Latest / The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey / Episode 20: Thoughts on the World Championship, transfer portal, Michigan's feasibility study

Transcript

Episode 20: Thoughts on the World Championship, transfer portal, Michigan's feasibility study · The PodKaz: USCHO Women's Hockey

0:03
Usccho dot com. Hi, and welcome to a special April edition of the
0:14
podcast. I'm Todd Maleuski here with Nicole Hasey, and we're in a little
0:18
bit of off season mode, but there's really never an off season here because
0:22
Nicole has recently gotten back from the World Championship in Utica, New York,
0:27
where Canada defeated the US for the gold medal. We'll get into that in
0:30
a minute. We've also got some talk coming about the Transfer Portal, which
0:35
continues to churn. I guess is maybe a good good word to use there.
0:41
I don't know if there is, but a lot of movement happening there,
0:44
as we've seen in the last couple of years, and we'll also get
0:47
into later in the show, so talk about what might be coming on the
0:51
horizon for a potential new program. So some interesting things happening there. But
0:57
Nicole, let's hear a little bit about what you experience in Utica. And
1:03
I guess how you thought that the tournament went off there? Yeah, so
1:08
I only went out for you know, quarterfinals, semifinals and metal rounds because
1:15
I go to you eighteens. It's hard to take another two weeks off in
1:18
April, so drove out there about thirteen hours each direction because I'm very Midwestern,
1:26
and also because by the time I took a couple flights out there.
1:29
There's also not an airport I guess in Utica, so you find to like
1:32
Syracuse or Rochester somewhere nearby and drive. So anyway, I drove the answer
1:37
everywhere there is flying to Syracuse and drunk. Yeah, so I was like,
1:41
well, if I'm going to do that, which would probably be a
1:42
minimum of two flights from here and not cheap Anyway, more, all of
1:46
the story I drove it was that was fine, better than I thought it
1:49
would be. But also I like, at this point, I'm kind of
1:53
like, where wouldn't I drive? It feels the most Midwestern thing about me.
1:57
But the tournament was great. I was, you know, I was
2:00
debating on going and dreading the dry in a little bit, but I also
2:05
knew that if I sat home watching those games on TV, I would have
2:08
like, I would so regret not being there. And then it turns out
2:13
that's really really true because that is single handedly the best hockey game, the
2:15
gold medal game, that I have ever watched. I had said at the
2:20
Frozen four that that championship game was one of the best games I'd ever watched,
2:23
and no offense to that game, because it was really good. This
2:25
blew it out of the water. The bronze medal game was also spectacular,
2:30
So just really special to be able to be in the building and be a
2:34
part of that and get to witness it in person. Really awesome to see
2:38
so many collegiate players or upcoming recruits have such a huge impact. Obviously,
2:44
really amazing to see Leila Edwards just really continue to break out of her shell.
2:50
I think, you know, sort of one of the under covered parts
2:53
of that story was that like she was playing on the fourth, fifth line,
2:55
she was playing limited minutes, so she did all that uh sort of
3:01
not going out there and do you know, like obviously that whole team is
3:05
stacked, but it's not like she was, you know, on the first
3:07
line and getting a ton of minutes, and so I think that's really important.
3:12
I think too, like you know, based on what John Robleski said
3:15
in a little bit of late from Leilah, like there's still like she got
3:19
he didn't stay benched, but like she she lost some minutes, Like there
3:22
were mistakes, there was learning to be done. She's still pretty young,
3:25
and so the fact that like she did all that sort of in amongst all
3:30
of those sort of pressures and things that she had to overcome, I think
3:34
is what makes it even more special that she was such a standout and yeah,
3:40
just really impressive and I'm excited to see I think one of my big
3:44
takeaways from all of that, from from talking to Robeleski a couple of times,
3:49
from watching what we did, is that I think USA really has like
3:53
a longer view on things that like, I don't think expressly that he made
3:57
this team being like these are the people I hope to be make my Olympic
4:00
team kind of thing. I don't think that was expressly the idea. But
4:02
also it wasn't it was not not the idea. They just there was there
4:08
was learning and growing and things to be done. And obviously I think you
4:12
know, what we learned when we talked about with like the rivalry series,
4:14
like the Americans are better with collegians on the team. But I just I
4:17
think that, you know, in the immediate aftermath of losing a gold medal
4:21
game, nobody really wants to get super introspective or wants to talk about it,
4:26
but I just like sort of the tenor I got of it is like
4:28
that there was a lot to be learned from what happened, and playing in
4:30
an environment like that it had been you know, they had many of those
4:34
players that never played in front of that many crowd meant that big of a
4:39
crowd that was for them, you know, like last year in Canada,
4:42
some of them had played, but it's it's different when everybody's steering for you.
4:45
And you know, even that last too many player penalty came partly because
4:49
they couldn't hear, like players couldn't hear to be called back to the engin
4:54
things like that. So yeah, I think what I took away from it
4:57
is is I think the collegians did really well and it was really cool that
5:00
after all the conversation about the US youngsters, that it was a not yet
5:05
graduated Canadian player Daniel Stirdacney from Coldiate that was the ultimate game winner. I
5:13
think when underrated. Part of that is she school scored with her back to
5:15
the goal and she never really turned and watched the puck going. I did
5:18
ask her whose face she saw that let her know that to start celebrating and
5:25
she said it was Sarah Nurse, but she didn't really remember. But yeah,
5:28
although that's a lot to say that, like that was some great a
5:30
hockey from several countries, if not all of the countries. There fun to
5:35
watch some of the players that we know are going to you know, have
5:39
committed to some of the more international, non North American players that have committed
5:43
to US universities. And I think that there is sort of even more to
5:47
watch from Team USA in terms of like what it looks like they're doing kind
5:53
of developing and growing, working towards sort of a bigger goal. Not that
5:58
they didn't worked to win this, but that I think there was sort of
6:03
none not like outcome specific things that they were working on and that they accomplished
6:12
by having this team in that position. One of the things that I kind
6:15
of left that tournament with watching from a distance was, you know, every
6:21
year, whether it's the World Championship or the Olympics, there's always you go
6:25
in there, there's some hand ringing over well, it's gonna be the US
6:28
and Canada. It's gonna be Canada. In the US, it's everyone else
6:30
is playing for third. And I'm guilty of that in my own mind if
6:34
nothing else, sometimes too of you know this, this is all heading towards
6:40
what seems like an inevitable conclusion of those the superpowers playing in the final.
