Benny Baker

Portal = Free Agency NIL = Endorsement Deals College = Professional

Wouldn't this be a fun wrinkle to the transfer portal? NHL GMs directing their draft picks into the portal and onto a new team.

USHL defenseman of the year; NHL draft pick; World Junior team member. "Probably" might be an understatement.

I have no inside knowledge. However, I stayed at Holiday .... No, in all honestly, I read a Pioneer Press article a few weeks ago where Pohlkamp said his two options were Bemidji or Bowling Green, where both his brothers played. He said there was "no way" he was going to Bowling Green, and then the article when on to talk about how he wanted the opportunity to play in front of family. Now maybe Pohlkamp is smarter than his age and deflected the real reason for avoiding the sh!tshow at Bowling Green right now. But if he wants to play in front of his family, sounds like North Dakota is a better option than Denver. But I fear its Denver, too. When David Carle picked Pohlkamp over Livanavage for World Juniors, I wonder if it came with a side agreement ....

Right. I don’t think it’s that they don’t value him. To the contrary, sounds like they do. Just no AHL club for the Canes, and as Schloss pointed out, they could lose him as a FA if he returns to UND. So I think it’s an issue of trying to get value for him, if necessary. I guess one positive of Schlossman’s article is that it didn’t read: Blake, who tore his ACL near the end of the Michigan, will sign to start his rehab process from within the Canes organization….

Interesting. Thought I read both an Athletic and Hockey News article this month that said Carolina might try trading Blake for lack of room in their system.

This is why I am (gulp) cheering for Boston at the frozen four. I long for the day where I can say that North Dakota has the most championships of all time in college hockey. Don’t want to go 2 back to a Michigan or Denver.

This year’s NCAA champion will either be hanging title #10 or from Boston. Gross.

I’m not high on Persson either. Just saying UND won with a goalie who was remarkably inconsistent. Scheel, on the other hand, extremely consistent.

Cam Johnson was wildly inconsistent. I was always nervous which Cam would show up to games. The year he backstopped UND to a national championship included the following performances, for example: pulled at Bemidji after 2 goals on 8 shots; pulled at St Cloud after 3 goals on 13 shots; 4 goals on 23 shots against Omaha; pulled against CC after 3 goals on 11 shots; 8 goals on 54 shots during a weekend at Denver; pulled against Western after 3 goals on 4 shots; 4 goals on 26 shots against Duluth. He had a helluva national championship game though to go along with that 4-game shutout streak against Denver, Duluth, and Huntsville. He also shut out Western Michigan 35 days before that performance where he allowed 3 goals on 4 shots against that same Western Michigan team.

7 g 6 a in last 15 games. Point per game production from Kunz next year would be huge. A Kunz, OMac, and Blake line could put up some big numbers next year.

Right. Didn’t necessarily mean to equate the teams, but yeah from a fan perspective, they were almost identical scenarios in a national tournament. Just that one puck went in .6 seconds before and one went in .6 seconds after the horn.

For a team that lost with .6 seconds failing to back check in the national tournament, it always amazed me how they did the exact same thing against Notre Dame in 2022. But we were lucky that game that the puck went in the net .6 seconds after the horn blew. Too bad the boys didn’t come out to play in overtime.

Ugh, I cringed reading this, but don’t necessarily disagree with you. The only thing I might disagree on is that Brad is more like a Barry Switzer—coming in and winning a Super Bowl right after the success of Jimmy Johnson followed by years of the team having absolutely no playoff relevance whatsoever. But hey, their tradition, stadium, and jerseys are lit! Sound like a team we know?

A first round playoff loss is the ceiling for any coach named Bubba.

Your memory is fine, I definitely think it’s the latter. Fargo regionals next year. So that means a first round regional loss, right? Or wait, since it’s Fargo, do we even make it to NCAAs next year? It’s gotta be one or the other though.

Hakstol’s 2005 frozen four team was good. Hakstol’s 2011 frozen four team and performance was pretty damn good too.

Because beating them would have meant UND was still two more wins away from even playing for the title. Not sure I would say a first round regional game is being “in the mix for a title”.

Why do I read posts suggesting the options are only: (1) you either get one natty and no other post season success; or (2) post season wins and no natty. How about option (3)? This is North Dakota where you should always have post season success while always competing for national championships. Name me a decade since the 1940s where North Dakota hasn’t had a team that won a natty? 58-59, 62-63, 79-80, 81-82, 86-87, 96-97, 99-00, 15-16

Are there any available coaches in the portal this off-season? can UND stop hiring and extending coaches who call themselves “Bubba”?

2017 loss to BU. Like 2023, 2019 was another year Bubs failed to get to Fargo. Not to be confused with 2021 and 2017, where Bubs failed to get out of Fargo.

Don’t forget Fargo regionals. 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023 red carpet to the Frozen Four. More wasted opportunities…

Every 8 season's, the Engelstad arena red-light therapy beds, cryochamber, steam room, nap room, private chef making three meals a day, etc, produce 1 playoff win against the American International’s of the college hockey world. Seems worth it.

But rumor on here is Cooper couldn’t hack it at UND. lol.