Okay way back in 2014, there was a fundraiser for Gary Shopek who died from cancer.
We raised upward of 15K and there was another 10K given by some recent alumni who wanted to grow the fund.
The plan was to have one special locker that the "player of the week?" would get to use for his special play.
Or something like that... We all HAD the money but when it was given to the U, it was just swallowed into the hockey fund and was used to upgrade the Entire Locker room. Several of us were so pissed that the U just took the $$$ and did what THEY wanted to do. We said never again.
Okay that was a long time ago, but I have never forgotten about it. So if you have other info please don't lecture me.
I've been bleeding Maroon & Gold for 50+ years. And all this NIL stuff makes me crazy I do not like it.
That's all. Thanks for reading.
QoGH
Well...the McKenna deal was the last of its kind so we never have to worry about that again.
As far as being competitive with NIL is kind of a misleading statement in the fact that the athlete has to be willing to put in the work to "earn" the money. Like @skiumahlaw has said the athlete has to work for the money at a "fair market value". So Mooney and Ziemer both earned the money for their ads at the same rate that an actor would have made in those roles in those ads. Gone are the days of earning $10k for a tweet. Also, now EVERYTHING goes through the athletic departments compliance office to make sure it's on par. No exchange of money happens until the compliance office approves it. So a collective could have $10M in available funds but if an athlete doesn't put in the work they don't get paid. NIL isn't pay to play.
You’re mixing a few things up here, especially between NIL and revenue sharing.
“EVERYTHING goes through the athletic department’s compliance office”
• Revenue sharing: Yes. School‑funded revenue‑sharing money runs through the department because it’s school money.
• NIL: No. NIL is third‑party money (collectives, brands, local businesses). Those parties can still pay athletes directly. Schools can require disclosure, but disclosure ≠ universal pre‑approval.
“No exchange of money happens until the compliance office approves it”
• Revenue sharing: School checks will be controlled and approved internally before they go out.
• NIL: There is no blanket national rule that every NIL deal must be pre‑approved before anyone gets paid. Some schools choose to run things that way; others don’t. That’s local policy, not a universal requirement.
• Revenue sharing: This is basically a structured pool for being on the team; “fair market value” here is about caps/formulas, not specific ads or appearances.
• NIL: Fair market value” isn’t about paying them like a generic actor for the task. It’s about the value of the athlete’s brand in the deal. So Mooney and Ziemer aren’t being paid like actors doing a commercial—they’re being paid for who they are and the audience they bring. Michael Jordan wasn’t paid by Nike for the labor of filming a commercial—he was paid for the value of his brand. And once you have celebrities being paid at that level, “fair market value” becomes very hard to pin down to some standard rate for the work.
If by “work” you mean playing and performing in games or over a season, that’s not how this really functions:
• Revenue sharing: You don’t lose your share because you had a bad game; if you’re on the roster and eligible, you get paid per the formula.
• NIL: Deals may have deliverables, but the real driver is where you play. You don’t have to first stack up on‑field production and only then get offered money; the deal is typically there because of your roster spot, not as a retroactive reward for last season’s stat line.
“NIL isn’t pay to play”
• Revenue sharing: This is openly pay to play—school‑funded compensation linked to being on that program’s roster.
• NIL: On paper, NIL isn’t supposed to be pay‑for‑play. In practice, once you bake in roster requirements and “marketability”/participation adjustments, a lot of these deals look and feel like pay‑for‑play dressed up as NIL.
Add to that NCAA v. Alston and the roughly 2.8 billion‑dollar House settlement, and the NCAA is not regulating from a position of strength. NIL hasn’t gone away, collectives haven’t gone away, and this is nowhere close to a world where “everything runs through compliance and nothing gets paid unless approved.”
So the McKenna deal was probably the first of many to come
The Playfly sports case will be very interesting (Arbitration case could bring change to college sports' 'messy middle' - ESPN). We'll see if the system has teeth soon enough. The places they'll get in trouble is where they do nothing.
The CSC situation is its own mess.
