tnt

I guess we will see how the rest of the roster shakes out, but I guess if you are going to lose potential talent I wouldn’t mind bringing in someone from the portal who has proven themselves in college already.

Do you see him above Albrecht, Montgomery, Budy? Sometimes you need to make tough decisions in order to keep potential talent around. He might not be ready, but if he had to sit like some of those guys did, so be it. Would rather keep the higher ceiling guys around. After all, we brought in Brent Johnson over Morrow, and one could see early he wasn’t physically ready for the college game, but we have someone with good potential going forward.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/cole-spicer-makes-it-a-hat-trick-of-local-commitments-for-und So are we losing the most talented of the three, and then not make tough decisions on the others if they don’t produce in juniors?

You would think that there would be a conversation anyway. Will Montgomery go back to juniors? Would rather lose him than Spicer.

I guess my biggest problem with this is the perceived lack of communication in some of these circumstances. Somebody said they believed Spicer's family believed he was coming in this year. I know you ultimately need to do what is best for your team in the upcoming season, but I believe you need to know the player's thoughts that are being left behind. I hope this isn't a circumstance that the coaches took for granted that this local boy is coming here no matter what, so we'll push him off without getting input. Not sure what happened, but you can't afford to lose talented local recruits.

Didn't Mankato have as much, if not more NCAA tourney experience than Denver?

It seems less likely if James is coming in as somebody said. Would think there would need to be some defections pretty quick to make room for someone outside.

I can't think of anyone after Mismash.

Word is that the UConn head coach might be the heir apparent to York, and that he is York’s guy. I imagine he would try bring BCHL star Matthew Wood with him, but if I were Berry, I would try see if he would flip to UND instead.

Did Bordeleau leave too?

Would the Tampa Bay Lightning be considered mediocre if they were playing in a one and done situation? They have lost the first game in a series a few times in the last couple years.

I just find it funny that they are crossing their fingers and praying that the overage Ben Meyers might just come back for another kick at the can. Don't think they would have complained about LaFontaine being too old if they had won a National title with him in net.

Unless we start seeing some defections, it doesn't seem plausible.

So will old Green Mill gift cards work?

I assume you are taking into account what Minnesota has coming in, because If Nies leaves and Walker doesn’t use his Covid year, they lose their top 4 scorers and other than Brodzinski, UND would have 5 guys returning with more points than Minnesota’s next top scorer, and in a more defensive league. I suppose you can expect Cooley to put up some numbers, but as we’ve seen, making an impact as a freshman isn’t a given. So I wouldn’t say loaded, but hardly “screwed” either, especially as they, as we, should expect a jump in the returning underclassmen.

But isn’t that what this whole argument is all about — producing, not showing you have talent. 2 goals by Adams is what Ness had his second year. I think that is the point why you bring back guys like Hain and Senden, because you know what you are going to get, at both ends of the ice, and fulfilling their roles. We saw flashes of talent from Kunz this year but someone calls him a bust. When you are a coach and have seen time and again how hard it is to be an impact player your first year, you probably lean to what you know you can expect and then figure that you will see the progression in guys like Kunz, Schmaltz, Portz and Johnson.

Oh, make no mistake, they keep reloading with those types of players, but will it be enough when you are constantly adjusting to a new line mate, and never having that familiarity like those lines that have been playing together for a while. I don’t believe it is coincidence that guys like Hain, Jamernik and Senden didn’t produce near as much without being together as they did before Hain got hurt.

I get what you’re saying, and I don’t disagree, but Griffin Ness was top 25 in scoring in the USHL as well, and Portz about top 30 in ppg. Collin Adams was top 6 in the USHL in scoring, yet stayed another year and still didn’t transition well to college hockey. The key word is transition, and there is no guarantee that players will transition well no matter their scoring prowess at the previous level. That is why the coaches need to do their due diligence in figuring that out, because it may be better to hold on to some players that have transitioned and have started to figure out college hockey. No doubt if we found a way to bring in Blake, McGlaughlin, Strinden, James and Spicer, we inevitably will be talking about needing more offense from a few of them a few years down the road. That said, Blake just has the feel of someone who can help with his IQ and skill set, but you never know until he actually makes the transition.

Good, hope Michigan gets him, just means he isn’t going to one of the other schools who know how to build a championship type team. I actually hope Michigan brings Mel back for the same reason.

…and the question is would he head back to the USHL, or the BCHL, where he was headed before Weatherby left.

It seems harsh having him start college because of a need after Weatherby left, but in the end it would give him a chance to get in the lineup more consistently down the road. It’s been done before with guys like Quinn Fylling, Jeff McLean and Kevin McKinnon, the last two came back as huge impact players. There definitely are some hard decisions to be made, but that’s what it takes to be successful in a big time program.

They are the biggest babies over there. Talking about overage in one breath then turning around and say they will take this or that player for an extra Covid year. Would they take Ben Meyers back as a 1998 born player? You bet they would, in fact they would take him for two years with his Covid year. Also don’t hear them trying to get rid of Motzko when he is moving the program in the direction of getting older. It seems to be an obsession with their fan base, so they will cheer for Denver. Guess you might as well cheer for the best league in college hockey.

Yeah, I noticed they didn't follow that rule for all the other sports. I wonder why that is?

I was watching him comment on ESPN not too long ago and it looked like his hand was shaking, so it is certainly possible.

If only he had taken the time to calculate the square root of the hypotenuse and how the angle of the others would have picked up for him!