There’s a lot to cover here. I apologize for how long it took, but I wanted to get a look at what was going to happen in the transfer portal (I did not see what happened coming, promise!).
Anyway, another hockey season has come and gone for UMD.
For first-year coach Laura Schuler, it was an unqualified success. For 25th-year head coach Scott Sandelin, it might not have been a great year in terms of wins and losses, but after welcoming 11 freshmen and using most of them in very prominent roles basically the entire season, he comes away encouraged by what basically all of them showed.
9 THOUGHTS
1. Let’s address the elephant in the room first. This past week, the UMD men lost five players in the transfer portal, on top of the six players who were graduating and moving on from the program.
Sophomore forward Matthew Perkins (1-4-5 in 29 games this past season) decided to move on, along with junior forward Kyle Bettens (1-5-6 in 32 games), junior forward Jack Smith (4-5-9 in 33 games), junior defenseman Aiden Dubinsky (4-10-14 in 36 games), and junior goalie Zach Sandy (.859 save percentage in four games, two starts).
Dubinsky averaged over 20 minutes of ice time per game, playing extensive minutes on UMD’s penalty kill in addition to his top four defensive duties. Smith was up near 14 minutes a game, mostly centering UMD’s third line and helping anchor the kill. Bettens averaged around 12 minutes a game but was scratched twice down the stretch and mostly didn’t play much when he was in the lineup. Same for Perkins, who averaged over 11 minutes per game but was routinely playing ten or fewer in his second half appearances.
Talking to me earlier this week, Sandelin called them “surprise losses,” and did say he and his staff would “get into the portal” to find at least a couple replacements.
“I said we’re going to use the portal. as we need to use it,” he said Thursday on my radio show. “So we’re going through that right now. We’ve got three forwards right now that we signed and we’ve got two defensemen. So we’re on the prowl to fill a couple of spots right now.
“You never want to see players leave, but we got to go and move forward with what we have.”
2. What does next season’s roster look like? Once it’s finalized, I’ll do the normal exercise of projecting the lines and pairings, but we can get a decent gander at things right now.
UMD has signed the following players to play for the team in the future (courtesy of Matt Wellens, and I always recommend you follow him for updated recruiting news):
Forward
Ashton Dahms (USHL Tri-City)
Daniel Shlaine (USHL Lincoln)
Ryan Zaremba (USHL Fargo)
Defenseman
Jacob Toll (USHL Muskegon)
Sandelin talked about Shlaine with me on the radio, and he’s talked about Toll coming in for next season.
Shlaine is the brother of graduated Arizona State forward Artem Shlaine, who had an outstanding season for the Sun Devils on his way to being an NCHC Player of the Year finalist. He signed with the Texas Stars after the season ended.
Daniel Shlaine played for Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Faribault, an outstanding program (Artem played there as well). He’s put together a great season for the Lincoln Stars, who have been atop the USHL for much of the season.
“He’s really done well for first year junior player,” Sandelin said of the younger Shlaine. “Bigger center man, real good brain, hopefully he’s going to continue to grow. Real heady player.
“We like players who come from Shattuck. They know how to win, they’re disciplined. They’re just in a good environment there. He’s playing with a couple of our other recruits in Lincoln, probably the best team in the league. So hopefully they can make a long run and he can come in as a Clark Cup champion.”
On the radio, Sandelin also talked about Grayden Siepmann, a defenseman playing in the Western Hockey League for Saskatoon who is expected to come in next season. More on him coming up. Up front, UMD recently flipped forward Hunter Anderson (USHL Lincoln), who has not signed yet but is expected in for next season.
It’s safe to say that Shlaine, Siepmann, and Toll are coming in next season. Goalie Cole Sheffield committed to UMD this week, and is expected to be the replacement for Sandy on the roster. Beyond that, things are up in the air.
With the portal departures, UMD is losing 11 players, six forwards, four defensemen, and a goalie. UMD chose to keep nine defensemen for 2024-25, normally Sandelin would have eight, and with the House settlement on the way as soon as this coming week, UMD will eventually be limited to 26 rostered players, ideally a combination of 15 forwards, eight defensemen, and three goalies, so we’ll use that format to lay out what things might look like.
