Honesty first.
This postseason blog will not be as widely read and reacted to as the one earlier this week. And that’s okay.
If you missed it, UMD men’s hockey coach Scott Sandelin offered up some strong commentary on the state of college hockey, even college sports as a whole, with his thoughts Monday on the transfer portal and its impact.
Please give that a read if you missed it or the near-firestorm it caused. If you read and/or shared it, thank you. Nothing I’ve written on this platform has brought on the response that did, and some of the discussion on X was actually valuable for a change.
I felt it was important to mostly publish Sandelin’s words without much editing. What he said is what he said, only with minor edits made for clarity. I tried to add some context where necessary, but Sandelin spoke on this so strongly that his words needed to carry the day, and I believe that happened.
Anyway, Sandelin had plenty of other things to say about his actual program, the season UMD just had and what lies ahead. This blog will focus on that, but first a big-picture take on the portal and the current state of college sports.
8 THOUGHTS
1. Sandelin put himself out there with his portal thoughts, but he made one thing abundantly clear. And that one thing is something that needs to be repeated.
The portal isn’t going anywhere.
Not only does Sandelin accept its presence, but he made clear Monday that UMD is likely to use it this offseason, just as it did the last couple. While the Bulldogs appear set in goal and on the blue line, the veteran head coach said they might be in the bargain for a forward out of the transfer portal.
(With Ben Steeves leaving early for pro hockey, Blake Biondi having transferred to Notre Dame, and the portal entries this week from depth forwards Kyler Kleven and Luke Johnson, UMD does appear to have a hole or two up front.)
In a perfect world, not everything we’re seeing in college sports is happening. But the portal itself is not the problem. Also, remember that the transfer system was changed because of litigation. And the multi-time transfers without penalty are being allowed right now because of pending litigation. Like a lot of things with college sports, litigation has led us here, and it’s doubtful much of it will change.
Are there problems with players being recruited before they ever go in the portal? Based on the reporting I’ve seen and heard surrounding this year’s crop of college men’s hockey transfers, the answer is unquestionably “Yes” to that. As I mentioned in Monday’s blog, when you have reporters indicating favorites to pick up a player who isn’t even in the transfer portal yet, it’s a clear sign of a problem.
Since this has been happening in the much-higher profile sports of football and basketball, and I don’t see any movement to turn back, I doubt a couple hockey players potentially being tampered with is going to change the minds of NCAA bureaucrats.
In other words, we better get used to it.
As Sandelin also said Monday, kids are going to talk to each other. NHL teams are going to continue to be involved in the development of their drafted players. Agents are going to continue to work in the best interests of their clients. If the coaches of college hockey want this all to work differently, they’re going to need a strong coalition and a much better idea.
I’m not saying one doesn’t exist. But, again, if we haven’t seen any change in football and basketball, change may very well be easier said than done.
2. How does this change college sports? I’ll be the first to admit that it’s still weird to look at line chart and see so many players stared their college careers elsewhere. Used to be pretty few and far between, and now every team has them, often in prominent positions in the lineup.
It adds a greater “We cheer for laundry” element to the college game than had already existed. Used to be you got four years to watch players learn and grow and improve, and hopefully play their best in that last year. I think about a guy like Blake Young, who struggled to find a spot in UMD’s lineup until the second half of his college career. Freshman and sophomore seasons? 31 total appearances. Junior season? 25. Senior season? 44.
Young earned everything he got at UMD, and when push came to shove he was the one taking the faceoff that clinched the Bulldogs’ 2018 national championship against Notre Dame after Justin Richards got booted out of the circle.
Are stories like Young’s part of what makes college sports great? Yes, no doubt. But while we aren’t guaranteed to never hear one like it again, the transfer portal does indeed make it less likely to happen. See, that player now has a chance — without penalty — to seek a better playing opportunity elsewhere. And for a lot of guys, it’s worked out pretty well.
Look north for a good example. Ben Almquist left UMD after the 2021-22 season and transferred to Alaska-Anchorage as the Seawolves restarted their program. Over his last two years of college hockey. Almquist piled up 20 goals and 50 points in 62 games for Anchorage after posting three goals and seven points in 42 games over two and a half seasons at UMD. Almquist’s role was way different in Anchorage than it ever would have been at UMD, and good on him for taking advantage. Hopefully he had a really good experience up there.
Anyway, I don’t know what the permanent changes will be in college sports. Hell, I can’t say I know what college sports will even look like in a decade, and I’m of the opinion that anyone who says they know is lying. But “different” is not always “bad.”
3. Sandelin is really excited to get Dominic James back next season.
Obviously, there’s the on-ice impact. James, who was lost to a season-ending shoulder injury in the second period of UMD’s second game of the season, is UMD’s top-line center, fastest player, and best faceoff guy.
