I agree with some recent sentiment. I think he gets how unfortunate the timing is and how it strains the team, but he needs to do what he feels is the best for him. I think this is for the best, because as we’ve seen in the past, the guys who have one foot out of the door often fall short of expectations.
Would be a great story if they won it all now. Maybe it will be motivation for the team and they’ll rally around the guys who are in the locker room.
I hope Mr. Cooley wins rookie of the year and the Gophers are hoisting the title in St. Paul in 2024!
And he helps convince his cousin to commit in a few days!!
I hope not but knowing them… ?Damnit
https://twitter.com/JessRMyers/status/1684674224794062848?s=20
I'm sure when Jess asked Bob this question he undoubtably agitated Bob. ?
I'm 50% factual and 50% sarcastic. When you get to know me, you will know which is which.
I'm 50% factual and 50% sarcastic. When you get to know me, you will know which is which.
Beckett Hendrickson removed Sioux Falls Stampede from his bio
Kurth-Moore-Snuggerud
Pitlick-Huglen-Lamb
Nevers-Nelson-Brodzinski
Pinoniemi-Mittelstadt-Strobel
Koster-Chesley
Mittelstadt-Rinzel
Thomas-Fish
Close
Airey
Wiese
I think this team still wins the Big 10 and is a 1 seed in the tourney. I gave Pitlick and Huglen a finisher on their line and i gave Moore and Snuggerud a greasy areas guy on their line. Makes the most sense to me. Would this team have been better with Cooley? yeah obviously, but this is still one juggernaut of a team in my opinion. Excited for the season is an understatement!
This is what I am thinking for lines.
Nevers-Nelson-Brodzinski Lets just start with that. Solid line last year. Hope all of them make another stride this season.
Pitlick-Huglen-Snuggerud This is suddenly an experienced line with lots of speed and skill.
Kurth-Moore-Lamb I want to keep Moore at center and start him out on the 3rd line with less pressure.
Pinoniemi-Mittelstadt-Strobel All Sophomore 4th line at this moment. Would be nice to get some offense from them this season.
Bravo Mr. Cooley on giving to DTA. I'm sad he left but he did leave his mark on this program and has been nothing but professional in his words and actions since the news was confirmed. Good luck to you in the show!
I am the official Iowa Hawkeye football fan of GPL!
Looking at the predictable over reactions and stupid comments on social media make me laugh. I'm sure none of those people have ever changed their minds....
Even though Cooley was here for only one year, he made a huge impact on the program. Not only his play on the ice, but he may have opened the eyes to high end players from out of state, that they can thrive at Minnesota. This is huge. Cooley put the spotlight on the Gophers hockey team across the country and that is the kind of stuff that will pay off in the years to come. Eiserman will do the same. Future players, advisors and the media now know that Pride On Ice is back in the top tier of college hockey and you can't buy that type of publicity.
I'm 50% factual and 50% sarcastic. When you get to know me, you will know which is which.
Beckett Hendrickson removed Sioux Falls Stampede from his bio
Has to be tough to manage a USHL team, but bringing Hendrickson in makes the most sense. Should be able to play a Top 9 role immediately.
I actually think I’d rather they bring in Jimmy Clark. Clark is a year older grade wise (9 months older) and wouldn’t need to accelerate schooling. I think he is quicker and might do better in a bottom 6 role right off the bat. Hendrickson is a little bigger kid and I think the extra year in the USHL will allow him to grow into his body more.
Hendrickson has already played a 24 game college season with the NTDP though?♂️
Good luck to Cooley on his next phase of life!
I really enjoyed watching him play last season, it brought back good vibes to Mariucci and to Gopher Hockey in general. I am looking forward to this season, we'll see if the boys can make it 3 FF's in a row.
Bring in both Hendrickson and Clark, score by collective with the still very solid roster we have, hang a few banners next spring, and for the love of all that is holy win the whole darn thing in April in St Paul. We’re firmly in “1979-2002 drought” territory and I’m tired of almost getting there. Just win baby.
@maroon_and_gold He just announced he's headed to Augustana.
Clark and Hendrickson are clearly top options to fill out the roster, but it's a complicated decision as those kids should be getting lots of minutes this year and those just aren't going to come easy playing Minnesota's schedule.
The only reason I'm upset at all with Cooley is that he'd announced he was coming back (as I'd have bet money after getting home from Tampa that he was gone), then changed his mind fairly late in the game. Having said that, I completely understand why he signed, and at least he did make the call before it was too late to fill the roster slot.
B1G refs... corrupt, or just incompetent?
