nascar99

Ryder Ritchie & Cole Hutson would be the two I'd like. Sasha Boumedienne will be very good in a year or two, but he's just ok right now

Gruba didn't put up big numbers in junior until his 20 year old season, that tends to indicate you're not as good as someone putting up big numbers in their 17 or 18 year old season. Simple

Michigan State probably should have another title or 2 at least. Dominant regular season teams from 1982-1990 as well as 1998-2002, with only 1 National Championship (1986) to show for it. Actually a shame that Ron Mason (1979-2002 at State) only had 1 National Championship.

I take Minnesota HS production & HS players in general with a massive grain of salt because there's a relatively large hype train that comes from MN HS Hockey that overinflates player quality. Many guys do in fact turn out & become great in the NCAA or even the NHL, but many do not. I remember Ryder Donovan, Nick Pierre, Blake Biondi, Max Strand, Jack Peart and many others being overhyped as recruits/NHL prospects simply because of their HS prestige/résumé. Teddy Townsend and Leo Gruba are two current Gophers that have been overrated simply because of them being damn good MN HS players.

I generally take every player (especially in Minnesota) with a grain of salt until they start producing in junior, especially at younger ages in junior. Yes, junior production doesn't always translate, but it's certainly a good indicator when you can adjust from lower levels to a higher level and produce quickly.

Hoping Bryn Chyzyk is all in for Maddox Schultz (2010) and Liam Pue (2010), both of the Regina Pats

I think they've got a really good shot to do that, hell, they might be the favorite this year to win it all. Nightingale has turned them around from doormat to contender into virtually no time, now they just have to be clutch in the tournament. They're going to be relevant in recruiting and thus on the ice for a long time most likely: they've won recruiting battles for players that 10 years ago would have been near locks for Michigan/Minnesota/Denver/Wisconsin/North Dakota. They're positioned extremely well to recruit all of the CHL (especially the OHL obviously) at a high level and Nightingale's connections with the NTDP/USA Hockey have been crucial as well. Seems like the State athletic department decided to finally care about hockey again and made the right hire with Nightingale, good for them.

Would need to have multiple great seasons before potentially moving up to pro

Head Coach Anthony Noreen has done a good job getting guys from his previous team, the Tri City Storm (USHL) to Oxford, like Ilia Morozov. A couple under the radar nice additions like Kocha Delic and Ethan Hay out of the O plus Matteo Drobac out of USports (previously the O) as well. David Deputy being an instant contributor is a pleasant surprise for RedHawks fans. Giampa, Helgeson, & Lukashevich out of the portal were nice pickups as well.

What is the fandom breakdown in Moorhead for hockey? In the state of Minnesota, but on the North Dakota border. Obviously would be North Dakota State Football loyalists, but since they don't have hockey, curious which program Moorhead hockey people root for.

He's from Stevens Point Wisconsin and was committed to Ohio State before opting to stay closer to home and play for his home state team.

They do, but the only ones they've landed recently have been in their target recruiting territory of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and occasionally Western Canada. Not that hard to recruit locally/regionally, every notable NCAA program in every sport is able to do that. Wisconsin needs to get a Shane Pinto (New York), Matty Beniers (Massachusetts), Logan Cooley (Pennsylvania), Matthew Knies (Arizona), Zeev Buium (California), Drake Caggiula (Ontario), Alex Newhook (Newfoundland). Hell, Hastings did that on a much smaller scale recruiting Nathan Smith & Lucas Sowder (Florida) while at Minnesota State. Hastings has no excuse for recruiting losses/weak talent rosters in the age of CHLers being NCAA eligible. Just not sure how aggressive he'll be in Canada to get both high end talent & solid depth out of all 3 CHL leagues. Tulk & to a lesser extent Hauser were nice starts, but that's clearly not enough.

Hockey is 3rd or 4th fiddle at Michigan, but they clearly still place an importance on Men's Hockey being a contender. Criticize Michigan all you want for their arrogance or mercenary approach at times, but the program, athletic department, & alums clearly want Michigan Hockey to be great. Even with the National Championship drought, they've only had 1 stretch since 1998 under Berenson/Pearson/Naurato where they've been irrelevant. Michigan Hockey wants to be innovative & dynamic, Naurato talked about it in his recent interview with Jeff Marek. They recruit essentially everywhere aggressively, one of the few programs in the country who does so. When was the last time Wisconsin Men's Hockey did anything you considered innovative, dynamic, or aggressive in recruiting/program building? They've seemed to just recruit Minnesota, as much talent as there is in Illinois & Wisconsin, and a few (Western) Canadians. You rarely hear anything about them going above & beyond to get back to National Championship contention in the news, which is why the Hastings hiring was so notable.

