Way too many people are caught up in the CHL players. Yes, they’re good but top end guys like J. Moore, Mooney, Moe, and on and on and on we got coming in, why ????? This team is fine. Gonna have e to grow as season goes on but my god we are bringing in top end talent!
Moore, Mooney and Moe are great recruits. My concern with the lack of CHL players has nothing to do with those players, but has more to do with the fact the Gophers had so many departures following the season. Likely more than expected. So they need an additional experienced player or two to fill the gaps, rather than hope some of last year's healthy scratches.
We are now bringing in Finn McLaughlin, who Denver wanted to develop with another year in the Juniors. Which shows we did have a need. Denver went out and got a CHL player. But instead using the CHL to bring in that more experienced CHL player we are brining in a player that Denver thought would benefit from a year in the juniors. Glad to have Finn on the Gophers, but it feels like we're lagging behind other Blue Chip teams.
I don't know anything about Finn, I am not doubting him. With defensemen, I know we can't go off scoring stats. I like his size. I am just curious about the moves the Gophers are making lately relative to their competition.
Those are good recruits, not great recruits. The type of recruits you need to build your full team. But they are not top level recruits that can be the best players on a national championship team.
And while McLaughlin and Pritchard are both good recruits, we cannot rely on other teams 2nd choices to build a competitive team.
And it is a fact that we are lagging behind other programs in recruiting the top talent. Normally the Gophers have the recruiting pipeline stacked over multiple years (I get there are changes in commitment rules), but in the last three classes (last years, this years, and next) there isn't a single All-American prospect. Instead, we have a lot of 2nd-3rd line potential forwards and bottom half defensemen.
And, we have not had a goal tender in our recruiting commitments for more than a decade.
Well the students will once again be back in force! They just announced that student section tickets have sold out.
Minnesota Men's Hockey posted on FB that tix sold out in 16 minutes.Well the students will once again be back in force! They just announced that student section tickets have sold out.
Tact is the ability to step on a man's toes without messing up the shine on his shoes - Harry S Truman
Way too many people are caught up in the CHL players. Yes, they’re good but top end guys like J. Moore, Mooney, Moe, and on and on and on we got coming in, why ????? This team is fine. Gonna have e to grow as season goes on but my god we are bringing in top end talent!
Moore, Mooney and Moe are great recruits. My concern with the lack of CHL players has nothing to do with those players, but has more to do with the fact the Gophers had so many departures following the season. Likely more than expected. So they need an additional experienced player or two to fill the gaps, rather than hope some of last year's healthy scratches.
We are now bringing in Finn McLaughlin, who Denver wanted to develop with another year in the Juniors. Which shows we did have a need. Denver went out and got a CHL player. But instead using the CHL to bring in that more experienced CHL player we are brining in a player that Denver thought would benefit from a year in the juniors. Glad to have Finn on the Gophers, but it feels like we're lagging behind other Blue Chip teams.
I don't know anything about Finn, I am not doubting him. With defensemen, I know we can't go off scoring stats. I like his size. I am just curious about the moves the Gophers are making lately relative to their competition.
Those are good recruits, not great recruits. The type of recruits you need to build your full team. But they are not top level recruits that can be the best players on a national championship team.
And while McLaughlin and Pritchard are both good recruits, we cannot rely on other teams 2nd choices to build a competitive team.
And it is a fact that we are lagging behind other programs in recruiting the top talent. Normally the Gophers have the recruiting pipeline stacked over multiple years (I get there are changes in commitment rules), but in the last three classes (last years, this years, and next) there isn't a single All-American prospect. Instead, we have a lot of 2nd-3rd line potential forwards and bottom half defensemen.
And, we have not had a goal tender in our recruiting commitments for more than a decade.
While I share the overall sentiment a lot of this post is off. Pritchard was Kato’s second choice? Not at all he was their most prized recruit. No goalie in our committed recruits in a decade? Maybe this was just hyperbole but if you’re being literal that’s obviously way off, they recruited Airey, a highly sought after juniors player, during the juggernaut 22-23 team.
