UNH 2021 Off-Season Thread: Finally!?!

[NCAA watcher]

Cooper Pierson, brother of UNH's Jackson, made the USA Under 17 team that will play overseas this August.


Snark: I guess that may not be relevant to UNH, since none of the siblings of their players choose to go to UNH.

[HockeyRef]

Cooper Pierson, brother of UNH's Jackson, made the USA Under 17 team that will play overseas this August.


Snark: I guess that may not be relevant to UNH, since none of the siblings of their players choose to go to UNH.

You beat me to it 'Watcher...was just going to post this. Well, remains to be seen but you are probably right...

[NCAA watcher]

You beat me to it 'Watcher...was just going to post this. Well, remains to be seen but you are probably right...

Between Scott Morrow (twice), Michael Gildon, Trey Taylor and Rickwood there would be a pretty nice team in 2022-23. Sadly, the UNH connection doesn't seem as strong as it was in the past, where you could bet on players talking up UNH to their peers: Hemingway II, Saviano/Collins, Yandle, Krog/Martz, Downing/Cam Reid.

[Chuck Murray]

Cooper Pierson, brother of UNH's Jackson, made the USA Under 17 team that will play overseas this August.


Snark: I guess that may not be relevant to UNH, since none of the siblings of their players choose to go to UNH.

The siblings thing is a relatively new phenomenon, isn't it? MS7's predecessor had a flock of van Riemsdyks and a pair of Haydars, just off the cuff. It's the next gen thing where traction is missing ...

[Gibber]

maineiac it looks like March 28, 2009
thank you for checking!

[Snively65]

The siblings thing is a relatively new phenomenon, isn't it? MS7's predecessor had a flock of van Riemsdyks and a pair of Haydars, just off the cuff. It's the next gen thing where traction is missing ...

And, a pair of Y2K's.

[maineiac]

maineiac it looks like March 28, 2009
thank you for checking!

Got it. I sent you an email through your photo website.

[Gibber]

Got it. I sent you an email through your photo website.

Thank you so much!!
Now all I need to do is find a cat head patch to go with it and it'll be ready to put together (by a professional of course)!

[Chuck Murray]

Moments that make you feel very old ... anyway, I know this is a day (week?) late and a dollar short, but something drew me to watch the "Midsummer Classic" a/k/a the All-Star Game last week. Watching Vlad Guerrero Jr. earn the game's MVP after a moonshot home run brought me WAY back to something I probably posted about on here back in the glory days circa 2002, when after a late season victory, I was loitering around the bowels of Stade Olympique in Montreal after the game on my way to the underground parking garage, readying for my long return drive home. I was heading down a set of stairs, when coming in the opposite direction from an unmarked one-way door was a semi-familiar athletic-looking guy heading up the same stairs. I had no idea who the guy was, until I heard voices from further up the stairway, calling out in Spanish to this person, "Wilton!" Then it all clicked, and I glanced up a couple of flights to the landing above where I'd entered the stairwell, and sure enough it was Wilton Guerrero's younger brother Vlad, their mom, and a young toddler all awaiting the arrival of Uncle Wilton, who was a utility infielder and midseason trade acquisition by the 'Spos in 2002. I just waved briefly at them all, continued on my way (not wanting to disrupt the notoriously private Vlad Sr. in the presence of his family), and filed the experience down as a fun brush with a major league hero in a place where light security let these things happen.

Now almost 20 years later, the toddler who was clutching onto his dad's and grandma's legs is all grown up, belting 500 foot homers like his dad, and making me feel VERY old. And listening to the broadcasters talking about how Junior's grandmom did all the cooking for him, brought me back to the tales of when she set up house with Vlad Senior in Montreal for pretty much the duration of his stay up there (1997-2003) to allow him to have a sense of home so far away from the Dominican.

It also reminded me that the game I'm recalling from the 2002 season was indeed the season finale, when Montreal beat the Reds (I think?) but the main draw of the game was to see if Vlad Sr. could make it to the exclusive 40 HR/40 SB "club". He'd reached 40 steals a game or two earlier, and on either his last AB or next-to-last AB on this season-finale occasion, Vlad hit a rocket to the right center field wall, which hit towards the bottom of the wall. It turned out that Vlad (who had hit 40 HR's at least twice before) never came close to 40 SB's ever again - the notorious turf in Montreal had taken its toll on his knees - and was pretty much at his peak then. In the 40/40 club at the time were Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, and with the devaluation of SB's in modern-day baseball, future membership will probably be pretty limited as well.

---------------

In other news, I read that the Flyers chose not to protect JvR from the upcoming expansion draft, instead opting to protect some fourth line forward instead. I'm sure they're gambling on Seattle not spunking the $7MM salary for two seasons, but there were other expensive guys Philly chose to protect ...