I'm not. It's been pretty well documented that Barry Alvarez didn't care about hockey when he was AD (his tenure coming at a time where Wisconsin Football became a great 2nd tier FBS program and Wisconsin Men's Basketball was a B1G power & Final Four/borderline National Championship contender) and just let Mike Eaves and Tony Granato do whatever the hell they wanted. Eaves got his National Championship in 2006 and back to the Frozen Four Final in 2010, but they were clearing dipping as a program (recruiting especially) near the end, culminating in the final 2 seasons of Eaves where they won single digit games in 2015 and 2016. Plenty of fans talk about the dissolution of the old WCHA and creation of the B1G as a reason for Wisconsin's decline, but that's more relevant to their attendance decline, not a great excuse for on ice decline. Granato was hired because he was a program legend, but had a questionable track record of coaching in the NHL (Avalanche fans will tell you how in over his head Granato was in 2003 and 2004 as a young head coach, choking/underachieving with stacked rosters) and had no experience coaching at the NCAA level. Granato recruited pretty well, getting future NHLers to come to Madison, but didn't develop talent well at all (with the exception of Caufield, who you can argue developed more before & after he got to Wisconsin). Current AD Chris McIntosh has been chastised for also not caring much about hockey, but he made the right move firing Granato and hiring Hastings. But overall, Alvarez and McIntosh have not placed importance on the Badgers Men's Hockey program being successful, such is life at a B1G school where they've been able to have long stretches of contention in football and men's basketball. Mike Hastings will need to pick a lane of how he wants to recruit and build a roster: Does he want to go full Minnesota State (recruit gritty depth guys who play more years of junior and come in at 20 or 21 years old), does he want to go out and get higher end talent especially with CHLers eligible, or does he want a Denver esque mix of semi high end, but elite older depth? Overall, one can look at the Badgers' program history and call them "Bob Johnson merchants" (3 National Championships, 7 Frozen Four appearances in 15 seasons as Head Coach), as the rest of their program's history is fairly pedestrian, minus a great stretch from Jeff Sauer between 1988 and 1995 as well as 2006 & 2010 under Mike Eaves. The negligence of Wisconsin Badgers Men's Hockey may be in part due to the place that hockey stands in the state of Wisconsin's sports pecking order: from what I understand, most Wisconsinites are aware of hockey's existence but have a relative indifference towards it. Hockey isn't that popular in Southeast Wisconsin where much of the state's population is, and only becomes popular the further north & west you go in the state, and even then, many of the small towns further north & west in Wisconsin don't seem to care much about hockey. A lot of people believe this stems from a lack of an NHL team in the state, lack of rinks in most mid sized & small towns, as well as the Packers obsession across the state that will always dominate attention. Wisconsin Men's Hockey's most successful period coincided with a time where Wisconsin Football & Men's Basketball were completely irrelevant, before Barry Alvarez/Bret Bielema & Dick Bennett/Bo Ryan turned both around & into relevant semi-powers in their respective sports. Now that those things happened, I just don't know how many around Madison, around the state of Wisconsin, and alums actually care about making sure Wisconsin Men's Hockey is a National Championship contender, most Badgers fans just want Football & Men's Basketball to be great, and if Men's Hockey is good, fine, but if they aren't, then whatever. I feel that attitude has seeped into their athletic department, in major part because Alvarez and McIntosh aren't hockey guys at all.

I personally have little against Denver, really just want to beat them every time because I hold their program in such high regard. Michigan's arrogance is annoying, but I feel that NCAA Hockey is better off when they're in National Championship contention, but I want to beat them every time of course. Have nothing against Wisconsin, would like to see them consistently better. Want Minnesota to lose every time they play, I hate their insular tribalism and pompous attitude about "Pride on Ice" as if they know more about hockey than everyone else (they don't, all they know is Minnesota hockey at the HS & NCAA level, and even then, they are wrong about a lot there too). No super strong opinions about Boston College or Boston University, although I do find Boston College people to be more arrogant overall. Want to beat them every time as well.