Also the no All-American players bit is weird. Ziemer is elite and Gruba was a stud in juniors. Mooney, Moe and Kvasnicka are tops of their age group players. Rombach might realistically go top 50 in the draft although I understand defensive defensemen not really moving the needle for some.
But yeah overall I do agree recruiting has dropped a bit.
Minnesota Men's Hockey posted on FB that tix sold out in 16 minutes.Well the students will once again be back in force! They just announced that student section tickets have sold out.
That’s awesome! You love to see it.
The students must not have received the email that the Gophers are going to be bad this year..( sarcastic )
Looking down from my High Horse
Morality Police
Not very objective
but in the last three classes (last years, this years, and next) there isn't a single All-American prospect.
This is a new one. Do they give out the “All-American prospect” awards at the same time they present the pre-season championship trophy? Michigan and BC must have full trophy cases after the last few years. 🤔
Also, I’d love to know which “All-American prospects” won WMU the title last year.
Minnesota Men's Hockey posted on FB that tix sold out in 16 minutes.Well the students will once again be back in force! They just announced that student section tickets have sold out.
That’s awesome! You love to see it.
The students must not have received the email that the Gophers are going to be bad this year..( sarcastic )
Gosh, I must have missed that email too
@rau4skiumah2-0 this roster is bad. We need some high end players added to the roster.
@rau4skiumah2-0 this roster is bad. We need some high end players added to the roster.
I’d love to hear your input on WMUs roster from last year that had 8 draft picks, the highest of which was a 3rd rounder and what you thought their title chances were. Or Quinnipiacs? And before you turn into Bonin and say they had slukynsky in net, he and Rowe split time and Rowe played every bit as well. Nobody was “excited” about Bump until he started playing.
Would it be super fun if we signed McKenna and misa and Lakovic and put together a juggernaut Canadian first line? Sure. Does this team still have enough talent to win games? Absolutely
hockey is a team game and sometimes that team is a hell of a lot better than the sum of their parts because of how they work together. We all like to get caught up in draft pick watching because we’re the Gophers and have been spoiled in talent, but this team as a college hockey team has plenty of skill to win and may for once have a little more sandpaper than we’re used to seeing to go with it. Describing the roster as “bad” when most of college hockey coaches would love to have this amount of talent is just ridiculous
@rau4skiumah2-0 this roster is bad. We need some high end players added to the roster.
I’m going to echo what others on here have said. Just because we don’t have the high end draft picks that are on other teams or were on Gopher teams past doesn’t mean that the roster is bad. Is the team and coaching staff pardoned from any healthy criticism? No. Could there be some bumps in the road? Especially early on? Sure. But to be all doom and gloom in mid June and just saying that the “roster is bad” is pointless. I for one am looking forward to some more sandpaper and grit on this Gopher team. I certainly have my own thoughts and questions going into the fall but let’s at least get there before we write the whole year off.
Western was obviously a good team but they also build their team quite a bit differently with older players being their best guys. On average they weren't that much older than the gophers but their top 6 scorers were more like 21-23 years old and defensemen who are like 22-24. Where as the Gophers typically have 18-19 year olds filling those spots in which case it's kinda more imperative that the Gophers have high end NHL caliber players.@rau4skiumah2-0 this roster is bad. We need some high end players added to the roster.
I’d love to hear your input on WMUs roster from last year that had 8 draft picks, the highest of which was a 3rd rounder and what you thought their title chances were. Or Quinnipiacs? And before you turn into Bonin and say they had slukynsky in net, he and Rowe split time and Rowe played every bit as well. Nobody was “excited” about Bump until he started playing.
