tnt

How about one of the highest goal scoring forwards in the USHL in a while in Zellers. If I recall he put up numbers similar if not better than Boeser. If he needs more than that, then maybe he isn't the generational talent they say he is. Be the guy that is the antithesis of a bunch of all the other first rounders and choose to play on a team that will most closely resemble an NHL team, not a bunch of high end guys thrown together to try and catch magic in a bottle for one season. It's a long shot, but it doesn't hurt to make a pitch.

But they won’t be UND fans, so really who cares.

Should this be a concern that we have heard nothing about this yet, or is it just a matter of time?

Guess not. It was the Toronto players stick.

From Kleven.

I feel bad for a lot of goalies now. In the past, coaches were more apt to either rotate goalies or get a guy in fairly often. With how tight the pairwise rankings are these days you have to be pretty confident in your back up to throw him out there as much when a few bad outings can doom your pairwise ranking.

Probably early on, but he did have a chance to take it and run with it, and had a few bad outings when they were looking for someone to step up. I think with so many good goalies around, that is all you can ask for.

Yes and at least 2 first line guys from other college teams and possibly three. (not sure about Gordon if he ends up committing. Nevertheless, a rookie of the year in the CCHA).

It is difficult to know how some of these guys transition from junior hockey and from different college leagues. Inevitably some guys surprise and are better than you think they would be, and others don't transition as well. There seems to be so many guys that you think would be bottom six, but who knows. I will take a crack at what seems appealing albeit based on nothing. Zellers - CHL Guy - James Swanson - Rickwood - Menghini Gordon (rumor yet) - Littler - Strinden Croal - Kernan/Klee - Zakreski Andrew - Klee/Kernan - ? Now if the other rumor about McMorrow is true, where would he fit? Bunch of very good players that play hard is very good, but where does everyone get slotted? You know with guys like Perron and Boisvert where they get slotted in the top 6, but a lot of these guys I have no idea where they would slot. Will be interesting to say the least, but I am excited about the prospects of getting guys that are all in.

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.

There is no doubt that something needs to be fixed in the portal and NIL systems because this kind of raiding of teams and the subsequent chain effect isn’t good for what is supposed to be amateur athletics. The more I witness it, the less I like college sports.