6:48
I do feel like we're still in that. But the gap is I was
6:59
going to say, is narrowing. But it's like I don't I don't know
7:01
if I have great evidence like to put forward for it, but I feel
7:05
like it's happening. Yeah, it feels like when you're watching that those like
7:10
themes like three, four and five, that the the level of play is
7:14
higher than it's ever been. I mean, US and Hanna are on a
7:16
different plane than everyone else. We know that. And I don't know whether
7:23
we see in the near future where someone is able to regularly I guess challenge
7:30
that uh that status. But I feel like the that next group is is
7:41
becoming more competitive both with themselves and in in some of the games with with
7:46
the US and Cannon, and I think that's that's a great thing. I'd
7:49
love to we'd love to see it go from here. We want to see
7:53
it become more of a you know, a well rounded event, you know,
8:01
with with multiple countries having legitimate chances of winning. You know regularly,
8:07
you know, see we've seen it where you know, there's been upsets in
8:09
the semi finals and it's not always a US Canada final, but it does
8:15
feel like that's still the order. But you know, when we get into
8:18
that championship game and they are played like they were and as chaotic and as
8:26
beautifully chaotic, I guess maybe is a way of saying it. As that
8:30
game was. I'll still take that game, watching that game and watching those
8:33
two teams play any day of the week. That that's just what I came
8:37
out of that thing is like we need more of that. Yeah. Well,
8:41
what I think too is that like we were going to remember that gold
8:45
medal game, but like their premium game, which ended up one to zero
8:48
in overtime as a win for US, was also an amazing game in a
8:54
completely different way. And the fact that those two teams can play a one
8:58
oh game in a six to five game and you know, within a span
9:01
of less than a week, like it was, Yeah, it was really
9:03
it just was really good. And I think two one of the big things
9:07
is that, like I said, three, four and five, but honestly
9:09
three through seven were competitive, Like Germany came out of that B group and
9:15
was super competitive. And obviously that has to do with Sondra obstrator in goal,
9:20
right, Like she was spectacular made a huge but like all of the
9:24
teams used to be that, like if you had a great goal, you
9:28
might eke out a win. But like they're also building up enough offense that
9:31
they can score goals, and they can they can sort of consistently get those
9:35
performances and it isn't just that they're having a great goaltender, right that,
9:37
There's there's more that's like there's a deeper well to dig from, and you
9:43
know, like Sweden had one bad game and that pretty much ruined their tournament,
9:48
right, Like they lost a one OHO game I think it was one
9:50
O game to Germany and then like they weren't even in contention for talking about
9:54
Group A. I mean that's the kind of unfathomable that were like a team
9:58
like that we know is so good that we you know, we saw their
10:01
U eighteens upset the Americans last year in twenty twenty three, Like there's there.
10:07
Sweden has put a ton of effort into growing their women's program in the
10:11
past past couple of years and have put a ton have been putting their money
10:13
where their mouth is and talking about doing stuff for the future. And that's
10:18
a team that like struggled to get out of Group B. So to me,
10:22
that's part of that conversation that like maybe maybe Germany like eighteen six and
10:28
seven right, which in this case would be Germany and Sweden, maybe they
10:31
aren't you know, up at Chechia's place yet or Finland's place yet, But
10:35
I think on any given day, any one of those teams can beat each
10:39
other, and that is huge and makes like that is such a growth from
10:45
where we were even just a few years ago. You talked about coming out
10:48
of the U eighteens earlier in the year, just after New Year, about
10:54
how you see the future of college jockey as part of that tournament, not
10:58
just yous and Canada we're talking now. It's gone much more beyond that.
11:03
And you mentioned a few minutes ago too that at the World Championship, to
11:07
the full World Championship, you get a lot of that future too. You
11:11
get the current, the past, the current and and a lot of the
11:16
European countries some some level of college future. Right, What anything stand out
11:26
to you there in terms of you know players to look for, or even
11:31
just countries to look for. I guess in the future of where where college
11:37
recruiters and coaches will be looking to see the next round of players coming from
11:46
besides the US and Canada obviously. Yeah. I think one of the big
11:48
things, honestly is just that we were talking about collegiate the collegiate game just
11:54
it was generally happening in the mixed own. It was coming like questions between
11:58
reporters or conversations, but also questions to coaches and players. So just that
12:03
the the NCAA and then like sort of I have talked about it as this,
12:07
you know, as the development program that everybody's using since like maybe like
12:13
twenty seventeen I wrote that first article. So the fact that it's just sort
12:16
of an accepted part of the conversation now was interesting to me. The other
12:20
is that I think, like particularly a tournament like this in the US,
12:26
like there were tons of college coaches there, which just opens up that door
12:30
so much for players that might not have been a part of you know,
12:35
been in the conversation to come over here, and I think, you know,
12:37
the opportunity to meet and talk to those coaches or maybe even go.
12:41
I mean, we were within I think it's like less than two hours of
12:46
like three or four D one programs up there, like Cornell and Colgate.
12:50
And it turns out Clarkson is really really it was still like three hours north
12:54
of us. Like I knew that it Clarkson was in the middle of nowhere
12:58
upstate New York, but wow, I felt like I was way out,
13:01
like and it is, But I digress. There's just there were a lot
13:03
of uh and then there obviously there's a ton of the three programs up there
13:07
too. So I just think I think the U eight teens in Madison a
13:11
few years ago made big inroads for the idea of coming to the NCAA for
13:18
players that maybe weren't already having that conversation, players from places maybe outside of
13:24
Finland or Sweden. And so I feel like this this just sort of furthered
13:28
that idea for people to really see like what that opportunity is. And then
13:31
I think we're just gonna continue to see, you know, like this year
13:35
there's more than ever players on Germany that are playing in the NCAA. Nina
13:41
joeb Smith from U m D is just really a huge leader for them.
13:43
Obviously, Santra odd Strader played here. Uh, the Welky twins who are
13:50
currently at the U. There's just like there's a lot more so I feel
13:52
like we're gonna continue to see that from Germany and their new coach who's only
13:56
been there about a year at this point. He is Canadian and spent much
14:01
of his professional career playing in Germany. But I think that that connection is
14:05
going to grow even stronger. And I because he is forcing kind of in
14:09
the way that like we saw like Nadine four Ohio State to pay attention to
14:13
women's hockey and make it become what it is. I feel like Jeff McLeod
14:18
is really sort of putting the pressure on there and forcing them to put some
14:22
focus on their women's programs. So I imagine that we're going to continue to
14:24
see more German players coming over. That's that was the sort of the big
14:28
one, the standout for me, and I think it'll be interesting. There's
14:31
an interesting mix of Swiss players who will go play in Sweden that are continuing
14:35
to play in Switzerland, but they're best players of the players that came and
14:39
played in the NCAA. There's just no arguing with that, So I think
14:45
that we will continue to see and now that like Laura Stelder is back there
14:48
and talking about her experience and trying to grow the game, I feel like
14:52
we're going to see maybe more of those players coming over as well. Yeah,
14:58
and it's I think this is just part of the evolution right of of
15:05
the game. And we're all a little bit waiting to see. Uh,
15:11
well, like well, like we're talking about before, who is going to
15:13
be the country that that steps up, Who's going to make the financial investment,
15:18
who's gonna make the the commitment of resources two you know, to be
15:28
a real challenge toward the established h order of of of things as they are
15:33
now. And uh, like you're saying, I feel like we're seeing that
15:37
it's it's it's there, it's coming, but it still has some some some
15:45
some way to go. And and I do know that from from the next
15:48
tournament, I believe being in Checchia correct and next season that is is a
15:54
country that we've seen take some growth and and take some steps towards putting those
16:02
resources in place, and having that tournament in Chechia next year could be a
16:08
real great opportunity for them to show off something and I'm interested to see how
16:12
that turns out. Yeah, I think one of the really good and important
16:17
things for them sort of everybody else is that, like nobody in Europe is
16:23
thinking that they can do what the US or Canada can do. Their resources
16:26
just at their support aren't the same, right, But what Chechia has done
16:30
is a very doable, very seeable, very attainable situation where they went out,
16:38
you know, and hired a new GM and she hired the coaches that
16:41
have done what they've done, and basically they are getting way more attention back
16:45
home and they are getting support and all of that has built so like they
16:49
did some stuff early on that was maybe bigger than you know, they were
16:55
expected to do or bigger than their resources would have said they would have done,
16:57
but they're also sort of building on that and making even bigger strides.
