grooverider
Your Team Sucks
I'm hearing there is a good chance Breen comes back. 70/30 at this point.
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University of Maine Off-season 2024: Insert Pun Here
- Thread starter ticapnews
- Start date
Great shots, looks like he has great instincts. Elite Prospects says he has 8-6-14 in his last 10 games, so he's on a heater. I think he will be a valuable contributer next year for Maine, I see him easily slotting into the Top 6 and maybe even PP1 with the bros, replacing Poisson.
Sparkee
Blackbear
I wouldn’t be shocked to see him center the brothers if Breen doesn’t come back. He definitely could play on power play. He looks to have a nice one time cannon like Bradley only on opposite side since he’s a left.
I put a couple more goals I found in that post below.
Also, when scrolling through I saw a lot Berzins name mentioned in the game 3-stars. And he was USHL goalie of the week once.
Seems like they are riding Berzins every game now.
Kuzma has been 2nd line center for a long while now.
Thinking the longer it goes...that he does return to Maine...myself I am still @50-50.
I think Renwick will stay with the brothers regardless. They really seemed to click with him and spreading out the offense can help balance the lineup. If Breen does return then I think Kuzma pushes to the wing, with Breen, Scott, and Renwick down the middle putting Kuzma on the fourth line would seem foolish. In the event he leaves, Kuzma would probably slot into his place in the lineup.
I looked at him in the College Hockey Insider spreadsheet (I think it's Mike McMahon that compiles it). His "Adj. Game Score per GP" (which is how it has players ranked) is 0.23. This compares with Hanson (0.41), Pabich (0.34), Trudeau (0.31), Lindauer (0.17), Fowler (0.67), Makar (0.47) and Russell (-0.21). The top player in the ranking is Matt Wood at 1.45, and guys like Capponi (1.08) and Mitton (0.82) rank high. It's not moneyball, but the score is based off of goals, assists, shots, penalties, faceoffs, corsi, etc., so gives a broad look at a player's contribution. I think some conferences will be easier to get a higher score than others and there are a lot of AHA and independent guys with quite high scores. But, if Maine is replacing contributions, then Fowler and Makar look like upgrades on Hanson, Pabich, Trudeau and Lindauer. I'm not sure that they replace Houle or Poission since they are not in the spreadsheet. If Breen leaves, I doubt that they get close to replacing his contribution.
Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
Sounds like moneyball to me, and that generally works. The numbers usually don't lie.
Great post.
Sparkee
Blackbear
I guess you have to pay to get access to these stats for all players? Thanks for providing these number. Looks like Russell has some work cut out for him. But he did only play 7 games. Likely on a 4th line?
The spreadsheet is free to access. I don't know where it gets its numbers from. Russell averaged just over 10 minutes per game in his 7 games. So, 4th line is probably about right (Lindauer averaged 7.8 minutes by comparison). And I don't think the numbers substitute for watching him play. I haven't and I am sure the Maine coaches have. But he does look like a depth forward on a contending team, rather than an impact player. Clarkson finished the season #36 in the pairwise and he couldn't consistently make their roster.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=689537449
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...#gid=689537449
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Sparkee
Blackbear
I made a list of good targets for players with at least two years of eligibility. Some, such as Wood, likely will have a lot of competition for his services so might be a long shot. Others, Maine could have decent shot at. Also on the list is the Nuetral Zone rating and the that index Oronoko posted from Inside College Hockey. What do you think? A couple of the defensemen seem interesting. Lemay is rumored to want to play closer to home. So you would think Maine and Vermont would be in the running for him. Older brother Philip Tornqvist was recruited by Barr at UMass, so you would think if Barr called Sebastian Tornqvist Maine would be in the running for his services. Not sure what happened there though since Philip ended up at Vermont? But maybe Sebastian Tornqvist wants to play with his brother there at Vermont? But seems like a reasonable shot at a good defensemen. Michael Emerson was recruited by Barr to UMass. He ended up going to North Dakota somehow, and only play 19 minutes or 3 minutes a game before heading back to USHL. Maybe he would be another target for Barr? Lastly, Sardarian of UNH would make for a fun time. Pick him up and hopefully he could be a wildcat killer scoring on UNH in big rivalry games.
