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University of Maine 2024–2025: Freel-ing good

ticapnews said:

The 4 finalists for the contest to name the new concession stand are up. You can vote at the link above.
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Hmmmm....not the strongest group of choices. I thought Bear Bites was a really good one.....and they could have transferred that name to Alfond Stadium and Morse Arena concessions for branding synergy which seems to be a priority these days. Rafters sounds like a new sports bar in Bangor....Maine-iak Snack Shack is way too wordy and contrived....Hibernation Station makes me want to go to sleep....Breakaway Bites it is!
 
There's something going on. My source is being all radar silent and coy about my persistence that this can't be the team going into next year. Barn will be upgraded and coming off two tournaments.

Way too quiet all I all i have been told is "moving parts"

By all accounts Holt will be back next year as well as Djurasevic
 
grooverider said:
There's something going on. My source is being all radar silent and coy about my persistence that this can't be the team going into next year. Barn will be upgraded and coming off two tournaments.

Way too quiet all I all i have been told is "moving parts"

By all accounts Holt will be back next year as well as Djurasevic
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Can only confirm what we’ve all thought. Gavin McKenna to Maine lol
 
Forwards that we know:
Freel, Scott, Nadeau, Fowler, Russell, Scholle, Komarov, Pichette, Calafiore, Gerrior, James and Peluso
Hoping for Landon Sim. But that's still only 13.
 
I think its obvious to everyone that they need another 2-3 forwards, depending on how big of a roster they want to carry and whatever ends up happening with House and the corresponding roster limits. I mean, as OronoKO mentioned above, they only have 12 confirmed forwards for next season, with heavy speculation around Sim as the 13th, which would be enough for exactly one starting lineup with no reserves. What remains to be seen is the impact and/or strength of the unknown players and where they come from (probably CHL at this point would be my guess, with a lot of portal action having slowed down dramatically.)
 
I think NCAA teams as a whole are in a similar boat right now. The rumors swirling that younger CHL players are looking to jump ship really threw a wrench in things, but apparently this kids have eligibility issues due to academics. My guy feeling is that domino has to fall before the overagers and lower end portal guys find spots.

FYI, roster limits are essentially dead for next season.
 
I take it more as a sign that Holt/Djurasevic/Chabrier are all coming back. I imagine Usereau and Longlois take the two open LD spots, so that leaves one RD spot and the extra skater for Motew/Peterson/Arnott to compete for. I'm not shocked Antonacci wouldn't want to compete to be the extra skater his senior year.
 
McGoverners said:
The bigger shock for me is that he waited so long. The options aren't as plentiful at this point.
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He is likely talking to coaches through players on the next team behind the scenes. Likely he already knows where he is going.

Antonacci really improved a lot down the stretch. His low point was start of January when he and Arnott were benched.

He rose to the challenge and turned in a great season towards the end of the season.

I guess I’m more surprised Antonacci went in vs. Arnott. I would have thought Arnott would transfer since he is likely to not get much playing time.
 
grooverider said:
There's something going on. My source is being all radar silent and coy about my persistence that this can't be the team going into next year. Barn will be upgraded and coming off two tournaments.

Way too quiet all I all i have been told is "moving parts"

By all accounts Holt will be back next year as well as Djurasevic
Click to expand...

No doubt the school and area are a tough sell, but it baffles me that Maine hasn’t been able to do better with recruiting last few years. It’s unlikely Maine will get top NHL prospects but I would think Maine could get more Blaine Byron types. Hopefully Barr can pull a rabbit out of his hat in the next month or so but it looks like the talent level will be quite a bit lower up front next year.
 
I’m only terrified that Barr goes the NHL route. If he stays, I can’t fathom that there won’t be an influx of talent coming soon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Barr strikes me as a college lifer, just the vibe I get from him. But of course the NHL is never out of the question with coaches, so who knows, it could happen. I don't completely disagree with Drew, in the sense that I do think that this coming year's forward talent might be less than before, and that it could lead to a "down year" (in relative terms, I still think they will make a Garden trip and make the national tournament again, perhaps as a #3 or #4 seed). I think the following year, though, it will pick back up, with guys like Malachai MacKinnon and Poul Andersen on the way, who I think will both be impact talents.
 
