Union College hockey 2025-26 thread

[Thomas Kaine]

I had intended on being more active in this thread, so I’ll get it all out of my system now.

I think it’s a bit harsh to assume there is no higher level talent on this team. There are plenty of guys who have talent, they just can’t get their full potential. I think every problem stems from one thing at this point: coaching. The team makes no adjustments, the lines are different every night, the team hasn’t been able to execute back to back clean zone entries since December. I’ve never seen a team have so many lazy offsides and icings as Union the last month. That is, in my opinion, the result of a coach not holding his players accountable. I have no doubt that Hague can recruit, but it’s just not there behind the bench. If mediocrity is what you’re looking for, then keep going with him because it’s not going to get any better.

The best line all season has been Pelton-Buss-Benz/Sutton on the 4th line. Not in terms of points, but they do their job every shift. So what does he do? Move Pelton around the lineup and bring the others in and out. Why not reward that line with more ice time instead of breaking them up?

This season has come down to one man since December and that’s Brayden Gillespie. He is far and away the best option and has kept them in every game when they struggle to score. You can only ride a goalie for so long though before you just have to start scoring goals.

Speaking of goals, let’s take a look at the senior class and see another reason why the team is struggling. Just focusing on the 6 senior forwards, they have only put up 0.66 points per game so far this season. That’s simply unacceptable. Not to mention a lot of those points came against inferior opponents early in the season.

My final point here is about the rink being this great recruiting tool. I urge Union fans to compare the Union 26/27 class again the RPI class. It’s not even close. RPI has difference makers coming in next season that, with a good transfer class, could go from a bottom 4 team to a top 4 team.

Look at that, I didn’t even talk about how bad the rink has been for me as a fan

An interesting discussion. I think mediocre captures it well; I think Hauge is a good but not great coach and a good but not great recruiter, and that shows on the ice. If anything, I think this year's team has slightly over-achieved relative to the talent on the team. We have four players at or just on the cusp of a point-per-game average; we have not had a single player finish the season averaging over a point per game since Bennet's last good year, 2016-17. Gillespie seems to be the real deal. So, some bright spots, but it seems unlikely we're making it back to Placid any time soon.

That said, I think it's important to remember that this has more or less been Union's trajectory for a decade. With the exception of 2016-17 (where we had a couple of truly great players but got exposed in Lake Placid and the NCAA first round as a deeply incomplete team), all of Bennett's final 7 seasons were similarly mediocre. That suggests to me that most of Union's challenges are situational/institutional - small school, poor location, no scholarships until last year, horrible facilities until this year. Like others, I'm a little skeptical that even with scholarships and a better facility, Hauge is going to have us regularly completing for ECAC championships. We also have to remember that Union has actually never regularly competed for championships - we had a single, brilliant four-year run, with a last gasp in 2016-17. Institutionally, even with great coaching and the new selling points, our ceiling is probably Clarkson-level success, not QPac.

In other news, Nixon was a nice player, but in was not our best player the last three years; that was Prokop, who is the kind of standout player we need four or five of in order to get back to competing for ECAC titles. Nixon wasn't even a top 5 scorer as a senior. This year, we have four or five Nixon level guys, and no Prokop level guys, which might get you into the ECAC quarters but won't get you to Placid.

 

[ecachawkeyfan]

An interesting discussion. I think mediocre captures it well; I think Hauge is a good but not great coach and a good but not great recruiter, and that shows on the ice. If anything, I think this year's team has slightly over-achieved relative to the talent on the team. We have four players at or just on the cusp of a point-per-game average; we have not had a single player finish the season averaging over a point per game since Bennet's last good year, 2016-17. Gillespie seems to be the real deal. So, some bright spots, but it seems unlikely we're making it back to Placid any time soon.

That said, I think it's important to remember that this has more or less been Union's trajectory for a decade. With the exception of 2016-17 (where we had a couple of truly great players but got exposed in Lake Placid and the NCAA first round as a deeply incomplete team), all of Bennett's final 7 seasons were similarly mediocre. That suggests to me that most of Union's challenges are situational/institutional - small school, poor location, no scholarships until last year, horrible facilities until this year. Like others, I'm a little skeptical that even with scholarships and a better facility, Hauge is going to have us regularly completing for ECAC championships. We also have to remember that Union has actually never regularly competed for championships - we had a single, brilliant four-year run, with a last gasp in 2016-17. Institutionally, even with great coaching and the new selling points, our ceiling is probably Clarkson-level success, not QPac.

In other news, Nixon was a nice player, but in was not our best player the last three years; that was Prokop, who is the kind of standout player we need four or five of in order to get back to competing for ECAC titles. Nixon wasn't even a top 5 scorer as a senior. This year, we have four or five Nixon level guys, and no Prokop level guys, which might get you into the ECAC quarters but won't get you to Placid.

Do you think last year's team overachieved too? I agree Prokop was a huge piece on the roster, but Dunbar has been a pretty good replacement for him. It's been a disappointment that despite returning most of last year's team and upgrading the goaltending, Union is currently tied for 8th.

I never have been able to pin down why that big four-year run didn't lead to more sustained success than it did. Was it just kind of stroke of luck that all that came together in pretty much the same time period? I think if you told most observers after that 2013-14 season that 12 years later, Union has only 1 more NCAA berth and only one year past the second round of the league playoffs (both the same season), they probably would wonder, what happened?

I don't think it was realistic to expect multiple Whitelaws and multiple Frozen Four appearances in short periods, but I think the past 12 years overall have been a disappointment.

After last year, I thought Hauge had the program on the upswing, and with a lot of pieces back, thought this might the year this group had a chance to make a run to at least getting back to Lake Placid, at least. That seems very unlikely with how Union has performed in the league and being tied for 8th going into Friday.

It seems like Hauge and his staff have done better with transfers than guys right out of juniors - the top 3 scorers on the team all began their collegiate careers somewhere else, and as did goaltender Cameron Korpi. I'm pretty concerned about next year unless the incoming class has some gems in it or they find some through transfers. I think there's a chance Union could have a truly rough year next year. Assuming Dunbar turns pro, Union will lose about 50% of its goal scoring from this year, as things stand now. Other than Muthersbaugh, the returning offensive cupboard looks kind of bare and the program might be facing a large rebuild.

 

[DDobert24]

Some great points all around. I don’t expect the team to make it to Placid every year, but I do expect them to be contending for a top 4 spot every year considering the current talent level within the league. I also expect the team to have a high compete level every night. In my opinion, that is not the case. I was more than willing to give Hauge a chance with the past couple years, but it’s too stale at this point. Tomorrow will be a very interesting game. I refuse to make the trip up to Hanover until they break the streak, and I hope it can happen tomorrow. The entire team should be motivated to carry on the last 5 minutes of Saturday and beat a team who’s back to reality as of late. With 9 conference games left, the realistic goal should be a 5 seed at this point. I’ll be at SLU next Friday cheering on the Dutchmen.