Post #39 — 4/2/21 — Patty Kaz Award, Final Top 10 Polls, NCAA News, Sifters
In This Post…
- Recruiting Rule of The Day
- Northeastern’s Frankel Wins The Patty
- Final Top 10 Polls
- NCAA News
- Sifters
Recruiting Rule of The Day…
12.1.2 Amateur Status. An individual loses amateur status and thus shall not be eligible for intercollegiate competition in a particular sport if the individual: (Revised: 4/25/02 effective 8/1/02, 4/23/03 effective 8/1/03, 4/29/10 effective 8/1/10)
(a) Uses his or her athletics skill (directly or indirectly) for pay in any form in that sport;
(b) Accepts a promise of pay even if such pay is to be received following completion of intercollegiate athletics participation;
(c) Signs a contract or commitment of any kind to play professional athletics, regardless of its legal enforceability or any consideration received, except as permitted in Bylaw 12.2.5.1;
(d) Receives, directly or indirectly, a salary, reimbursement of expenses or any other form of financial assistance from a professional sports organization based on athletics skill or participation, except as permitted by NCAA rules and regulations;
(e) Competes on any professional athletics team per Bylaw 12.02.12, even if no pay or remuneration for expenses was received, except as permitted in Bylaw 12.2.3.2.1;
(f) After initial full-time collegiate enrollment, enters into a professional draft (see Bylaw 12.2.4); or (g) Enters into an agreement with an agent.
Northeastern’s Frankel Wins The Patty
Northeastern University senior goaltender Aerin Frankel won the 2021 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award on Saturday March 27. The event was televised on the NHL Network live at 2pm as an hour long special. The native of Briarcliff Manor, NY beat out Wisconsin forward Daryl Watts and Minnesota forward Grace Zumwinkle. Statistically Frankel was in a class by herself this year. With 23 games played this year she had an 0.81 GAA and a .965 Save % seeing just under 23 shots per game.
You can watch her video accepting the award HERE and her Patty Kaz intro video HERE. She is a senior and will have the NCAA extra year of eligibility to use. We assume she’ll be back for the Huskies next season.
Final Top 10 Polls
The final USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls of the season came out for the week of March 22. They are identical to each other. You will notice Minnesota is ranked 6th… and yes they did not get into the NCAA tournament. Keep in mind these rankings are not used by the NCAA selection committee to determine who gets into the tournament or not. These rankings are strictly for media purposes by the various entities.
That said, these rankings are decided by good ‘hockey people’ who know the game… sports writers, NCAA coaches, members of the AHCA membership. I can’t recall a time when a team ranked as high as 6th in any poll, much less both, was left out of the tournament. It will be interesting to hear the selection committee comment on the process this year during the AHCA Convention in May.
| USCHO.com Top 10 Poll – March 22 |
|---|
| #1 Wisconsin |
| #2 Northeastern |
| #3 Ohio State |
| #4 MN-Duluth |
| #5 Colgate |
| #6 Minnesota |
| #7 Boston College |
| #8 Penn State |
| #9 Providence |
| #10 Robert Morris |
| USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Top 10 Poll – March 22 |
|---|
| #1 Wisconsin |
| #2 Northeastern |
| #3 Ohio State |
| #4 MN-Duluth |
| #5 Colgate |
| #6 Minnesota |
| #7 Boston College |
| #8 Penn State |
| #9 Providence |
| #10 Robert Morris |
NCAA News
The D-I and D-III women’s coaching body as well as D-I conference commissioners held their monthly zoom meeting last week. The big topic of discussion was this year’s NCAA national tournament, the selection process, and the absence of Minnesota and Penn State. There was a spirited discussion about the transparency of the process as a whole. Also discussed… D-I hockey could be in position to better the sport given the recent inequities shown in women’s basketball. Fair and equitable treatment could come in the form of an increase in teams selected to the D-I national tournament 8 to 10. Currently, on a percentage basis, the women’s tournament is out of balance compared to that of men’s D-I hockey. The women’s currently have 8 selections that represent 22.22% of the total number of teams at the D-I level eligible to make the tournament (36). Men’s D-I hockey is at 26.66% of it’s membership which is 60 and slated to be 61 after the 21-22 season.
Future meetings later this month will take place between each of the D-I conference commissioners and the D-I coaches chairs of each conference to discuss national agenda items for its AHCA convention in May. More about that agenda and the convention itself later this month.
Sifters
Worlds Update… Multiple NCAA players are off to their countries respective training / tryout camps for the 2021 World Championships being held in Halifax, Nova Scotia May 6-16. Players heading to Canada needed to take into account a mandatory 14-day quarantine before heading off for camp. Team USA’s camp, which just ended March 30, was held in Blaine, MN. twenty-four players on NCAA rosters this season were invited. A total of 46 players total were involved. The U.S. has named their World Championship Roster and you can find it HERE.
The MN State Tournament… continues this week. The Class A and Class AA finals will be held tomorrow and can be seen live HERE. The Class A championship begins at 11AM CST with Proctor/Hermantown vs. Gentry Academy. The Class AA championship has Edina vs. Andover at 1PM CST.
5 OT’s for the North Dakota/MN-Duluth Men… the NCAA men’s tournament kicked off last weekend and it produced the longest NCAA tournament game ever and 4th longest game ever. #1 overall tournament seed North Dakota came back to tie MN-Duluth with less than two minutes to go in the game and eventually lost 3-2 in the 5th overtime. You can watch the game highlights below.
Until Next Time… Have a great weekend everyone!
Thanks for calling out the MN Girls state championship games! Really excited to see all four teams play, some interesting story lines and tons of future college hockey players at the DI and DIII level. I am a homer for Edina so will be rooting for them all the way!
Here is a question for you Grant, how do colleges and universities select their “territory” that they recruit from? Know there has to be more to it than proximity, but I have noticed that school will commonly have themes to background of their players (i.e. Canadiens, Minnesotans, NE Prep Schools, Shattuck, etc.), and not many schools have a comprehensive mix of all the girls “hockey hotbeds.”
Would love to hear you thoughts on how choose where you are going to fill your pipeline from.
I think geography plays the biggest role to be honest. Most recruits will stick within a 4-5 hour drive radius of the school they choose. Not all of course, but it’s a high percentage. Look at WCHA as an example… don’t find too many kids from New England on WCHA rosters. Some schools are able to attract a bit more diversity, but not a lot.
As far as schools selecting their ‘territory’… tougher to answer, but again, geography. Most schools tend to treat recruiting like a puzzle. They have a certain number of pieces they need to fit into their plan. I think where those pieces come from are of far less concern to coaches than making sure those pieces are the right fit. All coaches go after the same pool of kids and it’s not deep. If you could look at everyone’s top recruiting list, I’d bet they would look very similar. But coaches take players who they can get, not always who they want. The role of the club or high school coach has become much more prominent in recruiting within our sport too. Depending on the college coach and his/her relationship with said club/HS coach, could play a major factor in where a recruit may seriously consider too.
Great insights and awesome response!
Love your blog keep up the great work!
Go Hornets!