nascar99

ZAKRESKI!!!

This UND team is 10x more watchable (so far) than 2024-25 was.

VERHOEFF!!!!

My hypothesis is that once the NCAA made the ruling allowing in early November, Motzko didn't start aggressively building relationships with CHL organizations' GMs & coaches as well as minor hockey coaches throughout Canada. And the problem was he didn't or barely had any connections/relationships in Canadian minor & major junior hockey due to the fact that he's never really recruited high end Canadians. All of this put the Gophers behind the 8 ball and then Motzko decided to just stick with his recruiting class for some odd reason.

Motzko brought in a meh Canadian USHLer late this summer, Finn McLaughlin (technically a dual citizen who has played for the States internationally, but played most of his minor hockey in Canada & grew up there, so he's Canadian). He completely ignored bringing in higher end CHLers in favor of "my recruits are good enough". It's a laughable strategy when the only higher end producer in the Gophers recruiting class was LJ Mooney (non Minnesotan!).

We have to remember that CHLers are not a monolith. Gavin McKenna & Porter Martone ≠ Calem Mangone, Oliver Tulk, Luke Woodworth, Sam Oliver, etc just because they played in the CHL. People (mostly Minnesota fans) act like CHLers are immature divas who only care about themselves & will leave at the moment's notice of adversity. Newsflash, most CHLers are middle tier or higher end lower tier players that have a lot in common with guys who came out of the USHL, except (Canadian) CHLers typically have more offensive skill. We can't act like the highly publicized top tier represents the entire group. Cole Reschny and Josh Zakreski aren't that similar despite both coming out of the Dub.

Minnesota was almost exclusively Minnesotan only for a couple decades (with the exception of Frank Pietrangelo & a few others) after CHLers became ineligible in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Minnesota begged for that ruling too. Boston College has usually been American only until recently, although their 2001 National Championship over North Dakota was directly because of 2 Canadians that UND should have gotten (Krys Kolanos & Chuck Kobasew).

Especially with a fanbase that so often acts like any non-Minnesotan player is somehow worse than every Minnesotan & talks s*** about Canada/Canadian players.

Lmao, more like "Minnesota's Team". Basically no hockey fan in the States without direct/indirect ties to the University of Minnesota or the state of Minnesota roots for the Goofers. That's what happens when you're insular and only focus on making your program about your state & its players

I also wonder if there is real external/internal pressure to keep the Gophers roster as Minnesotan as possible. Would guess there isn't a quota (they've added more non Minnesotans over the past 5 years, especially in net), but with what you know, read, & hear from Gophers fans, they're not exactly welcoming to Canadians.

Go support Brad's work & read it. Great piece. Absolutely wild that CHLers called Motzko, said they had interest in Minnesota & Motzko replied "Nah we're good with our recruits". Lmao

Boston College BEGGED Minnesota to come back and take the game away, and Minnesota said no lmfao

LMAO

North Dakota has a much bigger and better hockey fanbase than Wisconsin, but your point is fair

Exhibition against 17 year olds and Brewers postseason game

Both Boston College and Minnesota either didn't try to get any of the top end CHLers or swung and missed completely (which we know Boston College did with Carbonneau).

Neither of these teams are very good. Hagens is awesome but the rest of Boston College is meh. Minnesota has a handful of decent guys but nothing special. Credit to Airey for keeping them in it

Seems like this roster is more balanced, deeper, and plays with more identity. Felt like the 2024-25 group had plenty of talent, but was rarely if ever on the same page about how to approach attacking each game, leading to puzzling results.

Boston College @ Minnesota will tell us a lot about both teams. I could definitely see the Hagens-Stiga-Conmy line dominating en route to a big Eagles dub, or you could see Minnesota get production from Ziemer & Lamb, wear Boston College down & eek out a 4-3 type win. Very interested to see what happens

Wonder how long McKamey will be out. Was listed as "month to month" in September

Edit, GPLers confirmed Freddie Schneider (2009, NTDP, Edina MN) stated his top 3 are Minnesota, Michigan, & St Thomas.

They sorta are too. But they're giving odds based on who is putting money on whom. The public is clueless/biased based on which teams are more popular & those teams will have more money on them. Most actual diehards know that Penn State is not a bigger favorite than Michigan State, Boston University, Western Michigan.

The problem is that outside of Schlossman (biggest voice, but not super well known outside of NCAA diehards) & then to a lesser extent, McMahon, Divver, & Peters, no one with intimate knowledge of NCAA Hockey writes articles that well. And because hockey is a top down sport where far more people follow the NHL as opposed to amateur options like the NCAA, junior, etc, it means that articles are going to have a very professional slant/bias to them, instead of focusing on who is best set to win NCAA National Championships.

Especially have him do an official visit with Strathmann being one of the tour guides. Strathmann (Beach Park, IL) and Milojevic (Waukegan, IL) grew up 10 minutes from each other, always nice to have someone with a lot in common with ya when going on these visits.

Easton Johnson (2009, NTDP, Luverne MN) commits to Michigan