2025-26 University of North Dakota Hockey Season

[stoneySIOUX]

14 minutes ago, TwamleyShuffle said:

Which teams do we want to draft Keaton? IE which teams do we feel would be less likely to have him come in next year? 

LOL why? Cmon, man. His choice.

[brianvf]

 

[nascar99]

3 hours ago, TwamleyShuffle said:

Which teams do we want to draft Keaton? IE which teams do we feel would be less likely to have him come in next year? 

I think San Jose & GM Mike Grier would be more than open to a 2nd year in the NCAA for him, but they're equally as likely to sign him and get him in the league or at least the A next year. We'll see

[SuhakiYeahYeah]

 

 

[brianvf]

Congrats to him, will be quite the opportunity!

Quote

"I think it's going to be pretty cool," Wiebe said. "It's going to be my first time outside of North America. I'm really excited for that opportunity and to see Davos. I've heard it's quite a cool place, especially during Christmastime."

We might be just a BIT short handed against Mercyhurst.
I wonder if Liver and Wiebe will be able to play being that they would be flying home earlier that day?

Quote

Livanavage and Wiebe are expected to fly back to Grand Forks on Jan. 2. UND hosts Mercyhurst on Jan. 2-3.

UND could be without several key players for that series because of the World Junior Championship in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Cole Reschny, Keaton Verhoeff and Ollie Josephson participated in Hockey Canada's World Junior summer evaluation showcase.

E.J. Emery, Mac Swanson, Will Zellers and Sam Laurila are candidates for the U.S. roster.

We'll see how the WJC teams for US and Canada shape up, but you have to figure at least Verhoeff and Emery are locks for their teams.
Hopefully Strathmann and Jubenvill have their skates sharpened...they're gonna get lots of playing time against Mercyhurst.

[scpa0305]

7 minutes ago, SuhakiYeahYeah said:

 

 

Canadians can be selected? If so they missed a ton of good players 

[siouxforce19]

18 minutes ago, scpa0305 said:

Canadians can be selected? If so they missed a ton of good players 

Any NCAA player can be selected except freshmen. 

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Sounds like there's a potential to be missing A TON of players for the Mercyhurst series if the WJC guys all made their teams.  (this is a good problem to have by the way)

The final game in Switzerland is December 31st and Friday vs Mercyhurst is January 2nd.  If a doomsday scenario where everyone makes their teams and some crazy winter weather stalled the guys coming back from Switzerland we could be without:

Forwards

Cole Reschny WJC

Ollie Josephson WJC

Mac Swanson WJC

Will Zellers WJC

Defensemen

Keaton Verhoeff WJC

Jake Livinavage Spengler

Abram Wiebe Spengler

EJ Emery WJC

Sam Laurila WJC

 

Anyone know if Sandy and Homer/Spunar can play D?

James - Rickwood - Kernan

Croal - Klee - Strinden

Menghini - Andrew - Littler

Young

 

Strathman - Zmolek

Jubenvil - Engel

[cberkas]

One of the Michigan State guys that covers the team, said Michigan State wasn’t letting them take any more players on the College Selects team because of how many they would lose to WJC. 
 

I’m surprised they are taking Weibe, looks like College Hockey Inc. isn’t following their own guidelines for the team. 

[dustnyou]

Mercyhurst is the worst team in college hockey this season. We should win that game no matter who is gone. 

[scpa0305]

13 minutes ago, dustnyou said:

Mercyhurst is the worst team in college hockey this season. We should win that game no matter who is gone. 

Agreed and highly doubt all players will be gone. Locks to be out are: Livinavage, Wiebe, and Verhoeff. Probably out: Emery; Could be out: Reschny and Zellers. Swanson, Ollie, and Laurila will be there barring injury. 

[siouxforce19]

1 hour ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Sounds like there's a potential to be missing A TON of players for the Mercyhurst series if the WJC guys all made their teams.  (this is a good problem to have by the way)

The final game in Switzerland is December 31st and Friday vs Mercyhurst is January 2nd.  If a doomsday scenario where everyone makes their teams and some crazy winter weather stalled the guys coming back from Switzerland we could be without:

Forwards

Cole Reschny WJC

Ollie Josephson WJC

Mac Swanson WJC

Will Zellers WJC

Defensemen

Keaton Verhoeff WJC

Jake Livinavage Spengler

Abram Wiebe Spengler

EJ Emery WJC

Sam Laurila WJC

 

Anyone know if Sandy and Homer/Spunar can play D?

James - Rickwood - Kernan

Croal - Klee - Strinden

Menghini - Andrew - Littler

Young

 

Strathman - Zmolek

Jubenvil - Engel

I think there is a zero percent chance we are missing all these guys so I’m not worried. 

