Walsh Hall

All of this is evidence supporting having a position specifically dedicated to talent evaluation. It has to be incredibly difficult for a coach to personally evaluate thousands of young players when the seasons largely overlap. They have to rely on others to fill in the massive gaps. It sounds like BC is a great choice. As far as brother situations, that has to be a very difficult consideration. In the Slukynsky situation, the older brother appeared to be a role player at best. I highly doubt the fan base would have been ecstatic about signing him with the prospect of landing his younger brother (who was 14-15 at the time) and plays a position incredible difficult to evaluated at that age relative to what they will be at 20 years old.

I completely agree with that issue. From my point of view NIL it’s a complete mess of an issue, but it’s now a huge part of the equation for college hockey.

Some collectives are targeted at a specific group (O-Linemen...), but in the end it's not up to the university in the current state of NLI. I'm not sure why there is so much confusion on the board on this issue. It's a private entity or individual, not the University, that is paying for NIL. Unless DJ specifically asks the collective to NOT attempt to reach deals with top end talent, and to only offer the same deal to everyone, and the Collective agrees, this ain't happening. A local business or individual has the ability, right now, to reach out to the advisors of Gavin McKenna and offer him 1m to be their brand ambassador contingent on him suiting up for UND. I suspect this can be structured in different ways, i.e. forgivable loan... for foreign born players. The university need not be involved in the transaction in any way, and the university can't veto the private against between the player and the payor (outside refusing to enroll or sign the player).

I like the plan and vision. In regard to the second assistant job posting, is there any rational as to why the position would not be posted immediately? My first inclination was that "our guy" is still coaching and they are waiting to post until the season is concluded. I would love to have Herter on as the assistant/associate HC and Bryn as the associate/GM/recruiting coordinator.

100% not an option. There is no privy of contracts between the institutions and the player in regard to the NIL money. This is complete and utter nonsense. The collective could sue for breach of contract to attempt to recoup the funds if allowed by the contract. Whether or not playing a sport at a school would be permissible as an employment term would be an interesting issue. It would be like saying your continued employment is predicated on some condition completely divorced from the actual employment, ie you must attend church on Sunday or you breach your contract.

And what, pray tell, would this mystical organization or trust be that would not be responsible for capital gains and simply grow and function like an endowment? NIL isn’t some noble concept. The recipient is no different than an employee or contractor. This isn’t rocket science, and saying “lawyers and accountants” doesn’t mean anything outside of indicating you have no idea what you are talking about…

Not possible. NILs aren’t tax free or tax deductible entities. They are not endowments. You can’t just park funds to grow without significant tax consequences. You basically need significant annual commitments to funnel to the players each year.

Most of us on this board couldn't be bigger fans/supporters of UND athletes. That said, I unfortunately agree with you. I could write a pretty nice check annually (like many on the board), but I just don't see that happening. It feels like ponying up to try to maintain the status quo, with no personal return on investment or societal benefit. This is supposed to be fun and entertaining to take my mind off actual life for a while. My donations will continue to go to local causes that hopefully better the community, not some highly skilled 18-year-old mercenary who doesn't care about UND and is just looking for the highest # as a stopping point along the way to greener pastures. I don't know if I'm in the minority on this, but from my perspective it's sad.

Unfortunately the revenue, and net income, from men's hockey has absolutely nothing to do with NIL $. The NIL$ needs to come from private donors. It does not come from the institution. Apparently other schools have alumni with deeper pockets who are willing to throw their money at college athletes.

I don’t know how it’s possible to have lights out goalie play for this many tournament games in a row. It’s absolutely crazy.

I couple decades of player support, from folks who want the program to succeed, does mean something.

I’m out of the loop these days, but back in the 1990’s there was a noticeable difference from the Canadian chippaz to the US chippaz in terms of, how do you put it… attitude and entitlement? The ‘nucks were all very down to earth unassuming guys, US guys not so much (certainly some exceptions). Sounds like the US side of things is the same.

As was Blais back in the Hrkac days as an assistant. Some interesting stories there...

Yep. If Miami and UMD (and SCSU to a degree) win a few more games UND would have been playing this weekend. UND should have won a few more, but the NCHC out of conference record did us no favors.

This might be the one time I would have been fine with offsetting minors for the trip and embellishment. Two players were swinging their sticks and made contact with his lower leg/skate, but at the same time he went down pretty emphatically.

Great idea. Let the uninformed and illogical folks continue to post their moronic "theories," but shame one of the few posters with actually information. Glad to see SS once again being a microcosm for society. 99% mindless drivel and upset at receiving actual information.

It's not about settling, it's being realistic. All things being equal, UND hockey would always be a blue blood. There is now this new component. Keeping any truly elite basketball or football player at UND, when they will be offered substantially more $ elsewhere, is going to be a rarity. For a kid who is anticipating playing another 1-2 years in college, and there being several schools (including UND) who can provide similar development, it doesn't seem unreasonable to take the payday. I'm no fan of the portal, and what NIL is doing to athletics, but it is what it is. There will absolutely be many kids who choose a school based on $. If UND can't match the $ it's going to be an issue, and I can't see UND having the funds that BU, BC, UM, UMn... etc will have for the top end talent year after years after year.

Very true, but it's unfortunately largely out of the staff's control. If one collective has 2m annually to spend, and another 100k, well, the end result of such a lopsided race as that is too obvious to require elaboration...

Johnny Bloedow Gunnar Conboy Nolan Fitzhenry Ben Geiger Easton Johnson Nash Roed Carson Scott Freddie Schneider Finn Spehar Beck Thoreson Tony Timmerman

Really not surprising for any parent who has navigated youth athletics. If you aren't doing travel sports/camps by at least 8 or 10 years old (obviously it starts much younger now) you are likely going to be left behind and not in the "in crowd." Many talented kids get lost in the wash if their parents don't have the time/funds to be traveling 10+ weekends for each sport. Way less multi-sport athletes cut down the numbers as well. I know in my kids age groups there were several hockey players who would have been VERY good, but didn't stick with it due to lack of time and other events/opportunities, coupled with the cost. (We've not from a hockey first community....)

For sure... but the problem I see is that way too many parents are delusional and believe their child is part of that "top end talent." I'd like to see a long-term summary of the kids who left, for any program, and how it ended up.

I was thinking the same. Great hands, but sure is floating and waiting for the break.

It seemed like there was more time to kill for hockey related activities, but as a parent of pretty much every traveling sport, hockey definitely had the most drinking…by far.

Sorry if I missed it... are the WDA games being streamed?

Even posing the question is quite the tip of the cap to the GF youth program.