It’s basically a post‑House attempt to re‑centralize control: a soft salary cap on what schools can pay, review of school‑adjacent NIL deals, and funneling disputes into arbitration instead of open court.
Nebraska is the first big test. Eighteen Husker players (with the school backing them) are in arbitration after a large NIL package with the school’s media partner was rejected, arguing the CSC is improperly blocking what they can earn.
At the same time, the Texas attorney general has told public schools (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, etc.) not to sign the CSC agreement at all, calling it overreach and a waiver of state‑law and antitrust protections.
That leaves the CSC in a lose‑lose spot:
- If it loses the Nebraska arbitration, it has no real enforcement power and can’t stop the school‑adjacent NIL structures it was created to police.
- If it wins, it validates Texas’s argument that this is effectively a cartel capping athlete pay, which just pushes major programs and states to stay out or opt out.
To respond to your comments:
1. Regarding Wisconsin, I never insinuated they are a model program. I said their arena is newer than Mariucci and their participation in Frozen Four should be a motivator for the Gophers. I think the tier of elite programs over the last 10-15 years 100% excludes Wisconsin. Either way, a Frozen Four with UND, Michigan, and Wisconsin should make Minnesota fans puke. Literally one of the biggest rivals is probably getting a title this year.
- Regarding Penn State & MSU flaming out, sure I hear you. But they aren’t going away. They are getting serious looks from good players. Recruiting is holding up. Their alums are engaged. The arenas are sold out every night. This forum will hate this comment but I would argue in this day and age, Penn State & MSU are more “peers” than “inferiors” to Minnesota. All the bluebloods + big money schools are really Minnesota’s competition for good players. If you think MSU isn’t a peer today, then you are part of the problem with entitlement in the program. Bob even said it in a media press conference within the last year that the Big Ten doesn’t have any weak / irrelevant programs like the WCHA used to have.
- Regarding Minnesota guys, I agree they should still be in the program. Its an important symbol if nothing else. My comment was to “deprioritize” their influence. Less players overall but still some. Part of why Minnesota got into this situation this year was because they didn’t pivot like the other programs. They didn’t have the relationships with the other leagues (because Bob was caught unprepared or the influential people in program fought against it). We need the option to recruit anywhere and get guys. If its Minnesotans, great. If its somewhere else, then we need to get those guys. The infrastructure wasn’t there to even recruit effectively.
- Regarding innovation/polish, its can the coach see where things are going and adapt before the trend arrives. The head coach isn’t there to draw up plays at practice or determine the powerplay. Its recruiting philosophy, overall team philosophy, winning the locker-room over, putting up with admin, dealing with politics, dealing with boosters. They need to think AHEAD.
As an example, David Carlye has gotten credit in coaching circles and college hockey for making Denver hockey department more nimble. He recalibrated roster building at DU. He has sat on hockey boards to keep his pulse on thing. Coached in various off-season teams. He has been a change advocate in college hockey (like regionals being on-site). Everything about him oozes “let me think how can this be better and adapt.”
In college football, these guys are even more “CEO-EY.” Saban / Ryan Day etc. had people on staff to tell of trends legal / NIL / recruiting. They are always adapting. You put the people in place to help run a machine. Do you really think Bob had people telling him about trends? I 100% believe the programmatic approach hasn’t been there.
Its understanding media / social media. Listen to Vikings HC speak. Its all talking points masquerading as friendly banter. O Connell knows how to speak to media and also subtly the fans/players. Bob was nowhere near this level.
Its understanding how to navigate transfer portal. I listened to Sandelin complaining about transfer portal on a podcast and he implied that certain programs KNEW who may enter the portal and were READY to pounce. I read between the lines Michigan State is one of those programs. Credit Nightingale for putting the process & people in place to be good at that.
I’ll give you an example that could apply to MN. When all the new arenas were getting built, the Gopher coach could have worked the boosters successfully for renovations. Or advocated for public financing (heck invite the Governor to the game to drop the puck and play politics over years). But instead, Lucia came on a radio show years ago and complained about facilities and how Minnesota shouldn’t be allowed to be “left behind” because Ohio would never “forget about OSU football.” He literally failed at part of job and his comment was pure entitlement. Saban had friends everywhere to advance Alabama’s interest (ESPN, SEC, other coaches, high school coaches, boosters, rich friends). He pulled those strings every day he needed them.
