September Table Setter 9.11.23
We're back to talk new assistants, momentum for Team 28 on the women's side, and for a quick World Junior Summer Showcase rewind with Frank Nazar, Seamus Casey, and Rutger McGroarty
Greetings!
It’s been a while, longer than I wanted it to be, but now we’re back. Toe has met leather on another season of college football, and that can only mean one thing: College hockey is hot on its heels. We are inside of a month from University of Michigan hockey returning for the 2023-24 season.
After some consternation about whether it would play an exhibition game this season (confusing, arbitrary and ineffectual NCAA governance, well I never!), the men’s team will have a dress rehearsal on September 30th against Simon Fraser, then get the regular season underway the following weekend against Providence at Yost.
Meanwhile, the women’s team will start its season away at Concordia on the 29th before hosting Michigan State the following day. Before diving into all that and more, a brief programming update.
Hopefully, by now, you’ve had a chance to wander over to the digital pages of THN.com/Detroit to check out my Red Wings coverage there. If not, please do give it a chance when you have some time; I’m posting daily articles over there that I hope will appeal to Gulo Gulo readers, even if they aren’t Wings fans.
If you’re looking for an entry point, maybe check out this feature on the tragedy of Bob Probert from Enforcers Week at The Hockey News, or if you’re after something more technical, check out this piece on the mechanics of the Red Wings power play, informed by head coach Derek Lalonde’s talk at TCS Live in Ann Arbor back in June.
Beyond THN, you can also expect me to pick back up on my collaboration with Greg Revak and Hockey’s Arsenal. You may recall that Greg and I did a two-part series together last fall, with me going minute-by-minute through Michigan’s warm-up and Greg diving into Brandon Naurato’s qualities as a program builder.
This season, I’ll be guest writing on the Hockey IQ Newsletter on topics from all around the NHL; look for those to start being released later this month. It’s a publication I’ve read and admired since well before I started this newsletter, and I’m looking forward to diving into some non-Red Wings NHL writing as well.
In this feed, I don’t intend to allow a gap as big as the one between this post and the previous one again to swell again, especially not once the season starts. I’m still fine-tuning the specifics of our format here for the coming year and gauging what will be reasonable to post. I’ve thought about moving away from the “Midweek Roundup” format and toward a few shorter posts over the course of a week, while also mixing in some longer features, but nothing’s set in stone. To be blunt, a lot remains up in the air, but I assure you, you can expect to see this feed busy throughout the coming season.
With all that business out of the way, let’s talk some Michigan hockey.
Enter Reiter and Deschamps
Perhaps the most significant news to come out of the summer on the men’s side is the hiring of two new assistant coaches: Kevin Reiter and Matthew Deschamps.
Reiter arrives in Ann Arbor to coach goaltending, having been with the U.S. National Team Development Program since 2013. With the NTDP, Reiter coached goaltenders from 2013-17 before serving as director of player personnel. With Michigan, expect Reiter to do a bit of both those jobs.
For the first time, Michigan will have a full–time goalie coach, and, given that Jake Barczewski and Noah West will both be vying for 1A starting duties, it feels an opportune moment to add that to the Wolverine staff.
"We believe that Michigan, in general, is all about player development,” said Naurato in the press release announcing Reiter and Deschmaps’ hiring. “Adding a full-time goalie coach, who will be there seven days a week will have a huge impact on our program. A great communicator and teacher, he'll not only develop the goalies of the future for Michigan hockey but identify the right goalies we need to target during recruiting."
When the NCAA announced that hockey teams could add a third paid assistant, the natural assumption was that programs would add goaltending coaches, and that’s what Michigan’s done with Reiter.
But of course, unlike their professional counterparts, NCAA coaches also have personnel responsibilities, and those responsibilities are only growing more complex. Junior recruiting isn’t enough anymore on its own in the age of the transfer portal. Programs need to develop something resembling “pro scouting” departments to identify potential portal talent the same way an NHL team might scout players on rival teams who could be made available through trade.
