Michigan State picks up a 1st round goaltender for next year:
Gotta hand it to Nightangale, he doesn’t give two $h!ts about player loyalty. He replaced Luca with Melvin Strahl, and then replaced Strahl with Ravensburgen not even a year later. They’ve massively overrecruited their blue line too so there’s bound to be some decommitments or transfers there.
There’s pros and cons to each side of the loyalty spectrum. Some would say Bob leans too far to one side at fault of the program. Nightangale is definitely leaning hard in the other direction, and the pros are rearing their heads right now more than the cons.
"College" sports are now professional sports, and it'll be hard to win if you don't treat it like that.
Carson Scott, Dman of NTDP u17 and previously Hill-Murray commits to North Dakota. Rumor was we didn’t pursue hard after landing Geiger, McArthur and Harper.
Carson Scott, Dman of NTDP u17 and previously Hill-Murray commits to North Dakota. Rumor was we didn’t pursue hard after landing Geiger, McArthur and Harper.
Will be interesting to map the careers of these four. Many liked Scott last August but it seems the staff prioritized Geiger and McArthur over him (I think Harper fits any program's plans). Perhaps he wanted to go elsewhere to begin with...strong Minnesota class meant there would likely be some regrets.
Carson Scott, Dman of NTDP u17 and previously Hill-Murray commits to North Dakota. Rumor was we didn’t pursue hard after landing Geiger, McArthur and Harper.
Will be interesting to map the careers of these four. Many liked Scott last August but it seems the staff prioritized Geiger and McArthur over him (I think Harper fits any program's plans). Perhaps he wanted to go elsewhere to begin with...strong Minnesota class meant there would likely be some regrets.
scott didn’t even list mn as a finalist in his Schloss article
Carson Scott, Dman of NTDP u17 and previously Hill-Murray commits to North Dakota. Rumor was we didn’t pursue hard after landing Geiger, McArthur and Harper.
Will be interesting to map the careers of these four. Many liked Scott last August but it seems the staff prioritized Geiger and McArthur over him (I think Harper fits any program's plans). Perhaps he wanted to go elsewhere to begin with...strong Minnesota class meant there would likely be some regrets.
scott didn’t even list mn as a finalist in his Schloss article
Cant be a finalist if you don’t try. He’s a decent player but not losing sleep over it. A Cal Thomas basically.
Carson Scott, Dman of NTDP u17 and previously Hill-Murray commits to North Dakota. Rumor was we didn’t pursue hard after landing Geiger, McArthur and Harper.
Will be interesting to map the careers of these four. Many liked Scott last August but it seems the staff prioritized Geiger and McArthur over him (I think Harper fits any program's plans). Perhaps he wanted to go elsewhere to begin with...strong Minnesota class meant there would likely be some regrets.
scott didn’t even list mn as a finalist in his Schloss article
Cant be a finalist if you don’t try. He’s a decent player but not losing sleep over it. A Cal Thomas basically.
That was the reason I said it. Doesn’t seem like a target after they got who they wanted
Adam Benak headed to Western Michigan.
He seems like the perfect kind of guy that Motzko needs to addAdam Benak headed to Western Michigan.
he and mooney were cited as very similar comps in the pre-draft leadup. and i'd gladly take more Mooney's on this roster
you would think that a Wild draft pick would have jumped at the chance to play for the UHe seems like the perfect kind of guy that Motzko needs to addAdam Benak headed to Western Michigan.
he and mooney were cited as very similar comps in the pre-draft leadup. and i'd gladly take more Mooney's on this roster
you would think that a Wild draft pick would have jumped at the chance to play for the UHe seems like the perfect kind of guy that Motzko needs to addAdam Benak headed to Western Michigan.
he and mooney were cited as very similar comps in the pre-draft leadup. and i'd gladly take more Mooney's on this roster
Just cause a nhl team drafts a guy doesn't mean the team or the player would want to go play for the local school. Everyone thinking the gophers should get Stramel, Ritchie or Benak just cause the Wild drafted them means nothing. I doubt it but who knows maybe Billy G hates how the U develops guys and tell certain players not to go there. Maybe the kid grows up dreaming of playing for another team or even hates the gophers and loves a rival school like Wisconsin. The Wild's influence on players coming to the U gets way over blown every year and really shouldn't be brought up at all.
Roberts Naudins (27 draft prospect; from Latvia before shattuck) to Michigan
Matthew Grimes to BC. Best of luck to him
Good for Grimes. Will be interesting to see how his career unfolds.
Matthew Grimes to BC. Best of luck to him
Think this speaks to the caliber of player given people prior were pretty meh on him before this last year. Good luck to him
Connor Davis to UND. Seems very out of the blue there but having a good year in the USHL
They seem to be retooling well. I think their D core will take a step back next year.
