Rombach to Nashville at pick 35.
Phillips to Calgary in Round 3. Ultimately ends up as the second future Gopher taken.
Moe to NJ in the 3rd. Good rise for him
I thought these recruits were supposed to be garbage... 😉
I thought these recruits were supposed to be garbage... 😉
if rombach would've been picked 3 spots higher, he'd be better.
Not a committed player but continuing the discussion here...Blake Vanek goes in Round 3. Big bet on his projection.
Mace'o Phillips is a 3rd round pick that can't make the Gophers team this season. 😉 He will turn 20 years old during his freshmen season with the Gophers during the 2026/2027 season.
Not a committed player but continuing the discussion here...Blake Vanek goes in Round 3. Big bet on his projection.
just threw the same in the potential future recruits. If he has a decent year in the WHL, I would strongly suspect we see him in a maroon and gold sweater
Mace'o Phillips is a 3rd round pick that can't make the Gophers team this season. 😉 He will turn 20 years old during his freshmen season with the Gophers during the 2026/2027 season.
i hear he is terrible and can barely skate. all gopher recruits should be 1st-2nd rounders and we should get the Mr Hockey winner every year
/s
sorry to derail, had a lot to say in response to this post earlier in this thread
Wood: think we all knew it would be a 1 and done. Nashville is at the point of needing bodies... Didn't really seem to get much better this year so can't say another year would've helped, other than that he'd be a focal point this year...
Re: Wood
my opinion is that he got much better as the season went on. First half, he did seem very unsure of himself, and he was overthinking the team game. At times he looked lost in the offensive zone, on top of him being a major defensive liability. Many first half games where he was a total non-factor. However, he was excellent vs. St. Thomas and Bemidji. When we took that ridiculous L up in Bemidji, Wood must've had like 30 shot attempts by himself in that one game.
Second half and down the stretch is when Wood really started to shine for me. Particularly the Wisconsin and OSU series at Mariucci. In that awful ND playoff series, he was one of very few guys who looked fully engaged and mentally sharp. Over the second half, he became a much more versatile and consistent scoring threat, basically using more of the tools in his toolbox. His shot selection/placement, playmaking ability, and his awareness without the puck all improved significantly. By Feb/March, Wood was able to sustain the attack in sync with his linemates rather than gunning for one-and-done rush chances. The coaching staff must've done a pretty good job of breaking down his game film and giving Wood feedback.
That being said, Wood has definitely not been a fan favorite despite the solid numbers + effort he put up for us. I can think of a few reasons why that is.
First, Gopher fans often need a whipping boy to yell at on TV. The last one, Brodzinski, he finally moved on and Wood has some surface-level similarities in his game. I'm only half-joking here.
Second, Wood's skating ability is one of his major weaknesses, and the Gophers are supposed to all be good skaters who can fly up and down the rink. To this point, I think Wood's skating only looks worse than it is, because he has goofy size/proportions that distort how his stride looks. You can rewatch the games and see that he was winning plenty of races, leading rushes and beating defenders with speed, all in ways that are outright impossible for a bad skater to pull off.
Lastly, the occasional mental lapses and boneheaded plays that Wood made were the types of mistakes that Peewee coaches go ballistic over. Wood's habit of shooting directly into the goalie's chest, or sloppy breakout passes into the middle of the ice- everyone knows those are stupid glaring mistakes, and it might cause a highly-attentive fan to lose sight of a guy's point production etc. I caught myself doing that with Brodzinski, lol; I often hated watching him on the ice in 2022-23 and was shocked to see he had ~nearly the same point totals as Knies did that year. Whereas other players might be prone to gaffes that are more subtle, maybe they're worse mistakes overall, while not producing as many points that would cancel out their errors.
Chesley: this is the one that's probably most confusing to me. Would've probably been our PP1 guy (for better or worse) plus big minutes again which may have set him up to come into the NHL lineup instead of the AHL. Washington seems to really like him so they may have pushed harder on him to come in at that point.
Re: Chesley
Luke Mittelstadt would be running PP1 over Chesley, it's not even close. I was also confused by the Chesley signing, I've noticed over the past 3 years that the pro hockey people all fawned over him. I never understood the hype- always been kinda bearish about Chesley but was pleasantly surprised by his play this year.
I was often annoyed at freshman / sophomore Chesley, particularly the random braindead passes to the other team at the blueline, or the stupid penalties, but Bob did have him crunching tons of minutes with key defensive assignments so maybe I'm just blind.
John (LJ) Mooney goes to Montreal in the 4th round.