UMD’s returning forwards are juniors Braden Fischer and Anthony Menghini; sophomores Callum Arnott, Blake Bechen, Harper Bentz, Max Plante, Zam Plante, Jayson Shaugabay, and Trevor Stachowiak. That’s nine players, when 15 would be ideal. Assuming Anderson and Shlaine come in, that leaves four holes. Dahms and Zaremba are signed, but Sandelin has hinted one or both could return for one more year of junior hockey seasoning, as both are eligible. UMD also has recently committed Kade Kohanski, a Hermantown native and forward playing with Shlaine and Anderson in Lincoln. Kohanski also has junior eligibility left, but could also come in this fall.
So technically, UMD could fill three holes with Dahms, Kohanski, and Zaremba, leaving one hole to fill via further recruiting or the portal.
On the back end, UMD has a commitment from Keith McInnis, a defenseman playing for the Brooks Bandits of the BCHL. McInnis turned 19 in January, so he absolutely has another year of junior eligibility. It seems like the Bulldogs would prefer he used it. Dubinsky’s departure leaves a hole on the blue line that, again, would need to be filled via the portal or recruiting.
3. What kind of players would UMD be targeting? This is purely speculation, but to help us along that dangerous adventure, let’s look at a possible depth chart that features the new and returning defensemen. Before we get there, here’s what Sandelin said about Siepmann on my show this week.
“Real good skater, very mobile defenseman, runs a power play,” Sandelin said. “He was a first round pick in the Western Hockey League Bantam draft. I think he’s going to be in our top four or five potentially. I think he’ll fit in with the style that he plays. He’s a good puck moving defenseman with mobility and some offensive upside. I think that’ll help our back end a lot.”
Ty Hanson – Adam Kleber
Aaron Pionk – Grayden Siepmann
Jacob Toll – Joey Pierce/transfer
Riley Bodnarchuk – transfer/Joey Pierce
As you can see, if Siepmann is able to earn top four minutes, there really isn’t room for a high-profile transfer.
Up front might be a little bit tougher to get a read.
Assuming you keep Plante/Plante/Shaugabay together (and even though I suggested the possibility on the Bulldog Insider season finale like an idiot, why wouldn’t you?), that leaves a line chart of players we know will be around that looks like this:
Max Plante – Zam Plante – Jayson Shaugabay
Anthony Menghini – Callum Arnott – Harper Bentz
Blake Bechen – Daniel Shlaine – Hunter Anderson
Braden Fischer – Trevor Stachowiak
It looks like UMD might want to fortify its wings a bit, maybe try to find a bit more skill there, and perhaps one more depth guy in the middle of the ice.
4. Before we move on, one more plead to all of you. Well, two, really. As I’ve said in the past, let’s wish the departing players well. Life is too short to be angry about everything all the time, and the vast majority of players in men’s college hockey are not going to have notable professional careers. If they play pro hockey, it will likely be 1) brief, and 2) not for a lot of money, and simply because they want to continue to play.
If they feel they need to move on from UMD to maximize what is left of their hockey-playing careers, they should be able to do without UMD fans filling their DMs with dumb messages.
Also, please understand — and I’ll say this as many time as I need to, I guess — the transfer portal is not going away. It’s existed as a clearinghouse of sorts since 2018, but the NCAA was forced by litigation to adopt a one-time transfer rule in 2021 that has since evolved. That’s when the portal really became a thing.
The portal might be ruining college sports in your eyes and many others. You’re allowed to feel that way. But understand that the NCAA is not going back.
And, honestly, it probably shouldn’t be. If your favorite team had the choice between keeping players on the roster who weren’t happy and letting them go in favor of different players who want to play there, which would you pick?
We lived in a system that was not player-friendly for a long time. Is this one too player-friendly? Yes, almost undeniably. Are there issues with tampering that need to be fixed to give some sustainability to what we have in place? Yes, almost undeniably. But this is what we have. The portal is not going away, and I’m not sure what changes can be made that wouldn’t eventually be undone in court.
5. As for the season, it was a great opportunity for a lot of young players to get better, albeit not in a winning campaign. It’s easy to dismiss it as another 20-loss season that ended short of the NCAA Tournament, and surely Sandelin and his staff and players are frustrated, but that would not do justice to what we saw from some of these kids.
“It’s tough,” Sandelin said. “I felt we were a better team. I thought we could have been in that home ice hunt and maybe in the NCAA picture, but we didn’t. So it stings. And I know there’s a lot of guys that are coming back that want to help change that. And I think we’re excited about that part of it, but in saying that it’s still a tough road.”
