2023 Early Departures & Portal Transfers

[siouxforce19]

2 minutes ago, AJS said:

Does anyone else find it frustrating that there are only TWO freshman forwards they feel are ready to come in? Why is that an issue? Because it looks like they are going to add 3 from the portal. Also sounds like they will end up going 4 Freshman / 4 Portal on defense. 1 Freshman / 1 Portal in Goal. I really like the pipeline they have, but clearly they don't have enough. The University spends more money on their program than any other school in the country. They should not have to rely on the portal like this.  

 

 

Either we are recruiting the wrong kids (some of whom were well regarded when they committed), or they are not developing at the right pace. 

[Big A HG]

2 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Sure am glad you didn't get a vote on recruiting Tucker Poolman <- the late-bloomer's late bloomer. 

 

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.

[Irish]

3 minutes ago, Kevin G said:

I think the vast majority of us agree with this assessment. I imagine Coach Berry agrees too. The question is, Why are we in the place of needing the portal so badly?

Exactly - third year in a row for a portal goalie doesn't exactly scream top recruiting.  Also player development (or lack of same) - how many players this year had no improvement or actually went backwards in the off season?  The clock is ticking for change - high end talent is flocking to Denver, Minny, and Michigan like trained pigs and here we are.  

[The Sicatoka]

9 minutes ago, AJS said:

Does anyone else find it frustrating that there are only TWO freshman forwards they feel are ready to come in? Why is that an issue? Because it looks like they are going to add 3 from the portal. Also sounds like they will end up going 4 Freshman / 4 Portal on defense. 1 Freshman / 1 Portal in Goal. I really like the pipeline they have, but clearly they don't have enough. The University spends more money on their program than any other school in the country. They should not have to rely on the portal like this. Here's to hoping this off-season is just one giant reset from last year's disaster.

We have four Fs that'll be 19+ on Oct 1: Croal, Emerson, Panzer, Singleton. Two aren't ready, one's an enigma, the remaining is inbound. 

Of the other five pipeline Fs, Perron is ahead of schedule; the rest are on schedule. 

[AJS]

Just now, The Sicatoka said:

We have four Fs that'll be 19+ on Oct 1: Croal, Emerson, Panzer, Singleton. Two aren't ready, one's an enigma, the remaining is inbound. 

Of the other five pipeline Fs, Perron is ahead of schedule; the rest are on schedule. 

You seem to be missing the point. Like UND having 0 Freshman defenseman that were ready to come last year. Recruit more players. 

[Kevin G]

<getting frustrated by issues with UND roster>

<reads ESPN article about Minnesota Timberwolves>

<UND problems don't seem so bad>

[Kevin G]

Forum members must have had alot of Easter ham yesterday...

...because we're a little salty today. 

[The Sicatoka]

5 minutes ago, Irish said:

Exactly - third year in a row for a portal goalie doesn't exactly scream top recruiting.  

This to me is the significant red flag. The rest is noise.

I'm happy for the portal in one way:
Last time we had a surprise departure we got Montgomery for Weatherby.
Dare I predict Johannes for Caulfield turns out better. 

[Kevin G]

Wanting some news on d-men, Mr. Brad Schlossman!

[The Sicatoka]

5 minutes ago, AJS said:

Recruit more players. 

Like Wisconsin when they had 40 in the pipeline and anyone with fingers and toes could see the math didn't work? 

Our problem at D right now is Frisch didn't use the Covid year, Kleven signed, and 4, 6, and 24 portal'd out. If anything we might be pulling pipeline in early (see: Strathmann). 

[Big A HG]

3 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

This to me is the significant red flag. The rest is noise.

I'm happy for the portal in one way:
Last time we had a surprise departure we got Montgomery for Weatherby.
Dare I predict Johannes for Caulfield turns out better. 

 

Even if we get an improvement from Johannes over Caulfield, I doubt it'd be anything more than a 15-15 type year (which would be phenomenal), but isn't going to put us over the hump of missing tourney to contending at Frozen Four.  It's another mediocre body at best and only gives us one year.  

You can't discount his last six seasons of poor production and claim he's a great addition.  Kids mature and change, but he didn't even get much opportunity for AIC.  Lindenwood needed a body and somebody has to do a little scoring at some point, so he managed to do well last year.  But, again, this kind of pickup shouldn't be what UND relies on in the future or the program is going to be doomed to mediocrity.

[AJS]

Just now, The Sicatoka said:

Like Wisconsin when they had 40 in the pipeline and anyone with fingers and toes could see the math didn't work? 

Our problem at D right now is Frisch didn't use the Covid year, Kleven signed, and 4, 6, and 24 portal'd out. If anything we might be pulling pipeline in early (see: Strathmann). 

I'm going with having a minimum of three forwards and two defenseman that by Christmas the year prior you know are available to come in. Seems a far cry from Wisconsin's overrecruiting. You've had a few weird stances lately. 

 

[The Sicatoka]

4 minutes ago, Big A HG said:

... this kind of pickup shouldn't be what UND relies on in the future ...

What part of "late backfill for Judd" don't you see? 

[stoneySIOUX]

20 minutes ago, Big A HG said:

 

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.

Take the name of the front of the jersey, the kid had a great year and he's a physical beast. Do we take him then? 

