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RPI 2025 Off-Season: Help Is On the Way

jstadts said:
I hope your right and I agree that the talent level of the smaller programs will go up.My concern is that it will still pale in comparison to the big time $$ programs.
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I think over time you’ll see bigger schools bring d1 hockey into existence. SEC, Big 12 have some significant club teams with interesting revenue opportunities. The major junior trend will benefit the bigger programs based on what they can offer year over year. If you look at what Arizona State has done re: program evolution, it’s mind blowing, and makes the entire game experience in ECAC and HE look amateurish.

Also thinking the non-Ivies in the current ECAC will be on outside looking in. The Ivies will still be able to compete on academics and have niche athletic programs that do well (Cornell men’s Lacrosse this year) here and there. RPI is still a rare bird in that it did not decide to go all in on D1 and frankly cannot compete on a wide range of academics and athletics.

all said, I hope I’m wrong :D
 
ServinisScores said:
I think over time you’ll see bigger schools bring d1 hockey into existence. SEC, Big 12 have some significant club teams with interesting revenue opportunities. The major junior trend will benefit the bigger programs based on what they can offer year over year. If you look at what Arizona State has done re: program evolution, it’s mind blowing, and makes the entire game experience in ECAC and HE look amateurish.

Also thinking the non-Ivies in the current ECAC will be on outside looking in. The Ivies will still be able to compete on academics and have niche athletic programs that do well (Cornell men’s Lacrosse this year) here and there. RPI is still a rare bird in that it did not decide to go all in on D1 and frankly cannot compete on a wide range of academics and athletics.

all said, I hope I’m wrong :D
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This chaos is just beginning. How interesting it would be to be a fly on the wall of the AD’s office at Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State. They’ve got $20M to spend per the House settlement and the football coach wants $30M. They’d have NFL payrolls if they could. The men’s hoop coach wants every dollar that doesn’t go to football and then some. Then there’s the inevitable Title IX lawsuits coming. The new Education Dept. staff overruled the previous admin’s rule that it applied to NIL. You know that’s going to court. We haven’t even gotten to hockey yet.

There will also be some interesting locker room dynamics. If PSU is offering a freshman draft pick $250K (that would have to be a very big % of their pool) he’d better be a day one star. There are such players (e.g. Celibrini, Nadeau, etc.), but many #1 picks develop slowly because they are young, physically unprepared and taking a big step up. BC had a forward that was the Bruins #1 pick and he scored 3 points last year. Hypothetically, if he got $100K+ at 18-19 how would a 24 year old senior that’s producing 30 points and getting far less money feel? What a mess.
 
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Quinny likes beating Yale and consistently being at the top of the ECAC. They also have spent a lot of money over the last 30 years expanding and improving academics. It’s not Harvard or Yale (or Colgate or RPI), but it’s become a pretty good school by investing in infrastructure, expanding programs, buying a law school, adding a med school on the old Anthem BC/BS campus, adding engineering undergrad, etc. so they like the association. If they try to compete with the big boys there will also be some excellent schools, but they won’t have the same recruiting, facilities and head coach advantage (I wonder what Pecknold could get if he put himself on the market) they have now. They aren’t a wealthy school and Pecknold won’t be there forever.
 
rpi82 said:
This chaos is just beginning. How interesting it would be to be a fly on the wall of the AD’s office at Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State. They’ve got $20M to spend per the House settlement and the football coach wants $30M. They’d have NFL payrolls if they could. The men’s hoop coach wants every dollar that doesn’t go to football and then some. Then there’s the inevitable Title IX lawsuits coming. The new Education Dept. staff overruled the previous admin’s rule that it applied to NIL. You know that’s going to court. We haven’t even gotten to hockey yet.

There will also be some interesting locker room dynamics. If PSU is offering a freshman draft pick $250K (that would have to be a very big % of their pool) he’d better be a day one star. There are such players (e.g. Celibrini, Nadeau, etc.), but many #1 picks develop slowly because they are young, physically unprepared and taking a big step up. BC had a forward that was the Bruins #1 pick and he scored 3 points last year. Hypothetically, if he got $100K+ at 18-19 how would a 24 year old senior that’s producing 30 points and getting far less money feel? What a mess.
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Some of the players will be making similiar money as the small program head coaches.I keep thinking of how NIL drove Nick saban to the retirement office.I think what he said was if you pay the wrong players 20 million your shit out of luck.This is going to be wild.
 
rpi82 said:
This chaos is just beginning. How interesting it would be to be a fly on the wall of the AD’s office at Michigan, Ohio State or Penn State. They’ve got $20M to spend per the House settlement and the football coach wants $30M. They’d have NFL payrolls if they could. The men’s hoop coach wants every dollar that doesn’t go to football and then some. Then there’s the inevitable Title IX lawsuits coming. The new Education Dept. staff overruled the previous admin’s rule that it applied to NIL. You know that’s going to court. We haven’t even gotten to hockey yet.