Would it be super fun if we signed McKenna and misa and Lakovic and put together a juggernaut Canadian first line? Sure. Does this team still have enough talent to win games? Absolutely
hockey is a team game and sometimes that team is a hell of a lot better than the sum of their parts because of how they work together. We all like to get caught up in draft pick watching because we’re the Gophers and have been spoiled in talent, but this team as a college hockey team has plenty of skill to win and may for once have a little more sandpaper than we’re used to seeing to go with it. Describing the roster as “bad” when most of college hockey coaches would love to have this amount of talent is just ridiculous
Gonna take the middle ground here. Is the sky falling because we aren’t getting any first rounders? No, it’s been proven you can win in college hockey without first round picks. Should the University of Minnesota be landing first round picks pretty consistently? Probably, yeah.
So there’s one or two forward spots open depending on how many players they want to roster this year. I feel like their 2 options are to try to land a Canadian after the draft or to just bring in Kvasnicka. Option 1 is more preferential to me.
So there’s one or two forward spots open depending on how many players they want to roster this year. I feel like their 2 options are to try to land a Canadian after the draft or to just bring in Kvasnicka. Option 1 is more preferential to me.
if Bob isn’t actively looking it’s because the Kvas family and agent want him to come in next year, not because Bob doesn’t agree with you imo. Would be beneficial for both sides for him to get a year of juniors based on he looked for the NTDP this year
Gonna take the middle ground here. Is the sky falling because we aren’t getting any first rounders? No, it’s been proven you can win in college hockey without first round picks. Should the University of Minnesota be landing first round picks pretty consistently? Probably, yeah.
agree with this and think Bob has also been letting us know this was coming a bit in his commentary about the MN HS classes. Its not like they've been swimming with a ton of 1st rounders for this years or last years draft
Western was obviously a good team but they also build their team quite a bit differently with older players being their best guys. On average they weren't that much older than the gophers but their top 6 scorers were more like 21-23 years old and defensemen who are like 22-24. Where as the Gophers typically have 18-19 year olds filling those spots in which case it's kinda more imperative that the Gophers have high end NHL caliber players.@rau4skiumah2-0 this roster is bad. We need some high end players added to the roster.
I’d love to hear your input on WMUs roster from last year that had 8 draft picks, the highest of which was a 3rd rounder and what you thought their title chances were. Or Quinnipiacs? And before you turn into Bonin and say they had slukynsky in net, he and Rowe split time and Rowe played every bit as well. Nobody was “excited” about Bump until he started playing.
Would it be super fun if we signed McKenna and misa and Lakovic and put together a juggernaut Canadian first line? Sure. Does this team still have enough talent to win games? Absolutely
hockey is a team game and sometimes that team is a hell of a lot better than the sum of their parts because of how they work together. We all like to get caught up in draft pick watching because we’re the Gophers and have been spoiled in talent, but this team as a college hockey team has plenty of skill to win and may for once have a little more sandpaper than we’re used to seeing to go with it. Describing the roster as “bad” when most of college hockey coaches would love to have this amount of talent is just ridiculous
I hear you and agree with you that I am not picking this team to be a FF contender for this year but it was in comment to that the roster is "bad". Maybe I missed that we got an influx of college and NHL scouts that know a better eye for talent and am wrong, but current scouts and GMs would disagree. Comment on WMU is that people get caught up on high end draft picks like its the only way forward, where WMU (once again, amongst the glut of other teams who have done this) showed you don't need high end draft picks to be a very, very good team. This team does absolutely feel like it is a rebuilding/retooling year where I won't be surprised if we're .500 at winter break and going to have to have hoped we've at least split the series with BC and UND to help keep our PWR up.
On the WMU remark of "older" guys, this is something we love to do as Gopher fans because its a simple way that factually has been common when we've been hyper talented but run into old, grindy teams that play clutch and grab in the postseason and we lose in a 1 and done (and I have zero doubt in a best of 5 or 7 we'd have significantly more titles). Western's top guys last year skewed older in who produced at the front of the year and then they had younger guys grow into roles. I don't know if I quite agree on the way older when compared to this years Gopher roster when on D we're going to be relying on Mitts, Thomas, and Gruba who will all be 22-23 during the season (I get WMU had Drazer and Kramer playing good minutes, but their best defenseman was a Fr Vainsanen who was their PP QB) and you've got a bunch of 03-04 kids (Lamb, Clark, Ludtke, Pahlsson) who you're expecting to provide offense at forward. Agree we're not as old as when WMU brings their guys in, but we do have some guys who are bordering on elder statesman (age wise) for what we usually see that will be playing big roles with us bringing in guys who are older more recently.