Drew S. said:
No doubt the school and area are a tough sell, but it baffles me that Maine hasn’t been able to do better with recruiting last few years. It’s unlikely Maine will get top NHL prospects but I would think Maine could get more Blaine Byron types. Hopefully Barr can pull a rabbit out of his hat in the next month or so but it looks like the talent level will be quite a bit lower up front next year.
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I agree that the lack of elite forwards has been a little disappointing, but what Barr has done is brought in high end college players and substantially raised the talent floor. Look at the roster from Byrons senior year, 16/17 and tell me who would've made last years lineup. The 16/17 team went 11-21-4 and got swept by UVM by a combined 10-1 in the first round of the HE playoffs. Last years team went 24-8-6 and won the first Hockey East Championship since 2004.

I'm fine with not getting draft picks as long as the undrafted players are great in college. I'll take Harrison Scott and David Breazeale over Nolan Vesey and Patrick Holway. Last year was supposed to be a down year after losing Bradly, but it ended up alright. I don't think anyone saw Russell/Fowler/Makar playing the way they did. We'll just have to see who comes in after the CHL season ends, and who steps up next year.
 
amkirby10 said:
Barr strikes me as a college lifer, just the vibe I get from him. But of course the NHL is never out of the question with coaches, so who knows, it could happen. I don't completely disagree with Drew, in the sense that I do think that this coming year's forward talent might be less than before, and that it could lead to a "down year" (in relative terms, I still think they will make a Garden trip and make the national tournament again, perhaps as a #3 or #4 seed). I think the following year, though, it will pick back up, with guys like Malachai MacKinnon and Poul Andersen on the way, who I think will both be impact talents.
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The big question is can Barr bring in effective players from the CHL? I firmly believe he can and will. However, until we see commitments, there are very large holes on the roster. It is hard to pencil in a Garden trip when BU has added, BC reloaded, and UConn kept their top talent.

I personally think the commits will come. Barr was aggressive in the portal the past couple years, but only landed Scott this year. We can either write that off as a down year, or assume his attention has been elsewhere. I am choosing to believe that latter.
 
blackbears9 said:
I agree that the lack of elite forwards has been a little disappointing, but what Barr has done is brought in high end college players and substantially raised the talent floor. Look at the roster from Byrons senior year, 16/17 and tell me who would've made last years lineup. The 16/17 team went 11-21-4 and got swept by UVM by a combined 10-1 in the first round of the HE playoffs. Last years team went 24-8-6 and won the first Hockey East Championship since 2004.

I'm fine with not getting draft picks as long as the undrafted players are great in college. I'll take Harrison Scott and David Breazeale over Nolan Vesey and Patrick Holway. Last year was supposed to be a down year after losing Bradly, but it ended up alright. I don't think anyone saw Russell/Fowler/Makar playing the way they did. We'll just have to see who comes in after the CHL season ends, and who steps up next year.
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I think this year will be the first year Barr has had his type of defense completely. I think he had two pairings last year of his liking. But this year he will have all 6 highly mobile offensive defensemen back there. I think you will see a quick transitioning team.

At the same time, I believe the coaching staff will bring in two more centers, and likely a goalie. Unless they are comfortable with Stewart as the back up in the event Boija’s goes out due to injury. Barr and staff love last minute surprises like Breazeale and Boija. Let’s wait and see what lines look like after summer is over. I think they will add a couple great forwards. My guess is Malachi, Anderson, Voronin, VanGorp come in fall of 2026. Not sure about Munroe coming in year early, he was highly rated but had a rough adjustment to USHL and then BCHL this year.
 
blackbears9 said:
I agree that the lack of elite forwards has been a little disappointing, but what Barr has done is brought in high end college players and substantially raised the talent floor. Look at the roster from Byrons senior year, 16/17 and tell me who would've made last years lineup. The 16/17 team went 11-21-4 and got swept by UVM by a combined 10-1 in the first round of the HE playoffs. Last years team went 24-8-6 and won the first Hockey East Championship since 2004.

I'm fine with not getting draft picks as long as the undrafted players are great in college. I'll take Harrison Scott and David Breazeale over Nolan Vesey and Patrick Holway. Last year was supposed to be a down year after losing Bradly, but it ended up alright. I don't think anyone saw Russell/Fowler/Makar playing the way they did. We'll just have to see who comes in after the CHL season ends, and who steps up next year.
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I looked and it’s pretty close to 50/50. My team would be:

Nadeau Scott Makar
Fossier Pearson Breen
Vesey Renwick Byron
Fowler Smith Shea

Brezeale Holway
Hamilton Michel
Holt Djursevic

Boija
Bub

Barr has done a great job finding some under the radar guys and the team plays so much harder than it ever has in the past, but I just don’t think the recruiting has been as good as we would like. If he can get some talent in Maine will be scary.
 
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