Prospective Recruits

[nascar99]

Olivers Murnieks (2008, Saint John Sea Dogs) commits to Boston College

[SKondrashkin]

7 hours ago, nascar99 said:

If he's made above the monetary threshold playing pro, then he's ineligible for the NCAA. Unless the Clearinghouse miraculously lets him in (or we get proof he's made less $ than the threshold), my assumption is that Ivar Stenberg is ineligible for NCAA Hockey

 

8 hours ago, nodakgirl93 said:

With the new rule change you never know. Even just for 1 season. I suppose how high he gets drafted this summer and by which team will be a factor in that decision. 

 

Nah, Stenberg will have significantly outgrown the college game by next year, if he hasn't already.   He's currently a point/game player in one of the top mens leagues in the world.  There's no rational reason for him to go the college route next season.  He'll be in the NHL/AHL, or, if not, back in Sweden.  

[burd]

48 minutes ago, SKondrashkin said:

 

 

Nah, Stenberg will have significantly outgrown the college game by next year.  There's no rational reason for him to go the college route next season.   

As a full blood Norsky, I have to ask why  anyone would expect a Swede to act rationally.

[Sodbuster]

2 hours ago, burd said:

As a full blood Norsky, I have to ask why  anyone would expect a Swede to act rationally.

As another full blooded Norsky, I totally agree.

[nodakgirl93]

4 hours ago, SKondrashkin said:

 

 

Nah, Stenberg will have significantly outgrown the college game by next year, if he hasn't already.   He's currently a point/game player in one of the top mens leagues in the world.  There's no rational reason for him to go the college route next season.  He'll be in the NHL/AHL, or, if not, back in Sweden.  

Hey I can dream. No harm in that.

[cberkas]

On 1/7/2026 at 8:16 PM, tnt said:

Any idea why the Vancouver Giants would trade the leading scorer in the WHL, Cameron Schmidt, to Seattle?  Would assume he isn’t a college candidate, but Seattle does have 2009 Brock England who some have mentioned here who is doing quite nicely for a team not doing well.

Looks like it is a move for next season 

[nascar99]

I probably commented about this pages ago, but we're much more likely to see quieter August 1st through October 1st first time eligible commitment periods going forward.

The top US players might still have interest in committing that early, but with a much larger player pool opened up now via the Canadian Hockey League, coaches can recruit hundreds of older junior players with more track record of production/easier projection to do. Recruiting 15 year olds coming out of minor/prep/HS hockey is extremely hit or miss due to having to do a 4-5 year projection outward of what these guys will be. Going up to Brandon to watch the Wheat Kings play the Saskatoon Blades for example, you're recruiting guys in junior who are years older in most cases, and projecting outcomes from junior to the NCAA is much easier than minor/prep/HS to the NCAA.

As we saw last August 1, very few Canadian 2009s committed during that window, and that allows for coaches to track them in junior and see the progression (or lack thereof) before offering them. NIL in some cases will also play a factor, but that's mostly for high end potential recruits.

[beastandco]

22 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

I probably commented about this pages ago, but we're much more likely to see quieter August 1st through October 1st first time eligible commitment periods going forward.

The top US players might still have interest in committing that early, but with a much larger player pool opened up now via the Canadian Hockey League, coaches can recruit hundreds of older junior players with more track record of production/easier projection to do. Recruiting 15 year olds coming out of minor/prep/HS hockey is extremely hit or miss due to having to do a 4-5 year projection outward of what these guys will be. Going up to Brandon to watch the Wheat Kings play the Saskatoon Blades for example, you're recruiting guys in junior who are years older in most cases, and projecting outcomes from junior to the NCAA is much easier than minor/prep/HS to the NCAA.

As we saw last August 1, very few Canadian 2009s committed during that window, and that allows for coaches to track them in junior and see the progression (or lack thereof) before offering them. NIL in some cases will also play a factor, but that's mostly for high end potential recruits.

The age requirement to officially offer a player will eventually be raised, in my opinion. I see no benefit for the player or team to commit a player multiple years before they get to campus. Shortening the window will prevent players from changing their commitments and teams from pulling scholarships. 
 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

Lars Steiner signed with HC Davos for next year.