Blake Perbix appears uncommitted and has already aged out of juniors. Put up good numbers in 3 full seasons in the NAHL. Bob has a good relationship with the Perbix family ?♂️ who knows
I will go back to what I said before. Not signing his professional contract was a mistake by Logan Cooley. The injury risk alone was not worth turning the Coyotes down and dwarfed any reason for staying another year playing college hockey. Playing professional hockey is why Logan Cooley went to the University of Minnesota. As far as I know, there hasn't been one mention of what his college major was or what classes he was taking at the U. He is a hockey player.
He played the basic standard of one year after his draft year of college hockey to take that last step of maturity before turning pro.
I would have advised him to turn pro immediately after the season. If I was advising him I would still advise him to turn professional and sign his ELC although essentially changing his mind probably cost him some good will.
As a Gopher fan, I hope this rumor is untrue and #92 is back for his sophomore season. But, it was a mistake to announce he was returning instead of turning pro.
There is no way you as a fan can say unequivocally what is best for an individual player. For one thing, college offers more time to work on strength conditioning than the pros, which can especially benefit a smaller player. Secondly, money is not the end-all for everyone. Knies doesn't seem to regret coming back for a year. Yes, he wasn't as sure of a thing as Cooley, but did have the size advantage over him. Trent Klatt will tell you to this day that he would give up the extra money he made by leaving early to have played one more year of college, and would tell that to all the kids he coached when he was in MN. The college experience is so much different than being a professional and it is really hard to put a value on that, or for most of us to understand. And the likelihood of a career-ending injury is pretty minuscule.
Now that we know how much he potentially stands to make, it would be hard to imagine him turning it down once that offer was made. But to stay whether not signing a professional contract is a mistake is only something Logan can determine. Especially at the times when we didn't know what the offer was.
And a question for anyone; would Eiserman be coming in before he was draft eligible, or is there a chance he gets taken 1 or 2 and never plays college? (Yes, I am a long time MN sports pessimist.)
And a question for anyone; would Eiserman be coming in before he was draft eligible, or is there a chance he gets taken 1 or 2 and never plays college? (Yes, I am a long time MN sports pessimist.)I will go back to what I said before. Not signing his professional contract was a mistake by Logan Cooley. The injury risk alone was not worth turning the Coyotes down and dwarfed any reason for staying another year playing college hockey. Playing professional hockey is why Logan Cooley went to the University of Minnesota. As far as I know, there hasn't been one mention of what his college major was or what classes he was taking at the U. He is a hockey player.
He played the basic standard of one year after his draft year of college hockey to take that last step of maturity before turning pro.
I would have advised him to turn pro immediately after the season. If I was advising him I would still advise him to turn professional and sign his ELC although essentially changing his mind probably cost him some good will.
As a Gopher fan, I hope this rumor is untrue and #92 is back for his sophomore season. But, it was a mistake to announce he was returning instead of turning pro.
Eiserman will be on campus after he is drafted. Many projections have him second overall so always a chance he signs first. I would expect a one and done.
Eiserman also committed with Whipple and Ziemer his Shattuck St Mary’s buddies so while there always is a chance I doubt it happens
So a month or so ago people on here were saying that Schmidt got a well paying job and moved on from the program. Is this a case where even if Bob offers him a spot on the team he likely declines and says he’s fine where he’s at? I guess the only guy who can answer that is Colin. Essentially I just wanna know if Schmidt is an option.
So a month or so ago people on here were saying that Schmidt got a well paying job and moved on from the program. Is this a case where even if Bob offers him a spot on the team he likely declines and says he’s fine where he’s at? I guess the only guy who can answer that is Colin. Essentially I just wanna know if Schmidt is an option.
He is a 23 1/2 year old college grad who played 19 games over the past 2 years with one point. It would be hard to imagine anyone with a good job would want to come back to be essentially a practice player— and I doubt much scholarship money his way. No knock on him (I recall playing drop in with a similar player from Michigan years ago and he was really really good), probably can find a similar player in the portal.
I will go back to what I said before. Not signing his professional contract was a mistake by Logan Cooley. The injury risk alone was not worth turning the Coyotes down and dwarfed any reason for staying another year playing college hockey. Playing professional hockey is why Logan Cooley went to the University of Minnesota. As far as I know, there hasn't been one mention of what his college major was or what classes he was taking at the U. He is a hockey player.
He played the basic standard of one year after his draft year of college hockey to take that last step of maturity before turning pro.
I would have advised him to turn pro immediately after the season. If I was advising him I would still advise him to turn professional and sign his ELC although essentially changing his mind probably cost him some good will.
As a Gopher fan, I hope this rumor is untrue and #92 is back for his sophomore season. But, it was a mistake to announce he was returning instead of turning pro.
