tnt

I think if we are talking depth players, then in line with Jackson’s strategy it probably needs to be someone connected to the region or the program, otherwise you may be needing to replace them often because if they aren’t playing they are more apt to enter the portal. Not sure how many guys like Coltyn Sanderson would stick around with today’s portal, and the reason he became a contributor on a Championship team is because he put in the time with the program and knew what the coaches expected of him. Need those depth guys that can fill in and have experience from being upperclassmen.

I think we saw last year the reason he definitely could make it to the NHL, because of the way he thinks the game and was two steps ahead of other guys. It is amazing that someone with his size, and not really as fast as a lot of smaller guys, can be such an impact player right away. His hockey mind is truly elite.

I see Sanderson in the running for the Norris Trophy in the not too distant future.

McKenna aside, there are a handful of guys that could help our team quite a bit, and getting one of those shouldn't be a bridge too far. If other programs start pulling some of these guys it will be more upsetting.

Hopefully they have other CHL guys that they can persuade to play college hockey. If a program like North Dakota can't pull a high end CHL player or two now, then the program really has become irrelevant.

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.