Freshman versus Graduate students

We seem to have traded having any sort of a useful freshman class for instead utilizing grad transfers and our own graduates extending their time here.
I am curious as to some of the reasons for this model of roster construction.

I know Jackson appreciates the experience, as well as the obvious physical maturity in guys who are 23, 24 or even 25 years old versus freshmen who may only be 18 or 19 when the first puck drops. I don't know if his philosophy was always looking in this direction because over the years there has been great debate among the coaching staffs of NCAA teams about the notion of 24 and 25 year olds competing against much younger players. Riley Sheahan wasn't even old enough to vote when he first took the ice for Notre Dame. I wonder about the viability of it though and also wonder if it was done to plug holes in recruiting. Looking around the rest of the conference and the NCAA in general and you see huge contributions from freshmen for almost every team.

Our freshman class has seen the ice for a total of 18 games and managed 2 total points among the three who have skated (looking at skaters not goalies). 5 of the other 6 teams in the conference all have multiple freshmen among their top-10 in scoring and a couple have leading scorers who are freshmen. Only Penn State does not, but their freshman have played twice as many games as Notre Dame's and have contributed 14 points. Michigan State has turned around years of struggling with 2 freshmen leading them in scoring. The 6 teams in the top-10 in KRACH other than Big 10 teams all have freshmen in their top-10 in scoring as well.

One of the things about college sports that I find meaningful was watching players grow and mature into the game, seeing how they turned raw talent into something more, watching them mentor the younger players. If we are not getting these players as freshman, we don't get their leadership as juniors and seniors. Every bit as much as players like Jake Evans, Bobby Nardella and Jordan Gross or going back further to players like Erik Condra, T.J. Jindra, Mark Van GUilder or Justin White meant on the ice, they meant that much and more on the bench and in the locker room and during practices.

Chase Primeau is having a decent year for Notre Dame and he's been a pretty good addition to the squad, but that's all it is going to be. I don't know if relying on guys coming to Notre Dame for 1 year as 25 year olds is really the path to championships.

Grads prob best option when roster was built last April/May

We had great success last year with Grads. It clearly hasn’t worked out nearly as well this year.

Primeau has been good after a slow start. Brinkman isn’t close to what Karashik gave us last year. Bavaro has been OK.

Pierson has been the biggest disappointment by far. He is getting prime minutes usually on Slaggert’s line and he’s a wing on PP1, but not producing anything at all. He is getting good looks. He gets the puck on net but can’t get it in net. His career shooting % has been in the mid-teens most seasons which is usually what you want to see from legit goal-scorers, so there is still a chance he may break out of his funk. Given the prime roles JJ keeps giving him, there's clearly an expectation he'll break out of the funk at some point.

I don’t think the 5th year/transfer options are given out indiscriminately to any player that wants it (see Pivonka and Burke).

Cooley/McGroarty decommits left unexpected holes to fill in 22/23 class. Fleming's development went off=track unexpectedly which left another hole. Primeau/Pierson were the solutions.

In hindsight with the complete dumpster fire our forwards have been from top to bottom, Maddox Fleming and Brennan Ali probably should be on the team this year.

Ali played in high school last year, so he was pushed back a year prob to get better development/ice time in USHL. He’s a freak athlete that ended up with a top 3 performance at the NHL draft combine last year. Physically he is ready for NCAA, but they probably didn’t want him to jump straight from high school competition to NCAA.

Fleming was in the doghouse last season with NTDP and left to USHL mid-season. He was just starting to play well at the end of the year and regaining confidence. Likely thought it’d be better to get more icetime in USHL this year.

Tough to tell for sure, but I expect a large freshman class next season. Ali and Fleming are likely coming. Cole Knuble is off to a dominant start in USHL (it’s criminal he wasn’t drafted last year). Recruiting sites show Danny Nelson coming in 24/25, but he just signed his LOI (which I believe is a sign he accelerated his academics and is now a senior) which makes me think he’s coming next year. On D, Paul Fischer should be at ND next year. Henry Nelson has been hurt so far, but think his USHL eligibility may be up so he should come next year.

