RPI 2024 Off-Season: Was 2023 – 2024 Just a Bad Dream?

[DavidNardolillo]

I agree, but he had only a 29-0-4-4-8 line at UND.

My reaction was more about losing leadership; Ferner was going to be the captain at RPI.

 

[DavidNardolillo]

Jared was a good player for us. This year we certainly could have used someone with his shot on the PP. However, he played one game in the AHL. That's not an AHL career. I haven't gone back to see if anyone has mentioned his defensive classmate (IIRC correctly) Prapavessis. He too was predominantly an ECHL guy but he had a bit longer run in the AHL.

Thoughtful comments throughout your post rpi82 . Chiming in to add that Prapavessis is still playing in the ECHL. Jared and Mike were good players, but I think they got dragged down by being part of some really bad teams in the late Appert to early Smith years. Other than the year RPI had a 100% healthy Jason Kasdorf and were tournament contenders, RPI lost at least 26 games in each of their other 3 seasons.

 

[ServinisScores]

It's interesting to note the apparent significant disparity in recruits does not appear to correlate to a similar disparity in performance like a) cumulative winning percentage [.418 vs .374] & b) Lake Placid appearances [0-0], for starters, on the ice.

It would be great to compare this regime to others besides the immediate predecessor; RPI "used to" put some significant performers in the NHL, and given the higher-than-ever ratio of college players in the NHL today, that is pretty damning of the last 20 years....

 

[Ralph Baer]

Although I am not a fan of the portal, if I regard the portal as a given, that is if players can leave and sign elsewhere, then I would think that the coach should be allowed to cut players.

Scholarships are, at least in theory, not guaranteed for more than one year.

However, I am surprised that Smith cut as many as he supposedly did. Foremost, I am surprised that Payant is among them, however he did seem to be dressed less often as the season wore on despite having obvious talent.

 

[DavidNardolillo]

Although I am not a fan of the portal, if I regard the portal as a given, that is if players can leave and sign elsewhere, then I would think that the coach should be allowed to cut players.

Scholarships are, at least in theory, not guaranteed for more than one year.

However, I am surprised that Smith cut as many as he supposedly did. Foremost, I am surprised that Payant is among them, however he did seem to be dressed less often as the season wore on despite having obvious talent.

I didn't read the post as saying Payant was among those told he didn't have a place on the team; the post just separately noted that he was going to enter the transfer portal. Payant did have a hard time breaking into the lineup for a good portion of the season.

Cuts happen annually in virtually every Division I sport that has scholarships and on most, if not all, teams. I agree that this is a reason why we need to accept the portal. While the new transfer rules can create incentives that are at odds with the concept of amateur sports, there really isn't a good reason to force anyone to stay at a school that isn't a fit for them.

 

[Ralph Baer]

I didn't read the post as saying Payant was among those told he didn't have a place on the team; the post just separately noted that he was going to enter the transfer portal. Payant did have a hard time breaking into the lineup for a good portion of the season.

I am going to have to stop writing posts in a word processor when USCHO is down and then posting without rereading the original post when USCHO is up for a few seconds. You are correct.

 

[DrDemento]

I am going to have to stop writing posts in a word processor when USCHO is down and then posting without rereading the original post when USCHO is up for a few seconds. You are correct.

I have temporarily given up - cannot log in and keep getting the site is busy message. Been watching Denver - UMass and find it unusual to see how many empty seats are seen. I can remember when it was difficult to get tickets to any quarterfinal game. How times have changed!

 

[jericho]

Wasn’t there a time between when Dr. Jackson left and Marty came in and when Smith was in limbo that like 15 kids committed all at the same time? Weren’t some of these guys part of that?

 

[DavidNardolillo]

I am going to have to stop writing posts in a word processor when USCHO is down

They clearly changed the back-end hosting and that's not really working. Seems like a really low level of activity jams it up. I lost the ability to access the board on tapatalk app, too.

