I think you overestimate Endicott's attractiveness to potential players. It is certainly a decent school and McPhee is a good coach (although I have heard some negative commentary about his time at Brown), but recruiting to Endicott is a lot different than Trinity or Brown (the latter of which he didn't do such a great job recruiting at BTW). I envision the team being made up primarily of better MA public high school players (and they'll be competing now with the NESCACs, Salem, Daniel Webster, St. A's, Franklin Pierce, UMB, and Becker amongst others for these players), coupled with a few Midwesterners, Canadiens (a struggle given financial aid issues), and lower skill NE prep school players. This makeup is what exists at UNE, USM, and UMB basically and they haven't been particularly strong teams. The NESCACs and Norwich are the destination for many of the better of these players. I think it will be a long road to hoe for them to be a nationally competitive team.
The schedule with the NESCACs is primarily based on McPhee's connections. Coached at Trinity and attended/coached Middlebury. Not really sure why Bowdoin, Trinity, and Midd scheduled them otherwise - won't help them in any way at all. Rink artistic renderings look nice, but in the end it appears to be a shed rink with a nice lobby area (can't see the locker rooms and workout facilities) and seating. They'll probably be competitive amongst their North Atlantic conference mates, but I don't see them being more broadly competitive for a long time.