[nascar99]

Michal Pradel (2007, Tri City Storm) commits to Colorado College. Good goalie for the Tigers to replace Mbereko going forward

[nascar99]

Jonas Woo (2006, Winnipeg, MB, Medicine Hat Tigers) commits to Arizona State. That's a very nice recruiting win for the Sun Devils

[scpa0305]

55 minutes ago, nascar99 said:

Jonas Woo (2006, Winnipeg, MB, Medicine Hat Tigers) commits to Arizona State. That's a very nice recruiting win for the Sun Devils

Awesome get…he’s nice. I was just wondering the other day if he’d go the collegiate route or follow his bro and go right to the A/pro

[tnt]

13 minutes ago, scpa0305 said:

Awesome get…he’s nice. I was just wondering the other day if he’d go the collegiate route or follow his bro and go right to the A/pro

This is why you better get guys that are going to compete hard, because he is a nice recruit, but there are probably 10 or more defenseman in the CHL alone that I would put ahead of him that I would want UND to get. Simply look at the latest 2026 draft rankings to find a ton of high end talent.  Will be interesting to see how many actually go the NCAA route.

[scpa0305]

1 hour ago, tnt said:

This is why you better get guys that are going to compete hard, because he is a nice recruit, but there are probably 10 or more defenseman in the CHL alone that I would put ahead of him that I would want UND to get. Simply look at the latest 2026 draft rankings to find a ton of high end talent.  Will be interesting to see how many actually go the NCAA route.

10 or more? Really? Interesting. I have him in my top 3 Dub dmen. Self admittedly, I don’t track the O well. There will be other kids that are younger that will get drafted well. But this kid isn’t the biggest, he may play 3 years of college puck. This is a great get for a college program. Offensive dynamo from the back end.

[brianvf]

I think the biggest thing with these highly offensive dmen from the CHL is not knowing how well they can actually play defense.
The CHL is so much more offensive of a league. 
We've seen it some this year with Verhoeff, how he's still learning when/where to jump into the play and making mistakes still with that.
It'd probably be even harder as a much smaller, less physical D moving to the NCAA from the CHL.

Will be interesting to see how he does at ASU.

[cberkas]

He gets to 100 points and being right handed, I don't see him making to college because an NHL team will take a shot at him.

[tnt]

4 hours ago, scpa0305 said:

10 or more? Really? Interesting. I have him in my top 3 Dub dmen. Self admittedly, I don’t track the O well. There will be other kids that are younger that will get drafted well. But this kid isn’t the biggest, he may play 3 years of college puck. This is a great get for a college program. Offensive dynamo from the back end.

You’re right, probably talking more about potential. Assuming being an overage who has great numbers with no talk about being drafted that there might be a gap in his game.  I know being a bit undersized plays a factor.  Probably could work out better for Arizona State, because he might be more likely to stick around.

The guys I thought had a bigger upside because of being young and are nice draft prospects are:  Carels, Lin, Rudolph, DuPont, Villeneuve, Vanecek, Pantelas, Mackenzie, and even Klimpke, and Pickford, although I believe he has signed with Montreal. Like you, I don’t follow the OHL, but assume there are a few there as well. 
 

No doubt Arizona State is getting a guy that could be running their power play for a while, but like I said, so many great players out there so compete level may be a determining factor who becomes a stud, and who is just a bit above average in college.  Might be wishing we had a player of his caliber for longer rather than a shorter stint of a guy who takes a year or so to get up to speed, but when they do is signed by their draft team.

[jk]

UND hasn't had to deal with the revolving door of high-draft pick two-year players that some other big names have, since that was largely the usndt pipeline that didn't lead here.

Now that a similar CHL pipeline may lead to GF, it'll be a new challenge.  We know most of those programs have not won the national title despite being loaded with future NHLers. 

[tnt]

1 minute ago, jk said:

UND hasn't had to deal with the revolving door of high-draft pick two-year players that some other big names have, since that was largely the usndt pipeline that didn't lead here.

Now that a similar CHL pipeline may lead to GF, it'll be a new challenge.  We know most of those programs have not won the national title despite being loaded with future NHLers. 

That’s why UND needs to hang on to guys who are willing to play an extra year of juniors who are second tier guys, so they can plug and play with more experience if you lose more high end guys than you expect in any given year.  Hopefully the coaches keep a better mix of short term and long term players than other teams have.

[brianvf]

2 minutes ago, tnt said:

That’s why UND needs to hang on to guys who are willing to play an extra year of juniors who are second tier guys, so they can plug and play with more experience if you lose more high end guys than you expect in any given year.  Hopefully the coaches keep a better mix of short term and long term players than other teams have.

+1

In CHL terms, for every Reschny and Verhoeff, you also need a Josephson and Zakreski.