17:03
And then they're getting the more money and the more support and the more sponsorships
17:07
and what to me, Like, if I am in one of these countries
17:11
that where it's not like that, you know, whether it's Switzerland, Germany,
17:15
Denmark, whatever, you there's a bit of a blueprint here that is
17:19
way more sellable to your federation and understandable and attainable, I think is really
17:27
the big thing. Like you're not asking them for this massive overhaul or asking
17:33
them for like the pie in the sky to be like USA or Canada,
17:37
but like what check you has done in such a short amount of time is
17:41
just really really interesting and important, you know. Like I think a ton
17:45
of credit goes to today'sa Sadalova, who's who they brought in as the GM
17:48
and she she just came in with a really great vision and really has enacted
17:52
at all. But I really think and hope that because that has happened sort
17:59
of more more unimageable budget, more on a scale that is kind of understandable
18:03
for other European countries, that we will see them following in that footsteps.
18:07
And I know that coaches and players were talking about, look what Chechi has
18:14
done, you know, So I think that that is the blueprint and what
18:18
we will see more coming from more of them. And the other thing is
18:21
coaches we're talking about like needing to play these North American teams more often.
18:26
Basically you can't only go play like no matter how much you practice, no
18:30
matter how much they play each other, and they're you know, their four
18:32
or five Nation Cup, Like if you go and try and play the US
18:36
without ever playing at that speed, you can't replicate it for them. So
18:41
it is a big push now for countries. I know Finland was talking about
18:45
it, chech you was talking about it, about trying to get more games.
18:48
The Finland coach particularly was just talking about like, I'm very happy with
18:52
what we did, but it is also very clear that there is a delineation
18:56
between those two teams and where we're at. So yeah, I think it
19:00
means, you know, hopefully, it means we're going to see some movement
19:03
and some more. It just it feels like small stuff. But I also,
19:07
having been doing this for as long, it's it's really cool to see
19:11
it see these sorts of things happening, I guess, and talking about like
19:15
you know, Finland started their high school where some of the girls are playing
19:19
sort of all together year round, and Sweden's talking about their twenty twenty six
19:23
and twenty thirty initiative, and really seeing these countries start these initiatives and not
19:30
just talk about them and then continue to see the outcomes from them. And
19:34
then I guess you had asked specifically of a player, and I was I
19:38
was kind of blanking, but I think, you know, sort of the
19:41
biggest name to talk about it is probably Hildas Fenson from Sweden who is committed
19:47
to I'm pretty sure Ohio State. But like looking at the stats leaders and
19:51
the top ten scores, KK Harvey, Layla Edwards, Abby Murphy, Hildas
19:56
fence In, Nadi Malinkova from from check Ya are all in that list,
20:00
and those are all current college players. Linkva is in the transfer portal or
20:06
said she's transferring, just hasn't said yet where. So Yeah, it's pretty
20:11
cool to see the kids going out there and standing out among some of the
20:15
best players in the world. Good transition point there. You mentioned the transfer
20:19
portal, and when we come back, we will talk about what's happening in
20:22
the transfer portal players that are on the move or have already decided or still
20:27
deciding where they'll be playing next season. So stay with us on the podcast.
20:38
Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Todd Maleski here with Nicole Hasey for
20:42
our first of our off season I guess mid off season episodes. We had
20:48
one right after the Frozen four, which I guess technically was off season.
20:51
But this is real off season, and so since this real off season,
20:55
let's talk about a real off season topic, which is the transfer portal,
20:57
which to eat them many but it's really not complicated. You if you players
21:03
want to move teams, they enter their name in a database and other teams
21:07
can contact them and off you go. There's been some teams that have been
21:11
more active, well maybe not more active than others, but more more successful
21:17
than others in bringing players in or getting commitments from players out of the transfer
21:22
portal. Uh and the cole One of the ones that you saw right away
21:26
was Quinnipiac. What uh what do you see there? And what? Uh?
21:30
I guess what do you take away from that? Some of that that
21:33
they're getting some players from within their own conference even yeah, I think it's
21:40
just something like four or five six players that have you know, transferred,
21:44
that have are listed in the portal as transferring to Quinnipiac. I should say,
21:48
you know, most of the information comes from the Gopher Puck Live keeps
21:52
a great transfer portal for both men and women, So shout out to them.
21:56
We're having all this information. It is interesting because they're they're sort of
22:02
three EAC schools that are very active in the portal both with players coming and
22:07
going, and those are clerks in Quinnipiac and Colgate, and it sure feels
22:12
like every one of those schools has a player going to another one of those
22:18
schools. So that will certainly be interesting just because those three are are pretty
22:22
close. We're pretty close, uh and and are you know, sort of
22:26
regularly rivals of each other. But yeah, then you know, ECAC keeps
22:32
getting better, right and Quinnipiac kind of was on the outside looking in the
22:34
past couple of years. Just you have those those top couple teams that have
22:38
really been standing out and Quinnipiac hasn't been able to break through. So interesting
22:44
to see them trying, you know, seeing if this is the way to
22:47
make that change. So, you know, like I said, there's definitely
22:51
been a couple of players leaving there as well. I think kind of the
22:55
biggest one for me was Madison Chandler and she's going to Clarkson, So it
23:00
be really interesting for sure. I know. The of interest to me,
23:03
I think is a couple of the players QUINNIPIEC picked up are not just fifth
23:07
year seniors. They have at least two years of Eligibility Lawrence Frenett from Clarkson
23:12
Te's Hulk from Colgate. So yeah, I I you know, I think
23:19
I think teams look at like what Ohio State did and how they were able
23:23
to sort of fortify and build upon what they already had by adding some key
23:29
players, and so I think that the women's side has to kind of catch
23:33
up to this being, you know, a big part of the game.
23:37
There's been I think it's been a little more active over the past couple of
23:41
years, like more widespread on the men's side, and there's that has brought
23:45
all of the handwringing about the portal, which I do not I hope does
23:48
not come over to the women's game. But yeah, it's it's just a
23:52
part of the game at this point, and I think coaches have to to
23:56
get on board or they're they're going to be left behind because I think it's
24:00
it's just it's something we're going to continue to see be be active. And
24:03
you know, we've seen a lot of goalies, which I think is really
24:04
interesting, and that's uh, you know, particularly for for programs that are
24:10
sort of signing you know, goalies to come in or a year or two
24:15
to fill in some of those gaps or give their younger players, you know,
24:18
somebody to push them and somebody to to help, you know, guide
24:22
them. You think it's going to be really interesting. You know, we
24:25
saw Heley McLeod leaving Minnesota Duluth after having just an absolutely outstanding season sharing time
24:32
with ev Gascon and she signed with Ohio State. But then U m D
24:37
signed Tindraholme from l i U, So I think that's a massive pick up.
24:42
Tindras that you know, was l i U is basically unscored upon for
24:47
most of the season and she's you know, just such an amazing player that
24:51
I think that's a huge ad, particularly when you have a younger goalie that's
24:57
probably going to be your future. I think it's huge. And intend just
25:02
you know, Swedish and played with the Swedish national team and things like that.
25:04
So I think that one's really interesting. But yeah, I don't know
25:07
what are your thoughts. You know much more about it from the men's high
25:10
but one of the things is a casual when you follow all the women's accounts
25:15
and all the women's writers and women's college hockey, that comes with having to
25:18
know a lot about the men. Like necessarily a lot of those people also
25:22
write or tweet about men's stuff, So I'm sort of a tangential observer of
25:26
the men's side of things. And like the men's college hockey does not know
25:33
how to feel about the portal has sort of like has not had the reckoning
25:36
or come to an understanding, like they're still handwritting about something in a way
25:41
like it's brand new to them. Yeah, And I would say in defense
25:45
of some people, that also happens in a lot of the other sports too.
