RPI 2025 Off-Season: Help Is On the Way

[rpi2004]

Have to think Karlis and Lange were very instrumental in continuing the recruiting connections ( of both commits and potential commitments) that had been built the past few years. If I had to render a guess, maybe half the new players were brought in either from Lang/Schneider connections and quick portal speed dating, while the other half including Bruveris Klassek Lemieux and others whom Lange/Zirnis had a relationship with were already being viewed as targets before the coaching change

 

[Waite21]

An e-mail from the Office of Alumni Engagement reminds us that Reunion will take place the second weekend in October, and says there will be a football game and a men's hockey game.

The only 2025-26 schedule currently appearing on the athletics website is the football schedule, which indicates RPI will be playing Buffalo State that weekend. (Incidentally, they managed to preserve the Transit Trophy game - RPI will play WPI in the season opener.)

Anyone know who the hockey team is going to be playing during Reunion weekend?

 

[MikeMidd]

An e-mail from the Office of Alumni Engagement reminds us that Reunion will take place the second weekend in October, and says there will be a football game and a men's hockey game.

The only 2025-26 schedule currently appearing on the athletics website is the football schedule, which indicates RPI will be playing Buffalo State that weekend. (Incidentally, they managed to preserve the Transit Trophy game - RPI will play WPI in the season opener.)

Anyone know who the hockey team is going to be playing during Reunion weekend?

It's Miami, RPI hosting them back-to-back on October 10-11.

The 2025-2026 schedules thread has this brilliant spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...tpof=true&sd=true&gid=403465873#gid=403465873

Not much known for RPI yet, other than hosting Miami, playing at Minnesota State on October 24-25, and the home and away games with Clarkson and St Lawrence.

 

[RPI fan 4 life]

Providence is also coming to HFH. Not sure what date yet.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 1 June 2025. There are 125 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 4 October 2025 for the start of next season.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 2 June 2025. There are 124 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 4 October 2025 for the start of next season.

 

[rpi82]

I think he’s done for the fall. Maybe another forward. I will say it’s pretty impressive what lang was able to do in a short window. Obviously losing Caron and hotson sting although both were penalty machines but I really like the guys he’s bringing in. Some talented European players mixed with guys like Wallace and lindberg. Sobieski is a stud and van damme mixed with lemieux and klassek is a good D core. The addition of Schneider to the coaching staff is a game changer. The top recruiter for clarkson being flipped our way is crazy. Now if we can get some better looking sweaters for the fall I would say things are really looking good lol

I still wonder whether Lang is holding back giving final commitments for this year to some of Dave's recruits in order to see who is going to be kicked loose by top 15 teams. Recruiting has become completely insane. Look at Maine. They've added a boatload of CHL guys. They now have 47 (yes, 47) guys listed on Heisenberg's site (with rumors of more coming) for the next few years. Eight of them have already either been run off or voluntarily de-committed. Still, there's no way on God's Green Earth that Ben Barr will be bringing in all 39+ players over this summer and the next couple of years. Many more will be dropped.

Maine is the most extreme case I've seen, but a number of schools are close behind and there hasn't been a lot of Class of '26 and '27 CHL recruiting yet. It seems that schools and players now look at a commitment as something akin to dating - few will exchange vows with their first. Add in the ease of divorce (portal) and nothing should be truly counted on by either party.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 3 June 2025. There are 123 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 4 October 2025 for the start of next season.

 

[Engineers]

I still wonder whether Lang is holding back giving final commitments for this year to some of Dave's recruits in order to see who is going to be kicked loose by top 15 teams. Recruiting has become completely insane. Look at Maine. They've added a boatload of CHL guys. They now have 47 (yes, 47) guys listed on Heisenberg's site (with rumors of more coming) for the next few years. Eight of them have already either been run off or voluntarily de-committed. Still, there's no way on God's Green Earth that Ben Barr will be bringing in all 39+ players over this summer and the next couple of years. Many more will be dropped.

Maine is the most extreme case I've seen, but a number of schools are close behind and there hasn't been a lot of Class of '26 and '27 CHL recruiting yet. It seems that schools and players now look at a commitment as something akin to dating - few will exchange vows with their first. Add in the ease of divorce (portal) and nothing should be truly counted on by either party.

