Who’s back for hockey team next year?
Tough ending to a really exciting year. These guys for such a young team gave us a lot to cheer about. I know it’s early but I know a lot of you out there know college hockey way better than me. So would love to know thoughts on who might be back. Even if it’s opinion/speculation. Lots of our guys were high draft picks and will have great NHL careers. But of course selfishly I want to see some stay and give us another shot to win it all next year. Luke Hughes is gone. Who else?
Fantilli is going to be the 2nd pick in the draft, tough to put that on hold, he is a special player that needs a bit of maturing on the ice, he lets his temper get the best of him at times and makes stupid penalties but boy, is he talented.
We have a good young coach and it seems like the program is in a good place, especially considering the Pearson saga.
I think we'll recruit well and stay a top tier program.
Better than 50/50 Fantilli is back.
What evidence is there for this?
Tea leaves, a roll of the bones, the entrails of small furry creatures.
Several weeks ago, there was a Twitter thread by an NHL guy who claimed that Adam has told NHL teams that he plans to return to UM.
So I searched for it, and all I’ve found is a tweet from some random guy with a blog that has 400 Twitter followers. So I’m gonna give that five FAKES out of five.
Wants to play with his brother for one more year.
That is a bold claim
What would be being put on hold by being second pick and staying?
Playing in the NHL…
I was at the game last night and after we lost Adam was by himself on the ice and one by one many players came over and hugged him followed by the coaches. He was the last one off the ice.
That doesn't look like a player that plans to be back.
Ultimately it’s going to come down to who drafts him. He’ll sit down with the GM and NHL coach and they’ll discuss what is best for Adam’s development and better for the franchise.
Adam is ready for the NHL right now. What it’s going to come down to, is whether the NHL team wants to burn a year of his ELC. If they’re looking at another year at the bottom of the standings anyway, it may be better to have Adam return and get an extra year out of that ELC, similar to the path Beniers, Power, and Johnson took (though I think it’s clear Fantilli is more NHL ready heading into the draft than those guys were at that time)
Very good points but even though he is more prepared then others another year of development would be very good for him I wouldn’t be shocked to see him in AA for another year He’s still only 18 and there are still things he can improve on and then in a year make the jump and be an impact player
Last year we had the number 1 pick in the draft come back for his sophomore year.
To be fair, that draft was void of high end talent. Lots of guys who have the potential to be really good players, but nobody that jumped out as truly elite. Guys like Power and Beniers wouldnt go 1-2 in a normal draft year, or especially in a year like this where you have 2-3 guys that really stand out. Bedard and Fantilli especially would clear those guys if they were in the same draft class.
While they’re all still really good prospects, Power probably goes around pick 4 or 5 in a typical draft. Beniers and Hughes fall in the 6-10 range. It’s more typical to see guys picked in that range go back to juniors or college for another year
I'll be back.
Unfortunately, you will not. Even granting you a Covid year, your franchise has now produced 6 movies. You are out of eligibility.
I heard Corum might play both sports.
TWill is back
I think by year 8 he'll be good to go.
Not gonna have a lot of good news in this thread.
besides Naurato
Never should have removed the interim tag. Doesn't Warde know the rules? You don't step on the baseline when going out to change pitchers. You don't wash your socks when you're on a hot streak. You don't talk about your starting pitcher's no-hitter during the game. And you don't negotiate and change your head coach's status in the middle of a playoff run.
/s, kind of
I kinda wish they'd just saved it till the end of the season rather than potentially throw a mental wrench into things
I have been known to believe in jinx's from time to time myself.....but this idea is pretty silly. How about we blame the teenage defensemen for giving up so many grade-A chances last night or the regressing goalie who had technique issues or the high-powered offense that struggled to generate chances or the actual opponent who was the #2 team in the country all season and is full of 25-year olds?
I don't think he stopped coaching the last two weeks because he got signed or the players stopped listening or playing hard because of it.
