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LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

If Mel Pearson gets the MI job, I wonder if Tech is going to try and get Whitten back .
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

sm2pk said:
If Mel Pearson gets the MI job, I wonder if Tech is going to try and get Whitten back .
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You're just teasing us. Cruel, but since you brought it up let's make a straight up swap. Our head coach for their assistant. All in favor say "I". It would be nice to get home ice again like we did back to back years before he left us.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

DM2SM said:
You're just teasing us. Cruel, but since you brought it up let's make a straight up swap. Our head coach for their assistant. All in favor say "I". It would be nice to get home ice again like we did back to back years before he left us.
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You guys don't like Whitten?
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

Shirtless Guy said:
You guys don't like Whitten?
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DM2SM would have liked to see Joe Shawhan get the Lakers coaching job 3 years ago when it was open, but Joey wasn't on the finalists list. I don't recall if DM2SM had a favorite among the finalists. If he did, I don't think it was Whitten.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

sm2pk said:
Whitten is the right coach at the right time for Lake State.
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What do you think of the fact that Whitten has not matched the "success" Roque had in 7 of his 9 seasons? I like Whitten and hope he succeeds at LSSU but I was pretty shocked to see that he has been unable to match Roque's winning % over his last 5 years at LSSU.
 
Shirtless Guy said:
What do you think of the fact that Whitten has not matched the "success" Roque had in 7 of his 9 seasons? I like Whitten and hope he succeeds at LSSU but I was pretty shocked to see that he has been unable to match Roque's winning % over his last 5 years at LSSU.
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This should come as no surprise. All one has to do is look at his resume and the record of teams he has been a part of, when behind the bench. Methinks the Good Ship Laker and the so called "hiring committee" might look at how their neighbor to the West conducted their hiring of a new coach, man.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

LakerBaker said:
This should come as no surprise. All one has to do is look at his resume and the record of teams he has been a part of, when behind the bench. Methinks the Good Ship Laker and the so called "hiring committee" might look at how their neighbor to the West conducted their hiring of a new coach, man.
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If i'm not mistaken, Rick Comley was a key member on both the committee in the LSSU search as well as the search at NMU. Damon has proved he can recruit talent on a shoestring budget at LSSU. Now we'll see if that talent translates to wins.
 
Shirtless Guy said:
What do you think of the fact that Whitten has not matched the "success" Roque had in 7 of his 9 seasons? I like Whitten and hope he succeeds at LSSU but I was pretty shocked to see that he has been unable to match Roque's winning % over his last 5 years at LSSU.
Click to expand...
The cupboard was pretty bare when Whitten took over. No returning goalies; only 4 returning D-men; not much returning offense. Plus he wanted to change the style of play to an uptempo game. Additionally, the Lakers didn't have many players in the pipeline when he took over. While Roque was coach, they pretty much just recruited season to season with an occasional guy committed for 2 seasons out. There were a few guys already committed to the Lakers for Damon's first season, only 1 of which remain, but he had to bring in several players for his first season just to fill out the roster. And that's when the available talent had been pretty much picked over.

So it's pretty much a work in progress. He has recruited a lot more speed at forward and we have better (and more balanced) scoring there. I think the biggest gap between the Lakers and the top teams in the league is the Lakers don't yet match up well with skating speed/ability at D. And since there were 4 new D-men Damon's first season (2 recruited by Roque and 2 brought in late by Damon), he hasn't had as much opporrtunity to rebuild the defense to fit his style of play. We've lost 2 of the better skating D-men he recruited after his first season. Owen Headrick left midway through this past season to Erie of the OHL who had been after him even before he committed to the Lakers, and we lost Freshmen Kris Bindulis who signed with Washington after this past season. From what I've heard, we have a few really good skating D-men in the pipeline but they won't be with the Lakers until the 2018-19 season. Damon and staff have recently recruited a few D-men for the coming season to fill the gaps left by the early loss of Headrick and Bindulis and we're going to have to wait until the season is underway to see how good these new D-men are.