Ties to the NTDP carry an obvious recruiting advantage in their own right, but I suspect Reiter’s experience running a player personnel department will prove even more valuable to Naurato’s program in the long term. Within a few years, the players Reiter worked with directly will have made their collegiate commitments, and his direct ties to the program won’t be quite so strong. Despite that, his acumen as a talent evaluator and hand in navigating the byzantine waters of NCAA eligibility in 2023 and beyond.
Deschamps, on the other hand, comes to Michigan after three seasons as an assistant coach then associate head coach with the Chicago Steel. As with Reiter, the hiring represents the re-solidification of a well-established recruiting pipeline. With the Steel, Deschamps coached Wolverines like Owen Power, Brendan Brisson, the Fantillis, Mackie Samoskevich, and incoming freshman Nick Moldenhauer.
Deschamps’ calling card is his acumen for the defensive side of the puck. "Descamps is one of the best defensive developers in the game of hockey," Naurato said in the same press release. "His attention to detail on the technical and tactical aspects with the puck, and more importantly without the puck is next level. He'll run the penalty kill and the defensemen in game and will help us take another step forwards in both areas."
Without wishing to read too much into this quotation, what stands out to me here is the sense that Deschamps won’t just work with the defense corps but rather serve as a football-style defensive coordinator. When Naurato describes Deschamps as “one of the best defensive developers in the game of hockey,” I don’t take that as referring exclusively to developing defenseman but rather developing all skaters on the defensive side of the puck.
Despite the massive personnel losses, Michigan became a more productive offensive team in the first year of the Naurato era than it was in the final year of Mel Pearson’s tenure. Still, in ‘22-23 opponents also had an easier time of it in the Wolverine end of the rink than they did the year prior. Deschamps will play a key role in helping the Wolverines rectify some of the defensive lapses that plagued the team a year ago (particularly in the first half of the season).
Of course, Michigan’s defensive struggles a year ago (such that they were) had as much to do with personnel as scheme. The combination of a massive freshman class and relative lack of depth was always a recipe for difficulty in the defensive third of the rink.
The former factor felt especially relevant during the inconsistencies of the first half of the season, and the latter became more acute during Michigan’s spree of injuries on the blue line (most notably Jacob Truscott’s season-ender in late January) in the second half.
I think Michigan fans should begin wrapping their heads around the idea that the Wolverines’ defense corps will improve in 2023-24, even with Luke Hughes off to the NHL. Hughes’ departure at the end of his sophomore season was a fait accompli, but he of course leaves a void behind.
Why then could Michigan improve on the back end without him? The answer is depth.
In my estimation, Seamus Casey is more than ready to step into Hughes’ spot on the Wolverines’ top power play and on the first pair. Casey might not be able to quite match Hughes’ finishing touch or his top-of-the-range speed, but he is an exemplary skater and playmaker in his own right, who can also pitch in more than his fair share of goals.
Furthermore, where Hughes embraced a rover mentality as a sophomore, Casey’s creativity tends to come out more naturally through Michigan’s structure, meaning he tends not to give much up the other way in exchange for offense. Casey’s style isn’t quite the same as Hughes’ (Hughes more powerful and with a higher top speed, Casey a master of deception and sleight of hand), but the effect promises to be Hughesian in his sophomore year.
More importantly though, when you combine transfers Marshall Warren and Tyler Duke with key returners like Casey, Truscott, Ethan Edwards, Luca Fantilli, and Johnny Druskinis, I would fully expect this to be a deeper blue line than Michigan could ice a year ago. With that depth and Deschamps’ tutelage thrown in, I expect to see an improvement in overall defensive solidity.
Momentum, Momentum, Momentum: Team 28
The word I keep coming back to with respect to Jenna Trubiano’s team is momentum. With Trubiano entering her third season as the head coach of the team she once captained, there is an unprecedented sense of momentum around the University of Michigan women’s hockey team.
Before Trubiano took over, the program lost a full season to COVID in ‘20-21, which forced the following campaign to become something of a rebuilding year. However, a year ago, Trubiano’s Wolverines announced their ascension toward the ACHA’s ruling class, delivering the program’s best season since their head coach was an undergraduate. Michigan made it back to ACHA Nationals for the first time since 2016 and finished the year ranked ninth in the final ACHA W1 rankings.