But he’s more than that.
“Dom’s a key player for us,” Sandelin said. “He’s an emotional, he’s an infectious personality. I think we felt that a little bit early. Certainly I know we felt it as the year went on.”
Sandelin dropped more than one hint Monday that a returning James will captain the 2024-25 Bulldogs.
“The good thing is Dom’s coming back, so he’ll be our leader,” he said at one point. “You bring Dom back, and a lot of guys are going to follow him. He’s a good person to follow, so I feel good about that.”
4. James isn’t the only player Sandelin is happy to have back.
“I’m super excited about the guys we have coming back,” he said. It’s a group that includes — among others — forwards Matthew Perkins, Anthony Menghini, Kyle Bettens, and Jack Smith, along with defensemen Aaron Pionk, Aiden Dubinsky, Owen Gallatin, Luke Bast, Joey Pierce, and Riley Bodnarchuk. Goalie Zach Sandy returns after making his first career start and getting a win late in the regular season.
It’s a group that showed flashes of the things UMD’s coaches are looking for, and now this offseason becomes critical as they look to add more strength and build more consistency and reliability into their games.
With all the injuries UMD dealt with in 2023-24 (at least one returning player, whom Sandelin did not identify, is going to be having some sort of surgery, with a recovery time to be determined), the youngsters were often thrust into positions they weren’t expected to be in.
In the case of Perkins, literally a position he wasn’t expecting to be in, as he came in a wing and finished his freshman season in the middle of the rink because of injuries to James and Smith and Cole Spicer’s second-half ineligibility.
“Some of those guys got thrown into it and we got to see a little bit more,” Sandelin said.
“(Perkins), talked about his strength. He’s 163 (pounds, his listed weight at least), right? Where is he gonna be at if he gains 10, 15 pounds (this offseason)?”
Sandelin cited the presence of strength and conditioning coach Chase Engdahl, who was hired last August, noting he’s now had a chance to get to know all the student-athletes he’s working with, and he can be of a great help to them in their work to prepare for 2024-25.
5. If you think Sandelin is excited about his returning players, just ask him about the incoming recruits.
That’s when he really lit up on Monday.
The players Sandelin has signed for next season and was able to talk about are:
Forwards Max and Zam Plante, Jayson Shaugabay, and Callum Arnott
Defensemen Ty Hanson and Adam Kleber
Goalies Adam Gajan and Klayton Knapp
And boy howdy did he talk.
“Three of them are alumni kids that grew up watching this program, and they’re drivers to me,” he said. “They’re going to be kids that some of our guys that don’t know them quite well are going to want to play with. And vice versa. We’re going to have some guys that they’re going to want to play with. So that’s a great starting point.”
After a season where there was virtually no internal competition for UMD because of injuries, they’re fixing to have plenty of it in 2024-25. The Bulldogs will start the season with 26 or 27 players, depending on how it all goes this offseason, which isn’t some abnormally high number. But as Sandelin says above, these guys coming in are players who returning players will want to play with, and the guys coming back will be players the new guys want to play with. That’s a different kind of internal competition, but a valuable one, because it means there will be guys competing for spots on the line chart to play with certain other players.
I hope that makes sense. It sounded better in my head.
Anyway, there could be more. UMD has a couple holes to fill with the departures of Biondi, Kleven, and Johnson, plus Spicer’s eligibility won’t be known until later in the offseason.
“We’ve got to fill some holes up front,” said Sandelin. “Lost a couple kids to the portal, which is gonna happen in this day and age. We’ve got some kids that we could have play another year at junior, maybe come in. So we’re just gonna figure that stuff out here over the next month and see where we end up.”
(Remember, Sandelin can’t talk about the unsigned recruits, but forwards Harper Bentz (USHL Fargo) and Blake Bechen (USHL Green Bay) have a good amount of junior experience already and could be called on to come in if UMD doesn’t like its options in the transfer portal, and as of this writing no tranfers have committed.)
6. Matt Wellens of the Duluth News Tribune asked Sandelin about what the extra year of juniors for Zam Plante has meant for him, as he and Fargo are set to chase a Clark Cup title this spring.
“It’s confidence,” Sandelin said. “It was a tough year last year. He started in Chicago, didn’t play as much. He’s coming off the injury. He’s had injuries for a couple summers. He hasn’t really trained. Finally, he got a summer of training, and he’s got that swagger back a little bit. He’s on a good team. Good chance to win the USHL championship. So they’re going to play deep into the playoffs.
“He’s a hockey player. I mean, it sounds simple, but it’s true, right? Pretty good bloodlines.”