There will also be some interesting locker room dynamics. If PSU is offering a freshman draft pick $250K (that would have to be a very big % of their pool) he’d better be a day one star. There are such players (e.g. Celibrini, Nadeau, etc.), but many #1 picks develop slowly because they are young, physically unprepared and taking a big step up. BC had a forward that was the Bruins #1 pick and he scored 3 points last year. Hypothetically, if he got $100K+ at 18-19 how would a 24 year old senior that’s producing 30 points and getting far less money feel? What a mess.
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Letourneau was a reach by the Bruins. I think the bigger thing to consider here is that BC and BU have been stacked with first round draft choices which have not translated into championships for the programs. NIL really delivers even more of the same - top kids going to the big programs and then leaving to go pro. I don't think hockey money is going to be enough to change that dynamic much.

The bigger impact will be on the portal.. 2nd level and smaller teams are going to look to poach upper classmen away from other programs. Previously this was done with playing time. Now it will be a mix or time and money. The portal is going to be where the action is (as it is in FB already).
 
ServinisScores said:
I think over time you’ll see bigger schools bring d1 hockey into existence. SEC, Big 12 have some significant club teams with interesting revenue opportunities. The major junior trend will benefit the bigger programs based on what they can offer year over year. If you look at what Arizona State has done re: program evolution, it’s mind blowing, and makes the entire game experience in ECAC and HE look amateurish.

Also thinking the non-Ivies in the current ECAC will be on outside looking in. The Ivies will still be able to compete on academics and have niche athletic programs that do well (Cornell men’s Lacrosse this year) here and there. RPI is still a rare bird in that it did not decide to go all in on D1 and frankly cannot compete on a wide range of academics and athletics.

all said, I hope I’m wrong :D
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I'm a skeptic when it comes to NIL impact on hockey, even at big schools. It's a niche sport and no better than the #2 winter sport at a lot of big schools. While some hockey programs bring in nice revenue, the dollars are nowhere near what you can bring in for top football and basketball. For hockey, it's really down to how much the boosters will contribute.
 
When I was in high school, my family played host to a graduate exchange student from India, who had come here to attend RPI.

I can remember one time when our guest told us that he had had a couple of hockey players in the course he was teaching as a graduate instructor - and he had given them failing grades. My father, a loyal RPI alum and hockey fan, reacted with dismay. Our guest apologized and said "I am sorry, but they did not do their work." (Our guest's academic integrity served him well - he went on to get his graduate degree, remained in the USA, and had a very successful career.)

When I went to RPI, I would root for our hockey team and feel at least a little bit of a sense of kinship with the players, because I could believe they were students like I was, facing the same sort of academic pressures I was, working toward an RPI degree like I was.

Now, I look toward the coming season, in which RPI's roster will include a great many guys who haven't played for RPI before, and I wonder how many of them are primarily focused on NIL money, rather than working toward an RPI degree. It's harder to feel enthusiastic about rooting for them.

Maybe, if somebody could assure me that these NIL agreements are written with a clause that says the player won't get paid if he fails to maintain academic eligibility, I might feel a little better. But I'm not optimistic that I'll get such an assurance.
 
Waite21 said:
When I was in high school, my family played host to a graduate exchange student from India, who had come here to attend RPI.

I can remember one time when our guest told us that he had had a couple of hockey players in the course he was teaching as a graduate instructor - and he had given them failing grades. My father, a loyal RPI alum and hockey fan, reacted with dismay. Our guest apologized and said "I am sorry, but they did not do their work." (Our guest's academic integrity served him well - he went on to get his graduate degree, remained in the USA, and had a very successful career.)

When I went to RPI, I would root for our hockey team and feel at least a little bit of a sense of kinship with the players, because I could believe they were students like I was, facing the same sort of academic pressures I was, working toward an RPI degree like I was.

Now, I look toward the coming season, in which RPI's roster will include a great many guys who haven't played for RPI before, and I wonder how many of them are primarily focused on NIL money, rather than working toward an RPI degree. It's harder to feel enthusiastic about rooting for them.