Again I'm not saying we'll be WMU and win it this year, but this team has talent and has some older guys that you'll need to produce. This year that talent is going to have to work their ass off (probably more so than some of our recent teams) and play differently if they're going to be there at the end of the year competing, but to say the team is "bad" is the part I take exception to.
Next year’s gopher team is definitely older but it also seems like they’re doing it because they got backed into a corner with recruiting misses rather than some intentional change in recruiting philosophy. This is mainly why I don’t think you can point to a team like Western that does it intentionally. You’re right that they’ll have to play differently but I’ll believe it when I see it I guess.
Like I said “bad” is relative and I don’t agree with that word in a vacuum but by U of M recruiting standards and what needs to be immediately replaced I kinda get it. The program is basically banking on guys we’ve watched as freshmen (Gruba, Pahlsson) make huge leaps while some of the incoming freshmen who are good but not great recruits fill top six roles right away (Mooney?) and admittedly they did get a solid transfer. Your first line center is Jimmy Clark (I think?) who is a solid playmaker but not an elite NCAA center.
I get some of the reasons to be optimistic ie more sandpaper and some of the names being recruited being good 3-4 year guys. But I have my doubts on this team making the NCAA tourney next year and that’s probably where the more pessimistic ppl are coming from. At this point I think we should just make a poll or some friendly wagers on whether they make the tourney. I’m going with no but they could maybe get in as a low seed due to B1G’s overall OOC record.
Again, what's your definition of a "bad" team? I agree this a fringe NCAA tournament team that my sincere hope is they take their lumps and look a hell of a lot better 2nd half than first. That, to me, is not a "bad" team. Just different than what we're used to. If we're talking the prediction, think they scrape in as the B10s 4th seed (battling with MI and WI for that spot; think PSU and MSU will be well ahead of the rest if the rosters stay the same until that time), but a lot is going to be pending the month of October much more so than in year's past as I don't think we're contending to win the B10 this year.
Think more the what made this year tough was losing the entire slew of possible early departures even guys like Kurth and Chesley (not to mention possibility of Moore and Rinzel) coming back for 1 more year. Just not a great way to predict and plan for that, just a storm of happening at the same time as the MN classes are down as well as some misses.
It depends what your relative expectations are for Gopher hockey. Compared to Bob's past recruiting and given the holes that need to be filled (you're right some of it wasn't entirely expected) the past two years of recruiting have been kinda "bad". This team obviously isn't going to be Mercyhust levels of terrible but a lot of people were pissed when Don's teams were finishing 17th/18th in the pairwise (the worst was 24th my senior year) and probably thought those rosters were "bad", which is probably where I'd expect this team to be if I had to guess.
I'm not sure I'd go as far as saying teams that narrowly miss the tourney are bad teams, they certainly aren't bad compared to the field but by Gopher hockey standards they definitely are. This is a spoiled fan base where an average season means making the NCAA and winning at least one game, being at or near the top of the Big 10, and winning a conference tourney can make up for not accomplishing either of the first two. That said even good programs occasionally miss the tourney (North Dakota recently, Michigan last year, IDK if Wisconsin is even a blue blood anymore lol) and have a rebuild year here or there so it wouldn't be the end of the world imo if that happens. If the team makes the tourney I'll gladly take that, that'd mean they performed above (my) expectations. That said I'd like to see them get back on track in terms of the recruiting especially compared to the other blue bloods who build rosters in a similar fashion.
