2016-2017 College Hockey (Non UND Hockey)

[SiouxVolley]

2 hours ago, bale31 said:

So let me get this straight.....it would be prudent for the wcha to add 2 more schools that virtually all of the other schools would need to fly to. And not only add those flights but those schol are also small schools with small budgets that are extremely unstable?

Yeah, that does sound like a good, prudent, fiscally responsible idea.

If the WCHA has a division of four teams with the Alaskas, Simon Fraser, and Minot St, the WCHA could force those teams to play each other twice.  The other teams would only play them once, so there would only be two flights out west and only one to Alaska.  Going to Vancouver or Minot is much cheaper than Alaska, which many teams have to fly there twice.  Western teams help the WCHA travel situation, not hurt it.

I'm sure Mankato and Bemidji don't fly to Minot for their Northern Sun games.  The Upper Michigan teams wouldnot fly their either.

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

11 hours ago, SWSiouxMN said:

So does the NCHC grab another school to make it an even 10?

Not so fast, what if B1G snipes a team from NCHC? They'd probably like to get to eight before we get to ten?

[fightingsioux4life]

3 hours ago, Cratter said:

What's next the University of Manitoba in college hockey?

I honestly wouldn't have a problem with that. We play them every year in an exhibition game. They are close. They undoubtedly would strive to build an elite program that would contend for championships. It would also further expose Canada to NCAA hockey, which may result in more and better recruits from north of the border.

[fightingsioux4life]

2 minutes ago, BarnWinterSportsEngelstad said:

Not so fast, what if B1G snipes a team from NCHC? They'd probably like to get to eight before we get to ten?

Would the B1G want to "contaminate" the "gene pool" as it were? They set this up to be an elite, exclusive club (trying not to snicker when I type that) and letting "outsiders" in would change that.

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

1 minute ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Would the B1G want to "contaminate" the "gene pool" as it were? They set this up to be an elite, exclusive club (trying not to snicker when I type that) and letting "outsiders" in would change that.

You do have a point, and of course they would love to have one of their own start up hockey, but that's not happening for a while.  Maybe they leave NCHC alone and try find someone in Great Lakes area or out East?

[SiouxVolley]

4 hours ago, Cratter said:

What's next the University of Manitoba in college hockey?

They would first have to join the Northern Sun as a DII team and wait five years to be eligible for DI men's hockey.

UBC wanted DII, but the political outcry in Canada was too much.  Simon Fraser is not an elite school compared to Provincial flagships.

[BarnWinterSportsEngelstad]

14 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I honestly wouldn't have a problem with that. We play them every year in an exhibition game. They are close. They undoubtedly would strive to build an elite program that would contend for championships. It would also further expose Canada to NCAA hockey, which may result in more and better recruits from north of the border.

I'm all in on this arrangement. Sign up the Bisons, They have like 30,000 students, better hockey country than most, not far away, like you said - already show up here once a year.

[90siouxfan]

Does the number of non conference games decrease when / if ASU is added?  Does it hurt in pairwise to have fewer non conference games?  Pardon my ignorance on this subject.

[farce poobah]

1 hour ago, 90siouxfan said:

Does the number of non conference games decrease when / if ASU is added?  Does it hurt in pairwise to have fewer non conference games?  Pardon my ignorance on this subject.

I hope we stay with a 24 game schedule.   The old-style WCHA  schedule with 28 conference games was too insular.

My simpleton thinking is that a strong conference benefits in aggregate by more non conference games.   The NCHC aggregate winning percentage in nonconference is about .650, while conference games total out to .500.   

One big reason the NCHC has put half the league into the NCAA's is scheduling, and I'll be really disappointed if we change that. 

 

[siouxnami]

How about we just drop Sterns County? :-D

[burd]

If we added Bottineau, they would get to play in the Lumberdome twice a year for some old time hockey. 

[cberkas]

Patrick Munson is leaving Vermont to be closer to home. Looks like he's trying to play closer to home, he's from Hugo MN.

http://www.uscho.com/2016/05/03/report-vermont-goalie-packy-munson-will-not-return-to-catamounts/

[cberkas]

BC steals Ryan Edquist from the Gophers.

[SJHovey]

22 hours ago, cberkas said:

BC steals Ryan Edquist from the Gophers.

And I assume Hammy will say "no big loss?"

[cberkas]

2 hours ago, SJHovey said:

And I assume Hammy will say "no big loss?"

The talk I remember on GPL was he was going to be the answer in net to get them a National Title.

