2025-26 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[nascar99]

Not sure where to post it, but nice to see Jake Livanavage off to Detroit Red Wings Development Camp. Interested to see where he'll sign after this season.

 

[brianvf]

33 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Not sure where to post it, but nice to see Jake Livanavage off to Detroit Red Wings Development Camp. Interested to see where he'll sign after this season.

 

Maybe Dylan and Jake can convince Mr Bear to join the team this fall. 

[siouxkid12]

On 6/27/2025 at 10:11 AM, Wilbur said:

I really hope Dane is steadfast in the whole "identity of our team" talk he's been throwing out to Schlossman time and again.  I let my guard down when Berry would constantly bring up our #culture, and the drive to play a #fullsixty, and at the end of the day I don't think I can handle that happening again.  We can't let #identity become a thing for us keyboard warriors....thankfully #ferdaoxbow didn't....    

Having intense individuals added to the staff like Smaby and JPL help.   

IMO, "culture" and "fullsixty" is what led to Berry's downfall. 

[brianvf]

Schloss mentioned that he asked Dane about roster size and Jax said he's looking at going with a 15F/8D/3G lineup, so (as expected), the next two forward spots will complete the roster for this fall.

Been awhile since this got updated...what are the chances we see the BAT signal this week?  Has to be soon now with players starting to return to GF for summer workouts.

Picking 1-2 guys to sit each night from that group of 8D will be rough.  Guessing the extra skater will be a D almost every night.  Also guessing that there's a good chance that 4-5 of those 8 are gone at the end of the season...so all that playing time opportunity should be a nice carrot to dangle in front of Dupont.    

Forwards (13):
SR - Strinden, James, Rickwood
JR - Menghini
SO - Swanson, Littler, Croal, Andrew
FR - Zellers, Klee, Zakreski, Kernan, Reschny

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

Goalies (3):
SR - Sandy (RS possibility)
JR - Homer
FR - Spunar

[siouxfaninseattle]

11 minutes ago, brianvf said:

Schloss mentioned that he asked Dane about roster size and Jax said he's looking at going with a 15F/8D/3G lineup, so (as expected), the next two forward spots will complete the roster for this fall.

Been awhile since this got updated...what are the chances we see the BAT signal this week?  Has to be soon now with players starting to return to GF for summer workouts.

Picking 1-2 guys to sit each night from that group of 8D will be rough.  Guessing the extra skater will be a D almost every night.  Also guessing that there's a good chance that 4-5 of those 8 are gone at the end of the season...so all that playing time opportunity should be a nice carrot to dangle in front of Dupont.    

Forwards (13):
SR - Strinden, James, Rickwood
JR - Menghini
SO - Swanson, Littler, Croal, Andrew
FR - Zellers, Klee, Zakreski, Kernan, Reschny

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

Goalies (3):
SR - Sandy (RS possibility)
JR - Homer
FR - Spunar

Looking at about 10 freshmen, unless they pick up someone out of the portal, which is unlikely.

[brianvf]

1 minute ago, siouxfaninseattle said:

Looking at about 10 freshmen, unless they pick up someone out of the portal, which is unlikely.

At least the majority of them will be forwards.  With that D-corps, it should allow the forwards a bit more leeway on making some mistakes.

[Scratch]

Wouldn't be surprised to see a Mankato or Quinnipiac type win this year. All the blue bloods might be particularly young, tiny, and soft - us included. 

[atxsioux]

9 hours ago, siouxfaninseattle said:

Looking at about 10 freshmen, unless they pick up someone out of the portal, which is unlikely.

Counterpoint - 10 freshmen on the 2015-2016 team hahah

[nascar99]

32 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Wouldn't be surprised to see a Mankato or Quinnipiac type win this year. All the blue bloods might be particularly young, tiny, and soft - us included. 

Michigan State is the favorite if their defense doesn't collapse and Augustine can be his normal self in net

[sioux24/7]

38 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Michigan State is the favorite if their defense doesn't collapse and Augustine can be his normal self in net

And McKenna goes there….

[tnt]

1 hour ago, Scratch said:

Wouldn't be surprised to see a Mankato or Quinnipiac type win this year. All the blue bloods might be particularly young, tiny, and soft - us included. 

Tiny and soft?  I think we lost a lot of our soft and slight players and added the opposite. We might not be huge up front, but not exactly tiny.

[siouxfaninseattle]

1 hour ago, atxsioux said:

Counterpoint - 10 freshmen on the 2015-2016 team hahah

So you're picking us to win it this season - sweet!

[tnt]

10 hours ago, siouxfaninseattle said:

Looking at about 10 freshmen, unless they pick up someone out of the portal, which is unlikely.

