2024-25 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[hky]

1 hour ago, dustnyou said:

Blake got a great deal! Almost rookie max and basically burning this year. $2.7 million and he’s restricted free agent in just two years. Very good contract for a 4th rounder that developed into first round talent while at UND. 

This. The important thing is they burned this year(signed him to 23/24 year), starting the clock to his next contract. 

He did well!  

[stoneySIOUX]

Berger is back! No, not that @Dave Berger

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/cameron-berg-to-return-to-und-for-senior-season

Much needed.

[cowboys5xsbs]

Good to hear

[fightingsioux4life]

20 minutes ago, stoneySIOUX said:

Berger is back! No, not that @Dave Berger

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/cameron-berg-to-return-to-und-for-senior-season

Much needed.

I imagine with Blake gone he'll have an even bigger role to play in 2024-2025.

[brianvf]

Starting to take shape.
Projection based on current info:

Forward (15):
GR - Jamernik
SR - Berg, Kunz, Schmaltz, Wilkie
JR - McLaughlin, James, Strinden, Montgomery
SO - Perron
FR - Swanson, Boisvert, Croal, Littler/Klee
X - Portal

Defense (8):
JR - Zmolek
SO - Livanavage, Wiebe, Komzak, MacDonald
FR - Jubenvill, Strathmann, Emery

Goalie (3):
SR - Semptimphelter
JR - Johnson
SO - Hedquist

[brianvf]

Quote

The New York Islanders, who selected Berg in the fourth round in 2021, supported Berg’s return.

“They were the ones who kind of said, ‘Just stay another year, then sign after next year,’” Berg said. “They said they like the spot I’m in and it’s too good (to change).”

Berg was UND’s top power-play threat, scoring a team-high nine goals with the man advantage. He also took a team-high 704 faceoffs and won 56 percent of them.

Two really good centers to start up the middle with Berg and Wilkie now.
I like the idea of putting OMac on the wing alongside one of those two after his faceoff struggles to close this season.

[fightingsioux4life]

I count 7 freshmen and 5 sophomores.

Looks like we will take our lumps early and (I hope) make a run late in the season.

[Goon]

Great news! Let's Roll! 

[Goon]

1 hour ago, brianvf said:

Starting to take shape.
Projection based on current info:

Forward (15):
GR - Jamernik
SR - Berg, Kunz, Schmaltz, Wilkie
JR - McLaughlin, James, Strinden, Montgomery
SO - Perron
FR - Swanson, Boisvert, Croal, Littler/Klee
X - Portal

Defense (8):
JR - Zmolek
SO - Livanavage, Wiebe, Komzak, MacDonald
FR - Jubenvill, Strathmann, Emery

Goalie (3):
SR - Semptimphelter
JR - Johnson
SO - Hedquist

I just listened to Berry with Hennessy on KFGO and he said Boisvert might be a first-round draft choice. 

[burd]

6 minutes ago, Goon said:

I just listened to Berry with Hennessy on KFGO and he said Boisvert might be a first-round draft choice. 

Oh no!  Does that mean we have to send him over to Denver or one of the other elite schools?

[Frozen4sioux]

44 minutes ago, burd said:

Oh no!  Does that mean we have to send him over to Denver or one of the other elite schools?

Jest or not, in the context of the board... I chuckled.

Have yourself an up-mark for that.

[Irish]

1 hour ago, burd said:

Oh no!  Does that mean we have to send him over to Denver or one of the other elite schools?

No - it means that once again we got talent - Time for Berry to get it done.  

[burd]

20 minutes ago, Irish said:

No - it means that once again we got talent - Time for Berry to get it done.  

That’s good to know.  Reading back through these threads, I thought we were doomed when Blake left.

[fightingsioux4life]

9 minutes ago, burd said:

That’s good to know.  Reading back through these threads, I thought we were doomed when Blake left.

Now that Blake is gone, maybe our other forwards will step up and pick up the slack.

[.357]

6 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Now that Blake is gone, maybe our other forwards will step up and pick up the slack.

That's what I was wondering, if there is a tendency sometimes (unconsciously) for a team to sit back & let the star players carry the team offensively. Perhaps the team will put in extra effort up & down the lineup next year to get more balanced scoring now that Blake is gone.

[brianvf]

40 minutes ago, burd said:

That’s good to know.  Reading back through these threads, I thought we were doomed when Blake left.

I feel a lot better after hearing the news that Berg is returning.  Losing Blake/Gaber/Berg would have been a really tough blow to lose all those goals.
So at least retaining one is a huge help.  And then adding Wilkie and ..(amazing player to be named later).. out of the portal.

[burd]

9 hours ago, .357 said:

That's what I was wondering, if there is a tendency sometimes (unconsciously) for a team to sit back & let the star players carry the team offensively. Perhaps the team will put in extra effort up & down the lineup next year to get more balanced scoring now that Blake is gone.

I think there's truth to that.   In any group effort, including workplace, it's called ownership.  They have a bigger stake in the outcome.  

[AJS]

13 F currently. Good / Bad news.

Good: 1 can / should be a Ness/Albrecht replacement. 14/15F with Montgomery.

Bad: Are Littler / Klee ready? If not, is there anyone in the portal worth getting? Lucius definitely, but he's been tied to ASU. The portal is really weak this year! I would rather bring in Littler / Klee early as 13F than some mediocre Portal guy. 

*Montgomery is currently the only depth F. I don't want to see any of the FR (Croal, Littler, Klee) start out essentially as the 14F. If you hope for them to be contributors eventually, which I think we can all agree those three can be, then they can't start out buried. Not in 2024. We know how that'll play out. 

