UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

but let's be fair, Caron was the guy who came with the biggest hype, and of course (sadly) he turned out to be a huge bust.

Those were good times though Chuck, were they not?!

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

Those were good times though Chuck, were they not?!

Old guys on the porch reminiscing about the good old days of recruiting battles between UNH and BC. Ben Lovejoy, Adam Pinneault.

But I guess, when we have only one recruit in the last 7 months, and only one impact kid in the pipeline, that's all we can talk about now until the flood of late commitments that Mike Souza and Glenn Stewart will close on.

But I'll try:

Na, na, we got Bob Sweeney's son.

[Dan]

Agreed, UNH could have used Freddy Meyer on the blue line in 2002-2003, enspecially during first semester when Garrett Stafford sat on the pine for taking the wrong summer course at home in California.

Freddy is a great example of UNH's misguided approach to in-state talent. Yes, he wanted to come mid-semester, but Freddy wanted UNH. UNH told him no.

Another kid who grew up in our circle, Brandon Rogers barely heard from UNH before choosing Michigan.

When I was growing up, every in state kid wanted to play for the Wildcats. I'm sure that has changed now as the program has faded AND as more and more NH kids get overlooked by the state U.

Of course, NH is not overflowing with talent like MA, MI or MN but there are plenty of players who have made real NCAA impact who could be doing so at UNH. The program is doing itself a recruiting disservice by viewing the state as little more than a feeder for the occasional goaltender and a handful of replacement level walk-ons...

UNHs failure to market itself around the state is also a major factor, at least today. Do kids in Manchester or Nashua still have the same affection for UNH? Even if UNH were to pursue them aggressively...? Doubtful...

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

Freddy is a great example of UNH's misguided approach to in-state talent. Yes, he wanted to come mid-semester, but Freddy wanted UNH. UNH told him no.

Another kid who grew up in our circle, Brandon Rogers barely heard from UNH before choosing Michigan.

When I was growing up, every in state kid wanted to play for the Wildcats. I'm sure that has changed now as the program has faded AND as more and more NH kids get overlooked by the state U.

Of course, NH is not overflowing with talent like MA, MI or MN but there are plenty of players who have made real NCAA impact who could be doing so at UNH. The program is doing itself a recruiting disservice by viewing the state as little more than a feeder for the occasional goaltender and a handful of replacement level walk-ons...

UNHs failure to market itself around the state is also a major factor, at least today. Do kids in Manchester or Nashua still have the same affection for UNH? Even if UNH were to pursue them aggressively...? Doubtful...

And that's exactly what I'm talking about. But I digress...

[Greg Ambrose]

I think the last time we got excited about a NH kid committing to UNH, it was probably Eddie Caron from PEA.

That didn't exactly turn out the way we hoped it would ...

That’s 15 years ago. Watcher poo poos this but if you never go after New Hampshire kids, you’re never going to get a good one. Outside of goalies, name me the five best NH kids to play at UNH in the Umile era. Then name the five best NH kids who went someplace else. I’d have to research it but I guarantee the results would be distressing.

I was watching the Wisconsin-Michigan football game on Saturday and the announcers talked about how Wisconsin has been able to keep in State kids at home, including some who choose to walk on at Wisconsin rather than go someplace else with scholarship money. Different sport, different part of the country with a different mindset but it would be nice of there was even a semblance of that here.

[Greg Ambrose]

My point was that our goalkeep from Rochester was a more recent bust just before what would have been his senior season.

Agreed, UNH could have used Freddy Meyer on the blue line in 2002-2003, enspecially during first semester when Garrett Stafford sat on the pine for taking the wrong summer course at home in California.

Another beautiful thing about 2002-2003 was that UNH not only beat BU 1-0 at the Garden for the HEA championship, but we beat them again in Woostah, 3-0, to advance to Buffalo.

Didn’t Ayers shut them out five straight times in five different rinks?

[Greg Ambrose]

Freddy is a great example of UNH's misguided approach to in-state talent. Yes, he wanted to come mid-semester, but Freddy wanted UNH. UNH told him no.

Another kid who grew up in our circle, Brandon Rogers barely heard from UNH before choosing Michigan.