I still wonder whether Lang is holding back giving final commitments for this year to some of Dave's recruits in order to see who is going to be kicked loose by top 15 teams. Recruiting has become completely insane. Look at Maine. They've added a boatload of CHL guys. They now have 47 (yes, 47) guys listed on Heisenberg's site (with rumors of more coming) for the next few years. Eight of them have already either been run off or voluntarily de-committed. Still, there's no way on God's Green Earth that Ben Barr will be bringing in all 39+ players over this summer and the next couple of years. Many more will be dropped.

Maine is the most extreme case I've seen, but a number of schools are close behind and there hasn't been a lot of Class of '26 and '27 CHL recruiting yet. It seems that schools and players now look at a commitment as something akin to dating - few will exchange vows with their first. Add in the ease of divorce (portal) and nothing should be truly counted on by either party.

Definitely a possibility. Maine is out of control with 47 guys listed. That’s just ridiculous. The addition of chl guys in the recruit pool really opens things up for smaller schools in terms of talent. Lang I’m sure is watching very closely. I also wonder if Schneider will flip a few clarkson guys our way? I do think we will start recruiting much more in the ushl or our recruits will end up in the ushl now with the new coaches. Something that perplexed me was why Dave and Weber never recruited out of the ushl. Now looking back it’s simply they didn’t have the recruiting chops.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Colgate has posted their schedule https://colgateathletics.com/sports/mens-ice-hockey/schedule/2025-26.

Thus for us
11/21 @ Colgate (location listed is most likely wrong)
11/22 @ Cornell
2/13 Cornell
2/14 Colgate

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

The dominoes continue to fall as CHL kids continue to commit to D1. The key for recruiters will be being nimble and having scouted many of the kids that will invariably get bumped off of recruiting lists and getting them on board.

 

[RPI fan 4 life]

Colgate has posted their schedule https://colgateathletics.com/sports/mens-ice-hockey/schedule/2025-26.

Thus for us
11/21 @ Colgate (location listed is most likely wrong)
11/22 @ Cornell
2/13 Cornell
2/14 Colgate

St. Valentine’s Day Freakout? That would be interesting…

 

[rpi82]

Definitely a possibility. Maine is out of control with 47 guys listed. That’s just ridiculous. The addition of chl guys in the recruit pool really opens things up for smaller schools in terms of talent. Lang I’m sure is watching very closely. I also wonder if Schneider will flip a few clarkson guys our way? I do think we will start recruiting much more in the ushl or our recruits will end up in the ushl now with the new coaches. Something that perplexed me was why Dave and Weber never recruited out of the ushl. Now looking back it’s simply they didn’t have the recruiting chops.

They added another yesterday so, depending on whether you use Heisenberg or their fan site, they have either 40 or 41 still active commitments. This one is an '06 that was a mid-round draft pick last year. I think college hockey may become increasingly like basketball with one-and-dones. We've always had them, but they were only the top draft pick outliers like Celebrini. This kid entered the CHL instead of the USHL or Junior A so he clearly was thinking first and foremost about a pro career. If he stayed in major junior he'd have to play one more year before he could be sent to the minors (CHL players under 20 that don't make an NHL active roster must be returned to their junior team). Instead he'll probably play one year in Orono and sign then with plans to be on an AHL or ECHL roster. Combine that with one year grad transfers and we may see a significant portion of some rosters turn over every year.

The dominoes continue to fall as CHL kids continue to commit to D1. The key for recruiters will be being nimble and having scouted many of the kids that will invariably get bumped off of recruiting lists and getting them on board.

Yup. This is the time of year when coaches used to issue their fall recruit press release and actually get a vacation. I'll bet Lang and the staff are still working the phones with advisors and families of players that are being pushed back or even off commitment lists entirely.

 

[rpi82]

St. Valentine’s Day Freakout? That would be interesting…

I was wondering about that. It seems that next to the last home weekend (mid-February) has become the expected date, but this past season they moved it up to the beginning of February. I presume that was to try and use it to generate momentum for the last month of the season (yes, I'm probably over-thinking this). If they do that this season the equivalent date would be January 31. It's been a while since we had a January Freakout.

