UMass Lowell 2020-2021: Down the long hallway

[UMLFan]

At one point, it looked like we would have 34 players on the roster for this upcoming season. Things always seem to get more real as we get closer to the season starting.

With so much change the last couple of weeks, I wanted to see where we stood for the 2021/2022 season. This roster is currently assuming that all those who entered the transfer portal will leave (Brown, Neaton, Blackmun, Baxter, Procopio, Sawchuk, O'Rourke). We had originally expected 12 seniors, so more than half that class is now gone.

If I'm correct on the incoming freshmen ... that leaves Lowell with just 1 solitary commit for 22 and beyond: Daniil Dolzhenko

21/22 roster

Defense (9):
Seniors: Jonathan McDonald
Juniors: Marek Korencik, Jordan Schulting
Sophomore: Brehdan Engum, Ben Meehan
Freshmen: Gabe Blanchard, Ben Brunette, Isac Jonsson, T.J. Schweighardt

Forwards (20):
Seniors: Lucas Condotta, Samuel Knoblauch, Reid Stefanson
Juniors: Carl Berglund, Brian Chambers, Zach Kaiser, Josh Latta, Andre Lee, Blake Wells
Sophomores: Matt Allen, Andranik Armstrong-Kingkade, Matt Kinash, Jackson Sterrett
Freshmen: Matt Crasa, Justin Dauphinais, Owen Fowler, Clark Kerner, Roc Truman, Scout Truman

Goalies (3):
Senior: Owen Savory
Junior:
Sophomore: Henry Welsch
Freshman: Aidan Harper

This leaves us at 31 on the roster, with the class breakdown for 2021/2022 being:
Seniors: 5
Juniors: 8
Sophomores: 7
Freshmen: 11

[boblav1]

Norm's contract must be winding down right? He gets paid a lot, I think earlier this year the papers reported he made over 700k in 2020. I think some of that was deferred, and his avg salary was about 500k. Maybe the school doesn't want to keep paying him that? I certainly don't want him to leave, but they didn't bring any money in this season and the on ice results haven't been as good in recent years.

Norm signed an extension in 2017 through next season.
Bazin signs contract extension to stay at UMass Lowell through 2021-22 season

[Middle Street]

Norm's contract must be winding down right? He gets paid a lot, I think earlier this year the papers reported he made over 700k in 2020. I think some of that was deferred, and his avg salary was about 500k. Maybe the school doesn't want to keep paying him that? I certainly don't want him to leave, but they didn't bring any money in this season and the on ice results haven't been as good in recent years.

[Bomber]

Something has to be up. These high-end guys leaving doesn't jive.

[bottomdweller]

Honestly no idea. But I think it's fair at this point to ask what's going on. You always have turnover on a roster, and so seeing some of the guys that didn't play much looking to transfer makes all the sense in the world. But Brown and Blackmun were integral to the team, and would have been next year as well. Barton signing with the Wings is a different matter, but that's a ton of talent to lose and unlike the BCs and BUs of the world, we don't have those types of recruits coming in that can backfill easily (I don't believe anyway).

Not to mention BC is allegedly picking up Brown. That hurts.

[UMLFan]

Is he being mentioned? I know there was one guy saying CC should check in on him but I haven't been following it since.

Honestly no idea. But I think it's fair at this point to ask what's going on. You always have turnover on a roster, and so seeing some of the guys that didn't play much looking to transfer makes all the sense in the world. But Brown and Blackmun were integral to the team, and would have been next year as well. Barton signing with the Wings is a different matter, but that's a ton of talent to lose and unlike the BCs and BUs of the world, we don't have those types of recruits coming in that can backfill easily (I don't believe anyway).

[J.D.]

Really starting to wonder about that CC thing with Bazin.

Is he being mentioned? I know there was one guy saying CC should check in on him but I haven't been following it since.

[UMLFan]

Really starting to wonder about that CC thing with Bazin.

[UMLFan]

Not sure what's going on, but yet another player puts his name into the portal, this time Chase Blackmun.

[UMLSec123]

I wonder if it has something to do with being benched and not taking to kindly to that? Either way the offense that already struggles is going to struggle more next season if they don't pick up a transfer or the in house guys progress.

[UMLFan]

They're so secretive down there that it's tough to tell.

[J.D.]

Something happen between Brown and Bazin?

[UMLFan]

Adding insult to injury ... BC is the favorite currently to land Brown, according to Jeff Cox.

[UMLFan]

I’ll miss having Matt Brown on the team. That’s a player Lowell can’t afford to lose. My expectations for next season are already lowered. Best of luck to all of the guys moving on. Barry Scanlon also confirmed Levesque and Sodergren won’t return for a 5th season.

Yep. A lot of my hopes for next year depended on the trio of Brown/Lee/Berglund being here next season. This is terrible news for Lowell.

[Middle Street]

I’ll miss having Matt Brown on the team. That’s a player Lowell can’t afford to lose. My expectations for next season are already lowered. Best of luck to all of the guys moving on. Barry Scanlon also confirmed Levesque and Sodergren won’t return for a 5th season.