Non-UND College Hockey 2025-26

[RhettRingers]

5 minutes ago, atxsioux said:

So ... Why in the world did McKenna go to Penn state? Just gets more baffling as time moves on in my opinion.

$700k

[nascar99]

3 minutes ago, atxsioux said:

So ... Why in the world did McKenna go to Penn state? Just gets more baffling as time moves on in my opinion.

Money and he wanted to be "the guy" that everyone associates with Penn State Hockey going forward. With McKenna being from Yukon and it being unlikely that he was exposed to NCAA Hockey & its unique culture, I don't think he necessarily valued North Dakota, Denver, Michigan, or Boston University above the rest. 

[fightingsioux4life]

1 hour ago, nascar99 said:

Money and he wanted to be "the guy" that everyone associates with Penn State Hockey going forward. With McKenna being from Yukon and it being unlikely that he was exposed to NCAA Hockey & its unique culture, I don't think he necessarily valued North Dakota, Denver, Michigan, or Boston University above the rest. 

He's gone after next season.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

 

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

Big Ten changing their playoff format, speculated that NCHC too

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2025/07/21_Big-Ten-Set-to-Make-Tournament.php

[cberkas]

Finally, they are getting home games. There is talk they will play the NTDP outdoors

[nascar99]

Listening to the David Carle interview with Adam Wodon on the 2025 CHN Summer Series Pod. Carle is so much smarter & hits the nail on the head of why we need home site regionals while Wodon is a complete dunce. Actually hard to listen to Wodon's takes on it...

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

1 hour ago, nascar99 said:

Listening to the David Carle interview with Adam Wodon on the 2025 CHN Summer Series Pod. Carle is so much smarter & hits the nail on the head of why we need home site regionals while Wodon is a complete dunce. Actually hard to listen to Wodon's takes on it...

Carle repeatedly lets Wodon talk himself into a box and he falls for it every time, just dismantles every argument he puts forward systematically and does not let him slither away with backhanded comments without explaining himself.  I loved every second of it.

[SuhakiYeahYeah]

44 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Carle repeatedly lets Wodon talk himself into a box and he falls for it every time, just dismantles every argument he puts forward systematically and does not let him slither away with backhanded comments without explaining himself.  I loved every second of it.

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." -Napoleon Bonaparte 

[nascar99]

On 7/22/2025 at 9:02 AM, nascar99 said:

Listening to the David Carle interview with Adam Wodon on the 2025 CHN Summer Series Pod. Carle is so much smarter & hits the nail on the head of why we need home site regionals while Wodon is a complete dunce. Actually hard to listen to Wodon's takes on it...

Listening to more of Wodon's interviews with coaches: it's like Wodon doesn't want to grow the game & just keep it small & niche (which means it declines over time). Very much an "old man yells at cloud" mentality. I get it, change is hard, but the neutral site regional format playing in boring atmosphere places like Worcester, MA, Providence, RI, Manchester, NH, Albany, NY, etc is not helping the sport at all.

[atxsioux]

The odds of games being played directly in the city of Boston would be pretty high based on BU / BC being consistently good (then throw in Harvard and Northeastern once in awhile). Having big time playoff hockey in that city would be great to showcase the game. (Same story with the gophers hosting in Minneapolis.) Making random people notice at bars before and after games in those major cities is a great way for people to take notice of the sport.

 

BU and BC you could argue have actually been hurt the past 20 years for fan base growth because instead of playing it in their metro they ship the meaningful playoff games to random east coast locations.

[atxsioux]

Not to mention having games in a big metro area would objectively make it easier for any away fans to travel to games if they wish. The current model has almost no games played in a major city. (which in turn "should" make it easier for TV crews to get there - another big argument or Wodon's concerns about feasibility) ASU (Phx) / Denver / Boston schools / MSP (gophers) are all very possible hosts for NCAA games.

[cberkas]

2 hours ago, atxsioux said:

The odds of games being played directly in the city of Boston would be pretty high based on BU / BC being consistently good (then throw in Harvard and Northeastern once in awhile). Having big time playoff hockey in that city would be great to showcase the game. (Same story with the gophers hosting in Minneapolis.) Making random people notice at bars before and after games in those major cities is a great way for people to take notice of the sport.

 

BU and BC you could argue have actually been hurt the past 20 years for fan base growth because instead of playing it in their metro they ship the meaningful playoff games to random east coast locations.

No one that is a BC or BU fan cares unless they are playing each other, or the games are at the garden. BC and BU don't fill their arenas for Hockey East playoff games. Every year Bucci, Grinnell, and others show the line for the BU and BC game the only time there is ever a line for those two schools as a reason to have it on campus.

