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2024 Early Departures and Transfer Portal


brianvf

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5 hours ago, BusinessSiouxt said:

Meh... seems like they have picked up a coupe of question marks. The guy from Wisconsin, the other from Penn State, now Pimoniemi. They are losing a lot though. Wonder what they see in them...

Don't know that Jack Randl seemed like a huge get for them out of Michigan, and that worked out quite well.  When I saw Sam Stange play a few years ago, he seemed like a very good player, but I don't think he fit in with Wisconsin's plans.  He seemed like a hardworking guy, and Omaha has certainly done well in minimizing any talent advantage against them by outworking teams.   

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11 hours ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I'll bet Hennessy will have fun trying to pronounce that name! :lol:

" ... TJ with another big save ... " 

" ... TJ had to be and was our best penalty killer tonight."

No worries. ;) 

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1 hour ago, brianvf said:

Former UND dman Nate Benoit is transferring to QU to join former UND dman Cooper Moore.
We're like a feeder program for QU to take on our dman projects.  ;) 

It was never explained why the drafted Benoit was buried behind non-drafted transfer D portals, even when the transfer Ds were missing assignments & not doing as well in the second half of the season. People complain here when higher-ceiling guys don't get the necessary game reps to develop, but in Benoit's case, he was conveniently forgotten behind players who will never see a day in the NHL. Or maybe that applies only to forwards. Favoritism, perhaps? So off to QU he goes, where Pecknold will probably utilize & develop his talents. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Granted I didn't see what the coaches saw, but it seems like he was never given a fair shake; unless someone here who knows more can explain this. 

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32 minutes ago, .357 said:

It was never explained why the drafted Benoit was buried behind non-drafted transfer D portals, even when the transfer Ds were missing assignments & not doing as well in the second half of the season. People complain here when higher-ceiling guys don't get the necessary game reps to develop, but in Benoit's case, he was conveniently forgotten behind players who will never see a day in the NHL. Or maybe that applies only to forwards. Favoritism, perhaps? So off to QU he goes, where Pecknold will probably utilize & develop his talents. One man's trash is another man's treasure. Granted I didn't see what the coaches saw, but it seems like he was never given a fair shake; unless someone here who knows more can explain this. 

Benoit had the single worst shift I saw this season. Took a bad penalty and missed an assignment resulting in a goal on his delayed call.

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4 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Benoit had the single worst shift I saw this season. Took a bad penalty and missed an assignment resulting in a goal on his delayed call.

A single shift....that's the criteria now? 

Obviously he wasn't a "culture" guy.

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7 minutes ago, Oxbow6 said:

A single shift....that's the criteria now? 

Obviously he wasn't a "culture" guy.

Do we risk having a liability on the ice hoping he will develop, or do we cut our losses on the Wade Murphys and Harrison Blaisdells of the world? Roster management is very different than it was a few years ago, clearing room for proven commodities is part of the game.

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1 minute ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Do we risk having a liability on the ice hoping he will develop, or do we cut our losses on the Wade Murphys and Harrison Blaisdells of the world? Roster management is very different than it was a few years ago, clearing room for proven commodities is part of the game.

At least Schmaltz had more goals than you this past season.

......and you've followed Albrecht's career?

Long leash is obviously better than a short one at UND.

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18 minutes ago, Oxbow6 said:

Is UND a program where player development is barely on the radar anymore?

Blake seemed to do alright in his development the last couple years.  ;) 

5 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Do we risk having a liability on the ice hoping he will develop, or do we cut our losses on the Wade Murphys and Harrison Blaisdells of the world? Roster management is very different than it was a few years ago, clearing room for proven commodities is part of the game.

Agreed.  Benoit wasn't to the level of the other players.  No knock on him, he could have stuck with it and attempted to improve or go elsewhere.  Look at Komzak...he barely played but he's sticking with it (from the current looks of things), and hopefully he develops into a good upperclassmen for us.

People are forgetting how much of a liability Moore was last season...it was pretty brutal at times.  And then this year I only watched two QU games (NCAA tourney), and he had a horrible turnover in the defensive zone...passed it directly to a UW player for a goal.  So it appears even the great Pecknold didn't magically turned him around.