@trixr4kids seems very fair. If it isn’t on track in 2-3 years, I’d suspect Bob doesn’t have a job as he won’t have the leash Lucia did with the prior titles
Are we off track? Maybe not as flashy of a class, but this team looks to be an experienced group ready to contend again in 26-27. (Without any unexpected departures).
Seems like Bob is okay with taking a step back this season to build that experience/depth. Will probably try to land a big fish or two next off season to take advantage of that and make another serious run or two before he retires.
So there’s one or two forward spots open depending on how many players they want to roster this year. I feel like their 2 options are to try to land a Canadian after the draft or to just bring in Kvasnicka. Option 1 is more preferential to me.
if Bob isn’t actively looking it’s because the Kvas family and agent want him to come in next year, not because Bob doesn’t agree with you imo. Would be beneficial for both sides for him to get a year of juniors based on he looked for the NTDP this year
This is all probably true. But Bob should be worried about putting a winning product on the ice this year. He shouldn’t forgo a top player because of potential hurt feelings
The reality is that no team in the country has a Logan Cooley/Adam Fantilli level recruit for this fall. Unless Michael Misa decides to play college hockey, I’ll be very surprised if a freshman is competing for the Hobey.
So what’s the definition of a great recruit? Are we pretending LJ Mooney isn’t a great recruit because he’s too small to go top 10 in the NHL draft? It’s a FACT that every single coach in the country would take Mooney on their team this fall in a heartbeat.
Let’s wait to call this season a failure until we at least see them hit the ice…
Are we off track? Maybe not as flashy of a class, but this team looks to be an experienced group ready to contend again in 26-27. (Without any unexpected departures).
Seems like Bob is okay with taking a step back this season to build that experience/depth. Will probably try to land a big fish or two next off season to take advantage of that and make another serious run or two before he retires.
This is my thought as well. I feel like this team might take their lumps this year but I actually like how they project out to 26-27 and 27-28.
This year will be a fight to get into the NCAA’s but the good news is with the heavy non-con schedule and how good the Big 10 should be .500 hockey might damn near get us there, even with the tweaked pairwise.
I see no one’s mentioned this yet. A new Gopher hockey exclusive collective was announced today. As far as I can tell it’s separate from Dinkytown Athletes.
I appreciate the effort to keep up with the times. Time will tell whether this leads to big time recruiting wins or not but it’s nice to be ahead of the curve rather than fighting to keep up.
https://twitter.com/goldenhelmetnil/status/1935820391198376109?s=46&t=AvtsG2WfNuGRyXzbYJqB7g
@maroon_and_gold saw this and didn’t know if it was legit. Anyone know who’s behind it? Don’t love the idea of donating to an anonymous group versus DTA has University backing
the webpage also having a typo in the description at the bottom never feels great and screams amateurish which gives me pause
@maroon_and_gold saw this and didn’t know if it was legit. Anyone know who’s behind it? Don’t love the idea of donating to an anonymous group versus DTA has University backing
the webpage also having a typo in the description at the bottom never feels great and screams amateurish which gives me pause
I believe it is the alumni group led by Nick Angell and company.
@skiumahlaw can probably provide more details!
It depends what your relative expectations are for Gopher hockey. Compared to Bob's past recruiting and given the holes that need to be filled (you're right some of it wasn't entirely expected) the past two years of recruiting have been kinda "bad". This team obviously isn't going to be Mercyhust levels of terrible but a lot of people were pissed when Don's teams were finishing 17th/18th in the pairwise (the worst was 24th my senior year) and probably thought those rosters were "bad", which is probably where I'd expect this team to be if I had to guess.
I'm not sure I'd go as far as saying teams that narrowly miss the tourney are bad teams, they certainly aren't bad compared to the field but by Gopher hockey standards they definitely are. This is a spoiled fan base where an average season means making the NCAA and winning at least one game, being at or near the top of the Big 10, and winning a conference tourney can make up for not accomplishing either of the first two. That said even good programs occasionally miss the tourney (North Dakota recently, Michigan last year, IDK if Wisconsin is even a blue blood anymore lol) and have a rebuild year here or there so it wouldn't be the end of the world imo if that happens. If the team makes the tourney I'll gladly take that, that'd mean they performed above (my) expectations. That said I'd like to see them get back on track in terms of the recruiting especially compared to the other blue bloods who build rosters in a similar fashion.
