Prospective Recruits

[beastandco]

 

There are some interesting quotes from Schlossman about UND’s open forward spots in this week’s column. Schloss saying “a couple could end up in college” is notable. If five or less CHL players are coming into college next year that are picked in the first round, I am a little nervous. It almost sounds like a few are silently committed and if they land on an anti-NCAA team, they probably will not leave the CHL.

[nascar99]

3 hours ago, beastandco said:

There are some interesting quotes from Schlossman about UND’s open forward spots in this week’s column. Schloss saying “a couple could end up in college” is notable. If five or less CHL players are coming into college next year that are picked in the first round, I am a little nervous. It almost sounds like a few are silently committed and if they land on an anti-NCAA team, they probably will not leave the CHL.

For all intents & purposes, until North Dakota gets high end commits from the O and the Q, I'm not going to expect them to pull OHLers and QMJHLers at all. The Dub is the one major junior league I expect that UND will grab several players every recruiting cycle, many of them 4/5 star types. So if none of the uncommitted like Kindel, Cootes, McQueen, Lakovic, Schmidt, Behm, Ravensbergen end up at UND (whether it be because they signed ELCs right away or end up at other NCAA schools like Denver or Michigan), then I'll be quite concerned. Not super worried right now because they added Reschny, Verhoeff, & Zakreski for this season and Williams for the season after.

[brianvf]

26 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Not super worried right now because they added Reschny, Verhoeff, & Zakreski for this season and Williams for the season after.

If Reschny & Verhoeff both stick around for their SO years, plus add in Williams and possibly Bear/Dupont duo for 26/27...that's looking like a heck of a team foundation right there.

[nascar99]

7 minutes ago, brianvf said:

If Reschny & Verhoeff both stick around for their SO years, plus add in Williams and possibly Bear/Dupont duo for 26/27...that's looking like a heck of a team foundation right there.

Ryan Lin, Liam & Markus Ruck, Chase Harrington, Daxon Rudolph, Mathis Preston are all names I'd add for my wish list.

[beastandco]

12 minutes ago, brianvf said:

If Reschny & Verhoeff both stick around for their SO years, plus add in Williams and possibly Bear/Dupont duo for 26/27...that's looking like a heck of a team foundation right there.

Verhoeff could be three years. Hughes and Makar both stayed through their D+2 year. I feel like McKamey could get pushed back a year unless he gets 70/80 points in the WHL this year. If they can get another impact player this year and Bear/DuPont, this team could be special for years to come.
 

 

[tnt]

8 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Ryan Lin, Liam & Markus Ruck, Chase Harrington, Daxon Rudolph, Mathis Preston are all names I'd add for my wish list.

I do think that they still need to recruit guys with strong ties and 4-year guys to complement some high end guys, otherwise we might lose some identity.  It will be interesting to see how Minnesota does if they don’t pull in some of these players, because I’m not convinced they become also rans. Get too many guys that are all about taking the next step as fast as they can, and you still might not guarantee consistent success, especially if you are fighting against NIL money.

[nascar99]

4 minutes ago, tnt said:

I do think that they still need to recruit guys with strong ties and 4-year guys to complement some high end guys, otherwise we might lose some identity.  It will be interesting to see how Minnesota does if they don’t pull in some of these players, because I’m not convinced they become also rans. Get too many guys that are all about taking the next step as fast as they can, and you still might not guarantee consistent success, especially if you are fighting against NIL money.

Agreed, but you do need high end guys on every team.

I'm not convinced Minnesota is going to go after & get (m)any high end, Canadian CHLers until proven otherwise.

[tnt]

16 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Agreed, but you do need high end guys on every team.

I'm not convinced Minnesota is going to go after & get (m)any high end, Canadian CHLers until proven otherwise.

Even if they don’t, they have had quite a bit of high end talent from Minnesota.  How would Minnesota have looked for next year if they kept those guys for another year?

[tnt]

I will say, it will be very interesting to see if blue blood teams get as many early commits after August 1 as they did before, hoping to keep room open for high end CHL guys after their draft year.  Of course the perceived can’t miss kids will probably go, but maybe more of the guys that would normally play junior hockey in the U.S. will play in the CHL and wait for guidance after they are drafted. I think it’s a whole new world out there, and hopefully with Chyzyk, UND is well positioned to take advantage of it.

[nascar99]

8 minutes ago, tnt said:

I will say, it will be very interesting to see if blue blood teams get as many early commits after August 1 as they did before, hoping to keep room open for high end CHL guys after their draft year.  Of course the perceived can’t miss kids will probably go, but maybe more of the guys that would normally play junior hockey in the U.S. will play in the CHL and wait for guidance after they are drafted. I think it’s a whole new world out there, and hopefully with Chyzyk, UND is well positioned to take advantage of it.

A lot of the 2009 born Canadian CHLers will commit to NCAA programs pretty quickly in this new world. Some will wait, and some will just go the straight to pro route.

[beastandco]

4 minutes ago, tnt said:

I will say, it will be very interesting to see if blue blood teams get as many early commits after August 1 as they did before, hoping to keep room open for high end CHL guys after their draft year.  Of course the perceived can’t miss kids will probably go, but maybe more of the guys that would normally play junior hockey in the U.S. will play in the CHL and wait for guidance after they are drafted. I think it’s a whole new world out there, and hopefully with Chyzyk, UND is well positioned to take advantage of it.

More and more CHL players will commit before their draft year. This year is an anomaly because CHL players became NCAA eligible midseason. UND already has two players, McKamey and Williams, that are playing in the CHL while committed to an NCAA program. That will be the new norm in a couple of years. Players waiting so long this year to commit is a combination of them simply not being eligible and wanting their NHL team to take the bullets for them leaving the CHL.