While UMD was slightly down in terms of its per-game offensive production (2.78 goals per game to 2.75), there were positive signs. The Bulldogs were regularly outshot in 2023-24, but turned that around in 2024-25. In 2023-24, UMD outshot its opponent at even strength in 17 of 37 games (season average was 24-21 for the adversary). This past season, it happened 20 times in 36 games (season average was 27-23 in UMD’s favor).
And it was mostly young players driving the bus. UMD was set to return about three-fourths of its goal scoring next season, but even after the five players went in the portal, that number only dipped to about 65 percent.
Max Plante really lived up to the billing, despite missing 13 games with an upper-body injury suffered in the season opener. He didn’t look like he’d missed a beat when he returned, and he finished with 28 points in 23 games. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when you look at what UMD’s youth did to start their college careers.
“I think they proved they can play here,” Sandelin said of his standout freshmen. “Obviously, they all need really good summers to continue to get stronger. It was fun to watch the daily, the weekly, monthly progression of a lot of those freshmen. Max certainly, like you mentioned, missed him for 13 games, but he had a real impact every game. They all showed that they can play and contribute at this level.”
6. Sandelin is not one to publicly criticize his goaltenders, or any player for that matter. But he was less willing than usual to hold back before the second game of UMD’s playoff series at Arizona State. Freshman Adam Gajan allowed three iffy goals in the 4-3 Friday loss to the Sun Devils, with the second and third goals being the most glaring.
“At times, I thought we were the better team,” Sandelin said of the Friday game. “I didn’t like our start. We needed a couple saves. I thought there were two really bad goals that our goaltender needs to make the save on.”
Sandelin stuck with Gajan for the Saturday game, as Knapp had just recently recovered from an injury suffered in practice before the Miami series. He was dressed as the backup goalie in Arizona.
Leading 3-0 into the second period of the Saturday game, UMD coughed up the lead by the time the second period was five minutes old. Looking back, it’s hard to pin any of the goals on Gajan. The first came during a delayed penalty after ASU sustained a ton of zone time with the extra skater. The other two came off bad or weird bounces. Gajan had played a great first period to help UMD to that lead, which shouldn’t be forgotten.
But Ryan Kirwan’s winner in overtime was not a good goal. And it was a bit of a theme for UMD’s goalies throughout the season. Per College Hockey News’ numbers, UMD conceded 12.9 goals above expected for the season (Knapp was basically at his expected goals allowed number, Gajan gave up 10.6 above expected, Sandy 2.6). Imagine UMD getting outscored 104-99 on the season instead of 117-99. Think the final result might have been a bit different?
As I said on the air after the last game, UMD has to find a way to improve its play between the pipes. It will seek mostly internal improvement, with MJHL goalie Cole Sheffield replacing Sandy on the roster.
“Both of them had some really good moments,” Sandelin said at his end-of-year media conference in late March, “but it needs a lot more consistency. And that position to me is so crucial, especially as you get into the playoffs. Listen, a good goalie can make a coach look really good, right? I’m just going to flat out tell you that, but you can go the other way too. They’re capable. They have to more consistency but it certainly needs to be better. We can’t be at under 90 save percentage as a group. You got to be over 90, closer to 91, 92.”
(UMD finished at .887 in 2024-25, second-worst in the NCHC and tied for seventh-worst nationally.)
Assistant coach Brant Nicklin, now full-time on staff after years of service as a volunteer goalie coach, is charged with leading the way here. Sandelin trusts his entire staff, and Nicklin has earned the runway necessary to get the group playing at a higher level.
7. The UMD women finished a win short of the Frozen Four, and a team that graduated nine outstanding seniors and fifth-year players has some holes to fill.
First-year head coach Laura Schuler heaped praise on everyone.
“It was an incredible year,” she said. “I’m so proud of our student athletes. Their commitment to excellence in everything that they do, whether it was a classroom, community, or on the ice was exceptional. We had exceptional buy-in from everybody, our staff, our administration, our support staff, our student athletes. Honestly, I think it was one of the most fun years that I’ve ever had in hockey. Obviously, we fell a week short of what we wanted to do. But I couldn’t be more proud of everybody, our entire program and everything that they, everyone did in order to get us to where we got to.”
There are clear challenges for Schuler and her staff as they look to build the team for 2025-26. UMD played short-handed for much of the season, only having ten forwards at the max during the second half of the season.