Would have been nice to keep Gordon, but do we want guys that don’t want to compete with talented freshmen for ice time.

[scpa0305]

1 hour ago, Scratch said:

Wouldn't be surprised to see a Mankato or Quinnipiac type win this year. All the blue bloods might be particularly young, tiny, and soft - us included. 

That’s what I was thinking. Many folks on this forum were bashing the Michigans, BU’s, etc no more than 4-5 months ago…same folks are excited about 18 year old CHL players. And in full disclosure, I am excited about 18 year old CHL blue chips too…but I understand the risk of being a little too young as well. Interesting balancing act.

[scpa0305]

30 minutes ago, sioux24/7 said:

And McKenna goes there….

If they can keep Howard this year they will be absolutely loaded. 

[nascar99]

11 hours ago, brianvf said:

Schloss mentioned that he asked Dane about roster size and Jax said he's looking at going with a 15F/8D/3G lineup, so (as expected), the next two forward spots will complete the roster for this fall.

Been awhile since this got updated...what are the chances we see the BAT signal this week?  Has to be soon now with players starting to return to GF for summer workouts.

Picking 1-2 guys to sit each night from that group of 8D will be rough.  Guessing the extra skater will be a D almost every night.  Also guessing that there's a good chance that 4-5 of those 8 are gone at the end of the season...so all that playing time opportunity should be a nice carrot to dangle in front of Dupont.    

Forwards (13):
SR - Strinden, James, Rickwood
JR - Menghini
SO - Swanson, Littler, Croal, Andrew
FR - Zellers, Klee, Zakreski, Kernan, Reschny

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

Goalies (3):
SR - Sandy (RS possibility)
JR - Homer
FR - Spunar

Zellers might be the most underrated incoming freshman for North Dakota in a long long time. Feels like only half of the online fanbase paid close attention to how lethal of a goal scorer he was in the USHL. Would not be surprised if he puts up 20-25 goals as a freshman. I think we're going to see a lot more attention be given to Zellers by Bruins fans & media when he's sniping for UND this season.

[tnt]

19 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Zellers might be the most underrated incoming freshman for North Dakota in a long long time. Feels like only half of the online fanbase paid close attention to how lethal of a goal scorer he was in the USHL. Would not be surprised if he puts up 20-25 goals as a freshman. I think we're going to see a lot more attention be given to Zellers by Bruins fans & media when he's sniping for UND this season.

   Boeser had 27 goals his first year playing in the championship game and 16 his second, playing with the likes of Schmaltz, Caggiula and Jost, so unless he gets another freshman like Reschny to pop from the get go, 25 might be a little aggressive, but 15-20 might be ballpark, and frankly would be awesome.
   Who knows, if Swanson takes a huge step forward and can be the set up guy for Zellers like Schmaltz was for Boeser, nothing is impossible, but we saw how Perron had a hard time getting off his shot, and how inconsistent his scoring was when it looked like he would put up crazy numbers after his crazy shooting display with his hat trick against Manitoba.  
 

[scpa0305]

29 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Zellers might be the most underrated incoming freshman for North Dakota in a long long time. Feels like only half of the online fanbase paid close attention to how lethal of a goal scorer he was in the USHL. Would not be surprised if he puts up 20-25 goals as a freshman. I think we're going to see a lot more attention be given to Zellers by Bruins fans & media when he's sniping for UND this season.

20-25! I think I’ll take the under  Maybe 20 I suppose if he has a really big year. He’d need to be on pp1 and play on a really good ES line the whole year.

Jackson Blake was underrated too. He was slight but put up good numbers in the ushl…I had a hunch he’d hit the ground running right away. Not a ton of folks did though.

[mygarske]

On 7/1/2025 at 9:19 AM, nascar99 said:

Michigan State is the favorite if their defense doesn't collapse and Augustine can be his normal self in net

👆 With Howard & Augustine coming back, they get a massive 6'4" 230 lbs. dman in Colin Ralph from St. Cloud State (good news for us), add in Shattuck alum, USHL Rookie of Year & #1 round pick Ryker Lee - I am willing to put them in the Frozen 4 right now. They are going to boat race the F out of a depleted & soft Gopher team. 

[brianvf]

9 minutes ago, mygarske said:

👆 With Howard & Augustine coming back, they get a massive 6'4" 230 lbs. dman in Colin Ralph from St. Cloud State (good news for us), add in Shattuck alum, USHL Rookie of Year & #1 round pick Ryker Lee - I am willing to put them in the Frozen 4 right now. 

Agreed, they’ll be really good. Still a good chance Howard signs if he gets traded. Of course, his loss may be offset by McKenna.