Forwards
*********
Matthew Wood - LW - 4.25 - 1.45
Samu Salminen - LC - 4.25 - 0.77
Steven Sardarian - LC - 4.0 - 0.76
William Whitelaw - RC - 4.5 - 0.74
Luigi Benincasa - RW - 3.5 - 0.53
Charlie Stramel - RW - 4.5 - 0.33
Daimon Gardner - LC - 4.0 - 0.23
Michael Emerson - RW - 4.0 - (-0.1)
Defense
********
Joaquin Lemay - LD - 4.0 - 0.46
Sebastian Tornqvist - RD - 4.0 - 0.33
John Driscoll - RD - 3.75 - 0.33
Victor Hurtig - RD - 4.0 - 0.19
Nate Benoit - LD - 4.0 - 0.19
Ben Brunette - LD - 4.0 - (-0.04)
Forwards
*********
Matthew Wood - LW - 4.25 - 1.45
Samu Salminen - LC - 4.25 - 0.77
Steven Sardarian - LC - 4.0 - 0.76
William Whitelaw - RC - 4.5 - 0.74
Luigi Benincasa - RW - 3.5 - 0.53
Charlie Stramel - RW - 4.5 - 0.33
Daimon Gardner - LC - 4.0 - 0.23
Michael Emerson - RW - 4.0 - (-0.1)
Defense
********
Joaquin Lemay - LD - 4.0 - 0.46
Sebastian Tornqvist - RD - 4.0 - 0.33
John Driscoll - RD - 3.75 - 0.33
Victor Hurtig - RD - 4.0 - 0.19
Nate Benoit - LD - 4.0 - 0.19
Ben Brunette - LD - 4.0 - (-0.04)
I think at this point a lot of it comes down to how many spots are left. There are already seven forwards coming in so probably not
tons of room there. A good lh dman would help a lot.
The portal is still open until May 14, so things could change. But, as of now, Maine has 9 returning D. Doesn't leave a lot of room. On the forwards, I wonder how many of those commits have signed NLI. Most have more years of junior eligibility and could get pushed back. On Heisenberg's list, only Komarov and Pichette age out of juniors for forwards.
Kuzman is scored out on Heisenberg's list. No idea what that means and what his sources are.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...tmlview?pli=1#
Showing as uncommitted on his team page:
https://madcapshockey.com/sports/mhockey/roster/andrew-kuzma/191
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walrus
Wind up workin' in a gas station
Didn't he sign NLI?
No idea. It seems strange that both those sources would suggest that he's no longer a Maine commit.
edit. Yes he did: https://twitter.com/MadCapsHockey/status/1724457164838989856
edit. Yes he did: https://twitter.com/MadCapsHockey/status/1724457164838989856
This is a huge problem if true. He was easily the best player coming in to my eye. As Wally says, he was listed as having signed an NLI, which are usually very binding but I have heard of guys getting out from under them (see Dryden McKay). Hopefully this is all a big misunderstanding, I'd be very discouraged if we lost Kuzma for some reason.
umhockey91
Well-known member
This might be good news on the transfer portal front......
This is the only silver lining I can think of, I did consider it for a moment. But if true I'd rather have both of them, you'd think they could find a way to have the best lineup possible.
I agree. He looked liked the highest prospect Maine had committed. I have no inside information, I was just looking at Heisenberg's list after Drew's post about 7 forwards coming.
umhockey91
Well-known member
I don't want to be delusional about Maine's current standing in the college hockey world.....but with Barr, Alfond improvements and Maine back in the national picture.....we might be seeing some pretty major changes in the line-up and commits/de-commits coming down the pike. That being said....I would not have expected the caliber of recruit that Kuzma is to be a de-commit unless there was a major portal transfer or 2 incoming that could cut in on his ice time next season. This might also signify that Breen is returning further pushing Kuzma down the depth chart.