Prospective Recruits

[ChadR]

What is the scouting report on Ayven Hontvet from Warroad? Is he a recruiting target?

[nascar99]

2 hours ago, brianvf said:

Lose Liver, Wiebe, Zmolek...maybe Jubs to the portal since he isn't playing?  Hoping Verhoeff stays one more year.
Add MacK and Lindberg from our current commits.

D-corps of Strath, EJ, Laurila, Verhoeff, MacK, Lindberg, Carels*, DuPont*, and Engel would be insane.
The starting 6 + 1 extra skater each night would all be elite.
Agree with you though...it'd be hard to guarantee all those high-end players playing time unless Lindberg is ok going back for one more year in juniors.

Would be very surprised if DuPont is at North Dakota next year tbh

[tnt]

1 hour ago, .357 said:

Of the 7 players highlighted above, I don't know in what universe that would even be possible to have all of them on the same team, because it would mean making one of them a 7th D every night or a healthy scratch if you're dressing 13 F. In your scenario, it would look like Laurila would be the 7th D every game (imagine that, an elite D like Laurila possibly being a healthy scratch), with Lindberg or Jubenvill only getting a sniff of ice if there were an injury.

Would be surprised if Jubenvill hangs around next year if that were the starting D...which would be unfortunate, because you groom a player for 2 years, only to have him pushed out when his experience as an upperclassman could have been a stabilizing force on the backend. 

 

This has been a very odd year for us so far, knock on wood.  Usually you have some wear and tear injuries on defense.  Emery missing the start of the season has been the extent of it.  We brought in Engels because you usually have someone on defense nursing some injury.  The defense even with 7, probably see as much time as the forwards.  True, it might not be for everyone, and really we have no clue what the plan is for next year, and what the talk is behind the scenes.

 

[yzerman19]

1 hour ago, ChadR said:

What is the scouting report on Ayven Hontvet from Warroad? Is he a recruiting target?

Good player...he is a kid who will need some junior time to see what his projection is IMO. 

[Fratt Mattin]

3 hours ago, yzerman19 said:

Good player...he is a kid who will need some junior time to see what his projection is IMO. 

I haven’t watched him live, but his production, given his age and the fact that he’s a defensemen, stands out. He also appears to have good size already

[RhettRingers]

13 hours ago, .357 said:

Of the 7 players highlighted above, I don't know in what universe that would even be possible to have all of them on the same team, because it would mean making one of them a 7th D every night or a healthy scratch if you're dressing 13 F. In your scenario, it would look like Laurila would be the 7th D every game (imagine that, an elite D like Laurila possibly being a healthy scratch), with Lindberg or Jubenvill only getting a sniff of ice if there were an injury.

Would be surprised if Jubenvill hangs around next year if that were the starting D...which would be unfortunate, because you groom a player for 2 years, only to have him pushed out when his experience as an upperclassman could have been a stabilizing force on the backend. 

 

More than likely losing a few to the portal.

[yzerman19]

8 hours ago, Fratt Mattin said:

I haven’t watched him live, but his production, given his age and the fact that he’s a defensemen, stands out. He also appears to have good size already

He got big pretty young...not many 200+ pounders in Bantam let alone PeeWee hockey.  He is a nice kid.  He plays hard and has that grown man size.  He does have a nice nose for offense as well.  The key question will be how much of an advantage was his early size and will he continue to grow.  I like the player, so I hope he continues to get better.  Nice numbers in Elite League and good numbers for Warroad.

[Sodbuster]

1 hour ago, yzerman19 said:

He got big pretty young...not many 200+ pounders in Bantam let alone PeeWee hockey.  He is a nice kid.  He plays hard and has that grown man size.  He does have a nice nose for offense as well.  The key question will be how much of an advantage was his early size and will he continue to grow.  I like the player, so I hope he continues to get better.  Nice numbers in Elite League and good numbers for Warroad.

If his dad or grandpa is who I'm thinking he's got some Marvin blood in him.

[tnt]

8 minutes ago, Sodbuster said:

If his dad or grandpa is who I'm thinking he's got some Marvin blood in him.

His uncle apparently is Wyatt Smith who played for the gophers as well.

[beastandco]

I feel like this clip was previous shared in a prior post. Anyways, in an interview done about a month ago Keaton Verhoeff had stated that Jake Sanderson had played a role in his recruitment via a couple of text conversations. 
 

I would imagine they are doing something similar with Carels. 

[scpa0305]

17 hours ago, ChadR said:

What is the scouting report on Ayven Hontvet from Warroad? Is he a recruiting target?

He’s always been significantly bigger than everyone, even as a youngster. Even hit puberty before basically everyone. Really smart player, athleticism would be the biggest question mark. As someone else said…seeing him play Junior may be important.

[tnt]

On 1/29/2026 at 9:44 PM, nascar99 said:

Would be very surprised if DuPont is at North Dakota next year tbh

Man, whoever gets him is going to be super lucky.  He is so dynamic with elite skating and hockey sense.  Would probably need to work on situational awareness because he is super aggressive on pinching, but I suppose at that level his elite skating wins out more often than not.  Would rather have a confident aggressive player that can be reigned back than vice versa.