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>< Michigan Tech Huskies 2022-23: Over One Century of Hockey ><

manurespreader said:
Did we get an OSU d man transfer in?
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For whatever reason the college hockey new outlets didn't pick up on this one. I followed Schlossman's 2022 Transfer Board and he just recently added it. Very welcome addition.

Tech should be in a dogfight with every CCHA not named MSU night in and night out. Even with MSU, I suspect we will be one of their more challenging opponents.
 
I'm really interested in what the coach has to say now that he has seen them up close. Seems to me that we might actually have more scoring talent then last year. i'm anxious to see how the Finns play and if Pederson can show us what he has. So overall i'm upbeat but let's see what the coach says.
 
Lost_Husky said:
For whatever reason the college hockey new outlets didn't pick up on this one. I followed Schlossman's 2022 Transfer Board and he just recently added it. Very welcome addition.

Tech should be in a dogfight with every CCHA not named MSU night in and night out. Even with MSU, I suspect we will be one of their more challenging opponents.
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CCHA should be a bit more open this season. MSU lost plenty of starters and key contributors. Goalie is the biggest question mark IMO.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Tech won the regular season and/or tournament.
 
I think we ultimately finish with home ice, but I expect the offense to be slow to get going until line chemistry develops. There should be plenty of competition at forward and hopefully enough returning guys adopt the "next man up" mentality to fill the void left by Halonen and Bliss.
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
I think we ultimately finish with home ice, but I expect the offense to be slow to get going until line chemistry develops. There should be plenty of competition at forward and hopefully enough returning guys adopt the "next man up" mentality to fill the void left by Halonen and Bliss.
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I hope having ACTUAL centers will help with the offense.
 
giwan said:
Not surprised on who is 2, they have been more than underperforming.

I wonder what LENGTH contract Comley signed, that may bring a bigger boost.

I'm pained we're picked 5th, not even home ice, which should be a minimum always.
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That is why I was surprised they were picked #2. They have not shown they can play up to the talent on that team. Granted, they had horrible play in net.

I'm fine with us being picked 5th. Tech lost our top line, half of our D, and several other key contributors. Some of the teams in front of us have a proven track record of losing games they should/need to win on a consistent basis. As much as we grumbled about last year's team stubbing their toe (St and Ferris) and keeping our standing close to the bubble, Joe has shown his teams are able to take care of business. They rarely lose a weekend. (I don't consider a 0 point weekend vs MnSU disappointing. They are that much better than everyone else in the CCHA.)
 
redwing61 said:
Listening to today's Joe Shawhan Hour, it's clear that Joe has very low expectations for this year's team.
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Yes. Joe is honest, almost to a fault. I appreciate that about him, but pre-season/first show of the year, I want to drink some kool aid. After our exhibition games, the honesty can come back in.

I was surprised how down on current players as recruits and transfers he was/is. It sounds like he is happier about future recruits.
 
TBH, I kind of expected this. Back during the summer, when discussing Brooks' departure, you'll recall that Joe mentioned how he wasn't thrilled with the direction our recruiting had taken in the last couple of years. I would say he even strongly hinted that he thought we'd lost some higher-end recruits due to Brooks' lack of ability/willingness to travel and sell the program face-to-face. Looking over the stats for our incoming freshmen and considering the relative strength of various junior leagues, with one obvious exception, it's pretty hard not to notice the drop-off. If you want to consistently compete on the national stage, the majority of your recruits have to come from the top leagues - the USHL and/or BCHL, with the AJHL being sort of "Tier 1.5" - even if you're also scouring other pipelines or looking for hidden gems overseas. That's not to say that good talent can't be found in the NAHL, CCHL, or less "prestigious" junior leagues, in fact many teams have had success with players that came out of them, it's just considerably harder to land a Top 6/Top 4 difference-maker from those leagues. Fortunately, if you go out to Heisenberg's site and look at the recruiting list for 2023/2024, you can see that ever since Shelast became a full-time assistant last summer they've started to get things back on track, at least in western Canada.

While transfer players can help a lot (like Karow), they are generally a mixed bag as we saw last year with Quercia and a few years before that with Munson. Jankowski will likely slot somewhere into the Top 6 and it's also likely O'Connell is a top pairing defenseman on this year's team. However, given that neither has had a true breakout season in 4 years, we have to assume their production has plateaued and will most likely mirror their senior seasons. Works is obviously a low-risk gamble on Joe's part. He either surprises everyone after spending a lot of time in the press box for a loaded Denver team and earns a regular spot in our lineup, or he remains a fixture on the practice squad.
 
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