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UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

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Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

wildcatfan_GoNH said:
Borek is the only reason this program isn't on the bottom every year. look at the guys he's brought in, Borek recruits (Not Umile, not Lassonde, not Tortorella):
JvR (drafted 2nd over all. Not even York can say he's done that)
Goumas
Pesce
Thompson
Sislo
Kessel
Butler
Foster
Regan
Radja
Dries
Fornataro
Trevor Smith
Winnik

Players he got to commit but never came for various reasons:
Johnny Gaudreau (admissions on summer vacation)
Joey Laleggia
Keith Yandle
Ryan Bourque
Mike Vecchione

Hell the guy never left Boston after the loss on Saturday. Took a cab to Logan and flew to Michigan to try to win this team a NC by recruiting players. Will it ever happen? Who knows, but you can't say the guy can't recruit. My guess is he needs help recruiting a.k.a. other UNH coaches hitting the road to search for the next JvR
Click to expand...

So basically what you're saying is that Lassonde did not earn his pay after Borek showed up? Find that hard to believe. Can't say much about later recruits but I am sure Winnik was recruited and landed before Borek even came to UNH.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

CollegeHockeyRinkReport said:
http://www.sbncollegehockey.com/201...aple-leafs-nhl-signing-hockey-east-dick-umile

Knodel to Toronto
Click to expand...

Congrats to our 'Big K' Eric Knodel!!! Looking forward to following him and TvR in their pro careers... Read somewhere Eric is off to the team as we speak. Best wishes!!

http://www.marlies.ca/news/news.asp?story_id=3044


ps..
The UNH 'Club Cats' won their National Championship today... 5-3. Congrats!
 
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Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

wildcatfan_GoNH said:
JvR (drafted 2nd over all. Not even York can say he's done that)
Click to expand...


No player since the 2007 draft (JvR's year) who went on to play or was currently playing college hockey has been drafted in the top 6. Obviously not that unusual since most of the top picks come from the CHL, but how the heck did UNH land a second overall pick? Obviously JvR committed before he got drafted but everyone must have known he was going to go high and obviously he was a highly sought after recruit. They must have really pulled some magic but if they can convince a player like that to come to Durham they should be able to get similar players.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

As of right now, Eichel is expected to go number two in 2015 and going to BU!
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

HockeyRef said:
ps..
The UNH 'Club Cats' won their National Championship today... 5-3. Congrats!
Click to expand...

Since national championships at UNH are few and far between I want to give a shout out to the Club Wildcats as well. Their captain this year, Sean Leahy, is a Durham native who played four years at Oyster River HS and helped lead them to back-to-back state championships games. At UNH, the club team had never played in the ACHA championships but now have gone to the 16 team tournament for the fourth year in a row. The tournament was played at the New England Sport Center complex in Marlboro, MA with teams from all over the country. It's kind of a grueling schedule with games starting last Friday. UNH finished first in pool play, going 2-1, then defeated UMBC and Florida Atlantic to win the title. I went to a few of their games over the past couple of years and while the level of play is certainly not up to D1 standards, there is definitely some high end skill to see. Congrats to all, including Sean's dad Andy, my partner in the old FOH BlueLines days.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

wildcatfan_GoNH said:
Borek is the only reason this program isn't on the bottom every year. look at the guys he's brought in, Borek recruits (Not Umile, not Lassonde, not Tortorella):
JvR (drafted 2nd over all. Not even York can say he's done that)
Goumas
Pesce
Thompson
Sislo
Kessel
Butler
Foster
Regan
Radja
Dries
Fornataro
Trevor Smith
Winnik

Players he got to commit but never came for various reasons:
Johnny Gaudreau (admissions on summer vacation)
Joey Laleggia
Keith Yandle
Ryan Bourque
Mike Vecchione

Hell the guy never left Boston after the loss on Saturday. Took a cab to Logan and flew to Michigan to try to win this team a NC by recruiting players. Will it ever happen? Who knows, but you can't say the guy can't recruit. My guess is he needs help recruiting a.k.a. other UNH coaches hitting the road to search for the next JvR
Click to expand...

Couple of thoughts:

1) I don't question Coach Borek's work eithic and his commitment. That doesn't mean he can pick players, there is a story about Walsh (I.S.), Standbrook and Crowder. I wont type it here but point is it became obvious Standbrook could "shop for groceries" he had a fantastic eye, Crowder maybe not so much.

2) The 5 at the bottom don't count in my book. If the player doesn't get in uniform during a game why did you waste your time. I will note if the Gaudreau stories are true that is particularly gauling but on the other hand Ryan Bourque wasn't comming to UNH.

3) Winnik and Borek arrived the same year - hence not a Borek guy he was already on the way. Also I figure the goalies on the list were picked up by the goalie coach, not sure how much I buy Borek landing the goalies.