25:49
Men's basketball is having a some difficulties accepting some of the stuff that's going
25:57
on now. All I will say that, you know, I don't pay
26:00
that much attention. A lot of that has to do with the money that's
26:03
being involved in in recruiting inducements in men's basketball. So that's a little bit
26:11
of a different topic than we're talking about in hockey in a lot of the
26:15
situations. But a couple of things have stood out to me regardless to transfers
26:21
with women's hockey, and one of them is a little bit of a historical
26:25
perspective in that there's never actually been a ban on transfers in women's hockey in
26:30
the NCAA, as far as I remember it, it was always you were
26:34
able to transfer and be eligible right away. In women's hockey. It was
26:40
only football, men's and women's basketball, men's hockey and baseball, as I
26:45
remember that had the NCAAA punishment for transferring being one year you had to sit
26:51
out and wait to be eligible again. But what was in place in a
26:57
lot of places women's hockey was you couldn't transfer within the same conference and play
27:03
immediately. Individual conferences had individual right. I know that U c h A
27:08
had had that. I'm not completely sure on the the other conferences, but
27:14
so there was a little bit of you know, how much of it?
27:18
How much was it worth it for you? I guess if you wanted to
27:21
transfer from you know, I'm thinking of Claudia Kepler from Ohio State to Wisconsin
27:29
for her final season of eligibility when there was only four seasons of eligibility.
27:33
She had to wait sit out a year and then and play her her final
27:37
season at Wisconsin. How much of how much was it worth it to how
27:41
much were you willing to risk to transfer? Then? And there was a
27:45
little bit more on the line, whereas now it's uh, you know,
27:52
you see it opportunity for more ice time. You're not feeling the right fit
27:56
with the coach at your current program, maybe there's been a coaching change and
28:02
you don't feel like you're in the right place anymore, and it's it's you're
28:06
you're able to go, and it's it's a lot more, I guess,
28:12
uh, just out in the open. I guess then than it's before you
28:18
know, with the portal actually being constructed, and we really just didn't talk
28:22
about it. Yeah, but we didn't. We didn't kind of see it
28:26
as this kind of central, you know, location where all this stuff happened.
28:30
But the other thing I want to mention is that you talked about goalies,
28:33
and that to me is the biggest uh uh factor in the portal for
28:41
me because for years I've always thought that, you know, goaltending is the
28:47
toughest thing to recruit because you only get a few chances at it. You
28:52
know, you know, you can recruit you know, four or five forwards
28:55
sometimes a year. Uh, you get three goals every four years. I
29:00
guess if you want to look at it that way, as part of a
29:03
class in some kind of rotation of years, now that that's a little bit
29:08
different. Where is You know, if if a goalie you know, is
29:14
splitting the entire season but falls out of favor towards the end and decides that,
29:19
well, maybe the writing is on the wall for me here, maybe
29:25
I'll have a better shot to be a number one goalie somewhere else. Off
29:30
you go. And we've seen that a couple of times. It just provides
29:34
a much more opportunity for second chances on both sides, for both the teams
29:40
and for the players, because when you're a goalie and you get somewhere and
29:44
you're stuck behind a really good, established starter, your chances are are pretty
29:49
slim, and maybe you're waiting two or three years to get your chance to
29:55
prove what you can do. Now, maybe you should have seen that going
30:00
in the situation. But uh, you know, there's there's opportunities now,
30:07
and I think there's there's reason for handbringing like like there is on a lot
30:12
of things with college athletics right now. Oh for sure, yes, I
30:17
mostly just it's like it's delightfully entertaining from the outside looking in, and there's
30:22
there's sort of a a lack of acceptance that like this is the status quote
30:29
that I find interesting. I think what's interesting on the women's side is there's
30:33
it's a couple of things. One like, obviously this comes like the asterisk.
30:37
Asterisk is that fifth COVID year. And what often happened is whether or
30:41
not because coaches recruited for a four year rotation and then they suddenly had more
30:47
players than roster spots. So you see that's often when you'll see, you
30:51
know, a fifth year senior go somewhere else. I think that like there's
30:55
conversations about whether or not they were going to get the same playing time they
30:57
thought they were, and so they use it as an opportunity or scholarship money.
31:00
Right. The other is just the changing landscape of women hockey. If
31:06
you were a goalie and you weren't getting your playing time, like maybe you
31:10
were okay being the backup and just you know, sort of playing out your
31:14
d one career and getting to be a student athlete, but like now there's
31:17
a professional league and getting to show to your best. It's really really an
31:21
important detail, right, And so I think that's a huge thing too.
31:25
And you know a little bit what you're talking about with the goalie is one
31:27
of the things I think of is like when a goalie sort of comes out
31:30
of nowhere, and I've seen think we feel like we've seen that in a
31:33
few different places right in the last couple of years. So that like a
31:37
goalie that thought that they were going to be number one, that was a
31:41
highly touted recruit suddenly has competition that they maybe didn't think that they had,
31:45
or a goalie that does be is able. I mean, I like think
31:52
of Reagan Kirkhuz's program was Cotton, who was not I mean she was playing
31:56
at Robert Morrison the cha and then turned around and was just the most outstanding
32:00
player for Ohio State at the Frozen four. Her trajectory obviously is is quite
32:05
unusual, but she also was a fifth year that was able to transfer and
32:08
really work her butt off and become a better goalie than she was when RM
32:13
you shut down. And so yeah, I think goalie, like you said,
32:15
goalies just such an interesting situation. And uh, you know, even
32:20
think about the goalies that had that really stood out or like took over a
32:23
spot and then like maybe the next year are not even the starting goalie with
32:27
that program anymore. And so yeah, there's a there's a lot of sort
32:30
of interesting wrinkles to all of it. But I do think sort of the
32:32
changing landscape and the idea that you could be drafted and you could be playing
32:37
professionally in the next couple of years, not necessarily even just the PWHL,
32:43
because I feel like we've seen more and more players go to Europe than maybe
32:45
we had in the past, or maybe we just are more aware of it
32:49
now than we were in the past. But I just think there is a
32:52
lot more on the line. It's not just I want to win a national
32:54
title. It's I want to get noticed, I want to keep playing,
33:00
I want to work my way to national camps, whatever it is, and
33:02
so uh yeah, there's just everything has the stakes have risen and so that
33:07
therefore the portal becomes an opportunity that maybe was there before. So there's an
33:14
interesting element to that on the team side. And if you're in New Ha
33:20
or if you're in the c CHA, you sometimes you feel like maybe you're
33:25
just when the portal opens up, you're just producing some really good talent for
33:31
teams in w C h A e c A C Hockey East, And it
33:37
hasn't happened. I don't think as much that way as on the men's side
33:43
what we've seen so far. But I can see where if you're a coach
33:49
of a school that you know doesn't have as as great of a recruiting background
33:57
as you know some some of the more higher profile teams, you can say
34:00
to these player players with some legitimacy, you know you're always being recruited,
34:07
and so if you feel like you didn't get the looks you wanted, you
34:14
feel like you should be getting offers from higher profile teams. Come here for
34:20
a couple of years and prove it, and if it really turns out your
34:22
way, and if you score twenty five goals a year, thirty goals a
34:25
year, you're going to have a chance want to move on if that's the
34:32
path that you want, and somebody else is gonna say, hey, we'll
34:36
take a thirty goal scorer. Now, that's that's a little bit of a
34:40
of a yeah, that's really I like to think of it that way.