[AJS]

My optimistic look at next year's F group is there are absolutely areas where they can improve over last year. Ultimately, last year's team had really bad depth scoring. Before some get overly excited, I'm not saying these players don't have positive attributes, what I am saying is they have little offensive ability. For arguments sake, let's consider Emerson a "miss". From my point of view, here's the list of the players who have little offensive ability.

• Schmaltz
• Emerson
• Ness
• Albrecht
• Montgomery

That list ideally, should be 2 or 3 deep (3rd being a FR that needs time to adjust). Schmaltz being on the PP / 3rd line compounded the issue. 1/3 of last year's roster essentially couldn't score. 

IF, Berry goes down the middle like this, they are in a considerably better spot than last year. 

1C - Berg

2C - Wilkie

3C - Jamernik

4C - Schmaltz

 

[dustnyou]

3 hours ago, AJS said:

13 F currently. Good / Bad news.

Good: 1 can / should be a Ness/Albrecht replacement. 14/15F with Montgomery.

Bad: Are Littler / Klee ready? If not, is there anyone in the portal worth getting? Lucius definitely, but he's been tied to ASU. The portal is really weak this year! I would rather bring in Littler / Klee early as 13F than some mediocre Portal guy. 

*Montgomery is currently the only depth F. I don't want to see any of the FR (Croal, Littler, Klee) start out essentially as the 14F. If you hope for them to be contributors eventually, which I think we can all agree those three can be, then they can't start out buried. Not in 2024. We know how that'll play out. 

I don’t know the Lucius’ personally but from what I’ve read and heard over the years, they might not be “Fighting Sioux “ material…   Obviously very talented though. No argument there . 

[SIOUXELEVENS]

2 hours ago, AJS said:

My optimistic look at next year's F group is there are absolutely areas where they can improve over last year. Ultimately, last year's team had really bad depth scoring. Before some get overly excited, I'm not saying these players don't have positive attributes, what I am saying is they have little offensive ability. For arguments sake, let's consider Emerson a "miss". From my point of view, here's the list of the players who have little offensive ability.

• Schmaltz
• Emerson
• Ness
• Albrecht
• Montgomery

That list ideally, should be 2 or 3 deep (3rd being a FR that needs time to adjust). Schmaltz being on the PP / 3rd line compounded the issue. 1/3 of last year's roster essentially couldn't score. 

IF, Berry goes down the middle like this, they are in a considerably better spot than last year. 

1C - Berg

2C - Wilkie

3C - Jamernik

4C - Schmaltz

 

I would have Boisvert as third line center  , with Jamernik and Strinden 

[brianvf]

3 hours ago, AJS said:

13 F currently. Good / Bad news.

Good: 1 can / should be a Ness/Albrecht replacement. 14/15F with Montgomery.

Bad: Are Littler / Klee ready? If not, is there anyone in the portal worth getting? Lucius definitely, but he's been tied to ASU. The portal is really weak this year! I would rather bring in Littler / Klee early as 13F than some mediocre Portal guy. 

*Montgomery is currently the only depth F. I don't want to see any of the FR (Croal, Littler, Klee) start out essentially as the 14F. If you hope for them to be contributors eventually, which I think we can all agree those three can be, then they can't start out buried. Not in 2024. We know how that'll play out. 

Agreed on the Littler/Klee situation...if you bring in both and those two + Croal end up sitting most nights, we're gonna see some portal entrants from that group this time next year.  Which you hate to see from those players that might just need some extra time to get up to the NCAA speed level but could then turn into good college players.

Props to the guys like Montgomery, Komzak, etc that stick with the team and earn playing time.

Portal entrants are pretty few and far between now, that really slowed down.  Not sure how many players we'll see enter the portal from the F4 teams once this weekend is over, but prob some.  If we're gonna grab one more portal forward and then bring in just one of Klee/Littler, I could see Whitelaw or Copponi or Israels being a nice option.

Really surprised that no one has picked up Dman Lovell from ASU yet.  He's small, but 37pts is legit for a dman.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

1 hour ago, dustnyou said:

I don’t know the Lucius’ personally but from what I’ve read and heard over the years, they might not be “Fighting Sioux “ material…   Obviously very talented though. No argument there . 

The dad is from Moorhead.

[hockeytherapy13]

5 hours ago, AJS said:

My optimistic look at next year's F group is there are absolutely areas where they can improve over last year. Ultimately, last year's team had really bad depth scoring. Before some get overly excited, I'm not saying these players don't have positive attributes, what I am saying is they have little offensive ability. For arguments sake, let's consider Emerson a "miss". From my point of view, here's the list of the players who have little offensive ability.

• Schmaltz
• Emerson
• Ness
• Albrecht
• Montgomery

That list ideally, should be 2 or 3 deep (3rd being a FR that needs time to adjust). Schmaltz being on the PP / 3rd line compounded the issue. 1/3 of last year's roster essentially couldn't score. 

IF, Berry goes down the middle like this, they are in a considerably better spot than last year. 

1C - Berg

2C - Wilkie

3C - Jamernik

4C - Schmaltz

 

Guessing Boisvert will get some reps at center too. Interested to see how he’ll be in the faceoff dot

[Sioux>Bison]

On 4/9/2024 at 8:32 AM, Goon said:

Berry isn't on the hot seat. I would put money on it. 

If Bubba isn’t on the hot seat then Berry will never be no matter how many tourney games he loses!