I would rather Berry put the lineup on the ice that has the best chance of success (both in that game and for the season development).  I agree that he missed the mark two seasons ago playing Hain and Senden so much.  And that might have directly led to Costantini leaving, which I feel was a decent size loss.  But I didn't see anything this year in Benoit or Emerson that would warrant keeping them on the ice in place of other older/5th year/portal players.

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5 minutes ago, brianvf said:

Blake seemed to do alright in his development the last couple years.  ;) 

Agreed.  Benoit wasn't to the level of the other players.  No knock on him, he could have stuck with it and attempted to improve or go elsewhere.  Look at Komzak...he barely played but he's sticking with it (from the current looks of things), and hopefully he develops into a good upperclassmen for us.

People are forgetting how much of a liability Moore was last season...it was pretty brutal at times.  And then this year I only watched two QU games (NCAA tourney), and he had a horrible turnover in the defensive zone...passed it directly to a UW player for a goal.  So it appears even the great Pecknold didn't magically turned him around.

I would rather Berry put the lineup on the ice that has the best chance of success (both in that game and for the season development).  I agree that he missed the mark two seasons ago playing Hain and Senden so much.  And that might have directly led to Costantini leaving, which I feel was a decent size loss.  But I didn't see anything this year in Benoit or Emerson that would warrant keeping them on the ice in place of other older/5th year/portal players.

Both Moore and Constantini had bad seasons in 2022-2023. Both had good seasons this past one. Schmaltz grossly underachieved this like Constantini did. One is coming back. One was told to get lost.

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50 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Do we risk having a liability on the ice hoping he will develop, or do we cut our losses on the Wade Murphys and Harrison Blaisdells of the world? Roster management is very different than it was a few years ago, clearing room for proven commodities is part of the game.

So we should focus on the portal more? I think we should focus more on getting the best talent we can and letting them learn on the job. Obviously some of those players won't work out, but if you hit on more than you miss, you'll be in the hunt at the end of the year.

The coaches did a great job last off-season finding portal guys that fit in, but sometimes I think the coaches choose the short-term certainty of 5th and 6th year guys over the long-term potential of talented freshmen and sophomores.

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52 minutes ago, brianvf said:

Agreed.  Benoit wasn't to the level of the other players.  

Wasn't to the level of the other transfer portal D players who had 4 or more years of college hockey experience compared to Benoit; so obviously he wasn't going to be to their level ..yet, anyway. I don't think that's a fair comparison to players who have substantially more game experience than him. Not all players acclimate like Livanage, some need some patience to get up-to-speed. How did Benoit look in the regional against MI? Did he make glaring mistakes resulting in goals or opportunities for MI, or did he hold his own even though he saw limited time this year? I guess only time will tell if him leaving for QU was unfortunate for UND.

I appreciate the feedback here, it helps me to learn more about the players.

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Does Costantini bear any responsibility for the course of events?  He was given plenty of opportunities, up the lineup and on the PP, and had nothing.  If he had contributed regularly on the scoresheet, he would have spent all year on the top lines.  I don't know how the coaches are at fault for trimming the ice time of an unproductive player.

Good for him that he turned it around, but he had a terrible year.  

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8 minutes ago, .357 said:

Wasn't to the level of the other transfer portal D players who had 4 or more years of college hockey experience compared to Benoit; so obviously he wasn't going to be to their level ..yet, anyway. I don't think that's a fair comparison to players who have substantially more game experience than him.

How did Benoit look in the regional against MI?

He wasn't to their level yet, for sure.  And definitely a big part of that was because they all had substantially more NCAA playing time compared to him.

It's a difficult path either way.  If you play Benoit over a portal player, and he keeps making mistakes...does he become the scapegoat on here like so many before him?  Remember Moore last year?  Or Johnson the year before?  I know these young players will make mistakes, it's part of the process...heck, even the experienced guys still made mistakes, especially down the stretch this year.  But if a guy keeps repeatedly getting burned, at some point you have to get someone on the ice that isn't making (as many) mistakes.  Like what happened with Johnson the second half of his year.  For these decisions, ya have to trust the coaches.  They know a heck of a lot more than all of us, and see these players every practice and every game to know which players to put on the ice to maximize our chances of winning.

4 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Once the extra Covid years have been exhausted, you won't have as many portal guys to choose from.

For sure.  Schloss said that 40% of the 300+ players in the portal this year were 5th year COVID guys.
Portal numbers should go down drastically in upcoming off-seasons.

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