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UNH Hockey Off Season Thread 2026

TheGrouchyCat said:
Desperate men do desperate things.

On one hand, I want to see a measurable improvement to next season's team. On the other, I want the status quo to continue to trigger the hiring of a new coach.
Click to expand...
This is a problem.

Souza has proven he only seems to dance when his head is going into the guillotine. It even felt a little that way last off season with CHL players and all the roster turnover. It was the same last time his contract was up, better product on the ice and better coach getting out in the public. Essentially he has proven you can't give him more than 1 year at a time.

Honestly, I want my employees to need to be reined back, I don't ever want the ones I need to constantly push forward.
 
Goaltenders are starting to domino...

Lehti, UAF to Minnesota State
Moore, Bowling Green to Lowell
Applebee, LSSU to Quinnipiac
Sigurdson, Northeastern to Michigan State
Strahl, Michigan State to Minnesota
Wickstrom-Sturmer, Canisius to Maine

Most intriguing goalies left with one year of eligibility: Tyler Shea (Brown), Gibson Homer (Miami/ASU/North Dakota), Marinov (Quinnipiac)
Most intriguing goalies left with two years of eligibility: Silverstein (BC/Quinnipiac)
Most intriguing goalies with three years of eligibility: Simpson (AHL/ECHL/Providence), Rousseau (Maine), Kendrick (Sacred Heart), Hillebrandt (Ohio State), Langevin (Miami), Gravel (Mercyhurst)

Shea or Homer would be fine stop gaps. Silverstein has pedigree, but QU was unhappy with his - and Marinov's - play this year, essentially shoving them out for Applebee and a rookie. Hillebrandt has always been touted, and backed up two WJC teams but hasn't put up a good SPCT in years.

At this point, Id wouldn't mind UNH taking a chance on Michael Simpson out of Providence. The Friars had one heck of a goalie room last season and Simpson barely played (.936 SPCT in two starts) as a third stringer, but he also brings AHL (10 games) and ECHL (16 games) experience. He is in the portal with a No Contact tag, so he seems to know where he's headed even if we do not...

Langevin made one start at Miami, despite coming in at the semester break to bail the team out when their blue chip FR couldn't get eligible. He was great in that start and never played again. He's also a No Contact.

Rousseau was great in juniors, struggled at Maine last year - but all their goalies struggled.
 
Dan said:
Goaltenders are starting to domino...

Lehti, UAF to Minnesota State
Moore, Bowling Green to Lowell
Applebee, LSSU to Quinnipiac
Sigurdson, Northeastern to Michigan State
Strahl, Michigan State to Minnesota
Wickstrom-Sturmer, Canisius to Maine

Most intriguing goalies left with one year of eligibility: Tyler Shea (Brown), Gibson Homer (Miami/ASU/North Dakota), Marinov (Quinnipiac)
Most intriguing goalies left with two years of eligibility: Silverstein (BC/Quinnipiac)
Most intriguing goalies with three years of eligibility: Simpson (AHL/ECHL/Providence), Rousseau (Maine), Kendrick (Sacred Heart), Hillebrandt (Ohio State), Langevin (Miami), Gravel (Mercyhurst)

Shea or Homer would be fine stop gaps. Silverstein has pedigree, but QU was unhappy with his - and Marinov's - play this year, essentially shoving them out for Applebee and a rookie. Hillebrandt has always been touted, and backed up two WJC teams but hasn't put up a good SPCT in years.

At this point, Id wouldn't mind UNH taking a chance on Michael Simpson out of Providence. The Friars had one heck of a goalie room last season and Simpson barely played (.936 SPCT in two starts) as a third stringer, but he also brings AHL (10 games) and ECHL (16 games) experience. He is in the portal with a No Contact tag, so he seems to know where he's headed even if we do not...

Langevin made one start at Miami, despite coming in at the semester break to bail the team out when their blue chip FR couldn't get eligible. He was great in that start and never played again. He's also a No Contact.

Rousseau was great in juniors, struggled at Maine last year - but all their goalies struggled.
Click to expand...
McMahon tweeted that Alexis Cournoyer from Cornell is entering the portal.
 
Felger said:
McMahon tweeted that Alexis Cournoyer from Cornell is entering the portal.
Click to expand...

Sign him up!

In all honesty, strange to see anyone - especially a goalie - leaving a school like Cornell. For an Ivy netminder that is the perfect combination of academics, winning hockey and goals against average. If he's entering the portal, my first instinct is that someone has bought themselves a goalie...

Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, North Dakota and Denver seem set at the position.

Arizona State would likely back up the brinks truck, yesterday, but he'd be punting on academics. Notre Dame has a desperate need in goal/to improve overall. He'd be a massive upgrade at Ohio State.

Penn State, Wisconsin, BC & BU all have young, talented goaltenders but could be searching for an upgrade.

Could UMass, UConn or WMU afford to buy a goaltender? I tend to doubt they could, though they definitely have wide open creases. Conmy left for BC chasing a reported 50k per season. Is that anywhere near enough to coax a goalie out of Ithaca?!

Would he trade one Ivy for another (Harvard)?

Hard to see a match with UNH, though I'm sure he'd be welcome and I'd love to be wrong...
 
Before I could finish my last post, Denver's Quentin Miller also jumped into the portal...

He was Denver's starting goalie entering this season and played 25 games with a .916 SPCT and a 2.39 GAA. Denver still has Johnny Hicks (who went 16-0-1 to lead them to a title) so they're probably still out on Counoyer, but perhaps not as set in the crease as I first thought.

Would love for UNH to target Quebec native, Quentin Miller.
 
Hard to know exactly when each player was on each roster, but Michael Simpson has potentially played professionally alongside the following UNH alumni...