How do you feel about Jandric? He played at Alaska. Pyke. Alaska. The portal is a current need. We've gotten some of the best, if not the best, players out of the portal so far. Again, the conversation about overall recruiting isn't a bad one. It's fair to be worried about the recruiting in general. This thread isn't about that. It's about the portal and we've got some solid incoming kids.

[The Sicatoka]

5 minutes ago, Big A HG said:

Even if we get an improvement from Johannes over Caulfield, ... 

Wrong comparison.

We got nothin' from Monty compared to Weatherby.
If Johannes rolls a 5-10-15 (optimistic) and busts a guy's jaw for hacking on Blake (video, please) that's a far better "have to find a guy" pickup than Monty (and is comparable to Judd even). 

[Big A HG]

1 minute ago, stoneySIOUX said:

Take the name of the front of the jersey, the kid had a great year and he's a physical beast. Do we take him then? 

How do you feel about Jandric? He played at Alaska. Pyke. Alaska. The portal is a current need. We've gotten some of the best, if not the best, players out of the portal so far. Again, the conversation about overall recruiting isn't a bad one. It's fair to be worried about the recruiting in general. This thread isn't about that. It's about the portal and we've got some solid incoming kids.

 

Portal talent on top of elite recruiting led us to another Frozen Four this year, didn't it?  Shoot, totally forgot.  

 

I'm just wondering how big of a stick Berry will need to keep portal kids away with the influx of elite talent already wanting to play here.  Or do we use the stick to keep the elite talent away so we can have more Jandrics, Pykes, and Johannes'?  Decisions, decisions....

[Big A HG]

2 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Wrong comparison.

We got nothin' from Monty compared to Weatherby.
If Johannes rolls a 5-10-15 (optimistic) and busts a guy's jaw for hacking on Blake (video, please) that's a far better "have to find a guy" pickup than Monty (and is comparable to Judd even). 

 

You brought up the Caulfield/Johannes comparison and I even went so far as to give you the benefit of the doubt in terms of potential performance for Johannes, so... 

[The Sicatoka]

8 minutes ago, AJS said:

I'm going with having a minimum of three forwards and two defenseman that by Christmas the year prior you know are available to come in. Seems a far cry from Wisconsin's overrecruiting. You've had a few weird stances lately. 

You mean Perron and Emerson? Panzer got hurt. They could bring Croal if they had to.
And two defensemen? They have four if not five. 

[The Sicatoka]

This place sure is owly. 
I can't imagine what it'd be if Goldy had won ... 

[Big A HG]

Just now, The Sicatoka said:

This place sure is owly. 
I can't imagine what it'd be if Goldy had won ... 

 

We all still love each other.  

These arguments remind of being a Packer fan living in Wisconsin back in 2008 when the Favre>>Rodgers transition happened...fights at Christmas, fights at the bar, fights among friends and neighbors.  Brian doesn't like it when I say mean things about Berry though, so I have to be careful, even though I still like him too! 

[AJS]

Just now, The Sicatoka said:

You mean Perron and Emerson? Panzer got hurt. They could bring Croal if they had to.
And two defensemen? They have four if not five. 

I misspoke. There needs to be a distinction between available to come in and ready to come in. Clearly, they don't feel Croal is ready to come in, or else he would be. By Christmas, there only seemed to be two recruits (Perron and Emerson) that were locks to come in. Last summer, there were zero defenseman ready to come in, which I would argue had a larger domino affect than anyone could have imagined (leaving UND with zero returners this Fall). 

I need to do a better job of leaving last year in the past. Here's to hoping Berry and Co nail the rest of their portal additions and moving forward, using the portal to enhance, not reliance. 

[The Sicatoka]

7 minutes ago, Big A HG said:

We all still love each other.  

Everyone ... a big Pecknold "I need a hug" group hug!   

But @Big A HG, you gotta go over by @MafiaMan and @Blackheart for it.   

[Blackheart]

21 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Everyone ... a big Pecknold "I need a hug" group hug!   

But @Big A HG, you gotta go over by @MafiaMan and @Blackheart for it.   

I’m good.

[Kevin G]

31 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Everyone ... a big Pecknold "I need a hug" group hug!   

But @Big A HG, you gotta go over by @MafiaMan and @Blackheart for it.   

 

9 minutes ago, Blackheart said:

I’m good.

 

But @Blackheart:

 

 

[siouxfan512]

Open ended question (Not looking to be combative or argumentative):

I don't follow our hockey recruiting close enough, but are we just not offering enough guys or getting enough commitments in general? I know there were issues a few years back about Wisconsin offering endless guys and getting endless commitments and that they wouldn't be able to pull them all in.

From a numbers standpoint, are we offering as many as other schools? Are we getting a similar number of commitments as other schools? Are we getting the commitments, but just from guys that are not developing as hoped? Something definitely feels different, but I'm not sure what it is. I know there are conversations around the B10 taking over, but schools like Denver have been consistently pulling in high end talent. Western has had a pretty nice run. SCSU and Duluth have certainly had strong teams (Duluth obviously with a down year, but they have some nice players coming in).

I miss the days of connections to strong programs where we would get a string of recruits that already played together and had chemistry. Shattuck was great to this program for a while. Then Penticton provided a nice string of players too.