tnt

Sometimes bitter old men are just as bad if not worse than middle school kids.

Yeah, and some time you have your hand forced, as you can’t bring in too many of your own recruits early to replace guys lost like Perron, Boisvert and McLaughlin. Remember a couple weeks ago when people were wringing their hands because we didn’t have portal commits? Some of the guys we are talking about in rumors are far more attractive than many of the guys that were in the portal early on. In fact if all these rumors are true, we might be pretty full in a hurry. I wouldn’t mind having a little wiggle room if someone nice pops up late or if someone like Bump becomes available in the summer.

Didn't have Stecher and LaDue the following year, but they did have Wolanin and Poolman, along with Gersich, Boeser and Jost. That's 5 guys that saw some time in the NHL.

Hopefully we are playing a more aggressive style of play like Western Michigan’s which allows guys to have better stats. It seems like we would play shut down hockey too often instead of pushing to extend the lead. That, and another year under the belt of our young defense could help the transition game. It isn’t always about the forwards inability to score, as the defense have to be transitioning the puck and getting it to them where they have better opportunities to score.

So you must be pretty disappointed in us getting Menghini since he was a first liner with not many more goals. I think Menghini is going to be a fan favorite. Much rather have a team guy that plays both ends of the ice than a defensive liability.

Yeah, kind of hard to do that before with our football program because most competing offers are from D2 teams, and the thought of a pro prospect would only be a dream.

Plenty of nice positions open for Ferschweiler and Carle.

Very ironic then that he ended up going to a tool of the devil.

Welcome to the world of college hockey. Plenty of guys that have been considered big gets all across college hockey that end up being average college players, and I would rather have a hard working average player than one who has only relied on their talent and now that isn’t enough.

…and it subsequently revealed to us that Berry wasn’t doing his job to the best of his ability, instead resting on the laurels of the program to recruit, and then revealed that many people saw UND wasn’t recruiting guys that were considered the hallmark of the program. Maybe that is why he didn’t take character into consideration when recruiting Mitchell Miller. All is out in the open now, even though we could see we weren’t getting a “full 60” and the “culture” guys that UND has been known for.

I truly believe it is about having some elite guys then filling in with guys that will go through a wall for the program. Like Schlossman said, the last team to win the National Championship with more than one first round draft pick was UND. Well, we had the same number of first round draft picks this year, only we didn’t have enough of the Troy Stecher and Drake Caggiula types who were all about the program. Instead we had soft guys like a few that left that were conspiring to go elsewhere while still in the midst of the season. You might not see any more than a few of the high end guys, but you hopefully will see more guys that are going to play a full 60 because they want to go through a wall for the program like Menghini. From the bits and pieces given about Kernan and Zakreski, they both sound like that type as well.

I suppose a lot of them, if not all were a wait and see thing, but you would think the communication would be there so they wouldn’t commit so soon to maybe have a chance to play for their dad’s Alma Mater. Probably easier said than done, but definitely missed on the second chance with Slukynsky.

…and his remarks about this being the type of player UND used to recruit was very telling as well. When you hear things like that along with Schlossman’s revelation about scouts and coaches relaying the need for UND to be more visible in the recruiting scene, it makes you wonder how Schlossman and the administration were so blind to the need to make a change. I get that the league titles were part of the reason to kind of overlook how things have changed since Hakstol, but when the fans have been mocking the use of the word “culture” for a while and the constant not playing 60 minutes, the contrast could not have been more glaring to sit up and take notice.

Which leads me to the question how UND has been slow to recruit some legacy guys that have ended up having good college careers and many have had a cup of tea in the NHL as well. We have seen guys like Morelli, Archibald, Ward, Zombo, Sandelin, and Slukynsky have really nice college careers while other legacy guys we have recruited have either not made it to campus or have had underwhelming careers.

It’s like I said before, recruiting involves a lot of different things coming together. Very interesting that he mentioned a couple times how the current players made him feel welcome. Hopefully the coaches stress how important that is in the whole recruiting process. We have a lot to offer, but if the players aren’t receptive that could be a deal breaker.