There is no way you as a fan can say unequivocally what is best for an individual player. For one thing, college offers more time to work on strength conditioning than the pros, which can especially benefit a smaller player. Secondly, money is not the end-all for everyone. Knies doesn't seem to regret coming back for a year. Yes, he wasn't as sure of a thing as Cooley, but did have the size advantage over him. Trent Klatt will tell you to this day that he would give up the extra money he made by leaving early to have played one more year of college, and would tell that to all the kids he coached when he was in MN. The college experience is so much different than being a professional and it is really hard to put a value on that, or for most of us to understand. And the likelihood of a career-ending injury is pretty minuscule.
Now that we know how much he potentially stands to make, it would be hard to imagine him turning it down once that offer was made. But to stay whether not signing a professional contract is a mistake is only something Logan can determine. Especially at the times when we didn't know what the offer was.
And a question for anyone; would Eiserman be coming in before he was draft eligible, or is there a chance he gets taken 1 or 2 and never plays college? (Yes, I am a long time MN sports pessimist.)
Wrong. The injury risk alone means a player in Cooley's situation should move on after the single season of college hockey. It would be like having a doctor stay an extra year in medical school with the huge possibility that they would become injured and not be able to have a career as a doctor. These guys are in college to prepare for their NHL career, nothing else. That is the "college experience" for them. There is nothing valuable enough in that to risk their careers for nothing.
Further, using Knies as an example is immaterial. He was a 2nd round draft pick. Going back to the U improved his prospect chances, same with Brock Faber. This pushed them to the major league roster rather than starting in the minors for each of them. It was valuable.
But the 3rd overall pick in the NHL draft does not have those problems. And I am not sure what you are talking about "now that we know how much he stands to make", because that was always known. The NHL ELC are basically standard.
With Eiserman, basically the standard for top 5 NHL draft picks has been to play ONE season after their draft year. Go back and look at just about every college player that was drafted that high in the draft. IF they are drafted before their freshman year, they play one year in college and turn pro. If they are drafted after their freshman year, they play two years in college. For some reason, Michigan has been able to get players who had birthdays later in the year (after the NHL draft) so they were ineligible for the draft before their freshman year. Matty Beniers and Owen Power are two of several examples. Both November birthdays. Kent Johnson the same, except he had an October birthday. They started in Ann Arbor as 17 years old, turning 18 in their freshman year. Then they were draft ater their freshman season, and played one more.
I expect Eiserman to be a top 5 pick in the NHL draft and a one year player at the University. If you expect otherwise, you are only fooling yourself.
@mlhouse you ascribe way too much risk to being hurt. And they’re human. It’s why Cooley said he was coming back. The experience is part of the deal.
“huge possibility of getting injured”. Huh? Also part of the draw of coming back to college is to get bigger and stronger to PREVENT injury once reaching the majors.
Agreed with maroon and gold. Staying an extra year in college to get stronger and better to potentially maximize his future pro career is not the same as staying an extra year in med school. No one would ever stay an extra year in med school without there being an explicit reason to do so (one being cost)
Well he everyone else is WRONG so it must be true.
Mlhouse has one way of looking at the situation. His view isn't wrong. But again, he's only looking at one single angle.
I actually think I’d rather they bring in Jimmy Clark. Clark is a year older grade wise (9 months older) and wouldn’t need to accelerate schooling. I think he is quicker and might do better in a bottom 6 role right off the bat. Hendrickson is a little bigger kid and I think the extra year in the USHL will allow him to grow into his body more.
For what it's worth, Hendrickson has already accelerated his schooling.
Why do I get the feeling that both Pitlick and Huglen could both have a big year this year? Something tells me that both of them and Kurth could all be key players this season.
@rau4skiumah they could and in all honesty, them getting back to the FF will require it. We won't have the first line we did this year (nor PP1) so it will require depth scoring. add 2/3 of those guys to the 30 pt scoring threshold coupled with at least the same level from Brodzinski and Nelson and though we might not have as dangerous a first line, the roster is a real rough one to match lines with, particularly given they all should have the ability to defend. Probably not as "exciting" a team to watch with the high end talent of Cooley and Knies, but they absolutely have the capacity to frustrate the shit out of some teams and be there in the end.
Those three and Lamb are 4 players that need to take steps forward for the Gophers to reach their goal in April
I think first and foremost, the NHL was always on Cooley’s mind. Cooley was the 3rd overall pick. And it’s looking like he should have gone number one overall. Gopher fans saw firsthand that he had the skill of an NHLer. As Bob put it, Cooley had that competitive “fire” that players need to make it to the big league.