Maybe, if somebody could assure me that these NIL agreements are written with a clause that says the player won't get paid if he fails to maintain academic eligibility, I might feel a little better. But I'm not optimistic that I'll get such an assurance.
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Frankly, I doubt there’s much NIL money floating around RPI. I’m sure we didn’t sign up for the House settlement, which permits schools to pay players directly. So, any NIL would have to come from third parties. My understanding is that any agreement over $600 must be approved by some NCAA organization to ensure it’s at “market rate.” I don’t know what that means. Does it mean if a Clarkson alum gives a player $20K to promote his business, one of our alums can sign a similarly valued arrangement? Or does it mean that they have to show the business is getting $20K in value (as opposed to just giving the kid the money because the booster wants to win a league title)? In any case, I haven’t seen much evidence that’s happening under either standard. Hell, Ture Linden was trying to make a few bucks on T-shirts. I wonder if he sold more than a few.
 
Today is 19 June 2025. There are 108 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 5 October 2025 for the start of next season.
 
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Chuck Weber now the GM and head coach of the Iowa Heartlanders (ECHL). Good to see him land on his feet. The old Heartlanders. That’s definitely the heartland lol
 
New commits:
Jack Gorton from BU
Ethan Elias from St. Thomas
Matt Buckley from OHL
Joey Henneberry from QMJHL

Gorton stinks. Elias is solid, liked him in Madison. Buckley had a good year last year but mediocre year this year, he shoots the puck a lot though so I think he's closer to last year's level. Henneberry looks excellent, multiple NHL dev camps and a consistent scorer in the Q.
 
sezenack said:
New commits:
Jack Gorton from BU
Ethan Elias from St. Thomas
Matt Buckley from OHL
Joey Henneberry from QMJHL

Gorton stinks. Elias is solid, liked him in Madison. Buckley had a good year last year but mediocre year this year, he shoots the puck a lot though so I think he's closer to last year's level. Henneberry looks excellent, multiple NHL dev camps and a consistent scorer in the Q.
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Gorton is 6'3 200, I'd like to see you tell him that in person...ha ha.....you keyboard warrior. He is also the son of Montreal VP Jeff Gorton...FWIW.
 
sezenack said:
New commits:
Jack Gorton from BU
Ethan Elias from St. Thomas
Matt Buckley from OHL
Joey Henneberry from QMJHL

Gorton stinks. Elias is solid, liked him in Madison. Buckley had a good year last year but mediocre year this year, he shoots the puck a lot though so I think he's closer to last year's level. Henneberry looks excellent, multiple NHL dev camps and a consistent scorer in the Q.
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Pretty impressive. Lang certainly has been busy. I'm looking forward to seeing our new 5'8" 187 lb (stocky build?) defenseman.

With this it appears we have the 20 new players McMahon referenced and only 5 of the new guys are Smith recruits. Is this our roster?:

Forwards
Tinling - returning
Tapper - returning
Rullers - returning
McNeil - returning
Bourgault - returning (?)
Lindberg - portal
Wallace - portal
Bono - portal
Gordon - portal
Wilson - portal
Sitar - portal
Gorton - portal
Kyrkostas - Smith recruit
Scherzer - Lang recruit
Buckley - Lang recruit
Henneberry - Lang recruit

Defense
Goffredo - returning
Ozolins - returning
Matta - returning (?)
Russell - portal
Sobieski - portal
VanDamme - portal
Elias - portal
Hilditch - Smith recruit
Lemieux - Smith recruit
Klassek - Smith recruit

Goal
Krawchuk - Smith recruit
Bruveris - portal
Dorfman - returning

I presume Lang will keep Dorfman because you need a #3 for practice and to guard the corner of the bench/open the door if one of the top two is out. I'm wondering whether Matta might be just a student for his last year (if he hasn't graduated already) and if we ever see Bourgault in a game that counts.

Edit: I know players are all effectively free agents every year and one or more transfers is the new normal, but they are supposed to be students, right? From Gorton's BU bio: "Enrolled in the College of Communication, majoring in advertising." How does that transfer to RPI? I know the 'Tute has Lally and a Communications Dept. in H&SS, but I don't think either one comes close to offering a degree in advertising. How many of those credits will transfer?
 
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rpi82 said:
I presume Lang will keep Dorfman because you need a #3 for practice and to guard the corner of the bench/open the door if one of the top two is out. I'm wondering whether Matta might be just a student for his last year (if he hasn't graduated already) and if we ever see Bourgault in a game that counts.
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I have the same opinions about those three.
 
sezenack said:
New commits:
Jack Gorton from BU
Ethan Elias from St. Thomas
Matt Buckley from OHL
Joey Henneberry from QMJHL

Gorton stinks. Elias is solid, liked him in Madison. Buckley had a good year last year but mediocre year this year, he shoots the puck a lot though so I think he's closer to last year's level. Henneberry looks excellent, multiple NHL dev camps and a consistent scorer in the Q.
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Are there any online sources for these? I did notice that Neutral Zone has Henneberry as committed to RPI.
 
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