I’m not saying the Gophers need to throw everything away. They do have some things to work off of. But they need to watch, listen, adapt, PUT SYSTEMS IN PLACE, and ultimately become a model program like Denver. They aren’t maximizing their potential. Even when they had good teams, they weren't maximizing their potential.
I look at the Carlye Pioneers or the old Hakstol Sioux as squeezing everything out of those programs they could (every relationship, ever dollar, every recruiting visit). While MN has been like an oil-rich country that didn't have to work as hard at bring productive because the resource money keeps flowing in (ie the good recruits). The advantages MN used to have 25 years ago have been falling away. The TV coverage advantage is gone (ie FSN). The arena advantage is gone. Hockey talent is a little more distributed than MN within the USA. The massive fanbase has fallen off its highs. The implied money advantage of playing for Gophers (branding) is gone because real NIL is bigger at other schools. This all means that MN now has to compete on a more even field now (as they say iron sharpens iron). If Larson runs things like Denver, it will be refreshing to see the program maximizing its potential.
3rd party NIL collectives are not innovating. Kind of easy for a guy like Carle to go to his university, who’s in the summit league, with no football program and get resources sent his way. It’s apples and oranges comparing athletic departments.
The Gophers are and will be fine. The U is, and will continue to spend money on hockey. Let’s see what the new guy does with it all.
You’re mixing a few things up here, especially between NIL and revenue sharing.
My understanding of how a NIL collective works come from conversations with my boss who is on the board of the Minnesota State hockey collective, Coach Luke Strand, and GPL's own NIL guy @skiumahlaw Maybe I'm wrong on some of these things but I don't think I'm as far off as you make me seem. I would love for @skiumahlaw to respond to this but he is a hard working guy. With all your knowledge of NIL maybe you could lend him and the Golden Helmet Collective your expertise to start up and operate for the Gopher hockey program.
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Sorry gang-- busy week on my side before I could chime in.
Thanks for the conversation in my absence. The hard part about NIL is that there are rules, RULES and what everyone is doing.
The House settlement is the current RULE between student-athletes and schools. In addition to the class-action settlement for alumni, it imposes a quasi-collective bargaining agreement to govern the relationship between student-athletes and schools. This includes:
- Ability for schools to pay an amount (currently up to $21.5M) to student-athletes to compensate for name/image/likeness activities annually;
-Ability for athletes to earn more from third parties for NIL activities through legitimate business deals
-Ability for schools to eliminate caps on scholarships but impose roster maximums.
The first part allows schools to effective pay athletes for their play (though it is not compensation for performance. That would make student-athletes employees; instead, they are contractors being compensated for their brands. This compensation is taxable to the athlete!). With the school's cumulative salary cap of $21.5M there aren't many other current restrictions. Most P4 schools appear to be devoting a significant amount (approximately 70-75% in the B1G has been reported) to men's football. So that means a school could pay a player $10M and still have money left to pay the rest of the team something but not close to that level. Most places are then funding MBB/WBB/VB and maybe one or two other sports from the remainder. At UMN, we are including Men's Hockey in that amount, but the exact dollars are a highly guarded secret between schools.
(NOTE: there are lots of questions here about whether Title IX applies to these payments that are yet unresolved. A conversation perhaps for a different day)
The second part allows students to continue earning NIL monies from outside, third parties. Pursuant to House, students must submit their proposed arrangements to a clearinghouse for those to be acceptable earnings. That clearinghouse is entitled NILGo and there is no shortage of issues here. This is where the "rules" (small r) come in, as the College Sports Commission ("CSC") which has been created by the colleges/conferences to administer these proposed deals has made their own regulations and guidelines and periodically released reports and guidance. It is unclear if these guidelines are binding yet-- they have not been tested (but are currently being so!). Current guidance says any proposed third party NIL deal must have a valid business purpose and receive fair market compensation. But since there is limited market guidance, and what constitutes a valid business purpose behind a willing payor and an athlete is difficult to determine, the CSC has had a hard time doing much of anything as of yet regulatory. The current conventional wisdom is there is a hard salary cap in college football of $21.5M, but a soft cap of about $20-25M more from the current market.