I don't think its some jinx voodoo stuff, but I do there's a little something to altering the mentality of a team that was on a small hot streak
Found our Tigers new head coach.
I'm guessing these guys are gone
- L Hughes
- Portillo
- Fantilli
- Samoskevich
Probably stay
- McGroarty
- Truscott
- Hallum
- Casey
- Nazar
I don't think anyone else is really at risk of being called up but what do I know. That would still be a very good team with that core if you find a goalie
Nazar will be back. If the Hawks end up picking 2nd, I don't think they'd be upset if Fantilli spent another year in Ann Arbor, too.
Gotta say its been a really nice development over the last 5-10 years that pro teams seem to be more content to leave their guys in college for another 1-2 years. Not sure if that's a growing respect for the NCAAs, partly due to NIL things, or something else but recruiting like Michigan does and keeping these guys 2-3 years vs the old 1-2 where theyd suddenly duck out to the OHL or something has been awesome
I know nothing about the CHL's inner workings so I'd be interested to hear what maybe some of the MGoCanadians have to say on this: The OHL was the bane of our existence up to maybe 2010ish and in the last 10 years we have been considerably more successful at not losing guys to the O. I honestly don't remember the last defection we had. You used to lose at least one top recruit every season
I know it will NEVER happen, but I really with the NBA would adopt the NHL approach to draft-and-follow. Guys like Caleb, Moussa, and Jett would already be drafted and then could make a decision whether they want to join their NBA club to spend time in the G-league or stay in school.
Football is really the only sport I don’t think that concept would work with, it’s hard to gauge football talent at age 17-18. I think a lot of 18 year old baseball players would benefit more developmentally by playing a couple years of college ball than they would toiling down in low A ball. Basketball you have a few really high upside guys that can get picked but need another year or two before going to the league.
I think it’s worked out very well for the NHL being able to let their draftees sit in juniors or college for an extra year or two before bringing them to the AHL or NHL roster.
Speaking just from the Hawks' standpoint, it's got as much to do with waiting a year to start the clock on Fantilli's first contract as it does with his development.
I have no idea what Michigan’s NIL situation is with hockey, but would you rather ride a bus to AHL cities and stay in crappy hotels or be king of the town in college, and fly everywhere (at least at Michigan). I genuinely believe this helps Michigan and other high end programs to keep players until they are in the NHL.
Fortunately (for us) the Devils have a very deep defensive group right now and they’re already adding Hughes to that, so Casey and Edwards are likely back. There’s always the off-chance (more likely with Edwards than Casey) that these NHL teams want their guys getting some professional experience and want to move them to the AHL.
I would expect Hugh’s to join the Devils by this weekend
Do we do baseless speculation here? Not sure I’ve ever seen that. /s
The atmosphere at Yost and the overall value of attending an M hockey game remains the best in Metro Detroit and one of the best in all of sports. For all the hoopla surrounding M football and hoops, hockey somehow remains something of a well-kept secret. A highly enjoyable year despite the tough finish.
Look forward to big things from Naurato & Co. Hope to see a ton of these guys back next year. Getting Fantilli back seems plausible, unless he wants to go play in a minor league rink in Arizona or join the perpetually woebegone Blue Jackets.
I wish it was just ever-so-slightly a better kept secret. Been trying to get season tickets (and for football). Fail. Sold out.
I completely agree. Being in A2 and playing at Yost is better than ANY minor league situation. Yost is the best atmosphere of any of the 4 major sports and I don’t think it’s even close. The student section is far superior to basketball and football, there is never dead air in the arena, they keep the atmosphere top notch.
It's Michigan hockey summer, so you never really know until the puck drops next fall.
Knock on wood, but Michigan Hockey Summers have been a lot more quiet in the last 5-10 than they used to be. In the late Red year's it felt like we'd get kicked in the balls by an unexpected departure every offseason. I don't remember too many ball kicks in recent years - if anything we've probably had more surprise returns than surprise departures
Losing Jack Campbell and John Gibson back to back was a real kick in the nads for sure.