Less heralded signees that are possibilities for 23/24 include Carter Slaggert. He has the same gritty/feisty playstyle as his brothers but smaller and not as much skill. He could probably use more time in USHL, but given the last name he might be in the class. Jack Larrigan hasn’t done a lot in USHL. Think he has another year of eligibility there. I don’t think Jayden Davis can play another year in USHL, so if he’s coming I think it has to be next year.

We will [rpb have a big freshman class next year and I expect them to contribute. That likely means less reliance on portal/5th years (and so far there aren’t many guys on this year’s team that deserve a 5th year). Ali/Knuble/D. Nelson are likely the highlights and most likely to contribute right away. Fleming/Fischer aren’t far behind.

This season it seems like underperforming upper classmen are getting too much preferential treatment over the younger players. If they earn the icetime, then jrs/srs should get priority. But many aren’t earning it.

Mastrodomenico has been good for a freshman and he brings speed that is lacking on the backend. He hasn’t played in a couple weeks. Maybe he’s injured, but if not he should be in the lineup over Blackmun and/or Plucinski.

Williams hasn’t showed a lot, although he did score his first goal last weekend.

Other than a few brief flashes, no forward line has shown any reliable chemistry all season. Adams was benched for a couple games until the second Mich game when he was paired with Carpenter and Jovanovic (1st time Niko suited up). That line actually produced some consistent offense – rang the pipe early and then scored a goal later with beautiful plays from all 3 F’s.

Inexplicably Adams/Jovanovic were benched again the first OSU game. They suited up for the second game and scored the only goal. It'll be a mistake if they aren't regulars going forward.

Thanks, always appreciate your recruiting analysis *

I’d like to think that our over reliance on grad transfers

is one or two seasons thing, presuming we can keep the incoming class together.

I think it also worth pointing out that there is a tendency to think of hockey freshman as 18 year olds. In reality, many are older - in MSU’s case none are under 20. (MSU also have five grad/upperclassmen transfers on their roster.)

I think that in either case, the clock is ticking; whether they are an older kid enrolling as a freshman or coming into the program as a grad student they may not be around long enough to leave their mark on the locker room.

We are probably not ever going to be a destination for many

guys who will end up one and done. But the sport still has plenty of ultra-productive upperclassmen and other upperclassmen who mean way more than what their play on the ice brings, and who are traditional three and four-year guys at the school they started with.

Our best teams have had a mix of experienced juniors and seniors (some leading the team in scoring, but always leading the team in all of the important intangibles) and some brash top-flight college hockey players who were freshmen and sophomores. We don't get to the 2008, 2011 and 2018 FFs without seniors like walk-on Mark Van Guilder, Ryan Guentzel or Jordan Gross and Jake Evans.

The sport may be changing and right now I'm of two minds. One, I hate change and two, it might be changing to a model that Notre Dame won't succeed with.

I have a bad memory but I believe Jackson did mention

the age of Mankato and some other teams we have faced in the tournament being a challenge (he spoke at our Club dinner before the U of MN games). No clue whether that has influenced that aspect of our roster makeup/usage, or if recruiting has been challenged by late defections or other issues as well (he also mentioned some unnamed players he was unable to recruit due to academics). Obviously U of MN is young and talented and our age did not help in that series. Overall I still have faith in Jackson. I don't see a Motzko upgrade that is low hanging fruit, and as great as our facilities are, the support level (fan base, athletic department) is nothing close to the other current elite programs. I feel your frustration, but this is not the first season where we have struggled under Jackson, and he has brought us out the other side many times (unlike any of his predecessors).

Remember the 2010-11 class that had 11 freshmen on the

Roster (Anders Lee, Bryan Rust, TJ Tynan, Stephen Johns, and others) and made it to the Frozen Four. Doubt we will ever see something like that again. It's amazing when you look at some of the incoming Rosters on College Hockey News that several schools have incoming Rosters of 15 freshmen, although I suspect most won't play.

With two of them - Tynan and Lee - leading the team in

scoring. I think we’ve only had two other seasons since then where we’ve had two 20 goal scorers on the team at the same time.