nascar99

Michigan was the first program that he was linked to, but that was months ago.

If Martone is told to go NCAA by the Flyers, wondering if Briere & Jones would steer him to a particular program like Penn State or allow him to pick wherever, which could still be Penn State.

I agree with you for the most part, although I think it's important to note that the 2025 Frozen Four run is a major boon for Penn State's recruiting & overall brand. As NCAA Hockey has gotten far more attention than it used to in the overall hockey world landscape (I think Cale Makar is one of the biggest reasons why, now CHLers being eligible will have an even bigger impact), going on Frozen Four/National Championship runs will do wonders for programs. There's a chance Mikey Berchild isn't committed to Denver if the Pioneers don't win the 2022 and 2024 National Championship.

1000% spot on. Nightingale took the dormant doormat of the B1G to national title contender in just 2 years. Doing that for a program that hadn't won 20 games since 2008, at a basketball school that spends most of its athletics budget on football, is insanely impressive. They were getting the scraps of 2 & 3 star recruits before & now they're in on most 4 & 5 star recruiting battles.

Eventually, the high end talent that Boston University, Boston College, & Michigan bring in will end up leading to one of if not more of them ending their title droughts. I would say the same about Minnesota (who usually builds better all around rosters than the aforementioned 3), but they're going to be retooling for a bit after losing a ton from their roster & having some recruiting losses/issues. This seems like it should be the year for Michigan State to get it done, considering the new talent they have coming in, the talent they have coming back, the elite goaltender (Augustine) who is back. If McKenna commits to the Spartans, it's absolutely national championship or bust for them. They're my favorite for 2026, even if they don't land McKenna.

Ryder Ritchie (2006, 2024 Minnesota 2nd rounder, WHL) officially commits to Boston University. Not sure if the Terriers have anymore 2025-26 roster spots to fill but that's one domino down for the summer watch/checklist.

Could be a wild July and August, with blue bloods/contenders filling out the last 2 spots of their roster while also busy recruiting 2009 Canadians & late 2008/normal 2009 Americans for the August 1 first time eligible recruiting opening window.

They're taking the easy, simple route. Of course, there's nothing wrong going back to junior for another year if they don't sign their ELC and then go to the NCAA for their D+2 season. Additionally, many of them chose major junior over the NCAA when the routes were still split under the old rules, it's very possible they just aren't interested in taking classes & playing fewer games. But as we always bring up, there's an allure to flights to playing in front packed rinks across the country for weekend series as opposed to 10-15 hour bus rides every other week from Moose Jaw to Langley to Spokane to Portland, etc, where the rinks don't have the same environment most of the time.

I find it to be a bold strategy for these CHLers to stay in junior, play their through their 19 year old season, and then jump into the A for their 20 year old season. Only a few of them seem to be elite enough to make that huge jump. Reschny is smart for taking on the new challenge of the NCAA instead of just stat padding and continuing bad habits in junior.

Agreed. Nebraska Omaha lost a ton in the portal this year, so why wait on lower tier recruits coming from the BCHL/AJHL/USHL/QMJHL when you can add older guys who produced at very solid rates in the Dub and the Q, plus were solid producers in USports. They're retooling on the fly without having to go full Miami esque rebuild. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

School credits needing to be completed plus the Achilles injury meaning he'll miss 1/4-1/2 of the season

Wyatt Cullen (late 2008, NTDP) is eligible to commit August 1. Are we assuming he's going to lean Michigan State since his brother Brooks committed there? Moorhead family, dad Matt played at St Cloud State, interested to see where this goes.

That's what I saw/read as well. Would make the Pioneers even scarier.

Are we hearing NCHC, B1G, or Hockey East? Would certainly make sense considering he's played so little the past calendar year, and the jump from junior to the NHL is insanely large if you haven't even dominated junior yet. I thought I saw a Schaefer to NCHC rumor a couple months ago, although that might have just been speculation. Regardless, the New York (adjacent) media/Long Islanders will find a way to freak out about Schaefer not playing for the Islanders right away.

Sanderson might not come in until 2027-28 unless he really dominates in junior this upcoming season, which I just don't see happening. In this new world, you gotta expect at least 1-2 transfers and 1-2 decommitments every season/calendar year. As others have mentioned, Pilgrim might not make it to UND, although he could play 2 more years of junior if he's willing to do that. Carson Carels, Daxon Rudolph, Ryan Lin are all high end defenseman options from the Dub, in the case that DuPont goes elsewhere or doesn't go NCAA.

Does anyone know if Tennessee State is actually going to play in 2025-26? No tweets from their official Twitter account nor from their head coach's account since early/mid May...

Jost should have stayed another year at North Dakota to really dominate. But I bet the fact that Colorado was horrific in 2016-17 made him overly eager to sign and get NHL games right away.

I think I read on HFBoards or Twitter awhile back that Wisconsin was targeting Nolan DuPont (in hopes of luring Landon too), but Wisconsin is the one program in the country where I don't have a good read on what the hell they're doing. Hastings clearly has his philosophy of mostly older rosters with gritty Minnesotans and Canadians, but he should be able to get far more high end guys now that he's the Badgers coach. Problem for them is that Wisconsin's athletic department doesn't give a s**t; about hockey when they really should, at least to the extent of being in the tournament every year & consistent contention.

The general rule of thumb (Schloss and others have talked about it) is you want guys to dominate the level they're at before taking the next jump up a level. Schultz needs to dominate junior in some sort of fashion before entering the NCAA, he hasn't done that yet.

If they haven't signed a pro deal in Europe, they can play pro games as an affiliate player & remain NCAA eligible. Tom Willander (2023 Vancouver 1st) played a couple pro games for Rogle but had never signed a pro deal and was able to still play at Boston University.

Lynden Lakovic signs his ELC, he's off the board.

Cole has had his own issues (which I hope have been sorted out). The development path may not have mattered if he didn't get his life together away from the rink

1 year of USports is equivalent to 1 year of NCAA. I think Nebraska Omaha is going after a market inefficiency: almost no one else is heavily recruiting former CHLers littered throughout USports, and with the Mavericks coaching staff being mostly Canadian, they have connections throughout the junior and university hockey world up there. Much easier winning a recruiting battle for Brett Hyland and Trevor Wong as opposed to winning a recruiting battle for Blake Vanek or Mason Jensen for example. Plus, they're getting older guys for the most part.

Another really good addition for Nebraska Omaha: Trevor Wong (2003), who had a really good career in the Dub before a solid freshman year at University of Saskatchewan in USports.