4) I don't see the college talent of Mowers-Krog-Bekar-etc. There are good players, JvR looks like he is becoming a fantastic pro, but not fantastic college players. The high end guys from the mid to late 90's were high end college players. I had hopes Kelleher would be one from the start.

5) Borek got had in an unintentional recruiting violation. I know that handcuffed the program. It should be noted what Borek did is legal now, must be frustrating for him. That violation likely screwed some stuff up.

6) I like what I am starting to see in the pipeline and hope these player turn out as high end talent. It would be nice if we can turn the most recent dip (08-09 to present)
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

JB said:
3) Winnik and Borek arrived the same year - hence not a Borek guy he was already on the way. Also I figure the goalies on the list were picked up by the goalie coach, not sure how much I buy Borek landing the goalies.
Click to expand...

Borek's first year was 2002-03 and Winnik's first year was 2003-04. You could still be right though. Not sure when committed?
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Ryan422 said:
Borek's first year was 2002-03 and Winnik's first year was 2003-04. You could still be right though. Not sure when committed?
Click to expand...

I remember sitting in Acorns at the New England Center after a game one night when Lassonde came in to speak to Darren Haydar'sfather. Since Winnik and Haydar were both from suburban Toronto and both sons had played in the same junior leagues, Lassonde asked one dad to speak to the other dad on the plusses of attending UNH. I am not going to say that the conservation that ensued sealed the deal, but I will tell you that talented kids like Winnik commit well before the time they come on campus.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Ryan422 said:
Borek's first year was 2002-03 and Winnik's first year was 2003-04. You could still be right though. Not sure when committed?
Click to expand...

**** double checked that on Hockeydb as I was bouncing between players and years and still flubbed it.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

NCAA watcher said:
I disagree that the Lowell model is one to be emulated. Remember my typical post, where UNH has had no USHL top 40 scorers in 5 years (except for Goumas, who made #40)? Well, Lowell is pretty close -- they have two: Derek Arnold (#13, 2010), Ryan McGrath #31 2011; Mike fallon #22 (2012). A lot of their talent is drawn from the lesser leagues, the NAHL and EJHL. Finding those players like Hellenbuyck, Folin and Chapie in those leagues requires so much luck that I wouldn't count on it being repeatable.

Without the top end kids, they have to buy into the hard-work model (that Umile would drool over). Whether a team finds the right mix to get that buy-in is iffy.
Click to expand...

Totally understand your point, 'watcher ... but with all due respect, why would anyone ever assume Coach Bazin wouldn't now be able to start to bring in better talent, having now shown what he is capable of doing with lower profile recruits?

As to Carmine's comparison to Merrimack ... no dice there. That team may have been a nice blip for the program, but at the end of the day, Denehy was (and still is) at an extreme disadvantage with an embarrassing glorified HS rink to recruit into. They've put a lot of new lipstick on that pig, but at the end of the day, it's still a pig.

Anyone who thinks Lowell is a "flash in the pan", built on Hellebuyck and not much else etc., with all due respect, you're not paying close enough attention. In some cases (that's you, CS ;) ) you may even be "whistling past the graveyard". They are here, and they are not going away anytime soon. Success breeds success, and UML has two HE banners where they formerly had zero, they made the FF last year, and they could be there again this year. And even if Coach Bazin never gets far beyond the "four second lines" blueprint, he seems to have done pretty well with that approach.

Let's check back in about 10 years, and we'll see if Lowell becomes "UNH" or if they become "UMaine". And if they do become "UMaine", can Coach Bazin make it happen without using any of Walshy's inventive shortcuts?? :eek: ;)
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Since the topic of the day appears to be centered around recruiting ....

1) Colgate has a competitive team this year.
2) Colgate has 16 first and second year players .... none of which are from the vaunted USHL.
3) Colgate has a team that is on the average one year younger than .... e.g. Lowell.
4) Colgate has a long time head coach.
5) Colgate has assistant coaches that are former Colgate players.

As the title to a current TV program says .... "How do they do it?"
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

I don't think there is any doubt that UNH's last few years have been underwhelming in large part due to the talent on the ice. I'm less certain what to make of the recruiters over the same time frame. Remember, that last-season would/could have been the senior seasons for Cam Reid, Ryan Bourque & Matt White. How different would the W/L record look with those three on the line-chart??

These were three BIG gets and they were top-end NCAA talent. None of them made it to campus, but make no mistake they were players. Reid scored 14-30--44 in 59 games at St. Cloud State, before dominating the WHL and moving on to professional hockey, and White potted 47 goals and 99 points in three seasons at Nebraska Omaha, while Bourque averaged well over a point-per-game in the Q and is an AHL regular.

The problem was UNH made a huge mistake with the academics of White & Reid and eventually filled their spots with 3rd-4th line players. If Bourque was 'never coming to UNH' than that was another big mistake. How many potential prospects came off the board before Bourque actually left for the Q? It was the poor replacement of these misses (Block, Speelman, Pavelski) that set the overall offensive skill set back dramatically.

