Welcome to July, and welcome to the exact midway point of the UMD men’s hockey offseason.
As summer gets cranked up around Duluth (until the wind shifts), we’re back with our traditional mid-summer look at what’s been going on.
While UMD ended up having quite the quiet offseason in terms of roster upheaval, it’s been a chaotic time for the stewards of college hockey. Lots of thoughts on that to come here. This is going to be rambling, meandering, stream-of-consciousness stuff, so proceed at your own risk. As usual.
10 THOUGHTS
1. First, a note on the column name change. This is the, I think, fourth year of this column format, which was blatantly stolen from SportsNet’s Elliotte Friedman. It’s always been patterned after the number of teams in the NCHC. So when it went to nine, we changed to 9 Thoughts.
Well, as of July 1, that number is now 10.
We welcome the University of St. Thomas into college’s hockey’s best league. Excited to see what the Tommies are able to do in the NCHC. It’s been a great transition for Rico Blasi ever since he was hired to lead the charge from Division III to Division I, even though the last two years have fallen just short of their NCAA Tournament debut.
There’s a time and place to try to prognosticate and see where we think UST will land in their NCHC debut.
This is not that time. Hopefully, Tommies fans are psyched today.
2. It’s not lost on me that a postseason 9 Thoughts sat in drafts for three months. Yeah, sorry about that.
I kept waiting for things to settle, but the whole age-based eligibility thing didn’t settle for-freaking-ever. Yeah, I could have given you a couple thousand words of analysis about an awesome season that fell just short of a trek to Vegas. And much of this column will be about that.
But whatever was started in April is gone forever.
Trust me, there wasn’t much going on with it. Yet.
3. In terms of the roster for 2026-27, this has been a remarkably quiet offseason for UMD. After a couple years of transfer portal madness, Scott Sandelin and his staff only had to replace one portal loss, and there were no players added late to fill out the roster for the upcoming season.
In an era where players are leaving school left and right to seek better opportunity — either a better system fit or more ice time or a combination of both — UMD only lost one player who had eligibility to return for next season. That was freshman forward Daniel Shlaine, who had ten points in 37 games but never really carved out a consistent role with last year’s Bulldogs. He moved to Arizona State, where his older brother, Artem, finished his college career with an All-NCHC season in 2024-25.
There were players I thought would be candidates to go in the portal, players who could have sought better opportunity on a different campus. No one did, except Shlaine, who likely looked at Arizona State’s depth chart at center amid a bunch more turnover there and thought there was a huge opportunity there.
4. UMD did add a pair of transfers in St. Cloud State forward Barrett Hall and Alaska forward Peyton Platter. I had a chance to visit with the two of them last month when UMD brought in its players for a couple weeks.
Here’s Platter.
And Hall.
(Stick around on the Hall one and hear from freshman defenseman Keith McInnis about his Memorial Cup experience.)
Anyway, Hall made it clear he sees himself as a wing, he wasn’t planning to leave SCSU until Brett Larson took the Minnesota job, and he was dead-set on staying in the NCHC once he did decide to go in the portal.
Platter grew up in Eau Claire, and he decided after two years at Alaska that it was time to challenge himself in a different situation. Getting recruited by UMD, which is less than a three hour drive from his family’s home, was a bonus in the matter.
5. UMD’s roster has basically been set since it added Hall and Platter in the portal, but that isn’t necessarily for a lack of trying. UMD has 26 players, which is the NCAA-mandated limit in men’s hockey, but the Bulldogs have the flexibility to add another player because they have one “Designated Student Athlete” on the roster. I’m not going to try to explain the concept, but the gist of it is that a DSA basically doesn’t count as a roster spot, so UMD could have a 27th player if it desired.
And that allowed UMD to take a run at the top recruit on the market this spring.
Everett Silvertips (WHL) defenseman Landon DuPont committed to Michigan recently, where he’ll play his draft year before possibly being the No. 1 pick of the 2027 NHL Draft. Even going back to the NCAA Albany Regional, it felt like Michigan was favored to get him, so the fact the Wolverines eventually landed him is not a shock.
But it was interesting to see it noted by The Athletic that UMD reached out to DuPont’s camp, “late in the process,” as it was worded in the story.
While it isn’t clear how seriously UMD was interested or what could have been told to DuPont and his people about usage and role and such, the Bulldogs’ history with developing defensemen certainly should have piqued the player’s interest.
Will UMD still add to the roster? If the situation is right, I could see it. But it would have to be right, because everyone around the program is excited with what they already have.
6. Undoubtedly, the Plante brothers are driving this bus. After traveling to Buffalo to watch youngest brother Victor get taken by the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL Draft on Saturday, Zam Plante headed to Pittsburgh for Penguins development camp, while Victor and Max went to Detroit camp.
The three were separated by a scant 268 miles and four hours and change of drive time, and they’ve sent some barbs back and forth from that distance this week, as chronicled by Matt Wellens.