This I think is the level-headed take. Large divide between a juggernaut and a program nosediving into oblivion and the 2025-2026 Gophers are likely going to need pleasant surprises to be safely in the tournament picture all year.
It depends what your relative expectations are for Gopher hockey. Compared to Bob's past recruiting and given the holes that need to be filled (you're right some of it wasn't entirely expected) the past two years of recruiting have been kinda "bad". This team obviously isn't going to be Mercyhust levels of terrible but a lot of people were pissed when Don's teams were finishing 17th/18th in the pairwise (the worst was 24th my senior year) and probably thought those rosters were "bad", which is probably where I'd expect this team to be if I had to guess.
While Lucia's last 4 teams made the tournament 2 out of 4 years, they also averaged just under 16 losses per season playing in a much weaker BT conference than what it is today.
Motko's teams have made 5 straight tournaments and have averaged just under 11 losses each.
Everyone can argue what they want about the most recent recruiting cycles, but none of us has a clue what is actually going to happen and for how long.
I don't rule out the possibility that Motzko has reached his shelf-life the way Woog and tDon did before him, but I'm not yet convinced it's immediate.
This season is going to be a huge test on multiple fronts.
I was more referring to Lucia’s 3 years in a row where they missed though those 2 seasons did come to mind as well. You do make a good point about how bad the big ten was back then.It depends what your relative expectations are for Gopher hockey. Compared to Bob's past recruiting and given the holes that need to be filled (you're right some of it wasn't entirely expected) the past two years of recruiting have been kinda "bad". This team obviously isn't going to be Mercyhust levels of terrible but a lot of people were pissed when Don's teams were finishing 17th/18th in the pairwise (the worst was 24th my senior year) and probably thought those rosters were "bad", which is probably where I'd expect this team to be if I had to guess.
While Lucia's last 4 teams made the tournament 2 out of 4 years, they also averaged just under 16 losses per season playing in a much weaker BT conference than what it is today.
Motko's teams have made 5 straight tournaments and have averaged just under 11 losses each.
Everyone can argue what they want about the most recent recruiting cycles, but none of us has a clue what is actually going to happen and for how long.
I don't rule out the possibility that Motzko has reached his shelf-life the way Woog and tDon did before him, but I'm not yet convinced it's immediate.
This season is going to be a huge test on multiple fronts.
I believe it is the alumni group led by Nick Angell and company.
@skiumahlaw can probably provide more details!
This is just a teaser site for now. More info will come out when the full site goes live.
We hope to have a summer GPL Podcast at some point with a few members of the Golden Helmet Collective board.
Do not like how this board is run?
Get your own board!
♃
With Kvasnicka to WHL, what do we think the additions will be at F? Any speculation or rumors? I just want the season to start. Way to early line chart. I think by seasons end Mooney is top 6.
Hendrickson-Ludtke-Ziemer
Moe-Clark-Lamb
Moore-Pahlsson-Mooney
Falloon-Mittlestadt-Pritchard
Thomas-Gruba
Mittlestadt-Rombach
Whipple-McLaughlin
DiPasquo or Airey
Extra F: Townsend, ?, ?
Extra D: Begley, Rud
My hope is this team goes into the year with a chip on their shoulder and plays with some sandpaper and snarl. They say they don’t pay attention to the outside noise but they know some of the attitude of the fans. They’ll hear how “the past four years was the window” and they don’t have a good enough team this year. I will admit, I have some concerns as well and fair criticism is always warranted. But I hope that they prove us all wrong and go make some noise.
I don’t have the insight knowledge of players coming in or the why’s and why nots so I appreciate these discussions. It’s beyond helpful and really useful to stay in the loop. Thank you!