 

[DrDemento]

They added another yesterday so, depending on whether you use Heisenberg or their fan site, they have either 40 or 41 still active commitments. This one is an '06 that was a mid-round draft pick last year. I think college hockey may become increasingly like basketball with one-and-dones. We've always had them, but they were only the top draft pick outliers like Celebrini. This kid entered the CHL instead of the USHL or Junior A so he clearly was thinking first and foremost about a pro career. If he stayed in major junior he'd have to play one more year before he could be sent to the minors (CHL players under 20 that don't make an NHL active roster must be returned to their junior team). Instead he'll probably play one year in Orono and sign then with plans to be on an AHL or ECHL roster. Combine that with one year grad transfers and we may see a significant portion of some rosters turn over every year.


Yup. This is the time of year when coaches used to issue their fall recruit press release and actually get a vacation. I'll bet Lang and the staff are still working the phones with advisors and families of players that are being pushed back or even off commitment lists entirely.

This is all too confusing for me! Time to sit back, mix a couple of gimlets for me and a couple chocolate martinis for Jenny and wait to see what develops. My early take on all of this change is that I do not like it and I am fairly sure we will be seeing long term consequences of it for college hockey that no one has thought about.

 

[rpi82]

This is all too confusing for me! Time to sit back, mix a couple of gimlets for me and a couple chocolate martinis for Jenny and wait to see what develops. My early take on all of this change is that I do not like it and I am fairly sure we will be seeing long term consequences of it for college hockey that no one has thought about.

True. The most insidious thing is not CHL eligibility or the transfer portal, it's the same thing as always - money. I'll bet the farm that a primary motivation for the recruit I talked about earlier to replace a final year of major junior with a year in college is NIL and standard of living. A full scholarship (including room, board, training table and a campus full of young women) and NIL is probably more attractive than a few hundred $ per month CHL stipend and a billet assignment. I'd be shocked if the Alfond family hasn't had their checkbook out and a smart AD would have those dollars flowing into the Alfond Arena locker room. I'm sure they've thought it through and figured out they could spend their money on football to try and get competitive in the CAA (big deal) or even farther down the totem pole, to make MBB one of the leaders in Atlantic East (finishing ahead of SUNY Albany is probably not the achievement they have in mind), but in hockey they can have a national championship contender. We're happy for him because we're Ben Barr fans (wish he was here) and he's playing the new system brilliantly, but Coach Lang is fighting on a different battlefield than those that can call on the money floating around flagship state U's and private schools with deep Wall Street alumni pockets.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

True. The most insidious thing is not CHL eligibility or the transfer portal, it's the same thing as always - money. I'll bet the farm that a primary motivation for the recruit I talked about earlier to replace a final year of major junior with a year in college is NIL and standard of living. A full scholarship (including room, board, training table and a campus full of young women) and NIL is probably more attractive than a few hundred $ per month CHL stipend and a billet assignment. I'd be shocked if the Alfond family hasn't had their checkbook out and a smart AD would have those dollars flowing into the Alfond Arena locker room. I'm sure they've thought it through and figured out they could spend their money on football to try and get competitive in the CAA (big deal) or even farther down the totem pole, to make MBB one of the leaders in Atlantic East (finishing ahead of SUNY Albany is probably not the achievement they have in mind), but in hockey they can have a national championship contender. We're happy for him because we're Ben Barr fans (wish he was here) and he's playing the new system brilliantly, but Coach Lang is fighting on a different battlefield than those that can call on the money floating around flagship state U's and private schools with deep Wall Street alumni pockets.

Benny got a commit from Moncton keeper Rousseau who played in the Memorial Cup semis

 

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 4 June 2025. There are 122 days (4 months) until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 4 October 2025 for the start of next season.

 

[sezenack]

We're heading to BU on October 5th. Unclear if exhibition or real game

 

[rpi82]

We're heading to BU on October 5th. Unclear if exhibition or real game

Is that a carryover from Dave Smith's/Kristie Bowers' plans or is this new under Coach Lang? Even if it was the former, Lang keeping the game would certainly show a willingness to jump into the deep end of the pool right away. An overwhelmingly new roster learning a new system playing a top 5 team on the opening weekend.............