34:46
But I feel like, and I know there are some schools on the men's
34:50
side that are starting to look at it that way that if if we're just
34:54
if we're going to lose players, let's at least get some really good years
34:58
out of them before they move on, because that helps our program. And
35:02
if you're recognition and profile and all of that sort of stuff. I mean,
35:08
everyone's a feeder school for someone, right whether it's for the national team
35:15
or for maybe you know some you know some other school, and if the
35:21
portal is going to happen either way, you may as well. It's about
35:23
manipulate the situation, your best advantage, accepting where you are and how you
35:30
can benefit your own program out of that. Now, it would be great
35:36
for them if you get four years out of out of you know, a
35:38
player that's you know, a player of the your caliber kind of talent.
35:45
That's not always the way it's going to work out. I'm interested to see
35:47
if that's the way it starts to move in in women's hockey, because we're
35:52
we've seen that in men's hockey for a few years, where you know,
35:57
the the best players in hockey are kind of always getting plucked by yeah HC
36:06
Big ten schools, and that's that's a little bit of way that's gone.
36:12
I don't know if it's going that way in women's hockey, but I feel
36:14
like teams that are ready for that or maybe that should be ready for it
36:19
may have a little bit of an advantage down the road. Yeah, I
36:22
think, you know, coaches have to think creatively and proactively about it.
36:25
I think it's going to continue to evolve. You know, there's a couple
36:29
of things, Like one of the things that maybe isn't the right word,
36:31
but I think about like particularly from just before COVID to after the New Land
36:38
of five year players, but like players that had maybe made verbal commitments and
36:44
then suddenly don't have a spot because there was a better player in the portal
36:49
to be picked up. So some of that I think is just interesting because
36:52
we know that there were bigger classes and if one team is taking you know,
36:57
three, four or five, six, seven players from the portal,
37:00
like where were those spots coming from? Because it's not all grads. So
37:05
I think that that's in the dark side however you want to put it.
37:07
That's that's one of the things that I think we just have to like think
37:09
about and keep in the back of our minds. And I think we're gonna
37:14
hear some more of those stories as we go on and then but I will
37:17
say, like I appreciate that it's a chance for a second chance for a
37:22
lot of players that maybe you know, they went to one college showcase and
37:27
didn't have their best outing, and like that's the difference between playing you know,
37:30
D three versus D one or not at all, or however you want
37:35
to look at it. So we're seeing quite a few players in the portal
37:38
from D three universities getting picked up and vice versa. We're seeing several players
37:44
in the portal that went from D one to D three and like that's okay
37:46
too, right, Like maybe spending your entire life being a student athlete.
37:51
It turned out to not be the collegiate route that she wanted to take.
37:52
And you know, it will always stick with me that Natalie Darwitz said to
37:57
me when she was coaching D three in Minnesota that like, it makes a
38:00
difference to be able to sleep in your bed every night or almost every night,
38:05
to be a student athlete, to be playing at a high level,
38:08
but not you know, leave on Wednesday to play games Friday Saturday, and
38:15
then you know, like to to try and you you have to mini a
38:17
D one student athlete has to manipulate a particularly hockey player with such a long
38:22
seats, and that's through two semesters of classes, like you have to manipulate
38:25
your life so much to be that kind of student athlete, and so it
38:30
definitely made me look at players who choose to go D three differently in terms
38:34
of like understanding why that might be you're appealing. So yeah, I think,
38:39
you know, just I think we're seeing an interesting flow between D three
38:44
and D one in both directions, and seeing some of the top D three
38:46
players getting opportunities in D one that maybe they didn't initially get those kinds of
38:51
offers. So I think that's pretty cool too. But yeah, I like
38:54
it's it's, you know, to some extent, a new world for us
38:58
to be paying this much attention to the portal, to be seeing the names
39:00
that we're seeing in the portal, to see the pickups and all that stuff.
39:06
And I don't know, I feel like you have to pay attention to
39:08
it, and it's part of the story now. But I'm in that part
39:12
where like, I don't want the whole off season just to be like updating
39:15
this page and seeing who's in it. You know, I don't feel like
39:17
that's healthy either. I don't know. It's finding a balance for sure,
39:21
but it's definitely fascinating. And I think the biggest thing is that like not
39:27
that OHI I think Ohio State would have been really good even without their portal
39:30
players, but like you had a couple of players that played their collegiate quer
39:34
somewhere, it wasn't as successful as they had hoped when they committed, they
39:37
wanted a chance to win a title. They transferred to Ohio State and they
39:40
won a title, and that, like that's going to stick out to a
39:44
lot of players. That is definitely a template, that is definitely a sort
39:49
of dream for a lot of players. And so I think the way that
39:53
that played out for Ohio State and those players this year is definitely going to
39:57
have an impact on how the role impacts this game much more to come over
40:04
the next few weeks, months, really years. About the transfer portal,
40:09
it's one of those things that's, uh, maybe if you don't like it,
40:15
probably should just get used to it because it's part of the game now
40:17
and coaches are gonna have to to deal with it, Fans are gonna have
40:22
to deal with it. Players are gonna have to use it to their their
40:25
benefit, and that's that's part of the way UH college sports have gone.
40:30
So yeah, it's particularly interesting in like sort of a non revenue sport like
40:36
this, right, like where we when we talk about it in football,
40:38
basketball, and men hockey, like you're talking about people that are working towards
40:44
million dollar contracts, million dollar plus, right, and also that like those
40:50
are industries. I mean, that's a whole separate conversation about you know,
40:52
our athletes employees and then see all that sort of stuff. But all of
40:57
that sort of capitalist conversation is very different in men and women's hockey, and
41:02
so yeah, it's it is a whole new world in terms of understanding the
41:06
portal, understanding transfers and what that can mean and how it can impact the
41:10
game. But yeah, I do think it's very different when you're not talking
41:13
about millions of dollars at the end of a collegiate career in the same way
41:17
that you are with those men's athletes and those other sports. And so yeah,
41:22
I don't know, I definitely err on the side of these are employees
41:29
that are you know, putting in a lot of time and effort and work,
41:31
and there's a labor conversation to be had and if they are unhappy in
41:36
their situation, then they absolutely are within their means to put get themselves in
41:40
a different situation. And so it's the power imbalance and the way that this
41:46
all sort of works in NCAA athletics tends to make me side with the player
41:51
in any one of these conversations. Yeah, that conversation is coming on a
41:57
real, real meaningful level pretty soon, you know, across the whole.
42:02
Yeah, starting first, probably with football and basketball. But you can't stop
42:07
it there because everyone else is in the same kind of situation as in terms
42:12
of whether you consider them to be employees or not. So that's it's hard
42:20
to draw a line there between between different levels of college athletes. So yeah,
42:27
everyone should probably prepare for that to be on the table here pretty soon
42:31
too. Yeah, Yeah, it's inevitable that has to be sort of a
42:34
tangential conversation to the portal, right, and like what the student's rights are
42:37
and what they should be allowed to do. And while I understand from you
42:42
know, a university and coach side where they're saying like we put in money
42:45
to recruit you and we've given you scholarship money and YadA YadA yah, like
42:49
that's no insignificant number, but at the same time, like you're talking like
42:53
kind of like a free agent situation, and that like ultimately with the number
42:59
of people that we're talking in the portal just right now, just like the
43:01
month since The Frozen four finished, like very few of these women are going
43:06
to go on and make a living playing hockey, So like they should be
43:09
able to be in the best situation for them right now, whatever that is,
43:15
and that there aren't beholden a scholarship offer does not make them beholden to
43:19
the university they picked when they were sixteen, right and frankly that just the
43:22
the restrictions don't hold up any legal scrutiny, so that there's nothing we've seen.