THAT BEING SAID, the CSC is starting to flex some regulatory muscle in limited circumstances. They are currently investigating Texas A&M for not submitting deals to NILGo. There was a splash about a week ago with the CSC looking at tampering (schools contacting students while not yet in the portal). There will be lawyers and lawsuits on this coming.
Because the dollar amounts are so vast, schools are definitely involved in running NIL activities for students beyond merely their $21.5M "revenue share" obligation. Student-athletes know nothing of tax withholding (big deal since all of these NIL payments are 1099 contractor income), and schools need to keep some degree of tabs on who is offering their students what (do we really want Target 'buying' Brodie Ziemer and thus telling him when to play or not?). So while schools aren't involved directly in payments for NIL activities beyond revenue sharing, they are involved in procuring resources and perhaps directing them to targeted athletes (though none will admit on the record to doing so). We actually want this-- a system where schools cannot have oversight as to its own programs would be truly the inmates running the asylum, and in this case the ones profiting would be unscrupulous agents and advisors on behalf of those inmates.
The roster issue means everyone in theory could be on scholarship, but the House settlement says that the first $2.5M of new scholarships count against your revenue sharing. So that would mean you have less direct funds from the school to pay out. I hope this goes away, personally.
Put together, the system continues to evolve and bubble and have the envelope pushed. It is a compliance nightmare because your guidance is good until it is not and there is no warning when that could happen.
Things like collectives continue to struggle (as they are no longer allowed to funnel monies directly to chosen student athletes) and have evolved into more of a connector between athlete initiatives and less of a way to directly fund athletes. Again, you have to have appropriate NIL activities of a fair market variety for athletes to earn money (called "activations" in the business) for the deal to pass NIL Go given the House RULES and the CSC rules, so you need those in place. But tracking what is market value is really, really hard.
Schools like Denver/UND/Mankato are actually in a very interesting position right now-- they don't have P4 football, so they aren't trying to compete in an arms race that would necessitate using their revenue sharing monies for that. So they could devote their revenue sharing to their prime D1 sport-- which is hockey. So while B1G schools are constrained by the salary cap and actually caring about football, other college hockey schools can actually outspend B1G directly using revenue sharing (to the extent they can raise the money to do so, and whether Title IX will limit this!).
Finally, nobody has confirmed the amount McKenna is actually receiving from Penn State. We have heard what he was offered to go to Michigan State, but remember that athletes/agents want to inflate these to create a bidding war and a market, but there is no actual confirmation. Further, Penn State has a significant donor in Pegula who also owns an NHL team that would love to have McKenna's services. Might that play a role here as well? Could some of that compensation be "back loaded" to be paid once he is in the NHL? Couldn't happen to everyone. But maybe his situation.
So-- clear as mud.
@skiumahlaw Thanks for the post.
Love this line btw and think it frames it pretty well: "The hard part about NIL is that there are rules, RULES and what everyone is doing."
@skiumahlaw From one lawyer to another: lovely IRAC.
From Mike McMahon's newsletter today--
— I’m hearing there could be an assistant coach swap in the works between Minnesota and St. Thomas. Cory Laylin is being targeted by Brett Larson to join his staff with the Gophers. If that happens, there’s a good chance that Steve Miller will head to St. Thomas to join Rico Blasi’ staff.
Speaking of Larson, his compensation package at Minnesota will be around $700,000 — with $400,000 in base salary and $300,000 in supplemental pay.
Looking down from my High Horse
Morality Police
Not very objective
Larson on with PA on KFAN at 11:00
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
Larson on with PA on KFAN at 11:00
can't imagine it'll be super enlightening, but if anyone has a summary I'd be happy to read it.
