nascar99

Hope Penn State kicks the s*** out of Minnesota

Bettman and the Predators did help, they just weren't going to pay for the entire program's 1st year.

Kindel is now off the prospective recruits board, he signs his ELC. Very interested to see how he develops versus Reschny. Is stat padding in junior to maintain confidence or putting up solid, but unspectacular production against older competition in the NCAA better for overall development.

How many points do we think McKenna is going to put up for Penn State? While many may disagree with me, I think he's in the 55-60, maybe up to 65 points range. I think he'll feast on the power play but take some time to adjust to defenses really keying in on him at 5v5, I think his 5v5 production will be modest, especially at the start of the season.

Posted in the Non UND 2025-26 thread, might as well post it here since expansion is pushed back at least a year.

Not surprising, hope they get their s*** together in order to start in 2026-27.

Guessing it'll just be Buccigross or Emily Kaplan doing the normal remote interview on SportsCenter where McKenna tells everyone he's officially going to Penn State.

Augustine and Yegorov means that Michigan State and Boston University are my top 2. Until Penn State shows they can either outscore all of their problems or get great goaltending with whomever is starting for them this season, they aren't ahead of State or Boston University

He's followed Michigan for months. They were the early favorite before Penn State & just signing pro entered the conversation. I'd be he goes to Michigan before I'd bet on him going to North Dakota.

Good chunk of change for NCAA Hockey yes, but a mere rounding error for Terry Pegula. I would think Michigan, North Dakota, Michigan State, & potentially others like Denver would be all over Porter Martone. Very interested to see how Michigan State pivots after falling just short in the Gavin McKenna recruiting battle; they're still the national championship favorite IMHO.

It could explain why all of the B1G plus Boston University and Boston College haven't won in forever. There was noise floating around about how Rinzel's play dipped for Minnesota in the 2nd half of the season after it was clear the Blackhawks wanted to sign him, indicating that his mind was already partially out the door, ready to turn pro. Another theory is that these elite teams/blue bloods just don't have/recruit good enough depth/culture guys that we've talked about before, the types that stay 3-4 years. @tnt is correct bringing this up. It's the one thing that Minnesota tends to do well on a consistent basis, although they might focus on it too much to a fault.

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.