43:28
The DNCAA has lost lawsuit after lawsuit in terms of trying to defend a
43:35
lot of what they've you know, based their their practices on for the last
43:40
you know, fifty years. So yeah, that's that's part of the reason
43:45
why this the changes keep happening, is that you know, these things can't
43:51
be defended really in terms of if you're going to bring them in the court
43:55
there or they're becoming harder to defend. I guess yuh. With a number
44:00
of rulings that have gone against the NCAA. Yeah, it's a there's no
44:08
good way to end this work. Like you said, we're gonna be talking
44:10
about this, yeah, you know, sort of forever. So yeah,
44:14
the you know, the moral story is, if this is an interest to
44:16
you, go for puck live dot com back slash transfer portal and then click
44:20
on women's list and and there's the list of the players where they currently play,
44:23
now, their position, how many years they have left, if they've
44:27
already transferred somewhere, and and it's a mighty interesting list of players from uh
44:34
new h on up, you know, and from from every university and every
44:38
conference and national champion chip programs on down. So uh, there's there.
44:45
Your favorite teams roster is going to look different, and it's not just going
44:50
to be because of new player new recruits. So that's the way it is.
44:57
Yep. Come back for our last segment of this special offseason episode,
45:00
Let's talk a little bit about a certain Midwestern state that currently has no women's
45:06
Division one ice hockey programs that may at some point have a Division one ice
45:10
hockey program if things continue down the path that they are starting down. So
45:20
stick with us here on the podcast. Welcome back to the podcasts. I'm
45:30
Todd Mluski here as always with Nicole Hasey, and our last segment of the
45:35
show today is looking ahead to some hopeful things in women's college hockey. We
45:43
heard a couple of months ago that the University of Delaware is going to be
45:46
the forty fifth school to have a Division one women's hockey programs. That's starting
45:52
in twenty twenty five. And in kind of a round about way, we've
46:00
we've heard some some rumblings that there there's some interest in in a program that
46:08
a lot of people have had interest in trying to have become a Division I
46:15
program, and that's at the University of Michigan where thanks largely to the efforts
46:21
of the club coach, the women's club coach, Jennetribiano, UH and uh,
46:27
just the efforts that she's done to raise awareness of uh, just what
46:31
they have to do to put together a club program there. Uh, there's
46:36
there's going to be It sounds like a feasibility study done on whether you know
46:42
what it would take to bring a women's varsity program to the University of Michigan.
46:47
And uh, as as we've mentioned on the show before, and kind
46:52
of call them out. The state of Michigan, one of the greatest producers
46:55
of hockey youth numbers, does not have a Division I women's ice hockey program
47:05
and only has one D three crew. There's one collegiate program for women in
47:09
the entire state of Michigan. Yeah, not a great look. Obviously,
47:15
was all known over the years. There's like seven men's D one. There's
47:20
a lot. I was counting in my head earlier and yeah, I got
47:22
the seven in the Arabian War, but I yeah, just off the top
47:27
of my head, right, And so it's I reached out to College j
47:35
Hockey, Inc. And yes, there's you know, they're they're working with
47:39
Jenna and and trying to get that feasibility study going. And that's a really
47:45
good sign of you know, legitimacy, legitimacy and seriousness of of and and
47:52
effort to to move that towards the next phase. And now we know it's
47:58
it's not inexpensive to bring forward a new hockey program. Uh, it costs
48:06
if you're going to do it right, it costs millions of dollars a year.
48:12
But Nicole, this is a I think an important part of this movement
48:17
that it's it's recognizing all the effort that's happened with the club program at Michigan.
48:25
And we've we've heard, you know, out of the Board of Regents
48:30
there that there's been some you know, uh, some talk that you know,
48:34
we'd like to explore this a little bit more. And and really thank
48:37
goodness, because the more big schools that have women's hockey, I think the
48:45
better for attracting other big schools to add women's hockey down the road. And
48:52
and and if you add a Michigan and it goes well, you know,
48:55
over the course of five years, ten years, that then you're talking about,
49:00
well, other schools are they thinking this is something we can do.
49:06
Maybe we're not Michigan, but you know, and with you know, fifty
49:08
thousand students or something like that, but if you're a bigger state school,
49:15
it seems more possible at that point. Yeah, I think, like you
49:19
said, well, you're the one that told me that you had talked to
49:22
college Hockey, inc. And I think that for me is huge because just
49:24
because the Board of Regents or whatever, like a month ago they said,
49:28
oh, we'll look into a feasibility study, the fact that that seems to
49:30
actually be happening within like a reasonable time frame. The movement is there.
49:36
Plus yeah, like huge, I mean, all of this could come to
49:38
nothing. But I think as you mentioned, like Jenna and her team and
49:44
the awareness that she has asked for, and I mean like ultimately, basically
49:47
the University of Michigan got shamed into doing this, and like, bravo to
49:52
everybody that like has not let up on this and has pointed out how shameful
49:55
it is, and not only that they didn't have team, but that their
50:00
club team was being charged bookoo dollars to like a rent ice time on their
50:05
own campus. And I mean it's just it's a bad situation all around.
50:08
There's tons of articles out there that if people are interested, you should definitely
50:12
should go looking for, you know, Michigan Club Women's club hockey and Jenna
50:15
Tribiano. But yeah, I like you said, it's if they do it.
50:20
I think that there's you know, I think one of the questions is
50:22
like, if we have shamed them into this, who's next? But yeah,
50:28
it's there's so many brilliant women's current women's olympians that are have come from
50:36
that state and that are or national team players that never could even imagine staying
50:40
at home to play. And so I think it's it's about damn time.
50:45
You know. They just they hosted a PBHL game there that was massively successful.
50:50
They had held the wreck one of the records for attendance at a women's
50:53
hockey game for many, many years long before any of that. So it's
50:58
just like all of the signs are they I think it's ago right right,
51:02
twenty seventeen. Yeah, USA Hockey's men's development program is there. I just
51:09
like there are so many possibilities that opening this door could lead to that.
51:15
It's like it's I know, I'm not sure I could like distill it down,
51:17
but yeah, it it feels like a victory that this conversation is even
51:21
happening. It feels really important. The number of people that has stepped up
51:27
and said like, yes, I'm behind this. You know, one of
51:30
them is somebody that has the money to fund it herself. So I feel
51:34
like if she's behind it, then she probably should put her checkbook where her
51:37
mouth is. But that's all We'll leave that go. But a former Michigan
51:42
men's players, former NHL rs, you know, Brendan Morrison's one of them.