When I was growing up, every in state kid wanted to play for the Wildcats. I'm sure that has changed now as the program has faded AND as more and more NH kids get overlooked by the state U.

Of course, NH is not overflowing with talent like MA, MI or MN but there are plenty of players who have made real NCAA impact who could be doing so at UNH. The program is doing itself a recruiting disservice by viewing the state as little more than a feeder for the occasional goaltender and a handful of replacement level walk-ons...

UNHs failure to market itself around the state is also a major factor, at least today. Do kids in Manchester or Nashua still have the same affection for UNH? Even if UNH were to pursue them aggressively...? Doubtful...

Dan, your last sentence is the key. Years ago, mid nineties I’d say, I asked Umile about the programs attempts at outreach throughout the state. Say having some practices at rinks across the state, hockey places like Manchester, Concord, even Berlin to give people the idea that UNH was not just the Seacoasts team but the state’s. He was, at best, luke warm about the idea what with travel costs, inconvenience for the kids, etc. And along those same lines, I had a conversation with McCloskey once about recruiting NH kids and, although he agreed that there were some NH kids worth pursuing, his focus was deeper talent pools in the USHL and BCHL.

Just as an aside, when you peruse the UNH football roster, it is dotted with several NH kids, some of whom played for small high schools. My guess is that Coach Sean takes some pride in NH kids playing for the Wildcats.

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

Dan, your last sentence is the key. Years ago, mid nineties I’d say, I asked Umile about the programs attempts at outreach throughout the state. Say having some practices at rinks across the state, hockey places like Manchester, Concord, even Berlin to give people the idea that UNH was not just the Seacoasts team but the state’s. He was, at best, luke warm about the idea what with travel costs, inconvenience for the kids, etc. And along those same lines, I had a conversation with McCloskey once about recruiting NH kids and, although he agreed that there were some NH kids worth pursuing, his focus was deeper talent pools in the USHL and BCHL.

Just as an aside, when you peruse the UNH football roster, it is dotted with several NH kids, some of whom played for small high schools. My guess is that Coach Sean takes some pride in NH kids playing for the Wildcats.

Found this chart that shows NHL players born in NH...not sure if all of them played NCAA hockey but some did, notably Jon Gilles, Tim Schaller (both Providence, and Schaller coming from a New England jr. league ). I'm thinking that there has to be some gems out there that the coaching staff is aware of, but whether or not these kids want to play in NH is another story. (I don't know why they wouldn't )

https://www.hockey-reference.com/fri...ince=&state=NH

[Dan]

Outside of goalies, name me the five best NH kids to play at UNH in the Umile era. Then name the five best NH kids who went someplace else.

Top-5 NH Kids @ UNH -
1. Thompson
2. Royal
3. Mounsey
4. Barker
5. Ficek

Notable Commits at the Time - Caron, Burke, Travis
Other scholarship kids - Pouliot, Hutchins

NH Kids elsewhere (off the top of my head) -
Freddy Meyer, Brandon Rogers, Gavin Bayreuther, Riley Walsh, Jon Rheault, Mark Fayne, Tim Schaller, Andrew Thomas, Russ Bartlett, Ben Lovejoy, Colin Sheen, Zach Sanford, JD Dudek, Jeff Giuliano, Denny Kearney, Brett Beaudoin, Matt Steeves, Alex Steeves, Geoff Koch, Trevor Cosgrove, Spencer Young, Tony Hutchins, Allie Skelley...

I'm sure there are many more. Because it's off the top of my head it's skews fairly recent and/or high profile.

This doesn't even take into account all the out of state players who play prep hockey in the state (UNH should be at every Prep game!). Nor does it account for all the NH kids who end up playing MJ, like Danny and Connor Moynihan...

I Want UNH to be a major player in the BCHL and Canada - and find top kids all over the USA. But as recruiting gets younger and younger they can no longer afford to ignore the best young kids in NH, natives and preps, or their alumni's children, or their own players brothers...

(Why are Scott Morrow's kid and Max Gildon's brother not committed to UNH, yet...?)

Greg - I've long shared your idea on traveling around the state for practice. I think it's a great idea. I remember when the Whitt was being built and UNH came to Rochester to practice right before or after my youth teams because they needed ice. At 13/14 years old, I can't tell you how much it affected me, Freddy, Brandon and the entire group of young RYA players. I was a low skill hard-worker, so they didn't miss on me. But Freddy and Brandon were just waiting to be cashed in...