Better still, the spine of last year’s team is back for more in 2023-24.
Goaltender Sandrine Ponnath (a rising junior) boasts a formidable claim to being the ACHA’s best goaltender after posting a .950 SV% and 1.46 GAA as a sophomore. Julia Lindahl burst onto the ACHA scene to lead the Wolverines in scoring as a freshman (27 points in 28 regular season games) and will be back for more as a sophomore. Katie German (a rising junior voted team captain for the coming season) and Cara Kolwich (a rising sophomore) will provide poise and stability along the blue line.
Of course, not everyone returns from last year’s run to Nationals. Jordan Eliason (a senior a year ago) will be a significant loss both on the ice as a tenacious forward and off it as a leader. However, incoming freshmen Katie Cummings, Samantha Carr, Emma Johns, and Hailey Powers arrive to help fill that void. Expect this to be the deepest Michigan team in recent memory and perhaps even in program history.
When you put it all together, Team 28 promises to be a formidable challenger in the CCWHA and ACHA WI ranks once again, with the opportunity to build on last year’s run to Nationals by not just returning to Nationals but making noise once they get there.
The sense of momentum around the program isn’t restricted to the ice. In collaboration with Arbor Broadcasting, Trubiano is hosting a new and improved Coach’s Show on Wednesday nights at Regents Field on Main Street in Ann Arbor, yet another marker of her program’s growth.
When it comes to women’s hockey at the University of Michigan, a sense of frustration is inescapable. The school should have a varsity program, and talk of feasibility plans or a willingness to explore that possibility is far from a satisfying replacement.
However, through that frustration, Michigan’s women’s hockey team affords its supporters a unique opportunity: Following a U-M team that is not a historical titan but rather a fledgling program seeking to establish national relevance first in the ACHA, and then, before too long we hope, in the NCAA.
That’s exciting. It’s exciting to be able to watch a Michigan program grow the way Trubiano’s is in real time. It’s a remarkable contrast to something like Michigan football; when 100,000+ fans per game are a given, you might get to bear witness to the team improving, but growing? Not so much.
Team 28 still shoulders an undue burden of program-building when a program should be long since forged. It still has to get by with minimal support from the university it represents and turn instead to grassroots fundraising. It also still has new worlds to conquer, new goals to achieve in ACHA and CCWHA competition.
In the end, whether you’d rather think of the team through the end goal of ACHA Nationals in 2024 or varsity status some time in the years to come, make no mistake: Team 28 has a strong foundation to build on.
WJSS Rewind
Before closing for the day, I’d like to take a moment to rewind to the World Junior Summer Showcase back in late July and early August for a few lingering notes and interviews.
Nazar Takeover Loading
To put it simply, it was impossible to watch the 2023 World Junior Summer Showcase and not leave with the impression that Frank Nazar is due for a monster sophomore season at U-M. I wrote about this for THN, but it of course bears repeating here. Nazar was a force in transition and played in all situations for head coach David Carle, doing so with aplomb. Most of all, he scored in bunches.
Back in the building he called home for two seasons prior to arriving at Michigan, it was impossible to avoid the sense that those in attendance at USA Hockey Arena were bearing witness to a different Nazar to the one who skated in 13 games at Michigan at the end of last year.
"Honestly, coming back, I wasn't the best player at the time. Obviously, I could play a role and fit in, but I wasn't myself yet,” Nazar said of his own freshman cameo.
At the WJSS, however, Nazar resembled the dazzling NTDP centerman who prompted EliteProspects to write “The more attention you pay to Nazar, the more you appreciate his offensive genius” in the run-up to the 2022 NHL Draft.
His teammate at Michigan and with the NTDP Rutger McGroarty disagreed, however. At the WJSS, McGroarty saw an even better Nazar now than he did in their pre-collegiate days together in Plymouth.
“Frank’s a great player, and he’ll always be a great player. ” McGroarty said. “He’s gonna play in the NHL for a long time and obviously that injury set him back a little bit, but I feel like he’s right back to where he was [before the injury] and better. During our spring skates at Michigan, he’s been buzzing. He’s got that compete. He’s got that smile back on his face, and it’s great to see…It’s tough to come off that long time away and hop right into playoff hockey, but seeing what he did at the end of last year and how he’s looked this summer, he’s gonna light it up next year.”