The East and Northeast regionals shouldn't be empty with most of Hockey East 3 hours from those locations. Going back to when the current format was implemented BU has hosted 3 or 4 regionals and BC has hosted none. 

Have the top 4 host and the moment all the regionals are in the East again everyone including UND fans will bitch about it again. If you want to host at your arena then BID plain and simple. you have schools like Michigan that don't have the lockers to host, or they don't want to make the guaranteed money commitment to the NCAA. There should be a rule that says a team can't host unless you have made the NCAAs in the last 5 years (that means AHA should never host, sorry not sorry). I've heard conferences should host over schools so that a 4 seed can't play at the regional they would host (i.e. Providence a few years ago). UND doesn't whine about having to play against a lower seeded host, but it's a big deal when Denver has to. I want to say it was an interview with Muckalt who said in 1998 that "UND was the better team we just happen to play better in that game" when Michigan last hosted at Yost. 

When it comes to growing the game, only UND has done remotely anything to do that with the "destination games." Growing the game does come with the double edge sword of a regional in Athens GA., Austin TX., or Palm Springs CA., this would be good to grow the game but could have no one show up. 

[Goon]

On 7/22/2025 at 9:12 AM, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Carle repeatedly lets Wodon talk himself into a box and he falls for it every time, just dismantles every argument he puts forward systematically and does not let him slither away with backhanded comments without explaining himself.  I loved every second of it.

Wodon asked Dane Jakson in the podcast last week if he was for Home Site Regionals. Of course he was. Wodon is afraid that his beloved Cornel will have to go to play a regional in the West in an arena full of opposition fans. 

[Blackheart]

9 minutes ago, Goon said:

Wodon asked Dane Jakson in the podcast last week if he was for Home Site Regionals. Of course he was. Wodon is afraid that his beloved Cornel will have to go to play a regional in the West in an arena full of opposition fans. 

I seem to remember they had to make a trip as the top seed to Mariucci a while back and ended up playing Minny...he can't still be butt-hurt over that?

[cberkas]

Usually, I like the AFA jerseys, but these are not their best

[cberkas]

At about 18:45 to 28:10 they talk about the regionals. Mike makes points I agree with the 2 pm start time and ESPN going to 8 different venues. ESPN barely have 2 good college hockey broadcast crews and God forbid they have Omaha's TV/radio guys calling the game on TV because ESPN doesn't have enough TV guys (only using Omaha as an example since they are not like North Dakota or Denver who have TV crews).

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

Duluth native Kaden Nelson redshirted his freshman year at Michigan State and now transferred to Oklahoma State's ACHA D2 team. Their home ice is over an hour away, quite the downgrade from Munn. Played in OK in the NAHL so might have a girlfriend going there? Skipping all of D3 and ACHA D1 is quite a choice.

[nascar99]

51 minutes ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Duluth native Kaden Nelson redshirted his freshman year at Michigan State and now transferred to Oklahoma State's ACHA D2 team. Their home ice is over an hour away, quite the downgrade from Munn. Played in OK in the NAHL so might have a girlfriend going there? Skipping all of D3 and ACHA D1 is quite a choice.

This is the result of CHLers being NCAA eligible now. Lower tier NAHL guys who were getting NCAA scholarships will be pushed down to D3 & ACHA. Very possible he has friends at Oklahoma State, the exposure to Oklahoma culture from his billet family & overall living down there pushed him in that direction, or he just wanted the big school experience but still play some sort of hockey. Going to play D3 at Gustavus Adolphus or Adrian can get pretty expensive in terms of private tuition.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

Ryan Starman of Long Island, which likely means Dave's son, commits to Duluth. He's a fringe player in the NAHL with one year of Juniors left.

[nascar99]

Just now, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

Ryan Starman of Long Island, which likely means Dave's son, commits to Duluth. He's a fringe player in the NAHL with one year of Junior left.

From what I ready on Twitter, it made it seem like Ryan is going to serve in a hockey operations/off ice role and not as a player. Unless I'm totally misreading Dave's tweet.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

24 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

From what I ready on Twitter, it made it seem like Ryan is going to serve in a hockey operations/off ice role and not as a player. Unless I'm totally misreading Dave's tweet.

That makes more sense. Good for him.

[cberkas]

New timeline set for $515M downtown Kalamazoo arena - mlive.com

Saw that some of their fans talking about how they should add women's hockey. 

[SiouxFan100]

What’s St Thomas future? Would be nice if down the road we were in the same conference.

[brianvf]

1 minute ago, SiouxFan100 said:

What’s St Thomas future? Would be nice if down the road we were in the same conference.

You're in luck.    

https://nchchockey.com/news/2024/5/14/mens-ice-hockey-nchc-adds-university-of-st-thomas-as-newest-member-beginning-in-2026-2027.aspx