[HockeyRef]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

NH Kids @ UNH -
1. Thompson
2. Royal
3. Mounsey
4. Barker
5. Ficek

Notable Busts - Caron, Burke, Travis
Other scholarship kids - Pouliot, Hutchins

NH Kids elsewhere (off the top of my head) -
Freddy Meyer, Brandon Rogers, Gavin Bayreuther, Riley Walsh, Jon Rheault, Mark Fayne, Tim Schaller, Andrew Thomas, Russ Bartlett, Ben Lovejoy, Colin Sheen, Zach Sanford, JD Dudek, Jeff Giuliano, Denny Kearney, Brett Beaudoin, Marty Steeves, Alex Steeves, Geoff Koch, Trevor Cosgrove, Spencer Young, Tony Hutchins, Allie Shelley...

I'm sure there are many more. This doesn't even take into account all the players who play prep hockey in the state (UNH should be at every Prep game!). Nor does it account for all the NH kids who end up playing MJ, like Danny and Connor Moynihan...

Spencer Young is a good friend of mine's (via officiating) nephew...I wish he had come to play for us. We'll see him in action next week when we play Providence.

[Chuck Murray]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

Those were good times though Chuck, were they not?!

Yes they were, Nick. I can only think of one thing that would have made 'em even better.

Old guys on the porch reminiscing about the good old days of recruiting battles between UNH and BC. Ben Lovejoy, Adam Pinneault.

But I guess, when we have only one recruit in the last 7 months, and only one impact kid in the pipeline, that's all we can talk about now until the flood of late commitments that Mike Souza and Glenn Stewart will close on.

But I'll try:

Na, na, we got Bob Sweeney's son.

Oh 'Watcher, you killjoy.

BTW whatever happened to Pinneault? For all the time and bandwidth spent on here back in the day on Caron and Pinneault, you gotta admit neither of those guys even came close to making the grade.

But fear not, 'Watcher ... Dynamite Mike is gonna make things happen!! He's just lulling the rest of HE to sleep, and then he'll swoop in and it'll be as if McCloskey never left. I can just feel it in my bones ...

... 'cuz otherwise it looks like there's really no plan, and we know that can't be the case ... it really can't, right?

[NCAA watcher]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

BTW whatever happened to Pinneault? For all the time and bandwidth spent on here back in the day on Caron and Pinneault, you gotta admit neither of those guys even came close to making the grade.

Pineault probably has a prominent place in BC's NHL alumni concourse.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/p....php?pid=78547

[Lemonade]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

Dont worry - Wisconsin has 38 commits for the 2020-21 season. They will have to cut 14 or so of them so UNH can swoop in and grab them.

[Dan]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

Top-5 NH Kids @ UNH -
1. Thompson
2. Royal
3. Mounsey
4. Barker
5. Ficek

Notable Busts - Caron, Burke, Travis
Other scholarship kids - Pouliot, Hutchins

This is Umile's 28th season at UNH - and in that time, I count 10 in-state scholarship recruited skaters to attend UNH? Shallow pool or not, that is incredible. I'm sure someone will point out if I'm missing a player or if one of the players I assume to have walked on was actually a scholarship recruit. That said, I'm not even certain that Ficek wouldn't have been a walk-on.

NH Skater Walk-Ons: Miller, Bourque, Nonis, Randall, Thompson, Dumont, Gwinn, Walsh, Norton, Cash (maybe $$), Guilbert, St. Laurent... ??

They have done well with in-state goaltenders, including scholarship prospects or starters in DeSmith, Foster, Robinson, LaRochelle and Bucchino (Didn't work out) and numerous third-string walk-ons (Lazarro, Collins, etc).

[Snively65]

Re: UNH Commits & Recruiting: 2017 and Beyond

Didn’t Ayers shut them out five straight times in five different rinks?

Great trivia question. Looks like four straight shut outs in four different rinks for Ayers against BU; last three games in 2002-2003 (Whitt, Garden, and Centrum), then the first at WBA in 2003-2004.

Sorry, HR, reminiscing is more fun for me.