Fratt Mattin

Yeah there’s no way that’s the plan. It’s gonna be a CHLer or a transfer

I love Kernan, but that’s not a fair comparison. Schmaltz obviously had a much higher offensive ceiling, even though it took him a year to get there

Probably a good chance Jubenvill hits the portal too. If that happens we’ll need to add a d-man who’s comfortable not playing right away, unless the coaches are good with Engel being the 8th d-man

From Schlossman's article on the Carson Scott commitment (referring to just defensemen commits here): "Lindberg and MacKenzie are expected to come to campus in the fall. The others are future commits."

Lindberg is coming in next year. That’s basically confirmed

Yeah, to be clear I think he’s a good player. I just don’t understand the rush to get to college unless you’re dominating the level you’re currently at

Losing Pilgrim and O’Neill so close together makes me think we recently picked up a silent commitment or two from some CHLers. Guessing our commits were told whether they’d be coming in this year or next and these decommits are a reaction to that

Really odd. It’s not like he’s dominating the WHL, why not wait a year and play for your local team?

I noticed the other day that UND’s video is the most viewed of these by far. One of the most viewed videos on Chiclets’ channel actually. I’m surprised we pulled more views than some of the more brand name schools, but what great exposure

James-Rickwood-Zellers Swanson-Reschny-Kernan Croal-Josephson-Strinden Menghini-Littler-Young Livanavage-Emery Wiebe-Verhoeff Strathmann-Zmolek Ex. Laurila That’s what I would do from here on out, although it’s razor thin between Menghini and Zakreski for me.

That’s huge for them. He’s a high end offensive talent. Would’ve been drafted much higher if not for his size

Such an unfortunate and, I think often unnecessary, trend. I’m far from an expert, but I highly doubt playing for some out of state academy offers that much of an advantage in a player’s development. If a kid is clearly too good for high school hockey, then they can make the leap to juniors in 11th or 12th grade. But even then I don’t think there are that many kids good enough to require that

I think you can play as long as you aren't 21 before Dec. 31 of that year. So he would be able to play another year of juniors if he wanted to

What’s the report on Rashcke? I’ve never seen him play, but his numbers are pretty impressive for being a 15 y/o d-man

I think this is just a reference to the widely held belief that Smaby will be a college head coach some day soon. He's a very well-respected name in the coaching community and this year has only raised his stock

Everything else aside, I am very glad to be getting a commitment from not only a USNTDP kid, but one from the Twin Cities. That's a player type that we have not had much success with in recent years, so I think it's big to tap back into both of those pipelines

Visited BU as well. It’s possible Minnesota hadn’t offered yet, given their current commits, but I’m not sure I believe all their fans who claim they weren’t interested at all

Hontvet not getting an invite isn’t shocking, but I would’ve thought at least 1-2 of the Moorhead 10s would get a camp invite at minimum

Elite Prospects tweeted out a projected roster with some honorable mentions about a week ago. Looked about right to me. A few of the names they had that I'm sure we are after were RJ Thompson, Henry Buttweiler, Drew Daley, and Ayven Hontvet (HM). No clue what are chances are with any of those guys, I'm just guessing they are all targets

Considering we’ve won a national title more recently than every other blue blood not named Denver, I’m gonna have to disagree

Bryn follows him, but he does not follow Bryn

Not the most scientific approach, but it appears he follows Minnesota and Michigan on Instagram and not us. Can't say I'm surprised. We don't tend to get players with his profile much anymore

Next year's d-core probably looks something like this: Laurila-Emery Strathmann-Verhoeff MacKenzie-?? Ex. Engels, ??, ?? I think it is very likely that Wiebe and Livanavage go pro and Jubenvill transfers. That leaves you with three open spots and a particular need for righties. Other than MacKenzie, Lindberg is probably the only committed defenseman that is ready to come in and he is a righty. He's been good, but not great for Fargo this year, so I'm guessing the coaching staff would rather he be more of a 7th-8th guy for us next year. That means two more spots to be filled, one of those being a spot for a presumed starter. Neither Carels nor DuPont is going anywhere next year where they won't be dressing every night, so I'm not sure I buy the popular idea that we're going to land two of that Carels, DuPont, Lin, and Rudolph group. In a perfect world, you land DuPont to fill the right side of the 3rd pair and then a depth guy to round out the group. Although the most likely scenario is probably that we get Carels and someone plays their offhand and I'm fine with that too. All of this is to say, I don't really think it is likely or necessary to get 2/4 from that group of elite defensemen. I'd much rather get one and save our remaining resources for an elite forward (Preston, the Rucks, etc.)

What caliber of player are we talking? First round level? Top ten?

Worth bringing up again how much better Through These Doors has been this year. It had become basically unwatchable the last few seasons. Just a highlight package and 90 seconds of awkward player interviews. Now it's back to real "behind the scenes" content, which is what it was supposed to be.