In a surprise, Flyers' protection list includes Nic Aube-Kubel instead of James van Riemsdyk | Professional | pressofatlanticcity.com

[Snively65]

Moments that make you feel very old ... anyway, I know this is a day (week?) late and a dollar short, but something drew me to watch the "Midsummer Classic" a/k/a the All-Star Game last week. Watching Vlad Guerrero Jr. earn the game's MVP after a moonshot home run brought me WAY back to something I probably posted about on here back in the glory days circa 2002, when after a late season victory, I was loitering around the bowels of Stade Olympique in Montreal after the game on my way to the underground parking garage, readying for my long return drive home. I was heading down a set of stairs, when coming in the opposite direction from an unmarked one-way door was a semi-familiar athletic-looking guy heading up the same stairs. I had no idea who the guy was, until I heard voices from further up the stairway, calling out in Spanish to this person, "Wilton!" Then it all clicked, and I glanced up a couple of flights to the landing above where I'd entered the stairwell, and sure enough it was Wilton Guerrero's younger brother Vlad, their mom, and a young toddler all awaiting the arrival of Uncle Wilton, who was a utility infielder and midseason trade acquisition by the 'Spos in 2002. I just waved briefly at them all, continued on my way (not wanting to disrupt the notoriously private Vlad Sr. in the presence of his family), and filed the experience down as a fun brush with a major league hero in a place where light security let these things happen.

Now almost 20 years later, the toddler who was clutching onto his dad's and grandma's legs is all grown up, belting 500 foot homers like his dad, and making me feel VERY old. And listening to the broadcasters talking about how Junior's grandmom did all the cooking for him, brought me back to the tales of when she set up house with Vlad Senior in Montreal for pretty much the duration of his stay up there (1997-2003) to allow him to have a sense of home so far away from the Dominican.

It also reminded me that the game I'm recalling from the 2002 season was indeed the season finale, when Montreal beat the Reds (I think?) but the main draw of the game was to see if Vlad Sr. could make it to the exclusive 40 HR/40 SB "club". He'd reached 40 steals a game or two earlier, and on either his last AB or next-to-last AB on this season-finale occasion, Vlad hit a rocket to the right center field wall, which hit towards the bottom of the wall. It turned out that Vlad (who had hit 40 HR's at least twice before) never came close to 40 SB's ever again - the notorious turf in Montreal had taken its toll on his knees - and was pretty much at his peak then. In the 40/40 club at the time were Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, and with the devaluation of SB's in modern-day baseball, future membership will probably be pretty limited as well.

---------------

In other news, I read that the Flyers chose not to protect JvR from the upcoming expansion draft, instead opting to protect some fourth line forward instead. I'm sure they're gambling on Seattle not spunking the $7MM salary for two seasons, but there were other expensive guys Philly chose to protect ...

In a surprise, Flyers' protection list includes Nic Aube-Kubel instead of James van Riemsdyk | Professional | pressofatlanticcity.com

Good story. There has been only one more 40-40 MLB player; surprised that you did not make that into a quiz for a pint at Libby's. :-)

Latest that I heard is that the Kraken may spring of lot of their salary cap to pick up Carey Price's pricy contract, so maybe the Kraken will be unwilling to pick up JvR's last two years also?

[Chuck Murray]

Latest that I heard is that the Kraken may spring of lot of their salary cap to pick up Carey Price's pricy contract, so maybe the Kraken will be unwilling to pick up JvR's last two years also?

I would pick up Price in a heartbeat if I were Seattle. There are a lot of teams out there gambling with some of their higher priced players being available, including Montreal. Youppi! must be disgusted about the possibility of losing Price to expansion.

I looked at the Red Wings' list of unprotected players yesterday, and I doubt even MS7 would be interested in taking half of them. Then again, last time around DRW lost Tomas Nosek to Vegas, and even if he had done diddly-squat for Detroit at that point (I shrugged) ... he's turned into a pretty serviceable 4th line/depth player in Vegas for the last few years. It must be a great advantage for expansion teams to have a full year to do all the scouting (and scouring) needed to make the right picks. Vegas obviously did a fantastic job, it's hard to believe Seattle will do as well as they did, but it's nice to see the NHL at least giving its new teams a fighting chance right out of the gate, and not dooming them to a decade or so of mediocrity to get up to speed, as usually seems to be the case with expansion elsewhere (and previously in the NHL too).

[NCAA watcher]

Severe Congatulations

DURHAM, N.H. – Eight members of the 2020-21 University of New Hampshire men's hockey team have been named Krampade All-American Scholars by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA).

Benton Maass (Elk River, Minn.) is recognized for the third time in his career, while Angus Crookshank (North Vancouver, British Columbia), Jeremy Forman (Northbrook, Ill.), Drew Hickey (New Canaan, Conn.), Will MacKinnon (Plymouth, Mich.), Jackson Pierson (Zionsville, Ind.), Chase Stevenson (West Kelowna, British Columbia) and Ryan Verrier (Reading, Mass.) earn this honor for the first time.

To qualify, a student-athlete must have attained a 3.60 GPA for each semester.

[NCAA watcher]

I'd expect UNH 2022 recruit Sardaryan to be picked in the late 3rd or 4th round, and Alex Gagne to be picked in 6th round of today's draft.

[C-H-C]

Posted July 22nd:
"Will UNH Commit(s) Be Selected in 2021 NHL Entry Draft?"
Under consideration - Stiven Sardaryan, Alex Gagne, Damien Carfagna, & Jed Baliotti
https://twitter.com/UNHHockeyBlog/st...763750407?s=20

[Dan]

I'd expect UNH 2022 recruit Sardaryan to be picked in the late 3rd or 4th round, and Alex Gagne to be picked in 6th round of today's draft.

Sardaryan goes to Buffalo with the 24th pick in round three...

Gagne is the final pick of the 6th to Tampa Bay, who also select Flinton’s son in the 7th.