UNH 2021 Off-Season Thread: Finally!?!

[JB]

Well they killed the Friends I stopped giving to the University. I used to give beyond Hockey, now I give them nothing. Planning NOT to give to any part of the University as long as Marty is AD.

 

[Drew S.]

I think you're being a little bit harsh on Carvel, and a little (LOT?) too gracious with Sneddon and Dennehey, neither of whom I ever recall being "anointed" as anything. I think the best comparison for Carvel is Leaman, who did get his program to the top that one season, and had a little bit of fortune in his corner to get him over the top. I have Bazin on the Umile track, the guy who gets close but never quite gets there - although I know 'Watcher will point out (and I'll probably agree) that Bazin has done more with less than Umile, and probably won't be mailing in the final 5-10 years of his head coaching career, either.

Say what you will about the luck of the draw this year, etc. but Carvel was missing two of his best players (virus) in the FF semis, yet still ran the entire postseason - league and NCAA's. They can only play (and beat) whomever shows up on the other bench, and a 5-0 dismantling of "UNH West" last night left no doubt who was the best team in D-1 this year.

And don't forget, Carvel had his team in the FF Finals two seasons ago when they lost to the defending champs, and who knows what last year's team would/could have accomplished had the season finished? This year could have been a repeat, and then where is this discussion now? Not even Coach York has won consecutive D-1 titles (though 3 in 5 was awesome).

So yeah, if Carvel sticks around and UMass recedes (presumably in part due to an inability to replace Coach Barr effectively) I'll be surprised. At worst, I see him following the Leaman path of contending consistently at or near the top of HEA, maybe the Coach Bazin path if we're all drastically underrating the importance of Coach Barr. But Dennehy and Sneddon? Really??

Try to think about it this way, Drew ... let's say Walshy lost Standbrook as his lead recruiter after the '93 season or shortly thereafter (say, like when the folks from Overland Park started asking questions about retroactive financial aid). Would you then have thought Walshy was going to prove to be just a "flash in the pan" and then revert to the likes of Dick Umile, Blaise MacDonald or Paul Pooley? 'Cuz that's kind of what you're saying you think of Coach Carvel.

While on the subject here on the UNH thread ... I wonder if Commish Press Release has reached out to Coach Carvel with any more stellar coaching advice over the last 24 hours??? ;-)

I think you're really underrating what Sneddon and Dennehey accomplished. Sure you can look at their overall record and criticize that, but they both put together some really good seasons at places it's not easy to do so. Neither of them had a truly all time great player handed to them either(not to mention Makar came in at the right time for Carvel.)

Time will tell if Carvel can maintain Umass' success but I would be very surprised if he does. One thing I've noticed over the last 20 years is it seems like there is a clear pattern with new coaches where they struggle/decline after a certain period of time. I do think that it's harder to sell the program after you've been there a bit and I suspect coaches start to lose some of their motivation as well.

 

[Chuck Murray]

I think you're really underrating what Sneddon and Dennehey accomplished. Sure you can look at their overall record and criticize that, but they both put together some really good seasons at places it's not easy to do so. Neither of them had a truly all time great player handed to them either(not to mention Makar came in at the right time for Carvel.)

Sneddon didn't even accomplish what his predecessor (Gilligan) did, so no, I don't think I'm underrating him at all. Dennehy was probably the best Merrimack coach in my lifetime TBF, but his level of success doesn't even cast a shadow on what Bazin has accomplished, much less Carvel - and with Carvel at a place that had been a coaches' graveyard before he arrived.

Time will tell if Carvel can maintain Umass' success but I would be very surprised if he does. One thing I've noticed over the last 20 years is it seems like there is a clear pattern with new coaches where they struggle/decline after a certain period of time. I do think that it's harder to sell the program after you've been there a bit and I suspect coaches start to lose some of their motivation as well.

I'm sure there is a fair amount of truth to that. I'm not sure it's "harder to sell" as opposed to motivational issues, though. Complacency is a real thing, and Coach Umile unfortunately was the poster child for it over the last decade of his career. I suspect Carvel will have a pretty solid run for at least another decade, and then we'll see where he finds his motivation over the post-60 years. Guys like Parker and York managed to win titles at advanced ages, so it's hardly universal.

 

[zoofer]

I’m with you JB! He has got to move on if UNH ever wants to compete on the ice again! The distance between the teams and fans has been awful...currently, the only identity that our athletes can foster is what people garner from social media,(and we know how accurate that is), and not from meeting them at functions!
Oh btw, why is it that football gets to keep it’s 100 Club?

 

[JB]

Well didn't you know UNH is a football school

 

[HockeyRef]

Benton Maass to pursue Master's degree and play for the MAV's (Minnesota State Mankato) as per our own C-H-C on twitter.

 

[MavHockey14]

Benton Maass to pursue Master's degree and play for the MAV's (Minnesota State Mankato) as per our own C-H-C on twitter.

Not to butt in here, but what should we know about Benton? 17 points as a freshman is a heck of a year, production offensively looks down the last couple of years.

I see he was an assistant captain last year, which seems to indicate he’s a good kid off the ice.

120 games of experience is pretty crazy.

TIA.

 

[boblav1]

Union at UNH for two games (October 8 & 9)
2021-22 Men's Ice Hockey Schedule - Union College Athletics (unionathletics.com)

 

[HockeyRef]

Not to butt in here, but what should we know about Benton? 17 points as a freshman is a heck of a year, production offensively looks down the last couple of years.