I think if Cooley was the size of a Vanek or an Okposo or a Knies, Cooley would've jumped straight into the NHL. But since Cooley is on the smaller size, he made the smart decision to play at college to get a little bit bigger and stronger.
I’ve seen some people online say, to some extent ,that Cooley was never fully on board with the program. I disagree with this. The fact that he committed back to the Gophers shows that it was a hard decision to make. After the season ended, I get the sense it was a 60% chance of signing with Arizona and 40% chance of returning to college. Cooley wore that M just as good as anyone and showed what Pride on Ice means. Yeah sure, maybe guys like Snuggy and Faber who are from Minnesota, grew up watching the team, will always have a special connection. As we saw with Cooley's donation, he cares about the other student athletes.
Lastly, in the interview Cooley made after announcing his return to the Gophers, he said a major factor was wanting to win something. His USA Junior teams had failed to capture gold. Of course, there is the Quinnipiac game. =(
Thank you and good luck Logan Cooley. Wish nothing but the best. But everyone and their mother knows that the Gophers have a better chance of winning the natty this year than the Yotes winning the cup with you on their respective rosters!
I think first and foremost, the NHL was always on Cooley’s mind. Cooley was the 3rd overall pick. And it’s looking like he should have gone number one overall. Gopher fans saw firsthand that he had the skill of an NHLer. As Bob put it, Cooley had that competitive “fire” that players need to make it to the big league.
I think if Cooley was the size of a Vanek or an Okposo or a Knies, Cooley would've jumped straight into the NHL. But since Cooley is on the smaller size, he made the smart decision to play at college to get a little bit bigger and stronger.
I’ve seen some people online say, to some extent ,that Cooley was never fully on board with the program. I disagree with this. The fact that he committed back to the Gophers shows that it was a hard decision to make. After the season ended, I get the sense it was a 60% chance of signing with Arizona and 40% chance of returning to college. Cooley wore that M just as good as anyone and showed what Pride on Ice means. Yeah sure, maybe guys like Snuggy and Faber who are from Minnesota, grew up watching the team, will always have a special connection. As we saw with Cooley's donation, he cares about the other student athletes.
Lastly, in the interview Cooley made after announcing his return to the Gophers, he said a major factor was wanting to win something. His USA Junior teams had failed to capture gold. Of course, there is the Quinnipiac game. =(
Thank you and good luck Logan Cooley. Wish nothing but the best. But everyone and their mother knows that the Gophers have a better chance of winning the natty this year than the Yotes winning the cup with you on their respective rosters!
agree 100% that this take doesn't make sense. Kid was always passionate, has had nothing but good things to say here, and even showed he was attending class and competing the work (and for those saying it doesn't mean anything/could have been taking easy classes, well so could any other top flight draft pick and you don't see them all winning the award). Would've loved to have had him back and envision he will continue to only have good things to say about his time here.
Yeah he showed more passion and stood up for himself and teammates more often than some players of years past, especially during the Jon Hill era. It got him in trouble occasionally (Michigan game at Yost comes to mind) but the good outweighed the bad and you could tell he cared about his teammates.
Now that the initial shock has worn off I look forward to seeing him play in the NHL.
Assuming the top 9 is what we think it is, one of Kurth/Lamb is going to have to play his off-wing, in addition to Nevers already doing so. The only true left wing in the top 9 is Pitlick, and it's why I can see Moore getting time on the wing this year.
Eh, it’s 2023, sides of the ice doesn’t really matter as much as it used to, as evident by the d core the past few years. Moore helps the team way more up the middle than on the wing, especially with Cooley gone.
Yeah he’ll almost certainly be playing center for his own development as well as the fact that the center depth is more normal looking without Cooley.
Any idea when we will get a schedule release? Isn’t usually sometime in August?
September
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Any idea when we will get a schedule release? Isn’t usually sometime in August?
Used to be June...
Look for it around Friday the 18th or Monday the 21st... Or at least around that part of the month.
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Elite Prospects has both Clark and Hendrickson listed as left wingers. If that’s what we could use. I mean we need a few extra forwards anyway. Also, not sure how accurate Elite Prospects is, but they have Clark coming in for the 23-24 season and Hendrickson still listed as coming in for the 24-25 season. I’ve said this a couple of times so I don’t need to beat a dead horse but I say bring them both in. Both are solid offensive players who have experience playing in juniors and look ready to step in to the college game. Obviously I don’t know what’s all going on behind the scenes but from a fan perspective it seems like a no brainer now that Cooley has left.
