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UMaine 25-26: Marques My Word: Back to the Big Time

Maine Athletics reveals Chappelle Court design, additional details for Morse Arena
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ticapnews said:
The box score

Scoring Summary

Lake Superior 1 3 0 4
Maine 2 0 3 5

FIRST PERIOD - 1. Maine, Tardif (Latendresse, Eric Fenton), 0:28; 2.
Maine, Chris Ferraro (Peter Ferraro, Chris Imes), 7:10; 3. Lake Superior,
Bachusz (Angelleli, Ness), 17:02
SECOND PERIOD - 4. Lake Superior, Beddoes, 7:01; 5. Lake Superior,
Hendry (Beddoes), 15:46; 6. Lake Superior, Strachan (Miller), 18:42
THIRD PERIOD - 7. Maine, Montgomery (Kariya), 4:19; 8. Maine,
Montgomery (Kariya, Imes), 7:40; 9. Maine, Montgomery (Kariya),
8:54
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It's crazy what putting snowie in the third did to the breakouts... wasn't alive for this one but boy doesn't watching that third period get the goosebumps going.
 
tylerzx2002 said:
It's not unexpected that a couple guys would sign pro deals.

I'd be more worried about a potential issue if some players we aren't expecting to leave end up hitting the portal.
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I wasn’t expecting Frank or Josh to leave. I do think their desire to not stay in Orono should say something to us
 
LP_Hockey said:
Yes and no. There are a lot of reasons a player signs an AHL deal instead of a two-way ELC, and acting like those are automatically dead-end contracts for lesser players is just wrong.
It depends on the situation. Was he already a draft pick? What kind of AHL deal was offered? How much term or security is involved? Is the NHL club tight on contracts? All of that matters.

And if a player still has college eligibility left, that does not automatically mean staying is the best move. Maybe the organization wants him in its own development system sooner because it does not think he is being developed the right way where he is. Maybe the AHL team sees a specific role or missing piece they want to fill right away. Maybe they believe he is better off practicing and playing in a pro environment every day than spending another year in college.

Djurasevic just signed a two-year AHL contract plus an ATO for this year. That is not some throwaway offer. That is a meaningful commitment from the organization. As for Nadeau, it may only be a 1-year with promise of ELC for the next year. Devils recently did this with Matyas Melovsky.

And not every ELC is some huge statement either. Only so many players get ELCs each year, and some are handed out a lot more loosely than people want to admit. Look around pro hockey right now. There are ECHL teams with players on ELCs, while AHL teams are full of a mix of one-way and two-way players.

So treating an AHL contract like it automatically means a player is an afterthought just shows a misunderstanding of how pro hockey actually works. Only about 10% of top NCAA and major junior players even get to the AHL, so I would say getting there is pretty impressive. At this point - teams want to win. If they feel you will help them, you will get a chance.
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Is the goal not for Maine to be a program where teams and players (outside of being offered an NHL deal), *want* to stay for their full eligibility? You do never see this happen at powerhouse schools. Maybe portal- but players are not leaving unless the league comes knocking
 
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amkirby10 said:
Id say he did a pretty good job of it the four years previous
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He awoke the program and then with a much bigger checkbook and the opportunity to start from scratch, flubbed it? There are gaps in the coaching staff and we can’t pretend there aren’t. That’s fine but that’s what it would be nice to see focus on
 
AMC said:
Exactly. Djuracevic is 24 years old, has his degree, and has played 3 years of college hockey. It's probably now or never to chase the pro dream, there are 6 year AHL/NHL vets who are 25 years old. Tough to argue that as a 25 year old rookie you'd have a ton of upside, and most pro teams would probably prefer to sign a vet with pro experience. It makes a ton of sense to grab a contract.

Josh gave the program three really good years. He's not as old as Djuracevic (only 22), but if the idea of playing college hockey (or, you know, going to college at all) is to get yourself a job as a professional, you have to go when you have the opportunity. He's a Maritimes kid, I don't know if he grew up a Canadiens fan, but he's got the opportunity to go be a professional hockey player in Montreal. Good for him. As far as the structure of his contract, if he wants to be on himself good for him.

I REALLY don't get the Bradly digs above. He was a first round NHL pick! The Hurricanes were always going to be the ones to decide when he leaves and where he develops. And he's over a point per game in the AHL as a 20 year old. This is how the system works. If Maine wants to swim in the high end talent waters, we have to be willing to have kids move onwards and upwards to pro hockey. Taking digs at the Nadeau family is wild. Maine had been down FOREVER when they committed here. It would have been incredibly easy when Bradly started getting 1st round pick buzz for them to say "oh, wait, never mind, we'll be at BU." They didn't, and they combined to give Maine 4 years. Fantastic for everyone.