[atxsioux]

1 hour ago, tnt said:

Even if they don’t, they have had quite a bit of high end talent from Minnesota.  How would Minnesota have looked for next year if they kept those guys for another year?

I think it’s a tough ask for the hockey talent in Minnesota to keep up with the CHL and majority of US on an annual basis. That’s where the gophers seem that they have to change their philosophy on Canadian players in recruiting
 

In the future with the added CHL depth I don’t think it’s out of the question that most of your blue bloods will have 1st / 2nd round players filling up the majority of your top 6 forwards and 3 of your top 6. 

[tnt]

43 minutes ago, atxsioux said:

I think it’s a tough ask for the hockey talent in Minnesota to keep up with the CHL and majority of US on an annual basis. That’s where the gophers seem that they have to change their philosophy on Canadian players in recruiting
 

In the future with the added CHL depth I don’t think it’s out of the question that most of your blue bloods will have 1st / 2nd round players filling up the majority of your top 6 forwards and 3 of your top 6. 

I’ll reserve judgement until I see how these guys do in college hockey.  I think guys like Menghini might have just as big of an impact as some of the newcomers that will be coming into college hockey.  We have seen plenty first round picks that don’t make huge impacts their first year of college hockey. 

[nascar99]

10 hours ago, tnt said:

I’ll reserve judgement until I see how these guys do in college hockey.  I think guys like Menghini might have just as big of an impact as some of the newcomers that will be coming into college hockey.  We have seen plenty first round picks that don’t make huge impacts their first year of college hockey. 

Some of the high end guys will struggle with the adjustment, no doubt about that. There are fairly high end older CHLers coming into the NCAA next year that I'm really interested to see how they do: Oliver Tulk at Wisconsin, Shea Van Olm at Penn State, and even Josh Zakreski at North Dakota; I believe they should do very well right off the bat.

18 year olds like Cole Reschny are talented enough to be able to adjust very quickly and produce at a well above average rate. Some will struggle of course, I tend to think of the high end talent level of many Canadian CHLers as high enough to overcome challenges in the NCAA.

[atxsioux]

12 hours ago, beastandco said:

More and more CHL players will commit before their draft year. This year is an anomaly because CHL players became NCAA eligible midseason. UND already has two players, McKamey and Williams, that are playing in the CHL while committed to an NCAA program. That will be the new norm in a couple of years. Players waiting so long this year to commit is a combination of them simply not being eligible and wanting their NHL team to take the bullets for them leaving the CHL.

The CHL is almost quietly admitting defeat in the past month - more specifically the WHL in this case. They are willing to sign prospects even if they will be leaving in the future to the NCAA. (IE, McKamey, O' Neil, Jundt, and that's just for UND's case, then throw in Carter Casey and others) Would love to see Schultz or Simpson somehow end up at Everett to become buds with Bear and Dupont hah.

[beastandco]

6 minutes ago, atxsioux said:

The CHL is almost quietly admitting defeat in the past month - more specifically the WHL in this case. They are willing to sign prospects even if they will be leaving in the future to the NCAA. (IE, McKamey, O' Neil, Jundt, and that's just for UND's case, then throw in Carter Casey and others) Would love to see Schultz or Simpson somehow end up at Everett to become buds with Bear and Dupont hah.

Simpson is very similar to Zellers, in my opinion. He has a lot of elite offensive skill but needs a year in the USHL to round out his game. He could put up some numbers this year in juniors. The CHL play style is a lot less structured than the USHL, so I would prefer him in the USHL for the time being. O’Neil is a great fit in the WHL and so would Schultz. 
 

Cooper Williams is already close to DuPont. The buzz around this team would be crazy if we landed DuPont in a year. It would not only be good for the hockey team, but good for the University as a whole.

[scpa0305]

12 hours ago, tnt said:

I’ll reserve judgement until I see how these guys do in college hockey.  I think guys like Menghini might have just as big of an impact as some of the newcomers that will be coming into college hockey.  We have seen plenty first round picks that don’t make huge impacts their first year of college hockey. 

Agreed. I mean the full blown blue chips will blue chip…but I also remember folks on this forum bashing Michigan and BU for all their young players. As a reminder, some of these kids coming in will under achieve. College is a different (heavier) game. 

[scpa0305]

1 hour ago, beastandco said:

Simpson is very similar to Zellers, in my opinion. He has a lot of elite offensive skill but needs a year in the USHL to round out his game. He could put up some numbers this year in juniors. The CHL play style is a lot less structured than the USHL, so I would prefer him in the USHL for the time being. O’Neil is a great fit in the WHL and so would Schultz. 
 

Cooper Williams is already close to DuPont. The buzz around this team would be crazy if we landed DuPont in a year. It would not only be good for the hockey team, but good for the University as a whole.

With Simpson its overall compete…and defensive awareness. Serious flaws to be honest. He’s a wizard in the ozone and his shot is what I would label as “special” but there are colossal red flags. 

[tnt]

47 minutes ago, scpa0305 said:

With Simpson its overall compete…and defensive awareness. Serious flaws to be honest. He’s a wizard in the ozone and his shot is what I would label as “special” but there are colossal red flags. 

Yeah, kind of saw the same thing, and hopefully the team that drafts him and UND coaches can instill in him that he can’t float and neglect the defensive side of the game if he wants to have a career in the NHL.  Each step up the chain, you can’t just rely on your skill level, because others can match that.  Compete level with a decent skill level sets you up for a nice career with many perks.