51:45
But there have been several players that are are stepping up and like saying
51:50
that this is important and that they support it, and that part is important
51:53
too. To have not just you know, not just the club team saying
51:58
it, but but have it coming from other people. Yeah, it feels
52:00
it. I feel like it's such a win. So I can only imagine
52:04
how Jenna and some of the other folks that have been doing the on the
52:07
groundwork at Michigan. I keep wanting to say Minnesota at Michigan. I'm so
52:10
I'm used to talking about Michigan and women's HOCKI that I you know, it's
52:16
fingers crossed. I mean, I don't want to be flippant, but also
52:21
like, yes, it's expensive, and also your friggin Michigan and you probably
52:24
just spent more on stadium upgrades for your football teams scoreboard then these girls would
52:31
need to have their program. So I just part of me understands that it's
52:37
very expensive and there's a lot to figure out, and the rest of me
52:38
is like, seriously hilarious for you to say, like, Ooh, I
52:43
don't know how we're gonna if we can do this? Yeah, there are
52:46
I mean, it's it's there are economic realities to this, and it's it's
52:55
not a great time. And going back to what we had talked about in
52:59
our previous segment about not knowing what's coming with employee status and you know,
53:06
yeah, the future of the NCAA and things like that, that can I
53:10
feel like that could be a chilling effect on a lot of a lot of
53:15
things developing in across college sports in the next few years. Just this uncertain
53:21
particularly for a program that size, and that the economic impact to a place
53:24
like Michigan would be massive, Yes, because if you're suddenly having to pay
53:32
you know, seventy five football players plus you know, twelve fourteen basketball players
53:39
plus fourteen women's basketball players plus you know, whatever the balance is there to
53:47
make Title nine efforts work out and to ensure that there's there's equality or equity
53:57
there. Yeah, then you're getting in the different conversations of where all this
54:01
money, like you talk about there, they spend a lot of money on
54:04
a scoreboard that you're talking about different things there in terms of like how I
54:08
know, I am not particularly inclined to be kind or logical about this.
54:15
You're then not talking about you know, if those things all go into place.
54:19
You're not talking about the scoreboards anymore. You're talking about how are we
54:21
paying all these players and in addition to all these you know, other things
54:25
we need to do. I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm just
54:28
saying it's going to take a massive ret you know, transform transformation of priorities.
54:32
And so that's where I get concerned. Yeah, but I feel like
54:37
we've had this, Like we've had this ongoing conversation. It's like like the
54:39
w c h A not hiring their commissioner because they know things are going to
54:43
change, and like there's there's a lot of what ifs, and things are
54:45
going to continue to change. And I'm definitely on the impatient side of that
54:50
in terms of I don't like, you can't keep putting stuff off because things
54:53
might change, you know. Yeah, there comes a point where like that
54:57
that can't be the excuse anymore. But yeah, as I said, I
55:00
also am not like you are being very clear and logical and thoughtful about this,
55:05
and I mostly just like, get this done already, because it's stupid.
55:07
I think I will own up to my lack of You're like, oh,
55:12
what about feasible? I don't like I don't care, and I am
55:15
totally down with being logical and yeah, physics, yeah it's fair. But
55:20
I'm just owning. I am owning to who I'm being in this conversation.
55:23
And I think if it comes down to the money, like you're saying,
55:27
if someone can deliver the money, make it happen, right, I mean,
55:31
that's that's what it comes down to, is you know, if that's
55:36
out there, if it's a sustainable thing where you can have you know,
55:39
the kind of you know, money endowed for this program, then you're starting
55:46
to talk about realities. So its precedent at other universities for endowing the coaching
55:52
position and some of that stuff. So that's definitely scholarships, right, yeah,
56:00
h that's certainly not an unusual situation. That's so that's an interesting tidbit.
56:06
The other I think, the one to tangential conversations to this, and
56:09
I think would be under consideration for Michigan is like, what does adding another
56:15
Big ten university due to women's conference alignment? And uh, I mean,
56:23
yes, I don't while you want to go down that road, I'm merely
56:27
putting that out there. Is that that that would need to be I think
56:29
part of necessary part of the conversation. I think the big ten schools would
56:32
see that as a positive, and I think, you know, there's probably
56:36
monetarily and that sort of thing would be very interesting. I'm not sure it
56:38
would be great for the rest of women's hockey for all those programs to sort
56:43
of orden themselves off. Maybe a further conversation for another episode, but I
56:50
think it's an important when we are talking about this. I do think that
56:53
will be an asterisk on the list of things that Michigan considers is what conference
56:59
they would have and what if it's alignment would look like. So I too
57:01
think it's important to bring it up now. I think that conversation is looks
57:06
different today in twenty twenty four than it did in twenty eleven or twenty twelve
57:10
when we were talking about Penn State joining well, you know, added men's
57:15
and women's programs, but that adding the men's program kicked in a Big ten
57:21
men's hockey league with six teams and caused that massive change in that landscape.
57:28
I don't know that I think that experience and probably like you're talking about,
57:34
the more I guess the overall picture of women's division ie hockey has it in
57:43
a different place and would require different conversations if they eventually got to a number
57:49
where you're talking about having enough Big ten schools to have that conference having it
57:54
its own league on the women's hockey side, because I and also, you
58:00
know, we're in the Big ten's at a different spot. You know,
58:02
they were either twelve or fourteen teams at that point. Now that's a true
58:07
team. So does having six, which is the number that it always had
58:13
to be at, does that really mean anything anymore? If you're on,
58:15
yeah, a third of the league having having teams, does that number?
58:22
Should that number go up in terms of how many you need to have to
58:24
be a Big ten sponsored conference in a sport? Those are questions I don't
58:31
know the answer to, and I don't know that anyone has brought it up
58:35
yet or no. I just think it's I think it's the sort of thing
58:38
that the people, the decision makers and the stakeholders at Michigan and within the
58:44
I think Big ten holds sway or however you want to say it. So,
58:47
I just think to me that it's a necessary part of the early conversation
58:52
because I think the specter of a Big Ten, Women's Talking Conference or however
58:57
you want to look at, or having another Big Ten. I think that
59:00
that looms large in this conversation for the people that make the decisions. So
59:04
one of the things that's on the table, or maybe not on the table
59:07
yet, but that I know some people in the college hockey community, this
59:10
is men's and women's total are asking for is a basically the hockey body to
59:20
have oversight over itself through the NCAA like football has with an oversight committee,
59:25
like basketball has with an oversight committee. Hockey people have been asking that for
59:32
that for a long time, and from what I understand, it's something they're
59:37
going to ask again this offseason. I don't know where that goes, because
59:43
I think that's also part of that conversation of what are things looking like in
59:45
five years through the NCAAA itself, is are all sports going that way at
59:52
some point of having their own basically you rule yourself kind of conversations. So
1:00:00
there's part of that that I think plays into this to a degree to of
1:00:07
you know, if you're if if talking about you know, the Big Ten
1:00:13
is the only you know, multi sport conference that has the ability to make
1:00:17
legislation through the NCAAA. In terms of the hockey landscape, that could be
1:00:23
different anyway in a couple of years if hockey is able to have the self
1:00:28
determination on rulemaking and things like that that is being talked about, if not
1:00:34
proposed. So that's another thing to keep in mind as part of this kind
1:00:37
of uncertainty. I keep bringing that word up, but that's really that's the
1:00:44
buzzword of college sports right now, is uncertainty because we don't know where where
1:00:47
this is all going to end up. Really, in any any level of
1:00:54
discussion you're talking about a topic, you get there, there's so much that
1:00:59
that we don't know about where things are headed. Yeah, and you know
1:01:04
that we were already gone through four tangents, and you know this this conversation
1:01:08
or this whole episode really is about you know, kind of shows all that.
1:01:13
So I mean, I think the moral of the story is this is
1:01:17
an ongoing and interesting conversation that we're going to keep talking about, We're going
1:01:22
to keep bringing up and you know, I think for the moment and we
1:01:25
celebrate this little win. I would like to say, you know, I
1:01:29
was sort of like hinting at it, but so Denise Ilich is a member
1:01:35
of the Board of Regents at the University of Michigan. She, you know,
1:01:37
at a regents meeting, is one of the people that said, like,
1:01:40
we it's pastime for us to have this women's hockey's program. We're not
1:01:44
serving the people of Michigan. It's a broken cycle of elite women's hockey players
1:01:49
leaving the state of Michigan. She is the daughter of Marian Ilich, who
1:01:52
owns who started Little Caesar's with her now deceased husband, and who owns the
1:01:58
Red Wings. So Marian is listed is a billionaire. Denise, you know,
1:02:01
is her daughter of the longtime owners of the Red Wings. So that
1:02:07
is that connection and also where I cough cough said the money should come from.
