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RPI 2021-22: Picking Up Where We Left Off

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sezenack said:
Our average size is 6'0.6" and 190.5 LBs. Definitely have a good sized team this season.

Bowling Green is listed at 6'0.34" and 182.3 LBs for reference, so we'll have a decent size advantage this weekend.
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Thanks for the numbers -we do appear to certainly be a bigger team than we have over the past few years. over the many years of following, I have seen many big size boys in the cherry and white. often however, they do not seem to make use of the size and play like much smaller players. This does not appear to be the case this year and I expect many teams will find they have a handfull trying to move us around either against the boards or in front of the nets. I fully understand that talent is the most important criteria, but given that many of these players are of relatively equal ability, I am a very orthodox Newtonian and believe big thing can hit harder and move small things out of the way a bit further. Having played this port (50+ years ago)and being tall but not in any way heavy or blessed with much upper body strength, I am still nursing some of the injuries I got from being hit by larger players. I have had both shoulders and both knees repaired (several times each) which we can attribute to hockey. And suffered from long standing tinnitus from a hit to the head from a player who felt that what I said about his mother was untrue!
All kidding aside, I think we can expect a very exciting season from this team and give many a surprise if not a rude awakening.
 
I certainly do not know what the scholarship situation is at RPI, but it appears that Dave Smith has a different philosophy than Seth Appert did. SA appears to have given some players full scholarships while others were walk-ons or got relatively little from the athletic scholarship pool. I base this upon the wide range of talent among the players. Certainly the third goalie was usually a walk-on. On the other hand, Coach Smith appears to be dividing the 18 scholarships among all of the players. IMO, there are no obvious walk-ons, and no players at the Brandon Pirri level. That is mirrored by the scarcity of NRL draft choices lately. It is also possible that some players are getting academic aid besides for athletic scholarships.

Does anyone agree or disagree with this? Which is better?
 
Ralph Baer said:
I certainly do not know what the scholarship situation is at RPI, but it appears that Dave Smith has a different philosophy than Seth Appert did. SA appears to have given some players full scholarships while others were walk-ons or got relatively little from the athletic scholarship pool. I base this upon the wide range of talent among the players. Certainly the third goalie was usually a walk-on. On the other hand, Coach Smith appears to be dividing the 18 scholarships among all of the players. IMO, there are no obvious walk-ons, and no players at the Brandon Pirri level. That is mirrored by the scarcity of NRL draft choices lately. It is also possible that some players are getting academic aid besides for athletic scholarships.

Does anyone agree or disagree with this? Which is better?
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I don't disagree at all. I personally think that top-end talent is always tougher to acquire/develop than depth. On the surface, that means I'd agree with Appert's philosophy more. However, Smith has shown me that he is able to develop top-end talent regardless of how they are rated as recruits. His player development has shown to be outstanding and shown an ability to develop diamonds from the rough. Guys like Ture Linden, Owen Savory, Kyle Hallbauer, Jake Marrello, Mike Gornall, etc were all low-rated recruits, and he developed all of them into capable top 6 forwards/top 4 d-men/elite goaltenders. If you can do that without recruiting full scholarship players, you're going to have crazy good depth and a good team overall. Personally, I think a mix of the 2 is best. The way BU, BC, Michigan, etc. recruit by just taking in a million 18 year old draft picks isn't winning championships anymore. Of that group, BC has the most recent title in 2012. The way that Atlantic Hockey schools recruit isn't good either. Recruiting all 21 year old players that aren't as skilled isn't winning them anything either. To me, the way that Quinnipiac, Clarkson and Cornell recruit is the best way and is what I hope DS ends up doing as he continues growing the program. Get talented and mature 19/20/21 year olds who end up as good USHL and BCHL players and mix in an 18 year old draft pick or 2 every year. You end up with maturity, skill, and talent this way (enough to compete for a championship and be in the NCAA tournament every year) while not being too young or underdeveloped as a team like the BC's, Michigans, BU's, etc. are.
 
Not being really expert in anything except the practice of medicine - I have no idea. But i keep thinking how everything is now in flux. The entire world has changed these past 2 years and I am sure affected recruiting for college sports teams. i think the old rules and the old methods can just be thrown out the window. You have to adapt to what you are given. Although it may be early to say this, but coach Smith seems very capable of doing just that. he is willing to go after and take what is given and available and then try to mold it or make it into what will work. I am very pleased what he has shown us so far and only hope this can continue. I don't mind losing (what the hell am I saying?) I hate losing, and just want to see us with teams that win 20-30 games every year.
 
