beastandco

Coexist may have been the wrong way to put it. I imagine when DuPont makes his decision, he will ultimately go to a place that gives him the best opportunity to play in every situation. In all honesty, UND is probably the only team that he wouldn't be the top guy from the jump. UND's chances with DuPont varies drastically based on if Verhoeff stays or leaves.

Verhoeff is likely to be here next year, imo. He needs to grow into his body some more and work on his skating a little bit. Schaefer is an elite skater and that is why he was able to transition to the NHL this year. We will likely lose a player or two up front to the portal as well as a player on the back end. I predict they add a senior forward in the portal and two CHL freshmen for next year. Menghini will be the only senior up front on next year's roster. So far through the first month of the season, only a couple of guys are showing they are ready to make the jump next season. I hope Schultz, O'Neill, or McKamey really pop the rest of the season to make the decision easy. With so many players available for next season, I would be surprised if most of these guys are not pushed back until they really dominate the level of play they are at. It will be really interesting to see how the new staff handles the current committed list this offseason if/when high end CHL players show interest in coming next year.

A top priority for next year should be getting a right shot top 6 winger. It’s an obvious hole for this team, even on the power play. McKamey could be that but he might not be ready next year. I do not think Verhoeff and DuPont could coexist but I hope that I’m wrong. If Verhoeff leaves, replacing him with DuPont would be diabolical. I am thinking they add one forward and one defenseman from the CHL before next season. The committed list will certainly be shaken up a bit with Bryn getting “his guys.”

I was just thinking about this today. Cooper Williams, Cooper Simpson, and Brock Schultz will come for sure. After those three, it is up in the air. Most of these guys are not Bryn’s recruits. It would not surprise me to see a couple of commitment changes. I also anticipate Bryn dipping into the uncommitted CHL pool for a guy or two for next year.

Spunar’s net?

The power play right shot flanks were great when it was Blake/Gaber. It was simple but they could pick corners. All this new powerplay does is play catch with their three guys up top. Verhoeff is a great player but it seems forced to have him at a flank.

Bad bad BAD! What did I just watch.

Excellent news

After reading Brad’s article this morning, Joe Iginla (2026 eligible) is a name to watch. Keaton Verhoeff used to live with the Iginlas.

Brock England’s most recent instagram post from March is at a UND game.

From what I have heard about him off of the ice, he probably is not a good fit for this program and where we want it to go.

Having alums from all over is such an advantage. That’s why UND has received commitments from Cooper Williams, Eli McKamey, Keaton Verhoeff, and Cole Reschny in the last calendar year. UND has gotten the guys that they can from the area and mixed in high end guys from Western Canada. Absolutely nothing wrong with that.

If solely focusing on Minnesota kids is the direction they are going to take, they have to recruit better. Potter, Hensler, and West were all from Minnesota and picked in the first round last year. Minnesota landed none of them. First round picks are not everything, but when they are right in your backyard, they should land more than they have in recent years.

Win or lose, I wonder what some of these uncommitted WHL guys will be thinking when they see Verhoeff, Reschny, etc. play in front of a packed Ralph crowd this weekend while they are on their team bus in the middle of Saskatchewan.

After listening to GPL last week, it sounds like there is a lot of concern and frustration with Minnesota’s ability to pay players and are less than optimistic when looking into the future. Minnesota’s issue with paying hockey players is that they are not allocated really any money for revenue sharing and their “Dinktown Athletes” NIL fund is not giving them much support either. The Golden Helmet collective was created to try and bypass these issues. Now, the issue with the Golden Helmet Collective is that the player has to provide equal value to the company for their NIL services or the newly created NIL Go will not clear the deal. Minnesota will be fine but much like North Dakota, they will not be able to be the highest bidder.

UND has to stay out of the box this weekend. If they stay out of the box, this team will wear their opponent down. I felt like a couple of the penalties called on UND were soft on Friday. Nonetheless, we cannot play like we did in the 2nd period last night. Minnesota will likely be less disciplined than St. Thomas. I would expect to see our powerplay a little more than we did last night.

Rankings definitely do not matter this time of year but I would not be surprised if UND climbs a few spots. Especially with most of the top teams splitting this weekend. Bucci has them at 3 which is a bit high. I would be surprised if they are not in the 5-7 range.

My three biggest takeaways tonight were: 1. Rickwood is so solid. What a sneaky big get for this team. 2. Wiebe has looked really good. He just keeps getting better. 3. The game was much more enjoyable when I had the commentators muted.

5-2 UND Zellers, Strinden, Menghini x2, and Wiebe

The recruits that contacted Bob about coming to Minnesota were likely no better than what they already had. I’m sure Bob had caught wind of how much it costed to get the blue chip CHLers and opted to save the money. The fact that they brought in McLaughlin, Pritchard, and the division 3 transfer over any CHL player is odd. Pritchard and McLaughlin are fine recruits but I would think he would want to start to build relationships with players and programs in Canada because the CHL is not going anywhere. I just think having a McKenna, Verhoeff, or Martone is so big for future recruiting.

That’s definitely a possibility, UND has not played yet and the gophers have time to get better. I just think Minnesota could have used a couple CHL contributors. UND didn’t really have a choice whether or not to dip into the CHL with their departures up front. Minnesota had the choice but decided to stick to their guys.

I think they are stuck between a rock and a hard place with recruiting. They definitely have pressure to keep recruiting local but they do not have the money to land all of the top guys. With the CHL opening up, they cannot afford to lose a Fitzhenry or Schneider to other schools but they may not have the resources steer them away from other programs. Other teams are getting better by dipping into the CHL and they are being left behind. It has been obvious through their first three games.

LJ Mooney reminds me of Jayden Perron. Lots of turnovers trying to do too much.

After being listed as week-to-week a last week, Cooper Williams was back in the lineup on Tuesday night. He picked up an assist and has been playing center this season, which I think is interesting.

The McKamey injury is an interesting situation. He had a solid year with exceptional status in the BCHL last year. He is committed to UND to come in for his draft year. Obviously he is a special talent but he clearly will not have a long run way to get ready for next season and make the jump to UND. I still think he ends up coming next year for his draft year unless it is his choice to push back his arrival. Hopefully he plays well when he comes back and it makes the decision easy.