And even then, it wasn’t just “offensive genius” that stood for Nazar in Plymouth. Carle was quick to identify Nazar as among his most reliable options to kill off 5-on-3 power plays (of which there were many for the Americans throughout the week). Late last season for Michigan, Nazar began to find his niche with his short-handed effectiveness, and perhaps those minutes helped attune him to a different side of the game.
One thing was certain though. During a week-long summer gathering of the best U20 hockey players from three different nations, nobody was happier to be on the ice than Nazar.
"Not even just that, but being able to put on the USA jersey again and just represent USA again—it's just something that you've always got to take pride in," Nazar said, grinning. "And just being able to do that here, especially after the end of last season, only played a few games, coming in this summer and getting these games under my belt before going into my sophomore year but it's basically almost like freshman year on the ice, it's really good to have these few games.”
I suspect it won’t seem so good to Nazar’s B1G opponents in the coming year.
Tyler Duke Changes Sides: “At the end of the day, I did what’s best for me”
With Adam Fantilli off to the NHL and leaving Luca to his own devices back in Ann Arbor, Tyler Duke arrives to fill the void of Michigan hockey siblings.
After a successful freshman season under Steve Rohlik at Ohio State, the Ohioan defenseman jumped to the opposite site of the rivalry to join his brother Dylan at U-M. The offseason “was pretty crazy” he admits.
Then he continues, “I had a great year at Ohio State, and we were cut short of the Frozen Four by one game, and at the end of the day, I made the switch to Michigan because I thought that was best for my career and best for me and my family. I’m excited to start up there in a couple of weeks, and summer is going good. I’ve just been training here at USA Hockey Arena.”
The younger Duke brother explains that he harbors no resentment toward his former school but that it didn’t take long to realize that joining Dylan was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
“We’re from Ohio, so growing up we liked Ohio State, and Ohio State’s a great school, but I think it could be our last chance to ever play together, so we talked about that a little bit, and we think it’d be pretty cool to play together on one of the highest stages in college hockey,” Tyler said. “We’re both really looking forward to sharing those moments together because we’re gonna remember these memories for the rest of our lives.”
“At the end of the day, I did what’s best for me, so I’m just looking forward to the season at Michigan,” he added.
When asked for his impressions of Tyler Duke at the conclusion of the week, Carle said “Competitor. Battles. Those are the things that stand out. [He’s a] guy that everyone likes to be around away from the rink and at the hotel. He has good energy about him.”
Throughout the week, Duke’s aggressiveness jumped out in all facets of his game—assertive in defending his own blue line, more than willing to activate in his own offensive zone, quick to engage in post-whistle kerfuffles. Duke’s frenetic style represents a different profile than much of the Wolverine blue line, but his tenacity, skating, and ability with the puck should help him find a home there quickly.
Seamus Casey on the Offseason, Watching Gavin Brindley Get Drafted, and the ‘23-24 Season
Seamus Casey didn’t have any trouble staying busy in the summer after his freshman year.
“I’ve taken a few trips,” he explains. “I went to New York with Michigan Athletics, like 30 other athletes. It was a great trip—got to meet with a bunch of business and talk to a lot of Michigan alums, sightseeing—it was just a really great trip.”
When asked how he ended up on that trip, Casey explains that he was “honestly pretty lucky.” “My academic advisor Ashley Korn showed me what I needed to do to get involved in it. Got on the list, just a random selection type thing, and I had what I needed, so I was able to go on that with Luca. A ton of fun, learned a lot, made connections, that kind of thing.”
After New York, Casey “went to cheer Adam and Gavin on at the Draft for just a couple of days, and then I’ve been in Florida a lot, which has been great. Spent a lot of time with Gavin and also my friends down there, my brothers.” Then it was on to New Jersey for development camp, where he also had the chance to spend time with family and further explore the city.
Though there are numerous options to choose from, the highlight of Casey’s summer is clear: Watching longtime teammate and best friend Gavin Brindley get drafted.