[brianvf]

59 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Sounds like there's a potential to be missing A TON of players for the Mercyhurst series if the WJC guys all made their teams.  (this is a good problem to have by the way)

The final game in Switzerland is December 31st and Friday vs Mercyhurst is January 2nd.  If a doomsday scenario where everyone makes their teams and some crazy winter weather stalled the guys coming back from Switzerland we could be without:

Forwards

Cole Reschny WJC
Ollie Josephson WJC
Mac Swanson WJC
Will Zellers WJC

Defensemen

Keaton Verhoeff WJC
Jake Livinavage Spengler
Abram Wiebe Spengler
EJ Emery WJC
Sam Laurila WJC

From the US and Canada roster projections that I've been seeing, I think a good chunk of our players might be bypassed.
I think only Verhoeff and Emery would be considered locks.
Despite their strong starts, I haven't seen many projections that considered any of our forwards.

Agreed that the boys shouldn't have trouble with Mercyhurst anyway, but hopefully Liv and Wiebe make it back in time and can log some minutes, even if they reduce them a bit.

[stoneySIOUX]

7 minutes ago, brianvf said:

From the US and Canada roster projections that I've been seeing, I think a good chunk of our players might be bypassed.
I think only Verhoeff and Emery would be considered locks.
Despite their strong starts, I haven't seen many projections that considered any of our forwards.

Agreed that the boys shouldn't have trouble with Mercyhurst anyway, but hopefully Liv and Wiebe make it back in time and can log some minutes, even if they reduce them a bit.

Specifically for Canada, these projections have ALWAYS overlooked college hockey players, so take all that with a grain of salt. Particularly now with the CHL door wide open. Lots of grumpy Canucks around, these days.

[cberkas]

5 hours ago, dustnyou said:

Mercyhurst is the worst team in college hockey this season. We should win that game no matter who is gone. 

We’ve all seen how this has gone over the last few years. Games that shouldn't be remotely close end up being way to close 

[The Sicatoka]

57 minutes ago, dustnyou said:

Mercyhurst is the worst team in college hockey this season. We should win that game no matter who is gone. 

Truth to @Oxbow6 and @Blackheart enrolling for spring semester? 

[The Sicatoka]

Picking up a late, serviceable, ninth defenseman now seems quite prescient by Coach Jackson. 

[Oxbow6]

20 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

Truth to @Oxbow6 and @Blackheart enrolling for spring semester? 

@Blackheart standing in the Office of the Registrar in Twamley....

[siouxfaninseattle]

1 hour ago, siouxforce19 said:

I think there is a zero percent chance we are missing all these guys so I’m not worried. 

It is a good problem to have, but losing to Mercyhurst would be a Pair..., er, NPI disaster. 

[tnt]

2 hours ago, dustnyou said:

Mercyhurst is the worst team in college hockey this season. We should win that game no matter who is gone. 

Hopefully the players don’t take that attitude, because a college student doesn’t have the history behind losses to teams that should never have happened.   Shouldn’t lose to them, but stranger things have happened.

[AJS]

4 hours ago, scpa0305 said:

Agreed and highly doubt all players will be gone. Locks to be out are: Livinavage, Wiebe, and Verhoeff. Probably out: Emery; Could be out: Reschny and Zellers. Swanson, Ollie, and Laurila will be there barring injury. 

I bet the Spengler Cup guys play that weekend. Unless there's serious travel delays. 

[hockeytherapy13]

23 minutes ago, AJS said:

I bet the Spengler Cup guys play that weekend. Unless there's serious travel delays. 

I think the article said those guys fly back on Friday the 2nd. So I'm guessing they sit that one out, then (hopefully) play Saturday, even if it's limited minutes. 

[hockeytherapy13]

4 hours ago, The Sicatoka said:

Picking up a late, serviceable, ninth defenseman now seems quite prescient by Coach Jackson. 

I know we only got to see him in the exhibition, but I don't feel worried at all about Engel having to jump into that series. I'm more worried about having only 4-5 defensemen that will get way too fatigued. 

[AJS]

50 minutes ago, hockeytherapy13 said:

I think the article said those guys fly back on Friday the 2nd. So I'm guessing they sit that one out, then (hopefully) play Saturday, even if it's limited minutes. 

Should have read the article! I assumed they’d fly out the night of the 31st / 1st. Changes things.

[.357]

5 hours ago, scpa0305 said:

Agreed and highly doubt all players will be gone. Locks to be out are: Livinavage, Wiebe, and Verhoeff. Probably out: Emery; 

That's the top 4 D who would likely miss at least Friday's game. Possible that UND would be playing with only 5 D that night; plus you throw in possible injuries/illnesses during that time. PSU has 4 players participating in the Spengler Cup, but they will miss zero games because they play Jan 3-4 that weekend (Sat & Sun); smart scheduling on their part. Even though BU only has D McCarthy gone to Davos, it's a moot point because they only have 1 exhibition game the weekend of 2-3-4 January. 

All it takes is 1 loss with a depleted roster against a team like Mercyhurst & the NPI takes a major hit. It's negligent as a HC to put your team in that predicament with playoff seeding on the line, unless DJ is planning for them to return & dress for Friday night.