 

[DavidNardolillo]

Been watching Denver - UMass and find it unusual to see how many empty seats are seen. I can remember when it was difficult to get tickets to any quarterfinal game. How times have changed!

I wonder if Spring Break has anything to do with it because UMass is only about 20 minutes away. 2pm puck drop on Thursday afternoon is also not ideal. I think the NCAA needs to consider having the #1 seeds host regionals at their normal home rinks.

 

[DavidNardolillo]

News out of the Men's Team
Smith had a meeting with the sophomore class excluding Muzzatti and Smolinski.

We are all probably already thinking this, but I think this report means that the coaching staff will be back next year. Because I don't think it would be a good idea to allow a coach to have this type of discussion with players if the administration was thinking of an imminent change.

 

[Ralph Baer]

We are all probably already thinking this, but I think this report means that the coaching staff will be back next year. Because I don't think it would be a good idea to allow a coach to have this type of discussion with players if the administration was thinking of an imminent change.

I agree. That logic makes perfect sense.

 

[AspyDad]

I didn't read the post as saying Payant was among those told he didn't have a place on the team; the post just separately noted that he was going to enter the transfer portal. Payant did have a hard time breaking into the lineup for a good portion of the season.

Cuts happen annually in virtually every Division I sport that has scholarships and on most, if not all, teams. I agree that this is a reason why we need to accept the portal. While the new transfer rules can create incentives that are at odds with the concept of amateur sports, there really isn't a good reason to force anyone to stay at a school that isn't a fit for them.

For sure cuts happen but this no doubt will have a detrimental effect on recruiting efforts going forward. Advisors, parents and recruits watch all this and as you know the recruiting trail is caddy and other schools will let recruits know about this. Not a good look IMHO.

 

[CMcGarvey]

Providence cut 6 players last year despite being ranked. Boards are saying Merrimack will have a ton of change. Part of the game now, and players leaving your program and going D3, like I expect several of them will don’t really have any effect.

5-6 years ago I’d agree but loyalty is out the window in college sports on both ends. Kinda sad the way it’s gone

 

[RPI67]

News out of the Men's Team
Smith had a meeting with the sophomore class excluding Muzzatti and Smolinski. The players were told they can come back as students but not members of the men's hockey team.
Here are the Players pushed out:
Cherepak
Ardanaz
Evans
Ciccarrello
Brown
Also hearing Payant is going into the portal. Heard there maybe more to come.
They can't go into the portal until after March 31.
If they are bad players, Smith recruited them and didn't help them get better in two seasons.

Encouraging changes. Not a bad idea to replace players that couldn't get minutes on a last place team.

 

[DavidNardolillo]

For sure cuts happen but this no doubt will have a detrimental effect on recruiting efforts going forward. Advisors, parents and recruits watch all this and as you know the recruiting trail is caddy and other schools will let recruits know about this. Not a good look IMHO.

That's certainly possible, but I don't think the cutting of players is the biggest issue facing RPI's recruiting right now. The team had a very poor and disappointing season, so I think a reasonable person would expect some turnover in the playing ranks. All of the players involved have played 30 to 40 games, except for Cherepak, so it's not like they are being cut without getting a look. Only the Evans one is a little surprising because he put up more points than last year in half as many games.

For me, the bigger issue for RPI's recruiting is that the program feels like it is in a rut--and not sure what the plan is to get out of it.

 

[rpi82]

Assuming AspyDad's post proves correct (including Payant), the turnover will certainly be dramatic. I count only 10 potentially returning guys on the standard undergraduate plan: Muzzatti, Tinling, Hotson, Sullivan, McNeil, Strom, Smolinski, Matta, Goffredo and Watson.

On top of that we have, at most, 6 guys that could use the Covid year: Gagnon, Lee, Brackett, Nykanen, Beaton and Agnew.

To have a minimum roster, we need at least 5 forwards, 3 defensemen and 2 goalies (one of which is presumably the new commit Dorfman as, I suspect, a recruited walk-on). Additional departures or a larger roster size will add to the requirements. Both are highly likely so we are looking at more than a dozen new players on the roster.