“Good pace, a lot of north and south, or it could be east and west, I’m not sure but either way…” Wooger
With Kvasnicka to WHL, what do we think the additions will be at F? Any speculation or rumors? I just want the season to start. Way to early line chart. I think by seasons end Mooney is top 6.
Hendrickson-Ludtke-Ziemer
Moe-Clark-Lamb
Moore-Pahlsson-Mooney
Falloon-Mittlestadt-Pritchard
Thomas-Gruba
Mittlestadt-Rombach
Whipple-McLaughlin
DiPasquo or Airey
Extra F: Townsend, ?, ?
Extra D: Begley, Rud
In a perfect world a high end CHL forward or even D would be added after the draft. We’ll see what actually happens but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Garrett Pinoniemi is still in the portal lol
Garrett Pinoniemi is still in the portal lol
Is he a grad transfer? No ill will towards Pinoniemi. It just did not work out here. Would guess he would be a late depth add for a roster.
Always enjoy seeing the numbers for the freshmen. Sounds like Townsend is 44 and Moe is 79.
BC's Brown and Augustana's Raboin also on the staff.
https://twitter.com/GopherHockey/status/1937936143716176338
Looking down from my High Horse
Morality Police
Not very objective
So with McLaughlin going unpicked, looks like there will only be 4 drafted defensemen on this year’s team: Rombach, Whipple, Thomas & Mittelstadt. I’m trying to find the last time it was this low and I think the answer is 2008-09 (Fairchild, Ness, Fischer & Anderson).
This isn’t intended to be a Debbie downer post, more an interesting factoid.
Always enjoy seeing the numbers for the freshmen. Sounds like Townsend is 44 and Moe is 79.
Moe likely just waiting for Mittelstadt to graduate to scoop up 19. I wonder if Ziemer changes to 2 and Whipple to 4.
So with McLaughlin going unpicked, looks like there will only be 4 drafted defensemen on this year’s team: Rombach, Whipple, Thomas & Mittelstadt. I’m trying to find the last time it was this low and I think the answer is 2008-09 (Fairchild, Ness, Fischer & Anderson).
This isn’t intended to be a Debbie downer post, more an interesting factoid.
Really like the group we have as Gruba and McLaughlin are older than your typical underclassmen, also with good size.
So with McLaughlin going unpicked, looks like there will only be 4 drafted defensemen on this year’s team: Rombach, Whipple, Thomas & Mittelstadt. I’m trying to find the last time it was this low and I think the answer is 2008-09 (Fairchild, Ness, Fischer & Anderson).
This isn’t intended to be a Debbie downer post, more an interesting factoid.
Wasn’t Mittelstadt drafted after his freshman year? I thought Montreal took him in like the 4th or 5th.
So with McLaughlin going unpicked, looks like there will only be 4 drafted defensemen on this year’s team: Rombach, Whipple, Thomas & Mittelstadt. I’m trying to find the last time it was this low and I think the answer is 2008-09 (Fairchild, Ness, Fischer & Anderson).
This isn’t intended to be a Debbie downer post, more an interesting factoid.
Wasn’t Mittelstadt drafted after his freshman year? I thought Montreal took him in like the 4th or 5th.
He went in the 7th round as an overager following his freshman season.
Hopefully an injury free and solid year for Cal this season.
https://twitter.com/UtahMammoth_PR/status/1940857544043630747
Looking down from my High Horse
Morality Police
Not very objective
Anyone have an NHL camp roll call for this years team? I’ve seen Cal (Utah) and Mooney (MTL) posts this far.
https://ushl.com/news/2025/7/3/general-alumni-at-nhl-development-camps.aspx
My wife calls my prior post, “man vision”.
https://ushl.com/news/2025/7/3/general-alumni-at-nhl-development-camps.aspx
My wife calls my prior post, “man vision”.
Based on my experience there is nothing you can do to avoid this stigma.