Some thoughts on Union after a lost weekend:
If people think this year hasn't been great, I think the next few are likely to be even worse. Unlike last year, Union's losing quite a bit after this year. They're losing a large senior class that currently includes five of their top 6 scorers. They're losing one of their better defenseman in Greg Campbell, though he wouldn't be classified as such on Union's better teams.
The recruiting pipeline has taken multiple hits. Mike Hardman, perhaps their top recruit, bailed and went to BC. Ben Thomas isn't coming. Vilho Saariluoma de-committed and is going to Bentley. Thomas Lancombe committed in November but then was playing in major juniors a month later, wiping out his NCAA eligibility.
Union hasn't been able to bring in top-end talent in a few years. The last true impact, top of the league player who came in was probably Spencer Foo in 2014. That's five years ago now. Players like Maier, Supinski and Vidmar are good but they aren't game-changers the way Foo, Vecchione, Ciampini, Carr and other offensive guys were in the past. When they came on campus, NHL draftees Jack Adams and Parker Foo seemed like candidates to become top of the league kind of talents. Neither have shown that promise almost halfway through their college careers. Adams led the USHL in goals his last year there. After watching for almost two years, I can't see how.
Kupsky has been largely a bust. With his big NAHL playoff campaign in 2014-15, and then getting drafted, he seemed like potentially Union's next great goalie after Kinkaid, Grosenick and Stevens. Instead, he lost his job in his senior year and could finish his career with a save percentage below 90% in three of the four years.
The defensive corps have fallen quite a bit. Forget Bodie and Ghost. Outside of maybe Kolias, Union has largely struggled to bring in guys like Jeff Taylor and Nick DeSimone the last few years. Most of the current D corps are below rock solid guys from past like Julseth-White, Stuart, Coburn, Matheson.
Facility wise, the program has fallen farther behind. Colgate has a new rink. Clarkson's putting money into Cheel. St. Lawrence is putting $17M into Appleton, a greater sum than Union wants to put into Messa Rink. Let's face it - while Messa has its charms, the facility is woefully inadequate for two Division I teams. Recruits and their families undoubtedly notice this. There has been very little publicaly said about the renovation since a video was put out 15 months ago that lacked much in the way of what might be done.
The program hasn't sustained momentum from the national championship. Barring a miracle, they'll miss the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in five years since the national title. And the one time they did make it, they gave up 10 goals. While you can't expect national titles every year, especially at an ECAC school, you'd have liked to see the program go more than 1-for-5 in return trips to the dance to follow up 2014. The national title didn't do much to sustain or even boost the program.
Though this year probably dinged his resume some, it might be a good time for Bennett to move on if someone comes calling. The program seems likely to struggle for a few years, at least.