Larson on with PA on KFAN at 11:00
can't imagine it'll be super enlightening, but if anyone has a summary I'd be happy to read it.
Wasn't super enlightening but it was a little hard to follow given the interviewers ADHD tendencies. I still like how Larson is praising the job that Bob did before him and how it is his job to follow those who paved the way before him. Did mention that job #1 or one of them is to get the d-core back to the top. Doing that through both development and recruiting. Did mention that in the world of NIL that Minnesota is the unique position that players want to come here because it's the U so NIL doesn't have to figure as heavily in recruiting. Still hammering home how important relationships with the current roster and recruits is and is working on those. On staff said that things should be announced late this week to early next week. It seems that we are figuring out through what @eric-vegoe has posted and others are posting on tweeterville who the staff will be. Pat did inadvertently shared yesterday on KFAN that Cullen would be on the staff in some form, so it does mesh with what Veegs posted here that he would be the player development coach.
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
This is the most critical part of it all right now, I think. Just so long as he doesn't get too set on holding on to the entire current roster.Still hammering home how important relationships with the current roster and recruits is and is working on those.
Larson on with PA on KFAN at 11:00
can't imagine it'll be super enlightening, but if anyone has a summary I'd be happy to read it.
Wasn't super enlightening but it was a little hard to follow given the interviewers ADHD tendencies. I still like how Larson is praising the job that Bob did before him and how it is his job to follow those who paved the way before him. Did mention that job #1 or one of them is to get the d-core back to the top. Doing that through both development and recruiting. Did mention that in the world of NIL that Minnesota is the unique position that players want to come here because it's the U so NIL doesn't have to figure as heavily in recruiting. Still hammering home how important relationships with the current roster and recruits is and is working on those. On staff said that things should be announced late this week to early next week. It seems that we are figuring out through what @eric-vegoe has posted and others are posting on tweeterville who the staff will be. Pat did inadvertently shared yesterday on KFAN that Cullen would be on the staff in some form, so it does mesh with what Veegs posted here that he would be the player development coach.
Loved what he said about rebuilding the defense and personally took that as we will see a revamped corpse on the back end next season.
Larson on with PA on KFAN at 11:00
can't imagine it'll be super enlightening, but if anyone has a summary I'd be happy to read it.
Wasn't super enlightening but it was a little hard to follow given the interviewers ADHD tendencies. I still like how Larson is praising the job that Bob did before him and how it is his job to follow those who paved the way before him. Did mention that job #1 or one of them is to get the d-core back to the top. Doing that through both development and recruiting. Did mention that in the world of NIL that Minnesota is the unique position that players want to come here because it's the U so NIL doesn't have to figure as heavily in recruiting. Still hammering home how important relationships with the current roster and recruits is and is working on those. On staff said that things should be announced late this week to early next week. It seems that we are figuring out through what @eric-vegoe has posted and others are posting on tweeterville who the staff will be. Pat did inadvertently shared yesterday on KFAN that Cullen would be on the staff in some form, so it does mesh with what Veegs posted here that he would be the player development coach.
Loved what he said about rebuilding the defense and personally took that as we will see a revamped corpse on the back end next season.
know this is a typo, but a pretty hilarious one with what we saw this year back there
revamped corpse
We can laugh at this typo all we want until zombified John Mariucci is running the blue line on the power play this year...
hahah gosh darnit.
We can laugh at this typo all we want until zombified John Mariucci is running the blue line on the power play this year...
I think you mean John "3M Arena" Mariucci.
John "3M Arena" Mariucci.
It could be said that a little bit of contaminated 3M water could raise the dead...
@boosker14 Good luck getting any with the low water pressure in the drinking fountains...
Edit: I just now picked up that you meant the drinking water allegedly contaminated by 3M in the broader community and not specifically the drinking water at 3MAM. But I'm not going to remove my message complaining about Mariucci's bad drinking fountains.
