Jim wrote:
I agree with Chris' comments regard identity and "what are we recruiting for". Any team advancing into the NCAA and going far has two things:
-Solid defense (including goaltending) and...
-Offensive threats.
The Mavs don't appear to value the second. We recruit forwards, but they are the lunch pail types. This does not win games, it just keeps the team close enough to break our hearts.
You're absolutely right about forward recruiting. The past few seasons, a number of our talented skaters up front have been players like Brannon McManus (transfer from Minnesota), Kevin Conley (transfer from DU), and Tyler Weiss (a Boston U. recruit who wasn't pursued after David Quinn left for the Rangers).
Taylor Ward was recruited during the Blais era (his dad played for Blais at North Dakota).
The "scoring by committee" we see is indicative of those lunch pail players for sure.
The question is whether or not this coaching staff can get us players of the same pro caliber as past forwards like Guentzel, Walters, Archibald, and Megna.
Kemp had success with lunch pail guys — the historical stats illustrate that point.
But... what worked for Kemp in mid-1990s and early-2000s CCHA play might not work in a conference like the NCHC.
I think Miami in recent seasons is an example of this. Enrico Blasi's Miami teams had a terrific amount of success during the decade immediately preceding the formation of the NCHC — but fell apart when the conference formed.
Part of the reason is that the CCHA (during those years) was basically a conference that had 2-3 really "good" teams annually, with the rest being fairly "middle of the road."
As a result, you didn't need blue chip talent to compete. You could stay in the mix with those gritty "characters with character" that Kemp liked to recruit.
Changes to the game have definitely occurred in the past 15-20 years — in terms of conference alignment and the game in general (ex. it's harder to play a physical brand of hockey without spending the game in the box).
Certainly, the NCHC concentrated an incredible amount of pro-caliber talent in its 8 member schools.
The challenge for this coaching staff has been the fact that none of the coaches (other than Jerrard) had NCAA recruiting experience coming in.
Any recruiter can spot talent, but the bigger challenge is whether or not they can "close the deal" with top players out of the Minnesota high school hockey ranks (which is where a lot of the talent in this conference comes from).
I had hoped they'd bring in an assistant like fmr. Maverick Rob Facca, who had been an assistant at Northern Michigan and at Western Michigan (and recruited a number of players on the Broncos' Frozen Four team last season) and is currently a scout in the NHL.
A lot of this business is about personal connections — who you know as opposed to what you know.
Looking at recruiting the next few seasons, it appears we will be getting more players out of the Canadian ranks. Again, it's sort of a throwback to the early years of the UNO Hockey program.
The key question is whether the strategy will work. Leagues like the BCHL and AJHL have talent — the question is whether or not we will get the best talent out of the league. The other question is whether or not they have equivalent talent to the USHL (which is debatable from season to season).
It'll be fascinating to see....