DrDemento said:
Not being really expert in anything except the practice of medicine - I have no idea. But i keep thinking how everything is now in flux. The entire world has changed these past 2 years and I am sure affected recruiting for college sports teams. i think the old rules and the old methods can just be thrown out the window. You have to adapt to what you are given. Although it may be early to say this, but coach Smith seems very capable of doing just that. he is willing to go after and take what is given and available and then try to mold it or make it into what will work. I am very pleased what he has shown us so far and only hope this can continue. I don't mind losing (what the hell am I saying?) I hate losing, and just want to see us with teams that win 20-30 games every year.
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Coach Smith has been able to do what previous coaches were not. And that is he has been able to have his players buy into his system.
We have had more talented teams in the past and players were just not willing to buy in, or the coaches were not able to adjust to the skill set of the players they had.
That is just my opinion.
Does anyone have a scouting report on Bowling Green?
 
engineerhockeyfan said:
Coach Smith has been able to do what previous coaches were not. And that is he has been able to have his players buy into his system.
We have had more talented teams in the past and players were just not willing to buy in, or the coaches were not able to adjust to the skill set of the players they had.
That is just my opinion.
Does anyone have a scouting report on Bowling Green?
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No specific info on this year's team other than they lost to UM 7-1 last week, and they have some kid named Swankler on the squad...can't recall why that rings a bell.... :) . A 20 win team from a year ago, I am sure they'll give us plenty to handle.
 
Wicked Slappaahs said:
No specific info on this year's team other than they lost to UM 7-1 last week, and they have some kid named Swankler on the squad...can't recall why that rings a bell.... :) . A 20 win team from a year ago, I am sure they'll give us plenty to handle.
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Austin Swankler is the kid who successfully petitioned the NCAA for eligibility after spending a year in the OHL. The NCAA admitted they screwed up but left his eligibility intact. It was in all the papers.

We lost 60% of our scoring from last year. We have some good freshmen and some solid transfers and decent goaltending. We got demolished in an exhibition game at Michigan last weekend, but it’s hard to tell much from that since everyone played and Michigan is stacked. We’re in the dark about our team right now as much as everybody else. I’m just hoping for a good showing; anything more is a bonus.
 
Wicked Slappaahs said:
No specific info on this year's team other than they lost to UM 7-1 last week, and they have some kid named Swankler on the squad...can't recall why that rings a bell.... :) . A 20 win team from a year ago, I am sure they'll give us plenty to handle.
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i seem to recall they have won 20 or more most if not all of the past 5 or 6 years.
 
TalonsUpPuckDown said:
Austin Swankler is the kid who successfully petitioned the NCAA for eligibility after spending a year in the OHL. The NCAA admitted they screwed up but left his eligibility intact. It was in all the papers.
Click to expand...

With his track record don't be surprised if he's somewhere else next season.
 
TalonsUpPuckDown said:
Austin Swankler is the kid who successfully petitioned the NCAA for eligibility after spending a year in the OHL. The NCAA admitted they screwed up but left his eligibility intact. It was in all the papers.

We lost 60% of our scoring from last year. We have some good freshmen and some solid transfers and decent goaltending. We got demolished in an exhibition game at Michigan last weekend, but it’s hard to tell much from that since everyone played and Michigan is stacked. We’re in the dark about our team right now as much as everybody else. I’m just hoping for a good showing; anything more is a bonus.
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Just for your information, I suspect that Wicked was referring to the fact that Swankler was at one time an RPI recruit before he started wandering around the hockey world.
 
Ralph Baer said:
Just for your information, I suspect that Wicked was referring to the fact that Swankler was at one time an RPI recruit before he started wandering around the hockey world.
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Ahhhh…gotcha.

I’d seen he’d jumped around a lot and with the portal now available won’t be surprised if he jumps again.
 
EHF,

You started the Dartmouth game thread in 2020 which we won, so you get to start today's in the Scores forum. :-)

This is the first time since 1985 that we start a season on a winning streak. :-)
 
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