nascar99

They haven't recruited Illinois (more specifically, Chicago suburbs) well enough. Considering the hockey growth (in terms of minor hockey participation and NCAA player production) in Chicago Metro since the Blackhawks 3 Cups, Berry never went after those kids hard enough. Problem is that with many of them growing up in wealthy Suburbanville USA, they're not as likely to covet North Dakota because Grand Forks is small town, Upper Midwest, much more rural, relatively speaking. The Chicago suburbs kids like Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Denver, Boston University far more because those schools are either regular Midwestern university towns and/or are in bigger cities. I think Berry once touched on the fact that North Dakota has had problems recruiting big metro, non Upper Midwest/Western Canada kids, which would be places like Boston, Chicago, New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, and to some extent, some Vancouver because Grand Forks is so so different culturally from those metros.

Hopefully North Dakota is at least in on some of these high end OHLers in the coming years. Obviously, Boston University, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, Boston College & even Notre Dame will be the most likely destinations based on pure regionality/geography, but would be nice to snag a few and establish a presence so that guys coming up through the GTHL and then OHL know that North Dakota is a great place to go down the road.

Tomas Mrsic (2006, WHL, Prince Albert Raiders, 2024 St Louis 4th Rounder) commits to Colorado College. That’s a big, big time get for the Tigers.

In North America, the CHL is generally the best league for 16, 17, & some 18 year olds to develop in, while the NCAA is the best league for many 18 year olds, & all 19 & 20 year olds to develop in. I will say that the USHL is better than the Q in terms of quality, but it's still behind the O & the Dub, especially since those leagues have historically given talented 16 and 17 year olds more ice time/opportunity whereas the USHL is too veteran heavy/dependent.

All subject to change for sure, but I think most NHL teams are comfortable with their top prospects from the CHL going to the NCAA for a year or two. Additionally, high end Canadians are much less likely to leverage their way/run out the clock to UFA than high end US guys, so should be no worry there.

After the draft if any at all. Would imagine that Chyzyk has a list of 5 or so guys that could be added and is waiting to see if NHL teams steer those guys to the NCAA for 2025-26.

Every school can defer their meh/underwhelming recruits back to junior if they want to open up spots. If those deferments result in decommitments, you can replace fairly easily later on through the portal/elite CHLers.

Probably a good thing for Carter Bear to go back to the Dub, get healthy, tear it up, and then go to the NCAA once he's healthy

Would be nice for these big schools across the country to move to D1. Just not enough funding

Finn McLaughlin (2006, D, dual citizen, USHL) flips from Denver to Minnesota. His career hadn't taken off in junior as many expected, interesting to see him flip for whatever reason.

He could have committed last August, but IIRC, he wanted to be patient about determining his future. A move back to the Dub before NCAA isn't out of the question, he is Canadian so there's that cultural allure. He only gets to play for the NTDP because he uses the birthplace + mom is American loophole. He played all of his minor hockey in Canada and grew up there entirely.

Don't know if Jake Stuart was ever going to Denver this fall, but deferring him leaves a 2025-26 roster spot open for the Pioneers. Might already be filled by Epperson.

The O typically produces better NHLers because of more high end forward talent, but this is fair in terms of overall competitiveness. The Dub's production of NHLers leaves you wanting more, but it has gotten better and better as a league lately

Looks like Ashton Schultz is at Chicago Steel Tryout/Development Camp, implying that he'll be back in junior again this year.

It's reassuring knowing that Chyzyk has probably 10 different plans with even more contingencies going off those plans for the roster building, not only for 2025-26, but also for 2026-27. Felt like the last couple years that the staff did the bare minimum portal work and then called it a day in early summer. You already know Chyzyk will be at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August to scout/recruit all of the uncommitted guys there.

Simpson has the potential to be a legitimate offensive threat, but yes, he needs a full season of junior to really round out his game, fix bad habits.

I'd hammer the phones to bring in Ben Kindel and/or Cameron Schmidt, but that's just me.

The nice thing about the addition of Reschny is that it means that you have two high end distributors in him and Swanson. So if Swanson takes a bit longer to fully break out, we shouldn't have to worry because Reschny should be racking up assists right away. I can only imagine how good Zellers will be on the PP with Reschny &/or Swanson. I think Zellers is one of the most underrated incoming freshmen in the entire NCAA, what he did in the USHL last season was special & rare.

Tech was worse in 2024-25 than in 2023-24 so that had some effect, but he regressed a bit as well. A lot of people were banking on him putting up better numbers with better linemates, but no guarantees of that in a tougher conference/schedule.

The other thing, and this is key for confidence and part of offensive development, a lot of forwards need to put up big point totals. Harder to do that in the NCAA as opposed to junior. A lot of guys will take the easier route, but route that will build confidence by seeing the puck go in the net and their production remain high. Certain NHL teams, Boston specifically, love the NCAA route, and will steer their uncommitted drafted prospects to the NCAA route, while others will let the kids make their own educated decision, or even prefer keeping those guys in the CHL after get them signed to their ELC. We will see what happens. I think Ben Kindel needs to go to the NCAA for a couple years instead of stat padding even more in the Dub for 2 more years. Just my opinion

That's certainly possible, but it could be any of Ryan Lin, Daxon Rudolph, Shaeffer Gordon Carroll, Carson Carels, either of the Ruck Twins, Chase Harrington

Not gonna get my hopes up about DuPont. Just has the feel of Denver or Michigan to me.

Assuming they have their credits done to be eligible, NHL teams would steer their prospects to the NCAA instead of going back to junior/signing pro. Boston has done that with several of their prospects who they drafted out of European junior & weren't under pro contracts (Jellvik, Svedeback, Locmelis, Nassen, Kostadinski)

Ben Kindel, Braeden Cootes, Cameron Schmidt, Lynden Lakovic, Roger McQueen (if healthy), Nathan Behm are in/around the Carter Bear tier of Dub forwards I'd like to add. But who knows how many of them want to play in the NCAA, they could just sign their ELCs after being drafted.

I think it'll depend on what the trend is with 1st time eligible commits on August 1. If more of the 2009 born CHLers start committing on August 1 2025 and shortly after that, then teams will have more time to plan out/stagger their recruiting classes. The current issue is that the new rules coming into effect last November is that you had all of the 2004 born overagers, 2005s, 2006s, 2007s, and 2008s in the entire CHL become NCAA eligible overnight. We knew that plenty of the 2004s would commit to CCHA/ECAC/Atlantic schools with a handful ending up in the NCHC/B1G/Hockey East, but we didn't know if/when 2005s, 2006s, 2007s, and 2008s would commit. Tons of 2005s have, and we've seen an increase in 2006s/2007s/2008s commit in recent months. But there are still plenty uncommitted, many of whom are 2025 Draft eligible and then a ton of em are 2026 Draft eligible. Very intrigued to see how everyone in junior & NCAA hockey adapt.