Aside from style of play, the big change Whitten has made is that the Lakers are now recruiting younger players to fill a pipeline with future Lakers. We may not yet be recruiting players as young as the big name programs, but we are getting commitments from guys 3 years down the road (maybe more). This wasn't happening when Roque was coach.

I give Roque credit for recruiting some pretty good players, most of which were late bloomers, especially his last 4 or 5 seasons with the Lakers. But Roque was mainly going after bigger players, which the pros like, but they weren't necessarily guys that fit well with the less physical higher speed game that Div 1 hockey was becoming. I think Roque probably realized the game was changing towards the end of his Laker coaching career and that speed and skating ability were now key.

I think Whitten's contract is up after next season so it will obviously be an important season for he and the Lakers. Barring a disastrous season, personally I'd give him another season after next to show if he is still the right guy for the job. That would give him 4 recruiting classes plus more of a chance to see if he can bring skating speed/ability at D up to where it needs to be for an uptempo style of hockey.
 
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Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

On a up note . I believe the Lakers had the best record in the WCHA against non-conference teams . As I wrote earlier. I believe Whitten is the best choice to be coach at this moment . The coaching staff seems to be hungry and driven to turn this program around .
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

Bill said:
The cupboard was pretty bare when Whitten took over. No returning goalies; only 4 returning D-men; not much returning offense. Plus he wanted to change the style of play to an uptempo game. Additionally, the Lakers didn't have many players in the pipeline when he took over. While Roque was coach, they pretty much just recruited season to season with an occasional guy committed for 2 seasons out. There were a few guys already committed to the Lakers for Damon's first season, only 1 of which remain, but he had to bring in several players for his first season just to fill out the roster. And that's when the available talent had been pretty much picked over.
Aside from style of play, the big change Whitten has made is that the Lakers are now recruiting younger players to fill a pipeline with future Lakers. We may not yet be recruiting players as young as the big name programs, but we are getting commitments from guys 3 years down the road (maybe more). This wasn't happening when Roque was coach.
I give Roque credit for recruiting some pretty good players, most of which were late bloomers, especially his last 4 or 5 seasons with the Lakers. But Roque was mainly going after bigger players, which the pros like, but they weren't necessarily guys that fit well with the less physical higher speed game that Div 1 hockey was becoming. I think Roque probably realized the game was changing towards the end of his Laker coaching career and that speed and skating ability were now key.
I think Whitten's contract is up after next season so it will obviously be an important season for he and the Lakers. Barring a disastrous season, personally I'd give him another season after next to show if he is still the right guy for the job. That would give him 4 recruiting classes plus more of a chance to see if he can bring skating speed/ability at D up to where it needs to be for an uptempo style of hockey.
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There has been a change in the hockey landscape. When a program has been down for a while it takes longer than the 4 years to make a full assessment. I am sure Damon for now is making phone calls and some recruits won't even answer. Or they answer and say no I'll wait to see who else is calling. It happens.

Damon will need to find the diamonds in the rough and develop them. As they the team gets better those recruits will be more interested. Then you start getting the recruits that only stay a year or two and you need to have a pipeline filled. Look at Tech and that is what has been happening.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

Pearson back to Michigan as I thought and now Tech having to find the right person . I would think Shawhon would have first crack at that job . However you spell his name.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

sm2pk said:
If Mel Pearson gets the MI job, I wonder if Tech is going to try and get Whitten back .
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i think the question you should be asking... is Damon interested in coming back to Tech? I think we all know the answer to that one.
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

Not sure if Whitten is the guy they are going after. I think they have a great coach in Joe Shawhon that should get the first crack at that job .
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

sm2pk said:
Not sure if Whitten is the guy they are going after. I think they have a great coach in Joe Shawhon that should get the first crack at that job .
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I don't see why LakerBaker would not be Tech's first choice with his ability to spot smooth skating defensemen;).
 
Re: LSSU Lakers 2017 off-season thread

Laker Dude said:
I don't see why LakerBaker would not be Tech's first choice with his ability to spot smooth skating defensemen;).
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Methinks you're on to something, man. If there's anybody on here who is a part of the hiring committee for the Good...ummm...Dogsled Tech, do yourself a favour and ensure that name makes it through the vetting process.
 
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