COMMITTED UND Recruits

[nodakvindy]

2 hours ago, tnt said:

I am sure a lot of people said the same things about guys like Connor Gaarder and Stephane Pattyn.  I am sure this is a depth add, but you absolutely need heart and soul players.  That is what has been missing lately in my eyes.  Tell you one thing, a lot of these guys are captains, so hopefully you don’t have to use the play a full 60 phrase as much.  We had guys like Perron and McLaughlin with a ton of talent, but they would disappear frequently.

Yep. For the end of the roster you need Crash Davis not Nuke LaLoosh.

[Clark17]

8 minutes ago, nodakvindy said:

Yep. For the end of the roster you need Crash Davis not Nuke LaLoosh.

Could go for that movie now 

[scpa0305]

1 hour ago, tnt said:

The point is that coaches explore talent from everywhere and they don’t just look at stats like you do.  The problem this program ran into was moving away from their model of getting guys that are willing to work hard regardless of their talent level.  It seems to me like this coaching staff is turning over every stone to find a player, even if it is only a depth add that people are freaking out about.  
So Berry basically just had the program recruit players without doing the legwork, and now the new staff is exploring all players and people have a problem with it?  

Do I hate the move? No. As someone else mentioned, this is the 9th dman spot. He won’t play. I’m assuming Laurila is a little dinged up and we know Zmolek is an injury concern. It’s purely insurance for a catastrophe. I like it.

The point to my response was that the hockey landscape has changed dramatically since ladue and poolman came in. And they used the NA as more of a development path (playing HS, then NA, then USHL). This new add isn’t that. But, he captained the team and is really old. Glue guy.

[The Sicatoka]

A team captain with a Robertson Cup. 
 

Knows what it takes to win and is likely cheap injury insurance. Sounds like a win. 

[tnt]

We’ve seen that many players develop slower than others, and some that are studs when they are young quit developing.  With that being the case, you need to be recruiting at all levels of development, so to not recruit any leagues that are part of that development process is ludicrous.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

1 hour ago, The Sicatoka said:

A team captain with a Robertson Cup. 
 

Knows what it takes to win and is likely cheap injury insurance. Sounds like a win. 

We might have the Clark Cup captain in a suit next to him. Practice is going to be intense.

[ChadR]

Copper Simpson traded to Youngstown (USHL)

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

28 minutes ago, ChadR said:

Copper Simpson traded to Youngstown (USHL)

What a disaster of a tender by Tri City.

[sioux rube]

 

[sioux rube]

 

[brianvf]

This Verhoeff kid seems like a decent player. 

[SuhakiYeahYeah]

2 minutes ago, brianvf said:

This Verhoeff kid seems like a decent player. 

Would be nice to get him and maybe another first rounder to juice up the fan base for next season. One can dream, though.

[nascar99]

35 minutes ago, SuhakiYeahYeah said:

Would be nice to get him and maybe another first rounder to juice up the fan base for next season. One can dream, though.

Williams is a borderline 1st rounder at current moment. Carels, Lin, DuPont, Preston, Rudolph, or a high end OHLer or QMJHLer out of nowhere would be nice to add too.

[Sioux90]

3 hours ago, brianvf said:

This Verhoeff kid seems like a decent player. 

Mid

[burd]

4 hours ago, brianvf said:

This Verhoeff kid seems like a decent player. 

If only he’d play a full 60.  

[brianvf]

Standouts from Day 1 of Hlinka:

https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/news/2025-hlinka-gretzky-cup-verhoeff-nordmark-highlight-standouts-on-day-1

Quote

#3 Keaton Verhoeff, D: Verhoeff was all over the ice today. He scored in the first period and then made a great play that would have led to a 3-2 goal had it not been waved off for goaltender interference. The North Dakota commit would go on to register an assist early in the third period on the 4-2 goal. Verhoeff is a huge, skilled defender who proved to be way too much for the Finns to contain, and he only got better as the game wore on. He’ll be one of the first players taken at the 2026 NHL Draft.

 

[brianvf]

 

[brianvf]