nascar99

Ritchie was rumored to Boston University last week, although there's speculation he goes to wherever McKenna goes. We'll see. He showed a lot of flashes in the Memorial Cup Final last night, you can see why the Wild took him in the 2nd.

Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State until proven otherwise IMHO. Unless we can confirm he's on campus for a visit, I don't think North Dakota is in the race

Chyzyk is aware of every high end player coming up in minor/prep/HS hockey because he's had to do that as the Waterloo Black Hawks GM in the USHL. This gives North Dakota a massive advantage moving forward. Chyzyk knew who Cole Reschny was back in 2022 at minimum, he knew who Keaton Verhoeff was back in 2023 at minimum. It's very likely that Motzko, Sandelin, and Hastings had no idea who Reschny and Verhoeff were until some point in late 2024 or early 2025 after the rules changed. Plus, those guys don't strike me as the types to follow Canadian minor/major junior hockey much.

Royce Pietila (2007) committed to Lake Superior State a number of months ago. No guarantee he's the last either, the Pietila family seems to stay around Howell/Hartland/Brighton Michigan and play hockey.

I think the key is for Verhoeff to come back for his sophomore season. For example, say he goes top 5 to the Sharks, Chyzyk & Jackson need to work well with Mike Grier to make sure that Grier is on board with UND's development plan for Verhoeff for another year. Verhoeff takes off from a production and defensive maturity standpoint as a sophomore and then steps into the Sharks lineup in spring 2027 after the UND season is done. That's probably the ideal.

Helps having Pegula money for the NIL. Don't be surprised if the Sabres draft Smith or even draft another uncommitted CHLer and then magically "steer" him to Penn State. Then you'd imagine the NHL passes some sort of rule against owners contributing NIL money to NCAA programs.

Verhoeff as a 16 year old >>>>>> Sanderson as a 16 year old We'll see what type of development jumps Verhoeff takes. Sanderson had a very solid 17 year old season at the NTDP, but even then was seen as a bit of a reach at 5 for the Senators. Then Sanderson had two monster years at North Dakota on stacked teams and has gotten better & better since.

To give an NHL comparable, Verhoeff seems like a 17 year old more advanced version of Alex Pietrangelo. Big right shot but more offensive skill.

Looks like projected top 15 pick Jackson Smith to Penn State.

And Cooper Williams (Saskatoon Blades) committed for 2026-27.

Misa could go either way. Depends on what the team who drafts him wants him to do for his D+1

We appear to be getting close to Gavin McKenna news. Buccigross must be hearing something about Michigan State.

He is not

I believe the Kamloops Blazers still have Ashton Schultz on their protected list, so he could report there if he wants to go back to junior but instead go to the Dub

No surprise there. Now we wait on other 2025 Draft eligibles from the CHL like Martone to see what their plans are.

There's an idealistic view in the state of Minnesota amongst some, especially in the Goofers fanbase, that NCAA Hockey should be as young as possible & as Minnesotan as possible. I think they have their head in the sand, not wanting to acknowledge that junior allows for better development for guys coming out of minor/prep/HS before they get to the NCAA. The product would suck if you rushed every 18 and 19 year old player straight into the NCAA without junior experience. These people also either don't realize how good the talent is outside of Minnesota, or have some sort of odd simultaneous superiority/inferiority complex with Canada and how good its talent base is. I would also guess that many of these types know deep down that their programs don't have the recruiting connections in Canada throughout the minor/junior hockey world to take advantage of CHLers now being NCAA eligible.

Livanavage-Verhoeff top pair most likely?

I meant that they prefer random Minnesotans who will stay there for 3-4 years over going after more elite talent, regardless of where it is from (Wood only went there because his dad had coached there).

You're just seeing more guys not being happy that they're told to go back to junior for another year because they want to get to campus as soon as possible and play at the NCAA level, so they decommit & go elsewhere

Like I've said before, one of the big keys to winning consistently/going deep in NCAA Hockey is having a well balanced roster of both high end stars (who might be mercenaries for just a year or two on campus) and 3-4 year culture guys. You just don't want to be all of one end or the other. Michigan leans far too much into the mercenary side, while Minnesota leans too far to the culture guys side. Denver has the right balance, old UND teams of decades past had the right balance. I'm confident that Chyzyk/Jackson did their homework properly right after being hired and they have a good approach of getting both types of guys.

Pilgrim will depend on how many guys leave after 2025-26 and if he still wants to go to UND. Jundt is a longer term project who might not get to Grand Forks until 2028 or 2029, might not ever make it as you said though (especially if they get much higher profile CHLers going forward). Andrew has a decent likelihood of being a portal loss at some point,

I could see one of Simpson or Schultz not being happy that they're deferred back to junior for another year, decommit, then commit somewhere that will bring them in now. Schultz could go most places in the country now and play, Simpson needs a full year of junior to develop before going to the NCAA.

Verhoeff coming into the NCAA for his 17 year old season, last notable defensemen to do that were Hanifin and Werenski. If Verhoeff can be a right shot version of that, that would be nice. You'd hope he stays for 2 years like Werenski did at Michigan.

They're definitely getting some money, but it's probably not as much as the most optimistic people think. I also think that if Verhoeff plays at an elite level in year 1, he'll get more money in year 2 if he's back for his sophomore season. There could be incentives, who knows

When Zakreski is not guaranteed a top 12 spot, you know that this coaching staff has retooled extremely well after losing guys to graduation, pro, & transfers. That's a damn competitive forward group, hope it meshes together