1:02:12
But I do think, you know, if you're going to stand up,
1:02:14
if you're a regent for the u of your scene, you're going to
1:02:15
stand upt the regent's meeting and say we need to we need to move on
1:02:19
this, there is a I think, you know, without being flippant.
1:02:22
Also, you have the you have a lot of the power to make that
1:02:25
happen as regent and as somebody who can help with the funding and help bring
1:02:30
in the funding. So I hadn't named names, but I wanted to just
1:02:35
put because I was being, you know, talking around it for a little
1:02:39
bit. So I think, yeah, so you know, that's that's where
1:02:44
that conversation is. And you know, congratulations to Jenna for for forcing this
1:02:47
conversation. I hope that it is not something that falls by the wayside.
1:02:52
I hope that we know that feasibility to studies take a long time. We
1:02:55
know that several universities on both the men's and women's side have done feasibility studies
1:03:00
in the last few years and not gotten programs. So I'm taking this very
1:03:07
small wind in the moment while knowing that there's there's a long road ahead and
1:03:13
hoping that we continue to get positive news for Jenna and for hockey at the
1:03:20
University of Michigan. I will say we are focused on Michigan, but again,
1:03:22
there are seven men's programs in the state d one men's programs in the
1:03:27
state of Michigan. There's no reason this pressure couldn't be happening at Michigan State.
1:03:31
At a minimum. If we're gonna put this pressure on Michigan, you
1:03:37
should be also looking at the other very large Big ten State University. But
1:03:40
yeah, yeah, I know, like we could talk about this forever.
1:03:45
But I just congratulations to Jenna. I'm excited for them. I hope that
1:03:49
it moves the needle. I hope that the conversation keeps happening. I hope
1:03:53
that there people see that pushing for this and being the squeaky wheel, not
1:04:00
shutting up about it, not being quiet like they Jenna and her supporters,
1:04:04
uh myself included like you have to you have to say something. And and
1:04:10
so I hope that we you know, we see programs since we see sort
1:04:14
of movement like this at other universities. We've seen club teams be elevated to
1:04:18
D three and D one at other universities, we know that they can be
1:04:21
successful. So I just there is precedent here, and I'm excited that,
1:04:30
you know, being loud in support of women's hockey is pretty much my brand.
1:04:34
So I'm excited to see that this worked and that at least this much.
1:04:39
And I hope that it shows, you know, people who want to
1:04:42
see this happen, and at other universities that just keep pushing because because there's
1:04:45
a path and and hopefully if we continue to see this happen. I was
1:04:49
just going to say, there is a path, and we've seen it work,
1:04:51
and we've seen it. You know, it's not easy. But when
1:04:57
it comes together, uh, and you find the right timing and you find
1:05:01
the right support, and you find the right people, big things can happen.
1:05:06
And it feels like we're kind of starting to see that come around at
1:05:12
at Michigan. And I'm fascinated to see where this goes in the next year
1:05:17
or two years, because, yeah, if the pressure is it continues and
1:05:26
it keeps, you know, people keep asking the questions, eventually there's going
1:05:31
to have to be some movement on this and and uh, at least you
1:05:36
know, tell people what it's going to take to have a women's hockey program
1:05:42
at Michigan. No, it's going to take this amount of dollars, it's
1:05:45
going to take, you know, this construction job. It's going to this
1:05:51
is what we need to do. And then you start to see where that
1:05:55
can become reality. And so that becomes a little bit more of a tangible
1:06:00
quality of of of where things can can happen when you can actually what a
1:06:08
a dollar figure on it in terms of what we need to raise and and
1:06:11
you know where where we need to make things happen. So if it gets
1:06:14
to that point, I think everyone's can feel a little bit better about the
1:06:19
way things go. Yeah, I'd like to point out too that, like
1:06:21
you know, we started this talking about Delaware, Delaware was not looking to
1:06:27
add a women's hockey program. They were just shown they were elevating their you
1:06:30
know, elevating conferences and divisions and elevating their programs. So adding football scholarships
1:06:35
necessarily meant that they you know, had to do some other movement within other
1:06:40
sports, and they were looking at different options and women's hockey fit and so
1:06:45
you know, you saying like things the right time the right people. Somebody
1:06:49
came to them and said, you have a rink on campus, you need
1:06:53
a new woman's sport. These are all I should say, college hockey.
1:06:57
Let's be honest. Somebody and showed them that, like this is like their
1:07:01
ad basically said it was so clear this was the right way to go.
1:07:05
And so I think just I wanted to say that in kind of contrast to
1:07:09
all of the things blocking Michigan, they're also like it doesn't have to be
1:07:13
that difficult, And so I think there's some sort of happy medium here.
1:07:16
I'm not trying to discount all the logical arguments you're making, but I also
1:07:20
want to say that like you have our ink on campus, you have a
1:07:24
very good club team, Like there there are a million reasons not to,
1:07:28
but I think there is just as many reasons why this can work. And
1:07:32
what I hope when you were saying that, what I hope is that the
1:07:34
people at Michigan don't think well saying like, well we need xyz, so
1:07:40
we can't do it, that's not going to be a good enough answer at
1:07:43
this point. And so I just the contrast to me of like Delaware basically
1:07:46
being like, what we need to add a women's program and seeing how seamlessly
1:07:50
they could add women's hockey shows to me that while this I don't buy any
1:07:56
means think it was easy, it was, however relatively easy, if that
1:08:00
makes sense, to the to the idea of like maybe starting from traction,
1:08:03
like things just really came together at the perfect time. And so I that
1:08:06
to me hold I hold that in my head in terms of what can happen
1:08:11
and how this can work and how Michigan or or any other university they have
1:08:16
the resources they have the support, they have the facilities. I mean,
1:08:19
obviously there would need to be more locker rooms and all that sort of stuff,
1:08:24
but there's just there. There are so many reasons why this can work
1:08:27
that I'm trying to remember and like sort of remind people of that in contrast
1:08:31
to all of the reasons why it will be hard. Yeah, you can
1:08:33
always find the reason why not to do something, but it's the people who
1:08:38
are bold that can find the reason to do things and and and cut through
1:08:44
all of the the naysayers to find the vision for something. And we will
1:08:50
see in that simple years whether that exists at Michigan too, to elevate a
1:08:57
women's program to varsity stand us. So stay stay with us on that one.
1:09:04
I'm sure that's not the last we're gonna have to say about Michigan.
1:09:08
I hope that's not the last we're gonna have to say about Michigan in the
1:09:10
next couple of years, because hopefully that will mean they are good things ahead
1:09:15
and we'll we'll cover those two. So but that's I think going to wrap
1:09:19
it up for this edition of the podcast. We thank you as always for
1:09:24
joining us, and we will talk to you at some point again over the
1:09:29
summer. We're not exactly sure when we'll we'll be back, but we will
1:09:32
hopefully have some some some guests over the summer to keep things going, and
1:09:39
we will make sure everyone knows when those are coming up. So for Nicole
1:09:44
Hazy on Todd Maleski, thanks for joining us on the podcast.