Greg “Boom” May Q&A Part 2

Diving deep into the 2026-2027 roster.

In part one of my conversation with new Gopher women’s hockey coach Greg “Boom” May, I asked May about his transition to the head coaching role, what Minnesota needs to do to dethrone Wisconsin and Ohio State, and much more.

In part two, I spoke to May about the 2026-2027 team. Including what he has liked so far in practice, what he believes will be the strengths of the team, and how they will make up for the loss of three All-Americans.

Some questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length.

You guys lost three All-Americans from last year’s team. How will you go about finding your best lineup early in the season?

So this is week two of our full practices here; we’ve had something like six practices so far. Up until today, we did not have any lines at all. We had them in colors. We had them split into Maroon and Gold, but it was by design. I wanted to see who went with who. So when we did drills where we needed a partner or a line, I was curious to see who went with who. It also allowed us the opportunity to see naturally if there’s any chemistry amongst these two or three players. Today was the first time that we went with lines. 

I’m definitely not someone who just finds a lineup and sticks with it for the entire year. There’s a real positive to our players’ understanding that things do change, and they have to be okay with it and resilient when there are changes. Sometimes, yeah, your line, you guys might have been +3 and had 3 points last game, but we’re still gonna move it because we didn’t really love our other lines. There are things that coaches do to try to manufacture more depth and more offense. Again, to your point of losing players and some cornerstone pieces that we don’t have anymore. It’s never easy to pick lineups, but it does make it, for lack of a better word, easier right now because we don’t have groups of players that have played together for the last three years or have to play together. It allows us a little more flexibility and freedom to try some things early on. 

As you’re looking at your team right now through the first couple weeks of practices, what do you see as the strengths of this team?

Depth. We have a lot of depth right now. We lost a lot of high-end players. We lost our program’s leading goal scorer, one of the best players in the world regardless of her age. We lost two other All-Americans as well, and some other seniors who are playing in the PWHL and are expected to contribute right away in that league too. 

There’s no doubt that we lost some horses, but we have some serious depth on our team. It’s going to be different this year. It’s gonna be a lot more by committee, I guess, is what I would call it. We’re gonna need everybody chipping in and everyone contributing, being four lines deep and six defensemen deep and two goalies deep. Also, the players who aren’t in lineups, they’re literally right there on the doorstep, knocking, and they’re gonna get opportunities as well. So it’s gonna be a lot more competitive from that standpoint than it’s probably been in the past. 

Other than that, I really appreciate our team’s effort level right now; it’s really, really high. We’ve been working pretty hard in practice from a skating conditioning standpoint, and they’ve responded, and I would actually say that they want it. They know that they need more, so that’s been really great. The last thing I’d say is that the team first buy-in and the team first mentality, call it accountability within each other right now has been really high. We talk a lot about standards and making sure that we’re not walking by standards because if we walk by a standard, then we just lower the standard. I think our players really bought into that. They’ve been great off the ice and in the locker room as well, very engaged. It’s been a fun group.

Now, I’m not naive. It’s September 16th. This is the best time of the year as far as stuff goes. We haven’t rolled out a power play unit, or we haven’t put anybody in the press box as a healthy scratch yet. I know that this is the best time of the year for coaches, but the buy-in’s been really good so far. 

Chloe Primerano has been very good in her first two seasons, and she’s still only 19. What do you see as her ceiling, and how does she get there this season? 

Her ceiling is incredibly high. If you ask me, her ceiling is probably that she could go down as one of the greatest women’s hockey players of all time. I think, in terms of room for growth, for her and she got significantly better at this last year, and specifically the second half of the year, on her engagement defensively. Her understanding that, yes, I’m an offensive defenseman, I’m incredibly dynamic on that side of the puck, but the best of the best also know how to defend really, really well. Being reliable out there in end-of-game situations, big D-zone face-off situations, penalty kill situations. The other thing I feel like we’re working on with her a little bit is that there’s not always a goal to be had. I know she wants to score every shift, but some shifts, you might go out there for 35 or 40 seconds, advance a puck, accept a rush, and get off, and that’s it, and that’s okay. It’s okay to have a simple, just clean shift like that every once in a while. Those are some little things that we’re working on with her.

I do think you’re right, you know, we lost two All-American defensemen, Sid Morrow and Nelly Laitinen, who were really big-time staples of our d-core. Now Chloe is kind of that piece on paper, and she doesn’t have to do it alone, of course, but there is going to be a high expectation for her in all areas of the game. I think the big thing for her is to continue to be that offensive dynamo that she is, but also just continue now in her junior year to be a really mature, responsible defender, someone we can rely on in all situations.

Incoming freshman Adrianna Milani was great for Canada in the U18 Summer Series in August. How has her transition to the college game gone so far, and what should fans expect from her this season?

She’s been great. I was on the other bench for that summer series, and I swear she had more than 9 points. It was both good and bad for me on the other bench, but she’s been fantastic, honestly, like from day one of practice. I would even say the week before, when we weren’t allowed to go on the ice as coaches, just from the feedback that we had heard about how she was on the ice and everything, she’s mature. She’s an accelerated freshman; she’s another 17-year-old that’s playing college hockey, and you would never know it. She contributes in the locker room off the ice. Her habits, her effort, and her talent, her talent’s ridiculous. She’s got real high-end skill. She’s someone that’s gonna get Gopher fans out of their seats, and I would expect it early on, honestly. 

Now, at the same time, let’s go back to Chloe. We just talked about Chloe being in the same situation as a 17-year-old freshman, and she had a fantastic year, but she also made mistakes, and that’s okay. She’s going to make mistakes. Milani’s going to make mistakes, and we have to be okay with not putting shackles on her, understanding who she is, and what her ceiling is as a player, and allowing her to play her game. Her game is creative and fast and offensive. But I’ll tell you what, people are gonna be surprised. She also knows how to defend; she’ll block shots with the best of them. She’s a two-way player. She just happens to have that much more flair on the other side of the puck too.

The Golden Gophers begin the 2026-2027 season on the road on Friday, October 2nd, when they take on Bemidji State.