Big A HG

Tucker Poolman was a fifth round pick, drafted while still in the USHL. He was a late bloomer in the sense that he became a regular in the NHL versus a kid that was more likely to end up on a two-way AHL deal. I'd take a kid like Tucker 100/100 unless we had a roster full of kids who projected higher than he did already. Fifth year seniors from Lindenwood and Alaska do not equal Tucker Poolman. Oh, and Hak was still head coach when Poolman was recruited...ya know, the age where we could bring in elite levels of talent nearly every year, not just one or two good pieces some years.

Waiting for the top scoring defenseman from UW-Stout to hit the portal....if he's top scoring at a s*** school, the sensible facts are that he's still amazing!

I know 56 pages is a lot to go through, so not going to fault you for not seeing me reference that before, but I am on the side of picking up the kids in the portal. What I'm not on the side of is using it as an act of desperation to fill out a roster when we're NORTH DAKOTA. We should have our own pipeline of talented recruits and use the portal to fill an unexpected gap or to pick up a kid who was a diamond in the rough who wants to play for a winner. A kid who did nothing in the USHL, very little after in the NAHL after getting demoted there, nothing at AIC, and then has one decent season at Lindenwood, is not the type of player we should be acquiring. In this case, we have to do it out of necessity, but that necessity is why this whole thing is a problem. We shouldn't be in a position to have to make this Lindenwood kid a necessity.

20 years is such an arbitrary number and is completely pointless. I can't even process your question because there is nothing remotely thought-provoking about it. UND could have three new coaches and a new conference by then for all we know. Elite college programs are about "what have you done for me lately" and "what does our near-term future look like". That's it. Kids coming in now are only there for four years max (five with a redshirt), so you're asking about the state of a program over the course five complete roster turnovers. Brad's playoff success is no longer recent and based on how he's handled roster turnover, he hasn't managed his team well. Throw in other things like lack of identity in our playing style lately, poor recruiting by UND standards, kids leaving, culture problems in the locker room this year, and the whole Nodak trademark fiasco that conveniently was swept under the rug, and there's a lot of issues with the program. Fans are turning out less and less since conference titles are not exciting when everyone else starts ramping their playing level up in late winter and spring.

UND is like the hot girl everyone's talked about for 15 years, played hard to get despite having her pick of town, only for everyone to find out she's super crazy and so they all moved on to bigger and better things. Now she put in 50 pounds, uses her Instagram filter for all her Facebook posts trying to relive the glory days of being hot, and married the town's leftover bachelor...but hey, it was the best she could get so it was a great match!

Qdoba is also originally from Denver, only a few miles up the road from DU. Do those 3-4 miles make it any better? For lack of eliminating both of the areas most convenient burrito stops, we'll go with a tentative 'yes' for now.

I had an earlier edit before you quoted me that clarified I was not berating the program. Not sure why you didn't include it. The program encompasses more than just one person, and as a whole, I don't think UND is failing to live up to expectations. I just think the head coach is. I'm not sitting here saying that Brad Berry doesn't want to win. They all want to win. Not sure what you mean by people living and dying more with the wins and losses that everyone else. No one has died, figuratively or literally, in the Brad Berry era except Matt Shaw (which was a good departure). Coaches get hired and fired all the time. Dane preceded Berry and I think Karl fits his role well, but our head coach has been caught flat-footed during the new era of transfer portal and NIL and has failed to have a steady pipeline of good recruits coming in. That's why we're in this predicament.

Quinnipiac had something like three total transfers. One was a sophomore this year and he was the only player in the top 11 in scoring that was a transfer portal kid. They also had one fourth year senior and your LSSU guy was a third line defensemen. Nordqvist, the kid from LSSU, was arguably LSSU's best defenseman, LSSU being a better program than Lindenwood, and was only a third line defenseman for Quinnipiac. I'm not saying you can't have transfer portal kids, totally wrong. You need to use the portal to your advantage, but it should be a means of the rich getting richer instead of band-aiding a roster where 3/4 of the team up and left or graduated.

I agree, but you have to play the odds with your roster. Literally anyone could be a great player by that metric, they just need a chance. Well, sure I guess. But, how many great players were found with blind luck and how many were clearly destined to be great because they were recruited by a number of elite programs, NHL teams are interested in them, etc. When you have a number of great options that are willing to come to UND, you can then be a bit selective when it comes to style and culture or whatever cliche or buzzword you want to use. But, our elite talent options seem very limited lately and now many of the kids we do have don't even want to stay. Where there's smoke there's usually fire.

We're on a forum, I take nothing personal. If I did, I'd have left a long time ago! If someone isn't berating the program, then our program becomes stale and stagnant and doesn't live up to its assumed potential. I'm tired of sunshine and roses only because of Berry won a title 7 years ago. That was epic. But, elite programs typically don't put up with what our beloved UND hockey program is going through at the moment without a change in leadership. Our rivals have far surpassed us in a short amount of time and our future is pretty grim at the moment. It is what it is....I still LOVE my Sioux, but I want what's best for the program. Edit: For the record, I'm not berating the program. UND as a whole should be an amazing hockey school and more often than not, it is. I'm berating head coach Brad Berry.

I don't disagree that it might be a smart add right now...it most certainly is. My problem with it, especially when you go back and read my initial comment that you quoted, is that Berry's management of the roster via recruiting and the portal has led to a fifth year season from Lindenwood being a "good pickup". Name another program at our [theoretical] level pulling similar kids from similar schools and competing in Frozen Fours. Is Michigan or Minnesota or Denver using Lindenwood band aids for their programs? Maybe they are and I'm unaware.

I "no" nothing...sure. Let's roll with that. We have such a strong track record of NCAA success under Berry the last seven seasons and am painfully unaware of how well Berry has managed his roster over the past 24 months. I am stoopid.

Of course small schools can have good players, but his one season with Lindenwood was a statistical anomaly compared to the rest of the kid's career so far. I certainly hope he does well and can carry over his success from Lindenwood, but we're UND...trying to compete with the likes of Duluth, Denver, Minnesota, Michigan, etc on a national stage. There's a reason this kid was at AIC and Lindenwood and there's no reason we have such a poor roster accounting problem from those in charge that we have to bring in talent from low-end schools to band-aid some major recruiting problems. Why are so few top talent kids suddenly refusing to come here? Are they even recruited? Why are so many others that do commit transferring away from a program like UND? What's going on here? Why am I the bad guy for pointing out some obvious issues? College athletics are almost entirely about recruiting no matter what sport, and UND is in major decline in that department, especially considering the resources UND offers.

When we're excited about this acquisition as fans of the University of North Dakota hockey program, that tells you all you need to know about the state of our program right now.

Now Pecknold can take the next seven years off! The Brad Berry Way! ™

Minnesota deserves to win the title....what a team. On the other hand, ours is in absolute shambles with very little hope in the near-term. Sad...

In a bit of irony I have been deemed hostile and abusive. I've been observing, calculating, and maybe even more devious and dangerous than ever.

Brad's a good coach which is why his team only plays one good period out of three....on a good night. Brad brings in culture guys which is why he recruited Mitchell Miller. Brad's a great guy, which is why he had his daughter secretly trademark a wordmark used on hockey uniforms and apparel. What an amazing leader.

Did they bring their goalie in from the worst team in an opposing conference? That's all Berry can muster.

Culture over skill.

Maybe we bust these out tomorrow?

It's Hawks hockey....not Sioux hockey. The new North Dakota hockey under Berry.

Incompetent coaching/recruiting. The fact that this series is even in Omaha is insane to me.