Transfer Portal - Good or Evil?

[Lindsay]

Portal is good from a fairness aspect for players, although I’m sure some players make changes they shouldn’t make or waste time agonizing over a potential change rather than just making the best of what is already in place. I Can definitely see how the portal makes life difficult for coaches trying to build programs. Lindenwood has lost one of their better players to transfers more than once. Nature of the industry I suppose. I think we’ve talked about this before but for fans it’s fun to watch a player develop, rather than big roster shuffles all the time, but again amateur athlete... makes sense they have autonomy.

[Lindsay]

The pandemic has effected many sports in different ways. I predict womens hockey is going to have some significant changes and impacts over the next couple of years. The bonus year of eligibility will have a significant impact on the recruiting and retention of players at the D1 level. This could manifest itself in a couple of different ways:

6. This might mean more gap year situations for girls hockey players (both the prep school route and playing Tier 1 as 18 or 19 year olds) in order to have a spot on a roster.

[ [/I]

I’m wondering if one of the manifestations will be a surge in quality of players and quality of the level of hockey (which is of course already really good). This years freshmen had months before their first college game, playing against veterans in their team. And then 20 ish games against other college teams. And this season doesn’t count towards their eligibility right? That’s an extra year of hockey against quality players very few North American born freshmen ever used to get. Im
also thinking next year there might be a bunch more 5th year seniors than usual (minus the handful of stars centralizing) so we might see a bump in play as early as next year. The high school girls that do take a gap year will hopefully come in that much better. Again, challenging to coaches sorting it all out.

[Cornholio]

I think for sure the extra year of elibibility will help the Women's game a lot. TBH, there are more roster spots than true D1 talent in the women's game currently. This is great for the women but makes it dang near impossible for the middle-of-the-pack or historically weaker places to compete. As for the transfer rules, it is the new normal in college athletics overall. For the revenue sports, especially football, there are already players who are at a 'lower' athletic school jumping ship to a more prestigious program. It is effectively free-agency. Nature of the beast but that is why coaches need to recruit the type of players who want to be at their institution.

[Timothy A]

I think for sure the extra year of elibibility will help the Women's game a lot.

I don't think it is. With the emphasis on academics for the young ladies, I think the vast majority of them have enough credits to graduate in four years. Why stick around? Their financial future is in the work place and the future is now after graduation. Let's say your are 2 classes short of graduating. You could get a full time job and finish the degree at the same time, why would you want to stretch out over another year just to play hockey and lose 9 months of money making? For those going into grad school or the first year in, it makes sense to stick around.

Let's be real also on the talent front. Is a school going to want the Sr 3rd line center back when they probably have or think they have improved talent over her in the pipeline?

[Timothy A]

Come on....of course this is going on. You as a WISCO fan should be most aware of this!

Did Frosty do this with Bench?

[Lindsay]

Timothy to your “why stick around” comment, I would have originally agreed with you, but I think the existence of the NW and all the women who go to Europe to play tells us a lot of them want to play hockey for at least another year even if comes at the expense of starting their non hockey career. And we all know the college infrastructure is better than anything else out there right now. Some might perceive opportunity to win a national championship is better than usual next year, with the stars centralized. So we’ll see. I do think it will be the hockey diehards and really strong players that stick around, if any. A third line senior, as sad as it is what happened to their end of junior year and first half senior, no I don’t think they would stick around.

[Cornholio]

Timothy - I think you actually make a stronger argument for the academically oriented young ladies to stay as long a possible. Why stick around? Get a master's degree. Any STEM major can finish a master's in 1-year. An MBA is usually 2-years. Law School 3-years. MD 4-years. If you have a chance to get 1 of those years paid for (in some cases 2-years paid if red shirts / medical red shirts still count) that is a big deal. None of this is possible at an Ivy while still playing but great schools are out there with strong graduate programs.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Timothy - I think you actually make a stronger argument for the academically oriented young ladies to stay as long a possible. Why stick around? Get a master's degree. Any STEM major can finish a master's in 1-year. An MBA is usually 2-years. Law School 3-years. MD 4-years. If you have a chance to get 1 of those years paid for (in some cases 2-years paid if red shirts / medical red shirts still count) that is a big deal. None of this is possible at an Ivy while still playing but great schools are out there with strong graduate programs.