“It was unbelievable,” Casey said. “It was like getting drafted again because we obviously grew up together, and we went on pretty much the same path all the way down. Seeing him get to go through that experience, I was there the whole way with him as he was with me, so it was pretty special. Seeing a brother reach his dream was so cool. I’m really glad I got to be there for it.”
When asked if Columbus drafting Brindley provided a sense of relief at finally being free from his childhood friend, Casey chuckled. “I was sitting there like New Jersey is gonna pick him; it’s gonna happen,” he said. “There’s no way it happens but knowing how we just keep following each other around, I was like it’s gonna happen. But I was so pumped to see him go with Adam. They’re so close to each other, and they obviously played amazing together, so he’s in a great spot.”
As for the coming season, Casey sees a promising mix of returning veterans and fresh-faced talent. “We have a lot of returners, so it’s really gonna be a different year,” he notes. “I think maybe a big theme is we have a lot of transfers coming in, which is going to help. They have a lot of experience in college hockey and hockey in general. Having those guys come in, some older guys, it’s going to help a lot, and then the four freshmen that are coming in are going to be studs as well.
“I think just looking to get everyone connected as fast as possible [is a priority], getting everyone on the same page. That’ll help a lot with the guys that are returning. We have everyone that was in our system last year, and I think we’ll get on the same page fast.”
Rutger McGroarty on Mullets, Michigan Spirit, and Teammates Turning Pro
In the bowels of USA Hockey Arena on the first day of practice at the ‘23 WJSS, Rutger McGroarty’s warm and booming voice is audible before he is visible. Wherever the Nebraskan goes—Ann Arbor, Winnipeg, and now Plymouth, he seems to have friends to greet once he gets there.
The gregarious 19-year-old sophomore had a busy summer but also a purposive one.
“I went to Nashville for the Draft, obviously development camp [with the Winnipeg Jets], I had a cousin’s wedding in Jasper, Alberta,” he explains. “It’s been a fun summer, but it’s also been heavy for sure—lotta lifts, lotta skates. We got some unfinished business over there at Michigan and the World Juniors, so I’m just trying to do whatever I can to make myself the best player possible and help out the team.”
When asked about his specific training goals, McGroarty said he’s “not changing his style” but instead the idea is to “continue to work on my skating, my shot, scoring from all areas of the ice, my compete…I’m going to be the same player as I grow up, so [I’m] just continuing to work on my craft.”
While he might not be changing up his style of play, there is one style change McGroarty does intend to make in the coming season. “I’m growing out the locks,” he says grinning. “We did the mullets for Big Ten playoffs and the national tournament, so I’m gonna let it flow this year and have a crazy mullet by the end of the year.”
As was the case the year before McGroarty’s arrival, Michigan lost several top players to pro hockey who had remaining eligibility. While he feels confident in the forthcoming group’s ability to replace that talent, McGroarty admits it’s difficult to conceive of a locker room without the likes of Mackie Samoskevich, Adam Fantilli, and Luke Hughes.
“They’re some of my best friends—sat next to Mackie in the locker room, best friends with Adam, hung out with Hughesy all the time,” McGroarty says. “I’m so happy for them; they’re playing in the show, man. That’s awesome. And then for us, as a team and me personally, obviously, it sucks and you’re gonna miss coming in on Monday seeing those guys smile, cracking jokes, going to war with them. It’s gonna be a little weird at first not laughing with Adamo on the bench.”
Still, there’s a job to do, and McGroarty doesn’t want to put a year’s worth of preparation into his mullet just to come up short in the postseason. He explains that he’s not sure those outside the fraternity of Michigan hockey quite grasp the significance of the quest for a national championship.
“Michigan’s a school you don’t really understand the team spirit—I know it’s kind of cheesy to say—until you actually go there and play,” McGroarty says. “Bringing a national championship to the University of Michigan is everything, and we haven’t gotten one in 25 years. We’ve got a great team coming back. We lost some key pieces, but it’s always the next man up mentality over there at Michigan. We definitely have a couple guys ready to fill those voids, and we’re excited.”
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