Some day will he get to play with Cole Cuafield on the smallest line EVER!!!!!! 😀
@walker-barely-know-her I mean I put that up to just getting more comfortable with your teammates and playing the B10. He didn't take over games really ever (imo). he finally got a little bit of mojo going on the PP at years end, but his lack of scoring there was really odd to me. Point splits are the same. Boneheaded turnovers became less, but he also took some bad penalties (the jumping on a guys back, taking the tripping that killed our 5v3 against UMass
seems like he enjoyed his year and he tried. All you can really ask for a guy new to the team/roster coming in. He would've for sure been an asset coming back but also get moving on. Either way its in the past now. Starting to get excited again for next year now that the sadness of end of year has passed
Honestly I think people’s perception of Brodzinski would’ve been a lot different if he came in a year later like he was originally supposed to, AND wasn’t on a (top six) line with two speed demons which was kinda weird from a chemistry standpoint. I think he was a very good college player when he eventually played on a slower grinder line with Nelson and started using his body more as a year 4/5 guy. I didn’t hesitate to criticize him by any means but admittedly some of it wasn’t his fault.
Honestly I think people’s perception of Brodzinski would’ve been a lot different if he came in a year later like he was originally supposed to, AND wasn’t on a (top six) line with two speed demons which was kinda weird from a chemistry standpoint. I think he was a very good college player when he eventually played on a slower grinder line with Nelson and started using his body more as a year 4/5 guy. I didn’t hesitate to criticize him by any means but admittedly some of it wasn’t his fault.
Totally agree with this. Flawed player but natural scorer; put him in the right role and you have a solid contributor. Circumstances were not ideal early in his career but he grew over time.
I thought these recruits were supposed to be garbage... 😉
No one has ever said these players are "garbage". They are good recruits that can fill out a really good recruiting year.
But when they are the best players of the class, it isn't recruiting that can build a national championship team. And our classes are this way for a few years.
After years of getting our share, we are missing out on the top echelon of each recruiting class and it isn't unreasonable to ask why.
I thought these recruits were supposed to be garbage... 😉
No one has ever said these players are "garbage". They are good recruits that can fill out a really good recruiting year.
But when they are the best players of the class, it isn't recruiting that can build a national championship team. And our classes are this way for a few years.
After years of getting our share, we are missing out on the top echelon of each recruiting class and it isn't unreasonable to ask why.
I am just trolling. Pulling the pin a dummy grenade and watching the aftermath.
I think it is fair to say - accurate perhaps more appropriately - it has not been a good calendar year of recruiting.
I do, however, think the players in the current pipeline get significantly underrated. Lot of good players incoming.
I think if there has been any criticism of the incoming class it’s that the Gophers lost more players than expected and haven’t jumped into the CHL pool to make up the difference, while our top competitors have.I thought these recruits were supposed to be garbage... 😉
No one has ever said these players are "garbage". They are good recruits that can fill out a really good recruiting year.
But when they are the best players of the class, it isn't recruiting that can build a national championship team. And our classes are this way for a few years.
After years of getting our share, we are missing out on the top echelon of each recruiting class and it isn't unreasonable to ask why.
I am just trolling. Pulling the pin a dummy grenade and watching the aftermath.
I think it is fair to say - accurate perhaps more appropriately - it has not been a good calendar year of recruiting.
I do, however, think the players in the current pipeline get significantly underrated. Lot of good players incoming.
I think if there has been any criticism of the incoming class it’s that the Gophers lost more players than expected and haven’t jumped into the CHL pool to make up the difference, while our top competitors have.I thought these recruits were supposed to be garbage... 😉
No one has ever said these players are "garbage". They are good recruits that can fill out a really good recruiting year.
But when they are the best players of the class, it isn't recruiting that can build a national championship team. And our classes are this way for a few years.
After years of getting our share, we are missing out on the top echelon of each recruiting class and it isn't unreasonable to ask why.
I am just trolling. Pulling the pin a dummy grenade and watching the aftermath.
I think it is fair to say - accurate perhaps more appropriately - it has not been a good calendar year of recruiting.
I do, however, think the players in the current pipeline get significantly underrated. Lot of good players incoming.
a lot of these guys who end up playing for other B1G teams and having all this bizarre online hype around them- so many of them end up not panning out.
That Will Horcoff kid who came in at mid-season for Michigan, he just got drafted in the 1st round yesterday, he was an utterly unremarkable NCAA player in my opinion. Wolverines also picked up ASU's # 1 d-man in the portal last year (Lovell?) and that guy ended up leaving at mid-season, with only a handful of assists and a horrible +/- to show for it. I think I saw a highlight of Rhett Pitlick in a Mavs jersey dangling him inside out, lol.
We should never doubt the ability of a clown like Naurato to completely ruin young players' development. Hell, you can even look at a guy like Clayton Phillips, who at one time was a highly touted pro prospect but has accomplished nothing since he left Minnesota and ended up at PSU.
Kvasnicka to the Isles in Round 7. Expected him to get drafted but things got interesting.