I will go back to what I said before. Not signing his professional contract was a mistake by Logan Cooley. The injury risk alone was not worth turning the Coyotes down and dwarfed any reason for staying another year playing college hockey. Playing professional hockey is why Logan Cooley went to the University of Minnesota. As far as I know, there hasn't been one mention of what his college major was or what classes he was taking at the U. He is a hockey player.
He played the basic standard of one year after his draft year of college hockey to take that last step of maturity before turning pro.
I would have advised him to turn pro immediately after the season. If I was advising him I would still advise him to turn professional and sign his ELC although essentially changing his mind probably cost him some good will.
As a Gopher fan, I hope this rumor is untrue and #92 is back for his sophomore season. But, it was a mistake to announce he was returning instead of turning pro.
There is no way you as a fan can say unequivocally what is best for an individual player. For one thing, college offers more time to work on strength conditioning than the pros, which can especially benefit a smaller player. Secondly, money is not the end-all for everyone. Knies doesn't seem to regret coming back for a year. Yes, he wasn't as sure of a thing as Cooley, but did have the size advantage over him. Trent Klatt will tell you to this day that he would give up the extra money he made by leaving early to have played one more year of college, and would tell that to all the kids he coached when he was in MN. The college experience is so much different than being a professional and it is really hard to put a value on that, or for most of us to understand. And the likelihood of a career-ending injury is pretty minuscule.
Now that we know how much he potentially stands to make, it would be hard to imagine him turning it down once that offer was made. But to stay whether not signing a professional contract is a mistake is only something Logan can determine. Especially at the times when we didn't know what the offer was.
And a question for anyone; would Eiserman be coming in before he was draft eligible, or is there a chance he gets taken 1 or 2 and never plays college? (Yes, I am a long time MN sports pessimist.)
Wrong. The injury risk alone means a player in Cooley's situation should move on after the single season of college hockey. It would be like having a doctor stay an extra year in medical school with the huge possibility that they would become injured and not be able to have a career as a doctor. These guys are in college to prepare for their NHL career, nothing else. That is the "college experience" for them. There is nothing valuable enough in that to risk their careers for nothing.
Further, using Knies as an example is immaterial. He was a 2nd round draft pick. Going back to the U improved his prospect chances, same with Brock Faber. This pushed them to the major league roster rather than starting in the minors for each of them. It was valuable.
But the 3rd overall pick in the NHL draft does not have those problems. And I am not sure what you are talking about "now that we know how much he stands to make", because that was always known. The NHL ELC are basically standard.
With Eiserman, basically the standard for top 5 NHL draft picks has been to play ONE season after their draft year. Go back and look at just about every college player that was drafted that high in the draft. IF they are drafted before their freshman year, they play one year in college and turn pro. If they are drafted after their freshman year, they play two years in college. For some reason, Michigan has been able to get players who had birthdays later in the year (after the NHL draft) so they were ineligible for the draft before their freshman year. Matty Beniers and Owen Power are two of several examples. Both November birthdays. Kent Johnson the same, except he had an October birthday. They started in Ann Arbor as 17 years old, turning 18 in their freshman year. Then they were draft ater their freshman season, and played one more.
I expect Eiserman to be a top 5 pick in the NHL draft and a one year player at the University. If you expect otherwise, you are only fooling yourself.
All I stated is that there is no way a fan can know better than the individual what is their best option. I then gave examples of why a player might stay longer than an outside observer might expect based on what they see and on the history of other players in similar situations, without really knowing much about the personal parts of the player's life. You said I was wrong. So you apparently you feel DO know better than the players what is best for their lives.
As for Eiserman, I guess I was looking at the fact that historically top three players sometimes decide to just make the jump right after the draft. Most rankings I have read have him at number 2 in draft, with at least one saying he wouldn't be surprised if he moved up. Been watching college hockey for decades so am familiar with the history of draft picks. But there are also those guys who just keep getting better up to the draft. Austin Matthews is an example of a player who the last few years prior to the draft just seemed to accelerate his climb up the draft predictions and he seemed to have no problem jumping straight into the NHL. So while I expect one and done is most likely scenario, just wanted to know about his draft age. And I forgot about him coming in with a few friends, as a poster pointed out.
Clark is a center. Bump is a left wing though?
Haha my bad. Elite prospects has Clark listed as LW/C.
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Big thanks to @northerngopher218 for keeping an eye on the portal to keep us all updated!
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https://twitter.com/GopherPuckLive/status/1686099814646202369?s=20
Eric Rud was his coach for the 2022 Juniors. Rinzel on that team as well. Hopefully they have been in his ear.
A lot of connections to the program...was pointed out there are a few connections to Michigan as well. Seems it is one of the two.