They should be a very solid team again. Agree that their D core as a whole will take a step back, but you still have Emery as an anchor and Verhoeff should be much better. Think they're not as good as last year, but should be in the tournament. Will be a question of if Reschny and Zellers can carry them scoring wise imo. I'm not as high on their transfer guys doing a ton of scoring, but seem like solid contributors. Lot of production to replace. If they can get everyone back for another run after this coming year, they should be really good in 27-28 though
Obviously still a lot of time left in terms of where the last big dominoes fall. Right now they look like a 2-3 seed to me depending on Verhoeff's further development.
Andrew ONeill (former NTDPer and UND commit) to UST. Had been rumored to be the case for awhile
Ethan Belchetz (likely top 15 pick) to MSU. They'll be young but incredibly talented this year if all these guys end up on campus this fall
Ethan Belchetz (likely top 15 pick) to MSU. They'll be young but incredibly talented this year if all these guys end up on campus this fall
Been wondering a while now- What could possibly so special about Nightingale’s recruiting pitch that he manages to land all these high draft picks every single year and sell them on MSU?
1. No real NHL success stories* of his former players that he can point to. Bob has Faber, LaCombe, Knies etc. while Nightingale has… Levshunov, who has been brutal in the NHL for years now; and Howard, who hasn’t even gotten a full cup of coffee at the NHL level yet.
2. No Frozen Fours, despite locking up a 1-seed in each of the last 3 tourneys.
3. MSU/East Lansing is a pretty dumpy place, as far as B1G college towns go.
4. I doubt the recently reno’d facilities are that much better than those of B1G peers (except for maybe OSU’s hockey facilities) but I don’t know for sure.
*His star players who have gone pro (mainly thinking of Levshunov, Howard) are floundering at the next level, compared to the hype around them in college/at the draft. Sure, he was able to salvage Stramel’s hockey career, but TBD/iffy whether Stramel ever becomes an NHL regular; same for Augustine.
So what is he selling these recruits on?
Ethan Belchetz (likely top 15 pick) to MSU. They'll be young but incredibly talented this year if all these guys end up on campus this fall
Been wondering a while now- What could possibly so special about Nightingale’s recruiting pitch that he manages to land all these high draft picks every single year and sell them on MSU?
1. No real NHL success stories* of his former players that he can point to. Bob has Faber, LaCombe, Knies etc. while Nightingale has… Levshunov, who has been brutal in the NHL for years now; and Howard, who hasn’t even gotten a full cup of coffee at the NHL level yet.
2. No Frozen Fours, despite locking up a 1-seed in each of the last 3 tourneys.
3. MSU/East Lansing is a pretty dumpy place, as far as B1G college towns go.
4. I doubt the recently reno’d facilities are that much better than those of B1G peers (except for maybe OSU’s hockey facilities) but I don’t know for sure.
*His star players who have gone pro (mainly thinking of Levshunov, Howard) are floundering at the next level, compared to the hype around them in college/at the draft. Sure, he was able to salvage Stramel’s hockey career, but TBD/iffy whether Stramel ever becomes an NHL regular; same for Augustine.
So what is he selling these recruits on?
Not to mention a lot of these guys will be playing way down the lineup. Take Mason West for example. He probably won’t see PP time til his junior or senior season.
Ethan Belchetz (likely top 15 pick) to MSU. They'll be young but incredibly talented this year if all these guys end up on campus this fall
Been wondering a while now- What could possibly so special about Nightingale’s recruiting pitch that he manages to land all these high draft picks every single year and sell them on MSU?
1. No real NHL success stories* of his former players that he can point to. Bob has Faber, LaCombe, Knies etc. while Nightingale has… Levshunov, who has been brutal in the NHL for years now; and Howard, who hasn’t even gotten a full cup of coffee at the NHL level yet.
2. No Frozen Fours, despite locking up a 1-seed in each of the last 3 tourneys.
3. MSU/East Lansing is a pretty dumpy place, as far as B1G college towns go.
4. I doubt the recently reno’d facilities are that much better than those of B1G peers (except for maybe OSU’s hockey facilities) but I don’t know for sure.
*His star players who have gone pro (mainly thinking of Levshunov, Howard) are floundering at the next level, compared to the hype around them in college/at the draft. Sure, he was able to salvage Stramel’s hockey career, but TBD/iffy whether Stramel ever becomes an NHL regular; same for Augustine.
So what is he selling these recruits on?
