beastandco

Interesting move for McQueen. Not a ton of notable alumni and the Trevor Connelly experience was not great last year. Right choice to go to college, we will see how his situation works out. All eyes on Desnoyers for the next week. Almost all of his peers have went to NCAA. UND is holding out for someone, I have a feeling that he is their guy.

Most of the big boys, including UND, have their top line center(s). I do not think McQueen or the Ducks would want him in a situation where he would not be guaranteed top line minutes. If that is the case, conversations with a lot of schools end rather quickly. If he is okay with playing games at wing with high end line mates, UND would be a hard option to pass up. Especially now that a lot of NIL funds are dried up for next season.

Cooper Williams is going to be a stud. He’ll need to put on some weight before next season but will be a very good player for UND. UND’s top 6 will have some serious talent in 26/27.

No bat signals today, kind of surprising. At least none of UND’s realistic targets are off of the board.

Merry Chyzmas to all that celebrate. I’m going offline during work hours so I am not sitting there refreshing Bryn’s twitter account all day. Prediction: Brock England and Jack Pridham

Who knows. Every top player in recent memory, like Celebrini and Hagens, committed before their last junior season began. I think McKenna will be an anomaly because he was waiting until after the CHL season to weigh his options and he wasn’t eligible for NCAA when the season had begun. Typically, players know where they want to go long before they are eligible to commit. They have their biases about teams that are hard to change, especially if they grew up a fan of a program. Players coming in a year from now have a small list of schools that they are interested in, at the very least.

Interesting reply that Steven Ellis has to a UND account under that tweet. A UND account comments “Missing the Nodak logo on Verhoeff and you might as well add one for DuPont;)” Ellis replies “I don't put the logos in but you're right!”

I agree. Both of his parents follow UND hockey. His mom just follows CC and Minnesota State, which are non factors. I do not know about other schools that his dad follows because he is private. The big question mark for him and UND is Keaton Verhoeff, imo. That may help our chances, it may hurt our chances.

Is this inside info?

This might be a dumb question but is there any chance Beuker is not eligible to commit until August 1st? He would be an old junior this year with a March 2008 birthdate.

I love that this staff leaves no stone unturned. It will be August before the roster is completed for next season. They could have easily picked up a bunch of mediocre transfers in April and moved on. Instead, it seems like they have kicked every tire to give us the best possible chance to compete next year. I’m really looking forward to what this recruiting cycle brings. I am expecting a couple of “local” kids mixed in with some high end Western Canadians. Getting a nice player from East of Lake Superior would be awesome too.

We will see, I do not know what would be holding him up. A few high end guys have interest in coming to UND in a year. I’m sure one or two will commit. It just might not be Beuker.

I did not know about the visit. I really want Beuker. He’s a great skater and would likely solidify our forward group coming in next year.

Looking back at last year’s recruiting cycle, it looks like most of the top players committed within the first week. I looked at the top ten players’ commitment announcements and at least half were within the first couple of days. McKamey and Berchild waiting until October and September. The other seven commitments were made in August. Dayne Beuker is still uncommitted and was third on Schloss’ list. It’s going to be interesting to see when he commits. It seems like UND is hard after him. He does not follow any college hockey accounts that I had noticed other than Bryn.

I see Brock England as a potential August 1st splash for UND. I believe had mentioned him last week. Really looking forward to seeing where he falls on Schloss’ list this morning. I think UND will primarily pick up high end local kids (ND and MN) and Western Canadians.

How good is Zimmerman? He put up great numbers as a sophomore last year for Moorhead. He is an old sophomore but 78 points in AA is solid for any age. Are those numbers inflated by playing with Kraft?

They are holding out for somebody, probably Desnoyers. Pridham is the most likely guy to fill the last spot, in my opinion.

I heard something similar about him walking around in UND gear at the gopher regional game. Maybe the new staff did not offer him?

My source within gopher circles said that Zimmerman was a UND lock as of this spring around the coaching change. A lot can change since then.

I’m hearing Zac Zimmerman and Colin Grubb are two American names to watch on Friday.

Looking at guys like Martone and McKenna, they got their big NIL deals because they give their program a huge boost for the upcoming season. You are not doing very much projecting with those guys. Also, offering a 16 year old a full ride scholarship to a big time university is hard to pass up in itself.

I honestly did not know that teams have been able to have contact with these players since January 1st. I feel like most of these guys will commit right away if their plan was always to the NCAA route. I doubt NIL is really in the picture until the kid gets closer to campus. Promising a 16 year old money is a huge gamble.

At first glance, I think a lot of these top guys on this list are headed to the Big Ten. I think UND will have a lot more success in Canada. There are so many talented players available in this cycle.

I briefly followed him to see because I was curious. Other targets like Carson Carels and Landon DuPont have liked some of UND’s recent posts as well.

He put up good, not great numbers in the OHL last season. After his decommitment, he said he wants to try to play at the pro level or go back to the OHL. He wasn’t all in on going back to the OHL, like I had previously thought. He hasn’t signed his ELC yet. He is nowhere near NHL/AHL ready. He could be one of the better players in the OHL next season or be a contributor on a good college team for the next 2-3 years. Side note: He has been liking all of UND’s recent posts on instagram since he started following them.