Yeah and checking back on yostbuilt, looks like Campbell was a 2010 defection and Gibson a 2011. I dont remember the last serious ball kick from the CHL. Bryson Cianfrone? Lucas Lessio? I dont remember the order of things but its been like 10 years of quiet...we're going to start dating ourselves talking about the OHL poaching our commits because these young folk dont know the feeling
Antonio Stranges - 2018
Hunter Brzustewicz perhaps.
The players themselves have agency in this, too. It is my hope that they pull a Minnesota and the majority (everyone but Luke and Eric) decide to come back and address the poor showing last night. Either way, thanks for the memories.
As a passive hockey fan, but someone who enjoys watching our team play... why is it that we attract these elite goal scorers/skaters/offensive players, but yet we seem to not attract the most elite of goaltenders or defensemen with a defense first mindset?
I feel like a consistent criticism from those in the know, is that our defensive players, many of whom are extremely talented, tend to be "great" because of their mix of defensive play and offensive prowess, but often in tight post-season games, leave us in the lurch against more disciplined/experienced, though less talented teams.
As for goalies, kinda makes me think of the QB position. What good is it recruiting 1000 WRs, RBs, DEs, DBs etc... who are amazing 5 stars if your QB (i get that its not totally the same) is not also near or at that level? Why is there a gap? Is it unusual to find an elite goalie to be in every recruiting class?
Seems odd that despite all the talent we get, we are unable to get to the top of the mountain. In other sports, teams with the most talent year over year don't win all the time, but they do win sometimes (Bama, OSU, Ga in football... Duke, UNC, Kansas in bball)
That might be true for goalies, but I'm not sure you're correct on defensemen....
2021 NHL draft had 2 defensemen drafted in the first 4 picks (including the #1 overall pick). Both of them played for Michigan.
Michigan has had a string of elite goaltending the past few years. Strauss Mann posted back to back years with a .939 and a .930 save percentage. Portillo had a .935 in 7 games as a freshman and posted a .926 last year as a full time starter. Portillo is also a third round pick.
It takes a lot for everything to come together. Single elimination tournaments are more about who gets hot at the right time than it is about who the best teams are. Add in a low event, high variance sport like hockey to the mix and it’s just about as random as it gets.
You can’t compare Hockey to other sports because it’s not like other sports. Both in how the game is played and the way college hockey itself is structured. But you made the comparison to 5* football players. Remember this: the 5* talent Michigan has is made up of true freshmen and sophomores, 17-19 years old. They’re going up against some teams made up of fourth and fifth year guys that are as old as 24-25. Developmentally, those guys are much further along despite not having the same potential. That tends to balance out to a degree. The 5* true freshman isn’t always beating out the 3* senior for a position in football, now add an extra year or two of development for that senior and you have the structure of college hockey.
Seems odd that despite all the talent we get
First and foremost, let’s realize that Michigan isn’t the only team that gets all of this talent. Harvard has the most drafted players in the country. Minnesota, BU, BC, North Dakota, Northeastern and Denver are right up there with Michigan in number of drafted players. UMass, Wisconsin and Minnesota-Duluth all have 10 drafted players. From that list of 9 teams, 6 of them missed the tournament entirely. Denver lost the opening game to Cornell.
Getting to the top in hockey is about much more than who has the most draft picks. It’s about GETTING there, and then hoping everything falls your way. Michigan is doing a good job getting there. The puck luck has unfortunately been against us.
Hockey is a late specialization sport to begin with, and goalie is by far the hockey position with longest development time. At 15/16 (when they start getting recruited) it’s incredibly difficult to gauge where goalies will be skill wise even 2 years down the road because the skill development process is so slow. Even at 18/19 goalies are rarely drafted in the first round because NHL teams aren’t even confident where they’ll be at 25.
So I don’t think the question is why doesn’t Michigan land elite goalie prospects… what you should be asking is why does it seem like Michigan struggles to develop elite goalies.