nascar99

Of course Chyzyk/Jackson need to try. But because NCAA Hockey has historically been the most regional thing ever, kids tend to commit to places closest to home that they have cultural familiarity to. Like it or not, the odds of North Dakota getting many kids from east of Lake Michigan aren't super high.

Brooks Rogowski (2008). Posted it in the recruiting thread. But he'll have significant interest from Michigan, Michigan State, and probably Notre Dame, as he's a Michigander who tore it up with Detroit Catholic Central in Michigan HS Hockey before going to the O.

Decent USHLers are typically better defensively. Decent CHLers are typically better offensively. We'll see how the middle tier CHLers adapt to the NCAA. I do think the best guys will produce regardless. I really like the Shea Van Olm and Oliver Tulk commitments for Penn State and Wisconsin respectively. Both appear to be high impact offensive forwards right away in the NCAA, but we'll see.

Pegula money, just like how their program was started.

Basketball has European Pro options, just like hockey. Baseball has signing right out of HS & playing minor pro, 30-50% of the top players don't play NCAA baseball. (plenty of Caribbeans/South Americans develop at home & just sign at 16/17 years old) The big bag of cash is not going to come from major junior, it would come in the form of an ELC with bonuses from the NHL team holding their rights

Rumors on HFBoards that Penn State is offering a ton of money to high end CHLers. This had been hinted at Jeff Marek in his blog last month. Penn State has a ton of wealthy alums across the country, especially in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region. We will see if their Frozen Four run can turn them into an up & coming power.

There are tons of bottom 6ers in the CHL who've committed to CCHA programs lol

The CHL is also a younger higher skilled league than the USHL. The USHL is older & more defensive. But each CHL league is a bit different from one another, so who knows how Dub guys do in the NCAA compared to O and Q guys

Some interesting names committing in the portal today

He was a 4th round pick, likely only due to the fact that he was playing MN HS hockey in his DY & his size. The elite skill was always there. I tend to give programs more credit if they develop nobodies into NHLers, like UND did with Cole Smith. Having a somebody come to your program doesn't mean you developed them, they probably took several steps of development back in minor/junior/HS hockey

Sanderson and Pinto developed very well at UND but otherwise, since Boeser left, you're on point. Idk how much credit you want to give UND for developing Blake, as he was the same player back in junior and HS, but he's a success.

Reschny's head coach for the Victoria Royals is James Patrick, so a great UND connection there. I've been hoping that Chyzyk and Jackson have been calling Patrick about Reschny and Verhoeff.

Michigan is willing to be aggressive and go after every elite Canadian. They (along with North Dakota & to a bit lesser extent Denver) have rich history of Canadian talent in their program & thus have so many connections across the hockey world with Canadians, who know that Michigan sends guys to the NHL. They're also a brand name elite university in a great university town in a state that borders Ontario. The National Championship drought hasn't really hurt their high end talent recruiting, their problem is not having enough talented culture guys who stay 3-4 years. This is the big issue for Minnesota: they've intentionally & quite publicly not recruited Canadians due to their tribalistic historical recruiting policies, so they have almost zero connections in the (minor) hockey world in Canada. And it has become a self fulfilling loop where Canadians don't consider Minnesota because Minnesota doesn't have/recruit Canadians and Minnesota doesn't recruit Canadians because they don't think Canadians will have serious interest in going to Minnesota. They're not in a good position at all to get good to great CHLers, but if they get someone like Lakovic and then more, they'll have proven me wrong.

Buyout Ferschweiler's contract that he had agreed to with Western Michigan.

What is Wisconsin's objective going forward? Are they going full older grinders that Hastings loved at Minnesota State, will they be going heavy after all of the CHLers, both high end skill and depth/culture guys, will they try to go hard after the top end NTDP/USHL talent, or a mix of all of these?

Now kids can go CHL to NCAA. Jackson Smith can play another year in the Dub and then go to North Dakota or Denver in 2026-27. That's the best of both worlds. CHL owners/GMs have to get used to the fact that they can't "own" their players like property any longer.

Understandable. And the "meet us half way" solution is keeping most of the CHLers in junior through their 18 year old season, but then head to the NCAA for their 19 year old season. Porter Martone has nothing left to prove in the O. Ben Kindel, Jackson Smith, and Cole Reschny might benefit from spending their 18 year old season back in the Dub, but they most definitely should play a year or two in the NCAA at some point before pro.

I think McKenna expressed some interest in UND at that time

They're going to have to get used to the fact that the development pyramid has changed and the NCAA is above the CHL now

Byron Ritchie (Ryder's dad) stated in an article written by The Province (British Columbia publication) that McKenna hasn't made any visits to any universities and they haven't talked about the realistic possibility of going to the NCAA in 2025-26. They're waiting until the season ends, which could be a few more weeks as Medicine Hat is in the Dub Final (very good chance they win & get to the Memorial Cup). Ex-Canuck Byron Ritchie helping Gavin McKenna decide on WHL/NCAA route | The Province From what everyone has said, it would seem that Ryder Ritchie and Gavin McKenna will be a package deal if they go to the NCAA. With Ritchie being a Minnesota Wild pick, I think they're 100% supportive of him going to the NCAA for a couple years instead of being rushed into the A at age 20. The Iowa Wild are such a mess right now & if the Wild can delay Ritchie's pro ETA while they sort things out in Des Moines, the better.

Interested to see how Miami does with an 80%+ new roster

Dennis Williams will build Bowling Green back into a top end team in the CCHA very soon. Whether or not it works in Year 1 of CHLers being eligible, we'll see, but it will happen.

Dane & Bryn better be on the phone with James Patrick about getting Reschny to Grand Forks

That was someone I would have wanted.