Marques, I dunno. I'm not in the room. None of us are in the room (hopefully). We don't know if he wants to leave, if he was asked to leave, or both. Until someone says something publicly with their name on it, we're all just guessing if this is him being nudged along to improve the culture, or if he was unhappy with the situation/finances at Maine, or what. It will be interesting to see where he lands. It doesn't serve anyone to make guesses based on body language whether he's a good human being or not. No one in the world looks grumpier than Quinn Hughes. He's one of the best players on earth and, by all accounts, a phenomenal teammate. Who cares if he skates around looking like he just got bad news?

Where I land is still wait and see. Everyone was just grabbing the first available CHL kids last year without a whole lot of process behind it. There wasn't a lot of time, on either the coaches or players sides, to fully evaluate what is a good fit and what isn't. With a full season to scout, talk to kids, talk to junior coaches, I'm pretty confident that Maine will be able to better align what they want and what the recruits want. it doesn't mean that the kids who came in are at fault for anything, sometimes things are just a bad fit and both parties need to move on.

This whole its falling apart on Barr narrative is bonkers. Eastern hockey had its worst year in a long time, a lot of traditionally blue blood programs like BC and BU also missed the tournament, and parity basically reigned in Hockey East. That won't stay the case forever, and in a world where everything was scrambled overnight it's not reasonable to expect everyone to immediately figure it out.
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Orono was pretty damn far for a kid from Prince George, BC, who would probably look good in an NCHC or Big Ten sweater. Kind of a strange fit in the first place
 
With Boija coming back, how do we expect the staff to address Goalie? I doubt they kick Rousseau to the curb, but we desperately need a stronger tandem than last season. I suspect they are banking on Rousseau developing rather than bringing in a portal goalie.

These thoughts are all sparked by Dylan Silverstein (QU) entering the portal
 
McGoverners said:
With Boija coming back, how do we expect the staff to address Goalie? I doubt they kick Rousseau to the curb, but we desperately need a stronger tandem than last season. I suspect they are banking on Rousseau developing rather than bringing in a portal goalie.

These thoughts are all sparked by Dylan Silverstein (QU) entering the portal
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I said it near the end of the season, but I really dont think the goalie room is going to be any different, even more so with Boija confirmed to return. As you said, I can't see Rousseau being cut, and cutting Stewart to bring a guy in also makes no sense, because then somebody has to be the third stringer. I think we'll see the same trio, and the hope will be that another year older and some time in the lab with Alfie, et al, will be enough to shore up their game.
 
Orono1993 said:
I wasn’t expecting Frank or Josh to leave. I do think their desire to not stay in Orono should say something to us
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Djurasevic was a bit more of a surprise (mostly because of how up-and-down his season was), but as others have said he's older so go chase that pro dream. Nadeau however should not be a surprise at all, given that he had been to a couple dev camps, turned down an offer from MTL last year to come back, and didn't really have much else to prove with a fourth season in Orono.

His parents sat in the row behind me and I chatted with them during the senior night ceremony to see if I could get them to spill on whether he was staying, but they gave a pretty generic "we'll see what the agent says...". Classic non-answer, but was a sign that him coming back was unlikely. I'll miss chatting with them during games for sure, very nice people.
 
amkirby10 said:
I said it near the end of the season, but I really dont think the goalie room is going to be any different, even more so with Boija confirmed to return. As you said, I can't see Rousseau being cut, and cutting Stewart to bring a guy in also makes no sense, because then somebody has to be the third stringer. I think we'll see the same trio, and the hope will be that another year older and some time in the lab with Alfie, et al, will be enough to shore up their game.
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I have no problem with them running it back, assuming that both Boija and Rousseau get the much needed technical refinements heading into next season.

Boija has to figure out his glove issue (which I did talk about a while back and think could be a simple fix), and Rousseau definitely needs work on his positioning and rebound control.

If they want to replace Stewart, fine, but not sure a third goalie fighting for time really benefits either Boija or Rousseau tbh. Will be interested to see if they add another goalie into the commit mix beyond the 3 they currently have. I wonder if O'Connor would be looking at Quinn Beumer who he had on that Mount St. Charles team down the road?
 
amkirby10 said:
I said it near the end of the season, but I really dont think the goalie room is going to be any different, even more so with Boija confirmed to return. As you said, I can't see Rousseau being cut, and cutting Stewart to bring a guy in also makes no sense, because then somebody has to be the third stringer. I think we'll see the same trio, and the hope will be that another year older and some time in the lab with Alfie, et al, will be enough to shore up their game.
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And Maine was horrible at clearing the zone in front of them......that was one of the biggest issues with this team. They acted like the puck was kryptonite while the opposition skated circles around them.....it was embarrassing at times.
 
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