I think in 17-18 Maine had a much better group of dmen but that is beside the point.
Barr has done fine with dmen, but that is only maybe 25% of the game. If you don’t have someone who can stop the puck and you can’t score you’re never going to win. The four freshman forwards Barr brought in last year scored five goals in 106 games, which isn’t anywhere close to good enough. I’m on record saying they pass the eye test but at that the end of the day you need the end product to be there.
I most definitely would not count Renouf, Brown, or Byron as Red’s recruits nor would I consider Pecararo even though he came in a year later. Red recruited plenty of decent players without trying to take credit for Timmy’s.
Actually it was 6 freshman forwards who produced 10 goals and dmen who added another 10.
2 of those forwards are most likely walks on in Carney and Lindauer. No expectations for them and by the end of the year they were on the 4th line. Carney worked hard and was a nice surprise on the 4th line playing a simple game. But that’s what those guys are.
Freel I had no expectations for and he was skating on the first line by the end of the year and had 15 points.
I was hoping one other freshman would pop and contribute. Trudeau like Ben said really struggled to adjust to the college game. It was noticeable as he looked behind the play most of the year. KKO seems to have some skill but I think 1) he was hurt a lot of the year 2) his skating needs work. Pabich is a very good skater and you can tell he is working is @$$ off.
But they are freshman and Ben’s first freshman class he put on the ice whom he recruited his first year besides Trudeau. College hockey typically takes 2+ years to build legit classes and Ben put those 6 + Antonacci, Holt, Arnott, and Chabrier together on the fly. The one guy he kept from Red was Kincaid who the other 4 skates circles around and is now in the portal.
And defense is more than 25% of hockey but it’s definitely not everything. But those 4 guys move the puck better and skate better than any dmen I have seen at Maine in a long time. And this is leaving out Breazelle who Ben got on the fly the summer he was hired and he has been a stud on the back end and is another tremendous skater.
Red’s 17-18 roster was by far his best (rest in peace). But that was year 5 and they went 18-16-4. Yes they were headed to the NCAA in 20 before shutdown but that was Swayman carrying that team. All that to say that Red even when he had all his guys after 5 years it still wasn’t good enough.
Ben had these guys playing harder than any Maine team in probably 20 years. Their skating was better, they broke the puck out better than they have in forever, and Ostman took a massive step forward. The Alfond was louder than it has been in a long time. We saw major progress this year and ripping 1 freshman class after their freshman year is premature. Ben’s track record speaks for itself and it’s not always about getting the firs