To be fair I'm not sure anyone knows the exact details of how that went down. It's possible that it truly was mutual like Coyle alluded to and some of the details behind the scenes point to that being a possibility.@mlhouse Is it possible that higher level coaches feel comfortable with where they are at, and then they look at the Minnesota job and they notice that a coach went 172-104-24, had just been to the national tourney five straight seasons, and then was pushed out after 1 terrible year. Is it possible they then thought to themselves, no thanks.
FWIW, a friend of mine that is heavily involved in BTHC told me in summer 2025 that he expected this to be Bob's last season. Didn't provide any real background information as to why other than where he is in life (age and family). Obviously the season was a disaster so it looks more like a firing than a mutual parting of ways to fans but I think it's realistic that there was a plan for Bob to be moving on after the season either way.
https://twitter.com/KFAN1003/status/2039372974718161212
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
I had heard (third or fourth hand, but through a chain that I tend to believe) something very similar. I heard it early in the season, but with the origin going back to before the season started.To be fair I'm not sure anyone knows the exact details of how that went down. It's possible that it truly was mutual like Coyle alluded to and some of the details behind the scenes point to that being a possibility.@mlhouse Is it possible that higher level coaches feel comfortable with where they are at, and then they look at the Minnesota job and they notice that a coach went 172-104-24, had just been to the national tourney five straight seasons, and then was pushed out after 1 terrible year. Is it possible they then thought to themselves, no thanks.
FWIW, a friend of mine that is heavily involved in BTHC told me in summer 2025 that he expected this to be Bob's last season. Didn't provide any real background information as to why other than where he is in life (age and family). Obviously the season was a disaster so it looks more like a firing than a mutual parting of ways to fans but I think it's realistic that there was a plan for Bob to be moving on after the season either way.
I had heard (third or fourth hand, but through a chain that I tend to believe) something very similar. I heard it early in the season, but with the origin going back to before the season started.To be fair I'm not sure anyone knows the exact details of how that went down. It's possible that it truly was mutual like Coyle alluded to and some of the details behind the scenes point to that being a possibility.@mlhouse Is it possible that higher level coaches feel comfortable with where they are at, and then they look at the Minnesota job and they notice that a coach went 172-104-24, had just been to the national tourney five straight seasons, and then was pushed out after 1 terrible year. Is it possible they then thought to themselves, no thanks.
FWIW, a friend of mine that is heavily involved in BTHC told me in summer 2025 that he expected this to be Bob's last season. Didn't provide any real background information as to why other than where he is in life (age and family). Obviously the season was a disaster so it looks more like a firing than a mutual parting of ways to fans but I think it's realistic that there was a plan for Bob to be moving on after the season either way.
ditto though had initially heard it was the debate of 1 or 2 more years for Bob (pre last season).
Larson had a good one-liner on the Fox9 interview when he said he already knew most of the Gophers from when they all said no to him when he tried to recruit them.
Great hire by the Gophers. Hiring a UMD alum will only add cache to a striving program like Minnesota.
The background check thing is wearing thin now. Between what @eric-vegoe has said on here and what YHH tweeted out (I don't take them serious sometimes) we know who the coaches are, so what is the hold up on making it official? Pat said this morning on BTP he knows who they are. Hopefully it will be done on Monday so Larson can talk about them on the GPL Podcast.
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
The background check thing is wearing thin now. Between what @eric-vegoe has said on here and what YHH tweeted out (I don't take them serious sometimes) we know who the coaches are, so what is the hold up on making it official? Pat said this morning on BTP he knows who they are. Hopefully it will be done on Monday so Larson can talk about them on the GPL Podcast.
its just typical University of Minnesota stuff. You see this with basketball and football assistant coaching hires frequently. It always takes forever behind the scenes, for whatever reason.
The background check thing is wearing thin now. Between what @eric-vegoe has said on here and what YHH tweeted out (I don't take them serious sometimes) we know who the coaches are, so what is the hold up on making it official? Pat said this morning on BTP he knows who they are. Hopefully it will be done on Monday so Larson can talk about them on the GPL Podcast.
In the grand scheme of things....