[SiouxScore]

Gophers recruit Casey Mittelstadt announced he will return to Eden Prairie for his SR season rather than enroll early at Minnesota.

Ryan Poehling will join St. Cloud a year early
Nick Kelly ‏@NickKellyLNHS 39m39 minutes ago
Lakeville North junior forward Ryan Poehling announced he will NOT return for senior season, and will head to St. Cloud State next year

[brianvf]

I would imagine that SCSU is anxious to fill their cupboard once again after their losses.

[Goon]

On 5/8/2016 at 9:18 PM, SJHovey said:

And I assume Hammy will say "no big loss?"

He, he, he... 

[tnt]

On May 8, 2016 at 11:47 PM, cberkas said:

The talk I remember on GPL was he was going to be the answer in net to get them a National Title.

Not a big Hammy fan, but to be fair he was not in favor of the really early recruitment of goalies and said that when they recruited Edquist.  So while others might have felt that way, I don't believe he thought he would be the certain answer.

[bale31]

Youch.....this looks like it could get ugly in alaska.

http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/ua-president-proposes-major-restructure-of-system/article_56df9616-18ae-11e6-9244-9b2bc61d345f.html

[cberkas]

Derek Shepherd retires.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/4033095-college-hockey-famed-referee-derek-shepherd-retires-recalls-career

Quote

The North Dakota-Minnesota games were his favorite, though.

Quote

His favorite place to ref a game: Ralph Engelstad Arena.

"Nobody is going to believe me, but I loved going up there because every game was a war, no matter who they were playing," he said. "It didn't matter if it was Anchorage, Tech, Denver, whoever. It was always a rough and tough game. You always had to be on your game no matter who they were playing. It gets your juices going if the crowd is loud and into it."

 

Quote

"I've seen some of the best pro hockey players. I've worked in front of 10,000 at Mariucci, 12,000 at The Ralph, 19,000 at the Final Five. I didn't do it for the money. I did it because I loved it."

Marco Hunt is also retiring.  

[tho0505]

On 5/12/2016 at 7:04 PM, SiouxScore said:

Gophers recruit Casey Mittelstadt announced he will return to Eden Prairie for his SR season rather than enroll early at Minnesota.

Ryan Poehling will join St. Cloud a year early
Nick Kelly ‏@NickKellyLNHS 39m39 minutes ago
Lakeville North junior forward Ryan Poehling announced he will NOT return for senior season, and will head to St. Cloud State next year

Gopher Puck Live sounds rather frustrated with both Mittlestadt and Pitlick not coming next year.  With Pitlick leading the USHL in scoring, I'm surprised he's not coming in next year (2016). They'll be reaching for scoring next season, not saying Mittlestadt is necessarily ready, but it might be a long year in Dinkytown. 

Poehling is the first player in SCSU history to come in at 17 years old. That's a tough jump from being a junior in HS into college. Here is a good article from the St Cloud times. http://www.sctimes.com/story/sports/college/hockey/husky-hockey/2016/05/15/ryan-poehling-bypassing-senior-year-join-scsu/84384928/

SCSU did have a bunch of players to replace this year, but a year of juniors wouldn't have hurt.

[Frozen4sioux]

It will be interesting if neither of those two players come in next year say the Don is done after this year (or before) does that open up their commitments with a coaching change

[The Sicatoka]

40 minutes ago, tho0505 said:

 Poehling is the first player in SCSU history to come in at 17 years old. That's a tough jump from being a junior in HS into college. Here is a good article from the St Cloud times. http://www.sctimes.com/story/sports/college/hockey/husky-hockey/2016/05/15/ryan-poehling-bypassing-senior-year-join-scsu/84384928/

Is this where the joke about SCSU just being a high school with cigarettes goes? 

[SJHovey]

15 hours ago, tho0505 said:

Gopher Puck Live sounds rather frustrated with both Mittlestadt and Pitlick not coming next year.  With Pitlick leading the USHL in scoring, I'm surprised he's not coming in next year (2016). They'll be reaching for scoring next season, not saying Mittlestadt is necessarily ready, but it might be a long year in Dinkytown. 

Minnesota isn't going to be that bad offensively, with or without Mittlestadt and Pitlick.  Between Kloos, Bristedt, Novak, Sheehy and the transfer Szmatula, they'll be able to put together two solid lines of offense.  The two freshman D they have coming in should provide some much improved puck moving skills by the time the second half of the season rolls around.

Their problem is going to be like last year.  No defense.  If they can figure that out, they should be a solid tournament team.