I see he was an assistant captain last year, which seems to indicate he’s a good kid off the ice.

120 games of experience is pretty crazy.

TIA.

I'd agree that Benton had a couple of seasons like you say where the numbers were down...he also battled injury during some of that time. He's an upstanding kid and obviously has alot of potential; I look forward to seeing how he does with the Mav's. A good addition I'd say!!

 

[Chuck Murray]

Not to butt in here, but what should we know about Benton? 17 points as a freshman is a heck of a year, production offensively looks down the last couple of years.

I see he was an assistant captain last year, which seems to indicate he’s a good kid off the ice.

120 games of experience is pretty crazy.

TIA.

Spent a lot of time early in his career playing on the first or second pairing with Max Gildon, in his frosh year that boosted his production numbers. He didn't develop as hoped in the following years, which were relatively disappointing (there were injury issues as HR points out), and he seemed an entirely different player in his final UNH season - not a good thing. I believe his draft rights are with Washington, but I can't imagine they're interested in him, other than to fill out the lower reaches of their minor league system at this point.

Unfortunately, Exhibit A on the current coaching staff's inability to effectively develop a somewhat raw talented kid. As I've said before, we thought he was another Brett Pesce when Maass started here, but when he left, he was more like Joe Pesci.

A good kid by all accounts, wish him well in the future, but not missing him coming back for Year 5. I think I predicted he'd go back to one of the MN schools earlier in this thread. And so he has.

 

[NCAA watcher]

An all-academic kid in finance, so an MBA degree makes a lot of sense.

Recently, Maass was one of just 31 student-athletes from around the league to be named to the Hockey East All-Academic team for the third time. Maass posted a 3.75 GPA in the fall semester as a Finance and Management major.

Obviously seems like a good teammate. Has a good shot/one-timer. Blocks shots OK. On the negative, his skating is average at best, and not creative with the puck, so his zone clearing is limited. When UNH had forwards who could do something, he got some points as second assits, but as UNH forwards lacked offense the past two years, the safe if unexciting clears did not lead to goals. For his size, he's not a physical defenseman, and, as is the case for the whole UNH team, they did poorly in defending/sticking to guys.

As others have mentioned, he had some injuries, and so that may have impacted his play the past three years where UNH shuttled him down the depth chart. I'll be interested to see how much was the talent level and scheme at UNH, and if a new team with a better structure makes use of him. I'd see him as a 5-6 defenseman.

 

[MavHockey14]

I appreciate the comments. My thought was the Mavs would be looking for more of a defensive defenseman through the portal, as their top two offensive defenseman were both freshman and are returning. The Mavs return 4 of their 6 defenseman, all of whom have had a lot of minutes in various roles, so this seems to be an experienced/glue type guy they’re bringing in.

 

[NCAA watcher]

So, preaseason Hockey East 21-22 rankings

1.BC
2.BU
3.Northeastern
4.Providence
5a.U.Mass
5b.U.Conn
7.UNH
8.U.Mass-Lowell
9.Merrimack
10.Maine
11.Vermont

 

[Dan]

I appreciate the comments. My thought was the Mavs would be looking for more of a defensive defenseman through the portal, as their top two offensive defenseman were both freshman and are returning. The Mavs return 4 of their 6 defenseman, all of whom have had a lot of minutes in various roles, so this seems to be an experienced/glue type guy they’re bringing in.

Maass can and should be a steady and solid defender in your system and surrounded by better talent. If you ask him to play on your second or third pairings, I doubt you’ll have many complaints and you might see some of that FR upside...

At UNH he was expected/asked to grow into a number one defenseman and he just isn’t that guy. He played much better as the third guy, working behind Wyse and Gildon.

 

[Chuck Murray]

So, preaseason Hockey East 21-22 rankings

1.BC
2.BU
3.Northeastern
4.Providence
5a.U.Mass
5b.U.Conn
7.UNH
8.U.Mass-Lowell
9.Merrimack
10.Maine
11.Vermont

I would bet a huge chunk of cash that UMass finishes comfortably above 5th place (tied with Luce hahahaha), and UNH doesn't get a sniff of 7th place, much less finishes ahead of UMass Lowell. Who put these rankings together, 'Watcher? Was it Luce, or was it Mrs. MS7?!?

 

[HockeyRef]

Matt Murray in the portal...what do ya think 'Cat fans???

 

[Chuck Murray]

Matt Murray in the portal...what do ya think 'Cat fans???

The guy just played in and won a D-1 semifinals game. Why would he ever want to come here?

He's probably good enough to start for 80% of D-1 teams, if not more. He'll have better options.

 

[Scott]

The guy just played in and won a D-1 semifinals game. Why would he ever want to come here?

He's probably good enough to start for 80% of D-1 teams, if not more. He'll have better options.

Maybe we can put "retroactive financial aid" on the table??

 

[Chuck Murray]

Maybe we can put "retroactive financial aid" on the table??

Walshy Smiled

 

[HockeyRef]

The guy just played in and won a D-1 semifinals game. Why would he ever want to come here?

He's probably good enough to start for 80% of D-1 teams, if not more. He'll have better options.

Well...let's put it this way, I'd love to see him play for us! Whether or not he would...Point of the post was not to say he prob wouldn't come, but how would people feel about him doing so. Yeah; his track (esp recent) is excellent. Would love to at least know what we are looking at goalie wise going forward...