Think it is a mix of Nightengale himself and MSU
He is an alum, won a title with Shattucks 14U team, was an assistant with the Red Wings (can cite NHL players he worked with), coached the NTDP (so can cite all of those guys he coached and has put in the league), has been the B10 2x COTY, and has hit 3 straight NCAAs on an upward trajectory plus he's got a couple of Canadians as assistants (Fast who played in the NHL and is from BC and played in the BCHL so gets Canadian MJ and Mike Towns who also played in the BCHL) with a staff that's young and dynamic (no office to Miller, but I can't imagine he was exactly a hit on the recruiting trail). He's also next year's WJC coach (seems like a great way to get an inside track there)
On MSU, they've dumped a TON of money into the athletic dept, probably because they are tired of seeing Michigan kick their ass. They've seen their new campaigns result in a recent 400million dollar donation as part of a planned 4billion dollar plan. Add that to that they have history to seem like a bluish blood (3 national titles), 7 CCHA titles, 9 frozen fours, etc and you can make it sound pretty good on paper there for a history status
Xavier Villeneuve to BU. Another of the bigger defensive dominoes goes. Unsure how heavily we're still in the market even if I hope we are
Carels is indeed a F'n Hawk
Everybody saw this one coming. They’ll be talented but really young on the backend. Good we’re catching them in October.
Everybody saw this one coming. They’ll be talented but really young on the backend. Good we’re catching them in October.
In Carel's committment article, Schloss bombed that they may not be done on the back end. They're already stacked on the backside with this addition, adding DuPont or Rudolph would be bonkers.
Hopefully, Larson is still getting after it up north.
Everybody saw this one coming. They’ll be talented but really young on the backend. Good we’re catching them in October.
In Carel's committment article, Schloss bombed that they may not be done on the back end. They're already stacked on the backside with this addition, adding DuPont or Rudolph would be bonkers.
Hopefully, Larson is still getting after it up north.
they still need another dman Yeah. Rudolph would make sense as he seems a little further down boards and whoever drafts Carels and Verhoeff is going to want to see the pick on their sticks. Harder to do that with 3 two way dmen
Porter Martone has been really good albeit in a small sample.Ethan Belchetz (likely top 15 pick) to MSU. They'll be young but incredibly talented this year if all these guys end up on campus this fall
Been wondering a while now- What could possibly so special about Nightingale’s recruiting pitch that he manages to land all these high draft picks every single year and sell them on MSU?
1. No real NHL success stories* of his former players that he can point to. Bob has Faber, LaCombe, Knies etc. while Nightingale has… Levshunov, who has been brutal in the NHL for years now; and Howard, who hasn’t even gotten a full cup of coffee at the NHL level yet.
I'm not sure if USA Hockey recognizes how dire the situation for American male players looking to make it to D1 hockey and beyond could be in the very near future. Goalies especially.
Everybody saw this one coming. They’ll be talented but really young on the backend. Good we’re catching them in October.
In Carel's committment article, Schloss bombed that they may not be done on the back end. They're already stacked on the backside with this addition, adding DuPont or Rudolph would be bonkers.
Hopefully, Larson is still getting after it up north.
Not much of a schloss bomb to say the team with seven D is looking to add an eighth. But yeah if it’s one of those two that would be pretty impressive.
I'm not sure if USA Hockey recognizes how dire the situation for American male players looking to make it to D1 hockey and beyond could be in the very near future. Goalies especially.
given it was brought up at the coaches convention that they're talking to USA hockey about taking over college hockey and the premise of trying to boost club teams to NCAA hockey, I think they're exploring all options (Leaman talked about it today).
Everybody saw this one coming. They’ll be talented but really young on the backend. Good we’re catching them in October.
In Carel's committment article, Schloss bombed that they may not be done on the back end. They're already stacked on the backside with this addition, adding DuPont or Rudolph would be bonkers.
Hopefully, Larson is still getting after it up north.
Not much of a schloss bomb to say the team with seven D is looking to add an eighth. But yeah if it’s one of those two that would be pretty impressive.
If they added another round 1 talent I imagine Garrett Lindberg wouldn't take too kindly to that but who knows.
Everybody saw this one coming. They’ll be talented but really young on the backend. Good we’re catching them in October.
In Carel's committment article, Schloss bombed that they may not be done on the back end. They're already stacked on the backside with this addition, adding DuPont or Rudolph would be bonkers.
Hopefully, Larson is still getting after it up north.
Not much of a schloss bomb to say the team with seven D is looking to add an eighth. But yeah if it’s one of those two that would be pretty impressive.
If they added another round 1 talent I imagine Garrett Lindberg wouldn't take too kindly to that but who knows.
they're talking to USA hockey about [USAH?] taking over college hockey and the premise of trying to boost club teams to NCAA hockey
The coaches assoc. must be either (a) really stupid, or (b) really pandering to the small-time D1 hockey programs.