You’ve got Max Plante in front of assembled media in Detroit, suggesting Zam simply graduate and head their way in free agency the following summer. It’s tampering if a GM says such a thing. It’s hilarious if a player’s younger brother does.
Zam Plante said nice things about the Penguins when asked about his brother’s comments, while probably gritting his teeth at Max saying the quiet part out loud. 😂
7. I’m not doing a line projection now, but there’s one huge question I wanted to express some thoughts on.
Who are the centers?
We know Zam Plante is one of them. I’m pretty sure Callum Arnott will be one. But Kyle Gaffney and Kyler Kovich both graduated, and Shlaine went in the portal. Hall said he sees himself as a wing and only as a wing, so that probably takes him out of the running unless he’s talked into moving back to the middle.
Platter appears to be ticketed for a bottom six center role, either on the third or fourth line. But if Zam Plante and Arnott are your top two, that leaves a spot.
What about Jayson Shaugabay? The brothers have not been quiet or subtle about their desire to play together, and if you pencil in Zam centering Max and Victor as the top line, you’ve displaced Shaugabay, fair or not.
From past conversations with the coaches, I think there’s a belief Shaugabay could handle the responsibility that comes with playing center. He’s got a great defensive stick, he’s a really heady player both with and without the puck, and UMD has so many wings who can make plays that it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to find linemates who click with him.
Going to be interesting to see where this leads us in September, as practices get cranked up.
8. Around the NCHC, we’ve seen enough to know that the league is going to be as good as ever this season. UMD returns nearly everyone, solidified its top six with Hall, added important depth with Platter, gets Ty Hanson/Adam Kleber/Aaron Pionk/Grayden Siepmann/Brady Cleveland back to form a very tough top five on the blue line. While Adam Gajan signed, UMD is excited to add freshman goalie Carl Axelsson, drafted last weekend by Utah. An NCHC finalist should be in the mix for at least that once again.
But look around. Denver is freaking loaded on that blue line, thanks to some strong CHL additions, and Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player Johnny Hicks is now the unquestioned starting goalie. North Dakota added the Carson Carels, another first-rounder, on defense, and Dane Jackson has as good and deep a forward group as anywhere in the country. Western Michigan also has some top CHL talent, including Wild draft pick Adam Benak up front, and the Broncos added Denver transfer Quentin Miller in goal. Miller started ahead of Hicks until he was injured in January, then only lost his job because Hicks was as good as he was.
Miami’s Ilya Morozov parlayed being the youngest player in the country last year into being a first-round pick last week, and the RedHawks added more talent as they try to crack the top five and earn home ice for the first time since 2015.
(Remember, the ten team league is taking everyone for the playoffs, so the top five will get home ice in round one, not the top four.)
Who joins that home ice fight? Can Omaha and Colorado College overcome losing bell-cow goalies who served as captains last season? Can St. Cloud State bounce back from losing Larson and make a run under new coach Nick Oliver? Will Arizona State contend after turning over more than half the roster … again? What will St. Thomas look like in its debut?
It’s going to be a fascinating season.
9. Behind the scenes, preparations are ongoing for UMD’s first-ever overseas trip. The Bulldogs will partake in the Friendship Four in Belfast over the American Thanksgiving weekend.
Our plans at the radio station are for me to be there, and we hope to be around all week to chronicle the Bulldogs’ historic (and likely once-in-a-lifetime) experiences.
UMD will get a day in Dublin before making the trek north to Belfast for the games that weekend. Providence, UConn, and Colgate are also heading over, with pairings and game times to be announced later.
(I’m presuming UMD will play Providence or UConn in the opener so as to avoid a matchup of Hockey East teams. But no one asked me.)
We’d love to see as many of you there as possible. Travel packages are available here.
10. As of this writing, there are still a few UMD alumni looking for new pro teams to play for, but a couple of them have moved to new homes.
2020 Hobey Baker Award winner Scott Perunovich signed a one-year, two-way deal with Los Angeles Wednesday, a deal that includes a minor-league salary of $650,000, a massive number. Perunovich was just short of 50 points last season for the Tucson Roadrunners (AHL affiliate of Utah).
Two-time national champion Riley Tufte inked a one-year, one-way deal with the New Jersey Devils. Tufte has played for three NHL organizations (Dallas, Colorado, and Providence), mostly for their AHL teams. A one-way deal means he’ll make his NHL salary of $850,000 even if he plays in the AHL.
Happy for both players, and hopefully the other alums who are free agents are able to find a place to play if that’s what they want.
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Next up for this blog will be a lineup projection, which we will save for August, once the roster is finalized by UMD. Barring news, that’ll be the next time you hear from me on here.
The radio show is on weekdays at 10am on KDAL. We’ll have increased hockey content as the season begins to approach, and we invite you to subscribe to our daily podcast.
In the meantime, enjoy a Northland summer!
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