UND the whole way in the past 10-15 years? Hopefully I'm missing some... Woof Hopefully the development process improvement is as big as the winning culture improvement is with the new coaching staff. It would be exciting to see a guy get drafted at least once in a great while. Or signed afterwards. Some other MV teams are getting more guys drafted in a single day than UND has in the past 2 decades. Bo was debatably one of the best UND players in the past 5-10 years and he doesn't even get interest? Only up to go from here for Schmidt and the boys!

Looks like Team ND beat Michigan U18 today 4-2. Goals by Mattern (shorty), Diehl, Clauson and Deziel (empty netter). Seems like that is a good win and a good start to the tournament. Does anyone know where to watch online? It might be fun to watch Mattern and Morelli on the same line. Looks like they're 1st line together and PP1 together from what I can tell.

Any news of early departures other than Mattern obviously? Or kids transferring in or out of state to other towns/schools? I'll be curious to see what ends up happening with the FN+FS debacle.

Yes they rotate back and forth each year. Had the game been in Fargo between 2 GF teams I doubt they would've gotten 6.5k attendance, thus wouldnt have had to turn people away. But with title games surpassing 5k some years, it does make a good point of not having to turn away fans. But as well all know and have discussed, the second on site rink is a big deal. And until the REA changes their practice rink to a standard sheet with some bleachers it will always have that drawback and the back and forth rotation will continue.

Geez, 6.5k folks at the title game this year is fantastic. From the doom and gloomers on this board, it sounded like there were only 150 people there.

1 temporary step back, 3 long term steps forward.

I just read a story about Grafton Park River area youth hockey numbers growing back to their historically strong water marks. They have 175 in youth hockey and see strong varsity+JV numbers for the foreseeable future. That's encouraging to see and hear, especially if you look at the steady population decline of that area of the state. Anyone know how hockey participation is doing in some of the other "smaller" schools/programs around the state? Bottineau+Rugby, HB, DL+Cando, Mayport, Jamestown+VC? It seems like HB has been hanging on by a thread for years now, and Mayport youth numbers look pretty thin, so I'm wondering if they will be able to continue fielding a varsity team or not. It would be great if Wahp would come back to ND, but I doubt that will happen due to having FAR more success playing in MN than in the EDC since they moved.

This past season I continually heard it was about 3/4 or more of the varsity. Which essentially means just a couple south kids on varsity, but I can't confirm.

That's a tough situation due to the lop-sided numbers. It appears there are only 3 likely possibilities....with a pipe dream 4th. 1. They co-op and have to cut roughly 15 kids - seems like the worst option IMO due to NDHSH needing all the teams and kids they can get but is probably the most likely option at this point. 2. Keep North and South separate, and if South can find a goalie they field only a varsity team that runs a season similar to what Mayport does. 3. Keep North and South separate, but South taps out and South kids are allowed to join or try out for the North team. 4. They co-op but they create 2 North-South varsity teams and 2 North-South JV teams to maximize the 65 available kids, and to avoid having to cut players. Maybe they split the kids up evenly by some sort of hockey-only district line. Seems too far outside of the box and too messy for long term but would be cool to see something happen to avoid the EDC losing a team and kids having to be cut.

I don't know enough about Jax to comment much. But one thing I do know and hope, is that he treats this program like a business rather than a high school team or college teams of years past. Bubs treated it too much like a good ole boys club or Batam B2 team. He allowed his roster to be bogged down with kids that clearly didn't belong on a top tier team such as UND, and often some that didn't belong in D1 hockey all together. He was hanging onto them all 4 years anyways because he was too nice. Casey Johnson, Zach Yon, Dane Montgomery, Bob Anderson....on and on and on. It happens! Players fall off, peak at different times, or just dont transition to the next level for whatever reasons. And recruiting mistakes are surpassable if they are dealt with as fast as possible, rather than just accepted and absorbed. Those depth players make all the difference in this current D1 landscape where nearly everyone can beat anyone on any given night. No more getting by with soft spots that our HC was too nice to deal with. UND needs a HC who's willing to handle those tough decisions and cut the fat when needed. It blew my mind some of them were allowed to stay on the team all 4 years, displacing far more talented players who could have contributed and made a difference in important mid-season games when injury bugs hit and deep rosters make all the difference. Additionally, I know UND has lost some good recruits due to pushing them to wait another year. If you're cutting fat and freeing up those spots, you allow yourself chances to make those small roster improvements and reduce recruit log jams from time to time. Without that you lack depth and don't win those must win games mid-season and late season. HCs should be the commanding officers, making the decisions to produce the best results, not consulting and being buddies with the team about keeping guys around because everyone likes them as a person and are friends. Bubs was likeable and appeared to have a lot of complimentary praise from past players, but he certainly didn't demand the respect or commanding powers to squeeze the most out of his players and teams like Hak and other successful coaches have had. Hearing Jax wants to hire a GM type role, and get more aggressive and up with the times on NIL and other important factors of the reality of college sports today is a great sign of moving things in the right direction. But I'll mostly be interested to see how much he treats this program like a business rather than a friendly group of pals who are okay with prioritizing friendships over performance.

With the instant success of many of these new D1 programs, and the overflowing D1 level talent with not enough teams to support them all, and now even more talent flowing in to displace even more D1 level kids, how many new D1 program could we see pop up over the next 5 years? And honest question, is or should NDSU be considering it? If they were agressive enough and wanted to dominate UND at yet another sport, I’d be willing to bet they could have a consistently stronger hockey program in place within 5 years if they wanted to. The money, the media, the fan support, the airport, and the Scheels rink already in place (until they build their own)…it could easily be done. What better time than now while UND athletics are on their knees in legitimately every single sport, even hockey. I’d unfortunately have to put my money on NDSU over UND for long term success of a hockey program due to being able to win essentially every aspect. Like it or not, crazy talk isn’t so crazy now days since things have changed so fast and I’d be surprised if there isn’t at least a little consideration happening

Serious question. Is it time UND considers the NSIC?