USAH taking over college hockey would mean:
1. No more tourney on ESPN, as the NCAA currently bundles it with WBB, the NIT, volleyball, etc.
2. No more NCAA standard operating procedures around day to day issues like scholarship guarantees, academic eligibility, even our tourney selection criteria could get changed at will and might end up like the CFP committee does (which everyone agrees sucks!)
As to club teams moving to NCAA D1…
1. I do NOT want any more Maryville, LIU, Lindenwood-type D1 hockey teams. I would genuinely prefer the sport stay at 63 or contract even further, if the only alternative is more of these irrelevant joke programs.
2. FBS/P4 schools without a men’s hockey team right now will laugh USAH out of the building. None of those ADs can afford to risk being left behind in the FB/MBB arms race.
Men’s hockey is much closer to a football/basketball-tier sport than it is to golf, tennis, Olympic & water sports, etc. For our school and much of our conference at least. If men’s hockey breaks away to a club/non-varsity model, fan engagement and quality of competition will quickly resemble those of the Olympic & water sports.
if some coaches and ADs can’t afford to compete in this current system, boo f’in hoo. They can watch from the sidelines. Nobody is owed a chance at a national title, you earn it.
they're talking to USA hockey about [USAH?] taking over college hockey and the premise of trying to boost club teams to NCAA hockey
The coaches assoc. must be either (a) really stupid, or (b) really pandering to the small-time D1 hockey programs. Men’s hockey is so much closer to a football/basketball-tier sport than it is to golf, tennis, Olympic & water sports, etc. For our school and much of our conference at least. If men’s hockey breaks away to a club/non-varsity model, fan engagement and quality of competition will quickly resemble those of the Olympic & water sports.
if some coaches and ADs can’t afford to compete in the current system, boo f’in hoo. They can watch from the sidelines. Nobody is owed a chance at a national title, you earn it.
I think it was more trying to use USA hockey to stipend college hockey and universities to try grow the game more nationally (cited some of the big west coast club teams and middle of the country and southern teams) with idea more teams=more college hockey opportunities and they can continue to use the dev model they have with junior hockey
I think it was more trying to use USA hockey to stipend college hockey and universities to try grow the game more nationally (cited some of the big west coast club teams and middle of the country and southern teams)
still, that USAH money could go 100x further if they just spend it all on “try hockey for free” days, mite/squirt coaching clinics, etc. across the country. Nobody will ever watch U of Arizona or UNLV club hockey on TV; people barely watch the Michigan and Wisconsin NCAA men’s hockey teams already!
Maybe USAH could help them fund new arenas but even then, the main benefit would be extra sheets / ice time for local kids; not 1.5k added capacity (at most) for collegiate club team games, which seem to devolve into gongshows and line brawls semi-frequently.
IMO the point of USAH outreach initiatives is to shore up youth participation numbers broadly, not promote college/club hockey as a potential outcome. Youth sports parents already put too much emphasis on their kid’s post-high school prospects. The goal should be getting as many kids as possible to try hockey, share those experiences, and come away a lifelong fan of the sport; producing NCAA and NHL players is just a byproduct. See: MN youth hockey
Bauer Dumanski (Prince George captain this year) looks like UNDs last D for the year
Bauer Dumanski (Prince George captain this year) looks like UNDs last D for the year
5 years in the WHL. A grizzled vet.
Bauer Dumanski (Prince George captain this year) looks like UNDs last D for the year
5 years in the WHL. A grizzled vet.
think it's a great pickup for them. Grinder, blocks shots, older guy who probably won't make a big fuss being near the end of the bench. Exactly what you want as your 7th/8th D
Nothing we can do about it, but a 21 yr old Freshman is ludicrous.Bauer Dumanski (Prince George captain this year) looks like UNDs last D for the year
5 years in the WHL. A grizzled vet.
Jack Nesbitt, 2025 1st round center, officially to Michigan as had previously been expected
@maroon_and_gold I don't think the common fan realizes how good humphreys and Kvasnicka are. Nesbitt probably has more long term upside but 2026-2027 both are probably better than him.
Jack Nesbitt, 2025 1st round center, officially to Michigan as had previously been expected
30 points less than Christian Humphreys btw
different players, different usage, different positional use. Humphreys had 40 PPP this year (2nd in the league). Nesbitt got to lose to Humphreys as well, so hopefully we can continue that.
That said, Nesbitt is solid center with a physical element that is a good add for them. Humphreys should be a good scoring wing for us (unless they're going to try him at center). Ditto on Kvasnicka.
All 3 are good additions for each team
@upnorthkid every day I check for updates hoping we get another center. Hopefully we can get a good one.
Haven’t commented in a long time, but been following the discussions. Did anyone notice Max Plante has his Elite Prospect profile committed to UND next season? That doesn’t make sense to me, leaving his home team along with his brothers?