I've occasionally wondered whether a technique Seth used to increase the talent on his early rosters would work any more. His first class included 3 guys, Polacek, Brutlag and Foss, that came in at 18. It was certainly a risk because all 3 were basically straight out of MN high schools. However, I suspect the big boys would have been on all of them if we'd waited until they had a full year of juniors under their belt. Things have changed so I don't think anyone is going to enter straight from high school any more (the modern equivalent is probably after their first year of junior), but the idea of taking guys a year earlier than the power schools is intriguing. The flip side is that if we early recruited the next generation Polacek, or even Brutlag and Foss who weren't Polacek-class stars but were solid contributors, would they just enter the portal once they showed themselves to be quality D1 players? In fact, with guys "committing" much earlier than they did in the past, is it even possible to "early recruit" over the big boys?

 

[jericho]

Assuming AspyDad's post proves correct (including Payant), the turnover will certainly be dramatic. I count only 10 potentially returning guys on the standard undergraduate plan: Muzzatti, Tinling, Hotson, Sullivan, McNeil, Strom, Smolinski, Matta, Goffredo and Watson.

On top of that we have, at most, 6 guys that could use the Covid year: Gagnon, Lee, Brackett, Nykanen, Beaton and Agnew.

To have a minimum roster, we need at least 5 forwards, 3 defensemen and 2 goalies (one of which is presumably the new commit Dorfman as, I suspect, a recruited walk-on). Additional departures or a larger roster size will add to the requirements. Both are highly likely so we are looking at more than a dozen new players on the roster.

I've occasionally wondered whether a technique Seth used to increase the talent on his early rosters would work any more. His first class included 3 guys, Polacek, Brutlag and Foss, that came in at 18. It was certainly a risk because all 3 were basically straight out of MN high schools. However, I suspect the big boys would have been on all of them if we'd waited until they had a full year of juniors under their belt. Things have changed so I don't think anyone is going to enter straight from high school any more (the modern equivalent is probably after their first year of junior), but the idea of taking guys a year earlier than the power schools is intriguing. The flip side is that if we early recruited the next generation Polacek, or even Brutlag and Foss who weren't Polacek-class stars but were solid contributors, would they just enter the portal once they showed themselves to be quality D1 players? In fact, with guys "committing" much earlier than they did in the past, is it even possible to "early recruit" over the big boys?

some schools encourage it. With the portal, they can tell a kid “we have no room for you now, but go to a school like RPI for two years, then we’ll be ready for you”. It’s really no risk to the big boys, because of that player doesn’t pan out, then they’ll just tecruit another one. Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

 

[Engineers]

With the exception of Brown, those cuts were all recruited during COVID when the admin cancelled the season, didn't let players use facilities, furloughed our assistant coaches, let Dave's contract expire, etc., so I'd be willing to bet they were all Plan D or lower players. I'm not surprised they didn't work out and no sense keeping them around if they can't play just because they were recruited by Dave. That's a sunk cost fallacy.

I feel like this staff cannot win with some of you. I understand you guys want a change, but it doesn't seem to be happening this offseason (like I had said). If the admin isn't making change, why are you unhappy Dave is cutting bad players and attempting to make the roster and team better?

They need to cut bad players for sure problem is who do they have to replace them? More bad players? They’re not exactly tearing up the recruiting trail based on what’s coming in. If you can’t recruit your done

 

[Engineers]

That's certainly possible, but I don't think the cutting of players is the biggest issue facing RPI's recruiting right now. The team had a very poor and disappointing season, so I think a reasonable person would expect some turnover in the playing ranks. All of the players involved have played 30 to 40 games, except for Cherepak, so it's not like they are being cut without getting a look. Only the Evans one is a little surprising because he put up more points than last year in half as many games.

For me, the bigger issue for RPI's recruiting is that the program feels like it is in a rut--and not sure what the plan is to get out of it.

Recruiting is a big problem.