Good discussion on the Badger’s offseason so far. From my perspective, Hastings is a great coach who over-achieved in his first year at Madison AND these past few weeks have been concerning.
I hope Hastings can win multiple national championships here and I don’t care if he does that with older, four-year players (the model he seemed to follow in Mankato) or by a hybrid-style of team building that mixes in some elite talent (that he maybe couldn’t get at Mankato, but can get at Madison due to the increased resources) with his typical older players.
My concern is that his “Mankato-model” might not work in the B10 in 2024 and beyond. With the transfer portal, NIL, and the continuing trend of elite prospects increasingly playing college hockey, it seems to me that resource-rich schools (like every school in the B10) will be increasingly able to stock their rosters year-after-year (by using NIL for 1[SUP]st[/SUP] round talent and then filling any gaps by poaching players from lesser-resourced schools in the portal). Will a team of 24-year-old undrafted players (or late round draft picks) be able to compete night-after-night with the Michigans, Minnesotas, and now Michigan States, as these teams get even more talented? I’m worried that we can’t.
However, I’m hopeful that Hastings can build a hybrid team that gives us the best-of-both-worlds. A core of older players committed to the program for 4 or 5 years, mixed with some high-level talent. My dream scenario would be Mankato’s 21-22 team that crushed Minnesota in the Frozen Four and had Dryden McKay in net, but swap out 4 or 5 of the weaker players on that team and add 20-21 versions of Cole C, Dylan H, Linus, and K’Andre (circa 19-20; I’m assuming he would have been much better defensively in Hastings system). Unstoppable, right?
My concern with this hybrid model is that Hastings does not have a track record of recruiting Coles and Dylans, and the fact that so many of this year’s elite players decided to leave, despite having spent an entire season with him, is something that I think a reasonable person can be at least a little bit worried about. I totally get that he didn’t recruit Willie, Cruz, or Charlie, and there is a big difference between the type of hockey that Granato sold to these guys and type of hockey Hastings is now requiring, but … Hastings couldn’t win them over. If Hastings is only able to recruit players who are ready to play a 200 foot game on day one, then can he recruit 17-year-old Cole Caufields or other elite, young offensive players? Seems to me those guys sometimes (usually) don’t want to play both ways, so can he get them to come to WI?
Having said all that, I do believe in Hastings and I think it is way too soon to panic. However, I do think it’s worth watching whether or not he can recruit/retain high-end offensive talent.