24-25 Belleville Senators (AHL)
Angus Crookshank

24-25 Orlando Solar Bears (ECHL)
Ara Nazarian
Ryan Verrier
Kohei Sato
Liam Devlin
Ty Taylor

25-26 Savannah Ghost Pirates (ECHL)
Colton Huard
 
Simpson made 27 saves to beat UNH 3-2 on February 28, in Durham. He surrendered a PP goal to Alex Carr and an EA goal to Marty Lavins for his second win. He beat Northeastern in Providence two weeks earlier, allowing just one PP goal...

www.eliteprospects.com

Michael Simpson - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Michael Simpson, 2003-02-09 London, ON, CAN Canada. Most recently in the NCAA with Providence College. Complete player biography and stats.
www.eliteprospects.com www.eliteprospects.com

Goalies:
Simpson
Henriquez
Walk-On

Coombs
 
Personally? I am very intrigued/excited for these new Wildcats! I think UNH did very, very well...kudos to the coaching staff for your efforts! Looking
forward to seeing them (and the rest of the team) in the Blue and White! Go New Hampshire! Rah! (sans pom poms..ha!) :LOL:
 
Dan said:
Simpson made 27 saves to beat UNH 3-2 on February 28, in Durham. He surrendered a PP goal to Alex Carr and an EA goal to Marty Lavins for his second win. He beat Northeastern in Providence two weeks earlier, allowing just one PP goal...

www.eliteprospects.com

Michael Simpson - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Michael Simpson, 2003-02-09 London, ON, CAN Canada. Most recently in the NCAA with Providence College. Complete player biography and stats.
www.eliteprospects.com www.eliteprospects.com

Goalies:
Simpson
Henriquez
Walk-On

Coombs
Click to expand...
Somehow...fitting he's coming to UNH! Love this...
 
Dan said:
Simpson made 27 saves to beat UNH 3-2 on February 28, in Durham. He surrendered a PP goal to Alex Carr and an EA goal to Marty Lavins for his second win. He beat Northeastern in Providence two weeks earlier, allowing just one PP goal...

www.eliteprospects.com

Michael Simpson - Stats, Contract, Salary & More

Eliteprospects.com hockey player profile of Michael Simpson, 2003-02-09 London, ON, CAN Canada. Most recently in the NCAA with Providence College. Complete player biography and stats.
www.eliteprospects.com www.eliteprospects.com

Goalies:
Simpson
Henriquez
Walk-On

Coombs
Click to expand...
Seems like another solid get for Souza and crew. Again, the season isn’t won in the portal but I can’t help but be impressed with what he has done. I don’t know what kind of NIL money he had to play with, and we may never know. Even still, the portal gains certainly appear to outweigh the departures on paper.

We will see if this holds true when the calendar switches to 2027 and the HEA schedule begins in earnest. That always seems to be when the ship starts to sink… but hopefully that won’t be the case this year.

Back to Simpson - it will be interesting to see how playing time is divvied up between Simpson and Henriquez. I’m a bit surprised they got someone with 3 years of eligibility left, and how that may impact the development of Henriquez. I also still expect a walk-on or DIII transfer too as the third string goalie.

I wonder what this means for Grout as well? I cant imagine he would join in 2027 with Simpson as a Junior and Henriquez as a sophomore… where’s the playing time gonna be? I wonder if Souza may cut ties with him…

Anyone else think there will be more forwards/defense brought to Durham through the portal? Or is Souza pretty much finished?
 
FlagUp17 said:
Seems like another solid get for Souza and crew. Again, the season isn’t won in the portal but I can’t help but be impressed with what he has done. I don’t know what kind of NIL money he had to play with, and we may never know. Even still, the portal gains certainly appear to outweigh the departures on paper.

We will see if this holds true when the calendar switches to 2027 and the HEA schedule begins in earnest. That always seems to be when the ship starts to sink… but hopefully that won’t be the case this year.

Back to Simpson - it will be interesting to see how playing time is divvied up between Simpson and Henriquez. I’m a bit surprised they got someone with 3 years of eligibility left, and how that may impact the development of Henriquez. I also still expect a walk-on or DIII transfer too as the third string goalie.

I wonder what this means for Grout as well? I cant imagine he would join in 2027 with Simpson as a Junior and Henriquez as a sophomore… where’s the playing time gonna be? I wonder if Souza may cut ties with him…

Anyone else think there will be more forwards/defense brought to Durham through the portal? Or is Souza pretty much finished?
Click to expand...
I don’t think programs can really think long term anymore. It’s a complete change from 5 years ago, All of the players are 1 and maybe done. No idea how coaches can seriously offer a 16 year old a scholarship 3 years before enrollment without any idea what the team may look like.

These coaches are very much in the dark.
 
FlagUp17 said:
I wonder what this means for Grout as well? I cant imagine he would join in 2027 with Simpson as a Junior and Henriquez as a sophomore… where’s the playing time gonna be? I wonder if Souza may cut ties with him…
Click to expand...
Right now, MS7 can only care about next season. Simpson looks like someone he couldn't pass up. Grout likely ends up as collateral damage. C'est la vie.

In the aftermath of the last 48 hours, one must realistically ask if TDL's donations to UNH Hockey have now extended beyond getting his company's name on the building, and funding some/most of the capital improvements? The best of these guys aren't coming to Titletown for the legendary coaching prowess of Souza, Guiliano and Stewart, or the program's recent history of success (or lack thereof), that's for sure. Not for the Jumbotron. And not for the shrunken rink either.

All while gearing up for a run for US Congress in NH CD-1 this Fall, it seems to be a very interesting time to be TDL, out on his private Portsmouth island lair ...
 
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