Reminds me of an old joke about grad students from back in the day.

Q - "How many grad students does it take to change a light bulb?"
A - " Just one. But it takes them 9 years to do it!"

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Did Frosty do this with Bench?

Don't know if you are serious about getting the details of how Bench got to Minnesota but here is an article that gives the details.

https://www.stateofhockey.com/news_article/show/1136401

[D2D]

Let's be real also on the talent front. Is a school going to want the Sr 3rd line center back when they probably have or think they have improved talent over her in the pipeline?

No doubt there will be a lot of tough conversations that need to take place after the season is over. Not just about who the coach wants rostered but who gets how much scholarship money.

[Rightnut]

Timothy to your “why stick around” comment, I would have originally agreed with you, but I think the existence of the NW and all the women who go to Europe to play tells us a lot of them want to play hockey for at least another year even if comes at the expense of starting their non hockey career. And we all know the college infrastructure is better than anything else out there right now. Some might perceive opportunity to win a national championship is better than usual next year, with the stars centralized. So we’ll see. I do think it will be the hockey diehards and really strong players that stick around, if any. A third line senior, as sad as it is what happened to their end of junior year and first half senior, no I don’t think they would stick around.

I agree with both of you. I do think many women want to play in Europe for a period of time for the experience. But playing a 5th year and then going to Europe extends that delay of their non-hockey career so I think that may actually work in reverse or it will be a choice of one or the other for many women. Getting a graduate degree is a good option if you are a top player and there is a program at a university that matches your academic abilities.

[Hockeybuckeye]

No doubt there will be a lot of tough conversations that need to take place after the season is over. Not just about who the coach wants rostered but who gets how much scholarship money.

That could foster a lot of anxiety and worry among the some of the younger players and those who are 3rd & 4th liners that they could be shunted off to the side or even dismissed from the team if a coach can cherry pick the "free agency" of the portal.

[Timothy A]

Timothy to your “why stick around” comment, I would have originally agreed with you, but I think the existence of the NW and all the women who go to Europe to play tells us a lot of them want to play hockey for at least another year even if comes at the expense of starting their non hockey career. And we all know the college infrastructure is better than anything else out there right now. Some might perceive opportunity to win a national championship is better than usual next year, with the stars centralized. So we’ll see. I do think it will be the hockey diehards and really strong players that stick around, if any. A third line senior, as sad as it is what happened to their end of junior year and first half senior, no I don’t think they would stick around.

I can certainly see this side of the ledger as well.

[Timothy A]

Don't know if you are serious about getting the details of how Bench got to Minnesota but here is an article that gives the details.

I had no idea how she ended up there.

[used2lurk]

As I said earlier in the thread there is gonna be some really tough conversations that have already started with kids prior to senior day. These conversations are:

1. Between coaches and players "due to prior commitments we dont have a spot for you next year".

2. Between players and coaches "I want to transfer up/down/sideways but away from here where I will play more or win more or with my friend or closer to home".

3. Between college coaches and HS kids "we have to keep this kid who lost her (insert year in school lost here) and dont have the space or scholly $ we talked about".

4. Between college coaches and HS parents "we dont have the athletic $ or space for your kid that we had when we offered them 1/2/3 years ago due to this/that/other reason."

The rich gonna get richer (MN/WI/BC/etc) and a lot older. Also coaching and development is going to matter more than it has in the past because there are going to be more kids with above average skills that will be younger but see that they will not play for a year or more at the powerhouse schools (see MN/WI this season). I think that we are going to see transfer kids from powerhouse schools that dont see ice (has happened for a while) that are really good players but not super elite. That has happened in the past but could happen more.

St Thomas is going to be a beneficiary and hot landing place for some of those kids from MN/WI/IL/MI that want to play in the WCHA and play at a high level. I expect St Thomas to be better than Mankato, St Cloud, Bemidji, and on par with UMD in 2-4 years from grad students and more home grown kids that are pushed out for various reasons. It is a school that is typically generous with aid, is in the Twin Cities, and has an excellent network and pipeline to various companies and careers in MN and beyond.

There is talk amongst the locals here in Twin Cities of the gophers having down recruiting classes to Mankato and UMD in the next 2 years due to Frosty not choosing the right kids before the last NCAA recruiting change. Should be interesting as they graduate some great players this year and next...