And Schuler is trying to restock this roster ahead of an Olympic year. The 2026 Games take place in Italy next February, and they will present big-time challenges and tough decisions for UMD.
The PWHL’s existence means that the U.S. and Canada will not centralize their national teams, a move that allowed UMD to roster Elizabeth Giguere as a fifth-year transfer from Clarkson in 2021-22 while Ashton Bell centralized with Team Canada heading into the Olympics. Instead, any players who leave for the Olympics will be gone for some time beforehand for a pre-Olympics camp, and gone for the Games themselves.
Making things more fun: Schuler and other NCAA coaches are going into their offseasons without knowing exact dates for anything but the Olympics themselves. Nor do they know for sure if there will be any kind of break in the regular season schedule.
Ever pragmatic, Schuler simply said “No matter what, we’re probably going to be missing some players next year, but so are a lot of other teams in the WCHA.”
(It would make great sense to start the season earlier and take a break in late January until late February, but that might not be practical within the NCAA structure. I just work here.)
8. UMD has eight freshmen signed for next season after losing ten players (nine graduated, while freshman forward Reece Logan is in the transfer portal). Schuler has also secured commitments from three transfers: Minnesota freshman defender Katie Kosobud, Ohio State freshman forward Josie St. Martin, and Cornell senior defender Ashley Messier, who has a fifth year because of a medical waiver.
Six of the eight are forwards: Madison Burr, Molly Cole, Ava MacLeod, Rae Mayer, Ella Pukala, and Ellie Zakrajsheck. Also signed are defender Linnea Natt och Dag of Sweden and goalie Sophia Villanueva.
Add three transfers and eight freshmen, and you have a group of 11 newcomers to replace 10 departures. That makes it pretty likely that Schuler isn’t done in the transfer portal, despite her stated preference to go the Sandelin route, one I like to call “draft and develop” in honor of longtime Packers GM Ted Thompson, who looked at free agency the way I look at a bowl of salad. No thanks, I’ll just go hungry.
Anyway, I don’t expect UMD to hit the House settlement-mandated roster limit of 26 players (even before last year’s anomalously small roster, the UMD women rarely have fielded a roster as large as 26), but I do think UMD will need to add a couple more players through the portal. And if you think Eve Gascon is going to make the Canadian Olympic team, you might need to think about adding another goalie who has starting experience, something that neither backups Villanueva nor Anna Byczek have.
UMD has Gascon set to return after an outstanding sophomore campaign that saw her earn first-team All American honors while winning WCHA Goalie of the Year (don’t ask me about the national award, this entry has already gone long enough and such a conversation would add a good 500-1000 more words). Caitlin Kraemer won Julie Chu Rookie of the Year from the Hockey Commissioners Association and was named USCHO Rookie of the Year. She’s back as well.
MK O’Brien feels like a natural choice for captain, as she’s spent four years in the program and is highly respected, both in the room and on TikTok.
9. What’s left on the college hockey calendar? The Men’s Frozen Four is coming up in St. Louis, with defending national champion Denver joined by Boston University (third straight Frozen Four) and newcomers Penn State and Western Michigan.
Sucks that Denver and Western play in the first semifinal Thursday, but it does guarantee that the NCHC will have a team in the national championship game for the seventh time in the last eight tournaments (the NCHC owned the final in 2017, when Denver beat UMD).
Very cool to see two first-timers, something we haven’t gotten in one Frozen Four in 12 years.
Anyway, the coaches get together for the annual convention in Naples shortly after the Frozen Four. It’s not a rule change year, but we’ll see what all is talked about there. The NCHC will finalize and announce its conference schedule for 2025-26 the week after the Frozen Four, and UMD should announce its full schedule not long after that. The WCHA usually follows a similar schedule, and so we should have both schedules without much wait time. Remember, the UMD women have a trip to Ireland next January, so we’ll see how things are structured around that.
As for the blog, we usually don’t publish much in the offseason. If there’s enough news to warrant something, it’ll be here. Otherwise, I’ll usually come back with an update at some point in the summer, typically trying to plan that around the midpoint of the offseason.
Thanks to all who stop by and read the blog. It’s something I really enjoy doing, especially during game weeks, as it helps me organize my mind with regards to storylines heading into weekend series.
Enjoy the Frozen Four, NHL playoffs, and hopefully everyone is able to get some quality time — either indoors or outdoors — in the spring and summer.
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