Absent on the recruiting trail? As in, not out there at all for some reason? Or out there but just not grabbing attention of top tier players like UND used to be able to in the past? Blows my mind guys like Schloss and others can say moving on from Berry was a bad move. How can anyone deny the steady decline of the program over the past 8-9 years? As of today is UND even considered a blue chip program anymore? Historically yes, as that will never go away, but as of today I mean. Sadly I'd say no.

Would be nice to get WahpBreck back too actually. That'd be 24 teams, when ND has been as low as 18 teams just 5-10 years ago.

You are correct, and that's the unfortunate reality of the game today.

I'm sorry, I'll admit I just made the assumption that the boys team was the same story as the girls. Which it sounds like it's not! My bad With the girls team, I have seen girls leave for there and asked how that even works. And was told that the girls coaches call around to poach top tier girls to come play for them and they typically offer a MW job that's already lined up to ensure a smooth transition etc. If that is just the girls team doing that, then I spoke out of line. If Warroad boys have been producing such competitive teams year after year with zero imports in that small of a town, that is super impressive.

We can agree to disagree. And I will admit that it's wrong of me to consolidate all cases/scenarios into 1 single opinion on the topic, so I'll do better at that. If someone is moving due to a career move, or other family reasons, that's completely different. Or if the home team and town isn't all warm and fuzzies with lifelong best friends, that's also completely different. I was only referring to the families that move solely for getting their kid onto a better team or league, which is the most common scenario. And unfortunately, more often than not, the kid has no business moving to JRs or moving to a better team since he/she hasn't even mastered their own league let alone team yet. Even then, I would never advocate for bullying them to stay or when they arrive somewhere new. I just think it's a gross culture, and I know it's a parent culture not a kid culture, because it's typically the parent's ego making the decision, not the kid's. In the certain instances where the family moves solely to get onto a better team or better league, we have all seen that the majority of the time it does little to nothing to benefit the kid's experience or development. Forcing them to quit on their lifelong friends to play with a new group sends a bad example on and off the ice character wise IMO. Why not stay, push yourself to be a leader, gut it out and get better, rather than bail and join a gravy train playing 3rd line. Moorhead's Mason Kraft made a point to speak on the importance of this exact topic during his championship speech. If the parents are delusional enough to truly think altering their entire life by moving away while their kid is in his prime high school fun years just to be on a better team of strangers, and that's really going to get them D1 offers they normally wouldn't have gotten, or will be their ticket to the NHL, so be it I guess. I must just be more of a realist I guess, so it all seems so bizarre to me. You couldn't have paid me to leave my friends even when I knew we would be mediocre. I would have looked back at that as a failure and it would have bugged me forever. Now if a kid leaves for a USHL offer, NTDP offer, or obviously has nothing left to gain from high school hockey, then again those are a different story. If I was a recruiter, I'd pick the kid who stuck it out and got better and made his teammates and friends better, over the kid who quit when the going got tough and took the easy route of just joining a better team. The NBA superstar teams and the transfer portal are extremely unpopular, and the same culture ramping up in high school sports is concerning to me. That's why I'm surprised I get so much flack on this board for this opinion. We have seen what all these moves do to high school hockey overall. Some of the smaller towns and smaller teams can't recover from losing 2-3 of their best players. Some of the bigger teams backfill with slight downgrades no problem, which isnt as big of a deal. But overall it has hurt the parity everywhere, but especially in ND. GPR, DL, BOTT, Bismarck etc etc. They have all lost dozens of players to transfers or early departures over the recent years and havent been competitive because of it. Some years they are just 1-2 players short of having 2 solid lines and d pairs to be a competitive program. And then it snowballs.

It's not just the crown jewel of MN, it is the crown jewel of HS state tournaments in the country, and that includes state football in Texas which is insane. That's why the negative comments, jabs and comparisons to the ND hockey state tournament seem silly to me. ND is 1/8th the population for 1, and 2, we're comparing it to the largest and most watched HS tournament in the entire nation.

Neither are they for Warroad but they have MW to lean on to bring in imports. Their girls team alone had what 3-4 ND girls this season? 4-5 last year?

You've never even HEARD of it? Rhame is epic Side note, I think all North Dakotans should travel to every corner of the state at one point in their lives. There is a lot more variety and uniqueness across the state that most don't realize. I'm looking at your Fargoians...the road does in fact continue west past Mapleton

Kind of a chicken before the egg scenario. Do Langdon, WC, NW, and Crosby need to create hockey as high school sports to make the 2 classes a feasible option, or do the 2 classes need to happen first and the teams would switch over then? It seems to make sense, and would definitely grow the sport in the state, but I'm worried doing it with only 20 teams might be a stretch, and also wondering how hard it is for those smaller schools to start hockey as school sports? Or do we just need Minot North and Horace to start 2 classes? And how many teams can ND junior gold lose before the league folds and GF, Minot and Fargo lose overflow teams for hockey kids.

From what I can find, it appears Edina only has about 6 kids playing D1 currently. I thought it would be far more. But I'd imagine there are some other schools that have more, but so far I cannot find any schools that have more than GFC+RR who combine for 12 current. Minot currently has 5, but only 3 of those played at least 1 year at MHS. Still more than I would've guessed.