The words “hockey player” were thrown out to describe a lot of the incoming players. Max Plante could be picked in the top three rounds of the NHL Draft this summer. Kleber is projected by some scouts to be a potential late first-round pick. Shaugabay (Tampa Bay) and Zam Plante (Pittsburgh) are already drafted. Hanson is undrafted, but has been a consistent offensive catalyst from the back end in Sioux City, and he’s serving as the Musketeers’ captain this season. Gajan will get USHL playoff experience in Green Bay after playing very well for Slovakia in the past two World Junior tournaments. Knapp is a bit of a new find for the coaching staff, having just committed late in UMD’s season, but the coaches are a big fan of his makeup and think he could be a solid contributor as he develops.
7. UMD women’s coach Maura Crowell held her season ending press conference last week. The Bulldogs struggled to beat the WCHA’s top teams, posting only one win in four tries against Wisconsin, one tie in four games against Minnesota, and they got nothing out of six meetings against Ohio State, shut out in the last five.
But UMD made the NCAA Tournament because it was able to avoid any crippling losses along the way. The Bulldogs lost just once to a team below them in the WCHA standings, and that loss at St. Cloud State in December was avenged over two weekends in February where the teams played four times at Amsoil Arena, and UMD won three games while allowing zero goals.
“I think it was a really rewarding and tough year at times,” Crowell said. “Some great hockey, so many tight battles, a lot of pressure. And to get to the regional final again, I think, says a lot about our culture, says a lot about, the people behind the scenes that do a lot of work to keep our standards as high as they are. So I’m really proud of this season.”
This wasn’t a high-scoring team. It was a committed defensive team that got major contributions in key moments for a lot of the season.
Over 39 total games, UMD conceded just 66 goals. Only 61 of those were scored with a goalie in the net, or 1.56 per game. Take out the 14 goals allowed against Ohio State in the two playoff meetings, and it’s just 47 goals in 39 games, or 1.2 per game.
You don’t need to score all that many to compensate for that, but Crowell did concede she’s always looking to squeeze more out of the offense.
“I think everybody can do more,” she said, “and maybe more consistently in that area where some days we’d score five and other days it’d be tough to find them. And that’s just hockey and the way games go. But I want to be able to score more goals and not have it be so tight. I think that’s a ton of pressure to put on goalies.”
8. Crowell is a very driven, competitive coach, not necessarily unlike her counterpart down the hall. While she was happy to see her young team get better, commit to a strong defensive game, and get back to the NCAA Tournament, she made clear that won’t be enough for her going forward.
Yes, expectations are going to rise. UMD doesn’t want to “just make the tournament,” instead desiring to be in a better position to do damage in the tournament.
“That’s my goal,” Crowell said. “I think we learned that this year in particular, the value of getting one of those top five spots. So even four, but I think top five, knowing your opponent for a week heading into the tournament is nice whether you’re on the road or at home.
“We had moments throughout the year that we could have, you know, if that second Colgate game is a win instead of a tie, if Quinnipiac went better for us (loss and tie on the road), if we held the lead we had against Wisconsin, if we had beaten Minnesota instead of tying, there are those moments. And I think with those three or four in particular, we would have been in maybe one of those spots that I’m talking about, or we would have been.”
Crowell has a top freshman coming in, as forward Caitlin Kraemer is set to join UMD this fall. The all-time leading U18 scorer for Team Canada, Kraemer is expected to provide offensive spark almost immediately. UMD loses captain Mannon McMahon and leading scorer Reece Hunt, so there are holes at the top of the lineup that need to be filled.
And there’s also a hole in goal, as sophomore Hailey MacLeod put her name in the transfer portal after an outstanding season that saw her share time in net with freshman Eve Gascon. It was Gascon getting the call for both games in the Columbus Regional, however, and MacLeod’s name was in the portal a couple days later.
Crowell brought up a really interesting point. She said she isn’t going to look for a backup to Gascon, but instead a goalie who can play and challenge Gascon the way MacLeod did.
“I don’t think it makes sense to not do that,” said Crowell. “I want to win championships. So I’m doing whatever I can to put our team in the best possible position to do that.
“I think challenging your starter is really important. In terms of splitting time, that’s a different story. But I think you want somebody in that role who can play, because you never know what can happen.”
Crowell pointed out that a lot of the teams in the NCAA Tournament either used a straight goalie rotation or at least had one pushing the other along the way. And she thinks that’s good when you look at the long-term health of these players.
“I think that might be the trend,” she said, “and I think there’s something valuable to that to the athletes as they look at the longevity of their careers.”
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I am going to write at least once more here in the early offseason. Planning to lay out my opinion on a few potential rules changes and, of course, we’ll talk regionals as well.
Beyond that, the column name will change this summer when Arizona State joins the NCHC and this becomes 9 Thoughts.
Great, I’ll have to think more. Seems dangerous.
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