Great pod last night @jupiter and @eric-vegoe Though we were tuning in to hear some hard hitting questions and big reveals it was good to have the coach on the pod and interact with the rubes of GPL. Getting confirmation about the five coaches and talking about the conversations to be had with players and recruits coming up to the portal opening was good information. Next week will definitely be busy for Larson and his staff and I'm interested to see what the roster ends up looking like in a couple weeks.
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
Thought the pod was great @jupiter and @eric-vegoe and included perhaps a bit more info than Larson was supposed to divulge on the coaches. More and more you listen to Larson, the more he seems like one who's going to connect well with the fanbase and players.
hopefully the announcements get made soon so the coaches can all get on the road recruiting. Larson dropped some good (but vague) tidbits for us as well as far as roster turnover. Seems like we're starting to see some of that churn with Grimes today
have to do a live pod with all us rubes in the crowd (with our own beer of course) in the future to make Veegs feel more at home
The hiring process at the U has a few steps that slows everything down. As for the Dir of Goaltender, I assume this was a new position so it needed to be approved in the system. We can only hire individuals into approved positions. They are probably waiting for the hiring process to be complete for all individuals so they can announce all at once.
My department hired a new dept head and it took a few weeks for the process to be completed before we could announce it. & that was with an approved position.
Larson is a great listen. I hope as the seasons get going he is willing to be accessible. Obviously he won't be quite as busy with the news outlets as he has been to start but it's awesome to hear how open he is.
One comment that stood out after Larson was done....someone had sent a question/statement in that they expect 3-4 to move down I94 from SCSU. Veegs responded that 6-7 will probably be leaving and ended the podcast with a "buckle up."
It's going to be a wild couple weeks once that portal hits.
Larson is a great listen. I hope as the seasons get going he is willing to be accessible. Obviously he won't be quite as busy with the news outlets as he has been to start but it's awesome to hear how open he is.
One comment that stood out after Larson was done....someone had sent a question/statement in that they expect 3-4 to move down I94 from SCSU. Veegs responded that 6-7 will probably be leaving and ended the podcast with a "buckle up."
It's going to be a wild couple weeks once that portal hits.
thing I really liked is he said the roster will be competitive and his expectation is that you will have you earn your spot in the lineup every week. That style is not for everyone, but is absolutely how it should be here
https://twitter.com/MikeGrimm3/status/2041568209707438392
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
That style is not for everyone, but is absolutely how it should be here
If your healthy scratches aren't pushing the bottom 6 guys for playing time, you have roster issues.
Hello, 25-26 Gophers!
Hard to keep up with Larson with all the media haha....interesting from this one is...already been up to Canada as a staff targeting a couple players who would help the team immediately if they choose to come here.
Staff announcements
https://admin.gophersports.com/news/2026/4/7/larson-announces-updates-to-mens-hockey-staff
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Now official from the U
Ben Gordon: assistant coach
Cory Laylin: assistant coach
Paul Martin: assistant coach
Director of Player Dev: Matt Cullen
Director of Ops: Jacob LeRoy
Nothing as far the goalie coach but would assume that's going to be a volunteer spot
@greyeagle just a little quicker than I, I see 😉
https://twitter.com/gopherhockey/status/2041622484085031281?s=46&t=UoTCikmOZyJ29kktoNzh-A
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Heck of a staff
Let’s goooooo!! 😁
“Good pace, a lot of north and south, or it could be east and west, I’m not sure but either way…” Wooger
Great group! Matt Cullen wins everywhere he goes.
Staff seems to represent just about every corner of the state. Should help give them broader recruiting appeal.
One more interview with Larson, first interview where he gets to talk about the staff. He will be on the Youth Hockey Hub podcast today as well.
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
One more interview with Larson, first interview where he gets to talk about the staff. He will be on the Youth Hockey Hub podcast today as well.
He’s out there more than…….
One more interview with Larson, first interview where he gets to talk about the staff. He will be on the Youth Hockey Hub podcast today as well.
Another good interview. I found it interesting that he said Coyle called him to interview for the job. He was definitely a lead candidate from the jump.
He seems very self-aware and mentioned his record the past couple seasons at St. Cloud. Hard not to like what we are hearing.