Take a look at BC's rosters from a few years back - they were really small. York seemed more than happy to run a short roster for a year or two, rather than rushing to replace any misses or early defections with sub-par prospects. I wish UNH had taken that approach.

You also had players like LaLeggia & Vecchione jump ship after coach-advised deferrals and players like Burke & Henrion who failed to meet their recruiting expectations. Who knows what actual effect Borek's mistake had on the program - but add it all up and its not hard to see why the cupboard was bare.

The end result was a forward group with VERY little depth of legitimate talent in the SR/JR classes, no help in the SO class and a not-strong enough yet Tyler Kelleher.

Its taken four years to overcome that one lost recruiting class - but the future forward group looks much more UNH-like with Poturalski, Eiserman, McNicholas, Foegele, Vela, Nazarian, Grasso, Kelleher, BVR, etc.

I've been as out-spoken a critic of the recruiting as anyone over the last few years, but are they righting the ship?

Or will this year's incoming FR be too young to contribute much before Downing & Willows graduate? While the eventual 2015 class of forward creates another gap in forward talent (i.e. do only C. Kelleher, Miller and Kalinowski) and 2016's Grasso, Nazarian, BVR and Fregonia arrive too young and too late to help the 2014's?? I like the recruits, but can UNH make the right decisions on arrivals/deferrals????
 
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Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Kevin Goumas has signed with Philadelphia - will play for their AHL team.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Wouldn't it be great to see a couple of van Riemsdyk Family video boards (or a vRF Jumbotron) at the Whitt? Maybe in place before BvR takes his first skate as a Wildcat?
Just sayin'. ;)
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Greg Ambrose said:
Since national championships at UNH are few and far between I want to give a shout out to the Club Wildcats as well. Their captain this year, Sean Leahy, is a Durham native who played four years at Oyster River HS and helped lead them to back-to-back state championships games. At UNH, the club team had never played in the ACHA championships but now have gone to the 16 team tournament for the fourth year in a row. The tournament was played at the New England Sport Center complex in Marlboro, MA with teams from all over the country. It's kind of a grueling schedule with games starting last Friday. UNH finished first in pool play, going 2-1, then defeated UMBC and Florida Atlantic to win the title. I went to a few of their games over the past couple of years and while the level of play is certainly not up to D1 standards, there is definitely some high end skill to see. Congrats to all, including Sean's dad Andy, my partner in the old FOH BlueLines days.
Click to expand...

Hey Greg thanks for the overview of the Club 'Cats! It was fun to follow it on twitter and it's amazing how many tweets have been sent in support of this accomplishment. Union Leader has picked it up (Alan Lessels) maybe a story in the paper.. So far I've seen a lot of congrats from other teams at UNH, including WildCat Army. It will be interesting to see how much press it will garner from the U directly; I get a lot of UNH correspondence via Twitter including The New Hampshire (School newspaper). I hope they get a good write up somewhere prominent! It's awesome they have enjoyed this success and it means a lot to players like the one you mention in your post! Oh and I could be of the mindset to send an email to BS35's office IF I don't see any acknowledgement via UNH athletics ;) (Extolling the accolades of the program, coaching staff. ya know, stuff like that. :D )

Congrats Club 'Cats!
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

C-H-C said:
Kevin Goumas has signed with Philadelphia - will play for their AHL team.
Click to expand...

Congratulations to Kevin, Eric and Trevor! (et al who may be signing contracts.) May all your dreams be realized.
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

C-H-C said:
Kevin Goumas has signed with Philadelphia - will play for their AHL team.
Click to expand...

wow that is just great news for Kevin Goumas!!! Most deserving...congrats to all three recent signings!! Ditto on goblue's sentiment regarding seeing the van Riemsdyk fam at a game! I look forward to seeing maybe catching a Monarchs game where they are playing but I see that the teams stay pretty much in their 'region'. (yes, I've looked at the schedules haha) Maybe this Philly team tho.... ;)
 
Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Re: UNH Wildcats 2014 Post-Season Thread: "Maybe Dick" Hunts the Great White Whale

Ryan422 said:
No player since the 2007 draft (JvR's year) who went on to play or was currently playing college hockey has been drafted in the top 6. Obviously not that unusual since most of the top picks come from the CHL, but how the heck did UNH land a second overall pick? Obviously JvR committed before he got drafted but everyone must have known he was going to go high and obviously he was a highly sought after recruit. They must have really pulled some magic but if they can convince a player like that to come to Durham they should be able to get similar players.
Click to expand...

And, of course, we got three for one on this recruiting mission, as noted by goblue, even if none of them end up staying for four years.

I still like my memory of JvR gliding around Lake Whitt, making his long strides look so effortless; reminded me of Loui Frigon almost four decades earlier, although he did not have the big sheet.

And, really cool that TvR, Knodel, and Goumas are getting their shots in the pro ranks.
 
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