Snuggarud

[STL fan in MN]

Snuggy has exceeded my expectations. He’s adapted quicker and better than I expected. I saw a likely 2RW with a wicked shot in time but if he can develop into more than that then that’d be awesome.

That said i couldn't help but wonder how strong a team really is when you have a rookie still getting acclimated playing such a big role in the playoffs.

Oh for sure. Snuggy is doing fantastically given his age and experience level but he’s a pretty huge downgrade from this season’s version of Holloway. And it absolutely highlights a lack of depth that he was getting 2nd line minutes to start the playoffs and then thrust onto the top line last night. I really like Snuggerud’s future but it’s simply true that a Cup caliber team should have better options for that important of a role than a kid that was playing college hockey a couple weeks ago.

Who ever claimed THIS is a Cup caliber team? They might still prove to be but they are a long shot at best.

Snuggerud IS depth. That said, he would be playing now even if Holloway were healthy.

Nobody backfills a Holloway without losing performance.

That’s my point. This year’s Blues team isn’t a Cup caliber team. Not without a ton of luck and almost every player playing well above their current caliber.

Perhaps Snuggerud would still be playing on a deeper team but perhaps not. Maybe more the role Thomas had in ‘19 but it’s hard to say. But it’s telling to me that he’s easily passed Texier and Joseph already in the eyes of Monty.

Only saw Dalibor for that one game and he appeared to be everything fans said he would be: a good shot but needs to improve his skating, and that's just to be an NHL regular perhaps. Not sure he's got the toolset to be a high-caliber player.

Snuggy, on the other hand ... WOW. Faster than advertised, deceptive/elusive skating ability, great passing, and a Tarasenko-level shot. Kid is the total package.

Hopefully Army makes a few "smart" moves in the offseason (don't need a Predators 2.0 type offseason) and this team will be ready to compete for the Conference Finals next season barrring too many horrendous injuries.

Going to have to disagree with you about Dvorsky. He’s still only 19 and plays the harder position. He’s going to need some time to develop but I’d still rank Dvorsky ahead of Snuggy longterm in terms of their overall impact. But it’s close. And Snuggy’s quick NHL adaption perhaps closes the gap.

Living here in MN, I watched quite a few Gophers games on tv with a handful in person. Snuggy is good but so far he’s way outperforming what I would’ve expected based on what I saw his 3 years in college. Maybe he just got bored or needs to play with higher caliber players to truly shine but he had quite a few flaws in his game in college that haven’t really shown in the NHL much yet. Not sure if he’s made a quick adjustment or he’s just running on adrenaline and he’ll peter out in a bit but either way, I’m cautiously optimistic with him. He’s still a very young player and is bound to make a ton of rookie mistakes over the next year or so.

It appears his decision to stay another years was a good one

How does the league look upon the NCAA versus their own system for development of players ?

Yeah, I was one that never really had an issue with him returning for his Jr year. I would’ve had a big issue had he wanted to stay all 4 years but a year ago, he clearly still had parts of his game that needed work and I had no issue with him doing that work in college instead of Springfield. You only get to go to college once. Might as well enjoy it.

As for how the league as a whole or Blues view the NCAA as a development path, I could only guess but I’d guess it’s quite favorable. I get the impression the Blues might have a slight preference for the CHL but if they hated the NCAA model then we wouldn’t continually have so many prospects there. The NCAA is a good development path. Much better the last 10-20 years than it was in the 90s or earlier. Lots of talent in college hockey these days. Not as many games as the CHL but it allows the players to develop at a bit slower pace while spending more time in the gym.

And now that CHL players can play in the NCAA, that opens things up even more for the talent to increase in college hockey. At first it was just the overagers and fringe players that were leaving the CHL for NCAA but then Michigan State landed last year’s 4th overall pick Cayden Lindstrom, who’s leaving Medicine Hat to join the Spartans. I’ve even heard rumblings that Gavin McKenna (led the WHL in scoring as a 17 year old, pretty much guaranteed to be the 1st overall pick of the 2026 NHL draft) is considering leaving for the NCAA for big NIL money. That’d be a seismic event and the CHL would want to find a way to prevent that. Could be a war brewing IMO…

I did not know of the status of the NCAA in hockey's rank of learning and growing. If NIL comes along as you suggest it will only enhance that.

I assume the US northern university's are going to have to compete with the major sports to get their dollars.

Yeah, the NCAA is pretty much the primary way US kids get to the NHL. And obviously some Canadian kids go that route too - Celebrini, Fantilli, Makar, Schwartz etc.

Word is the Big 10 and Big East teams will have the most NIL money to throw around, particularly the Big 10. I’ve yet to see anything with definitely proof but I’d bet Snuggerud made solid NIL money this season with the Gophers. Enough that it’d at least be comparable to a AHL salary (but probably not AHL salary plus NHL signing bonus of $95k). TB 1st rounder Isaac Howard is returning to Michigan State for his Sr season. Part of that is because TB didn’t have enough Cap room to sign him for yet this season but I’d bet at least part of it is that Howard knows he’ll get good NIL money at Michigan State.

I'm not opposed to the concept of NIL but I hate the current practice of its wild wild west operation. There's a lot that has to be done to get some kind of structure for all parties to know where they stand and establish some expectations. There's likely going to have to be corporate structure set up to run it.

For now I am curious where a Snuggs or McKenna would fall on the dollar scale. You're thinking Snuggs got 100k maybe or a 2 way contract kind of salary value??

I'm guessing McKenna would draw serious interest and money. Private doners could swing that deal any way they want.

Yeah, there’s a lot of details I still don’t know about NIL dollars and how it all works. But yeah, I heard the top Gophers players made maybe around $75-80k. Is that true? Or just something someone here in MN hockey circles made up? Idk. I don’t have any concrete details. These guys won’t be making as much NIL money as the top football or basketball players (or ridiculously attractive females that happen to play some sport) but it sounds like the NIL dollars in college hockey is about to pop, especially in those 2 power conferences. There’s a lot of hand wringing that it’ll give the teams in those conferences too big of an advantage. Then again, Western Michigan just won the Natty with 0 NIL dollars so I guess we’ll see.

But agreed on the Wild Wild West aspect of it. There likely needs to be some additional guardrails but I’m far from an expert on NIL stuff so I’m not even sure what that would or should be.