ELynah Forum

Quote from: BearLover on May 14, 2026, 10:19:19 AM

Quote from: chimpfood on May 13, 2026, 12:05:17 AM

Quote from: BearLover on May 12, 2026, 06:17:14 PM

Quote from: chimpfood on May 12, 2026, 05:57:34 PM

Quote from: BearLover on May 12, 2026, 12:32:46 PMNo surprise, but Alex Pelletier named USHL Player of the Year: https://ushl.com/news/2026/4/20/mens-ice-hockey-alex-pelletier-named-ushl-player-of-the-year.aspx

Some credit should go to the Cornell coaching staff, as Pelletier never could have won USHL PotY had the coaches brought him in last year.

this is kinda the exact reason you send him back to be fair. If we brought him in he would've been standing at the top of section D most games and now he gets to shoot 7 shots per game and put up 85 points in a season.

I find it very unlikely he would run away with the USHL goals and points lead but not be able to crack the Cornell lineup.

Who knows man. Sean Donaldson lit the world on fire in juniors and never got much playing time. I still wouldn't be surprised if Pelletier never becomes very close to a point per game player in college. His production was really impressive this year but he takes a ridiculous amount of shots that he's not gonna get now that he's on a team with Letourneau, Hemming, etc.

I certainly don't expect Pelletier to win the Hobey. But I think it's also highly likely the coaching staff didn't realize what they had in Pelletier. Running away with the USHL lead in points and goals is extremely hard to do. For reference, this fall we're bringing in multiple players who are the same age as Pelletier but produced about half as many points.

old news here but DiGiulian and Pelletier both played for Lincoln the year before and Gio was far more impactful.  Giving Pelletier another year to develop seemed to make sense (I think our scratches were mostly first-year D this year not forwards)  - you do that hoping he lights it up and then honors his commitment.  Walsh was the second leading scorer in the USHL behind Celebrini and he didnt bail to go elsewhere.

probably because its my first year with the full season tickets thing but I am very excited about this season.  Plus my kid is an incoming student.  and the home games are well-spaced.  it will be a fun year.

If you figure 2 exhibition games in October before the 2 against Sacred Heart, then add in the pair against Merrimack and BU, plus the 11 on the schedule already, that's 17 home games.  which is the usual not including possible quarterfinal hosting.  So add in Maine, the pair at Omaha and that probably rounds it out.

Quote from: Weder on June 12, 2026, 12:53:39 PM

Quote from: Will on June 12, 2026, 12:43:15 PM

Quote from: billhoward on June 12, 2026, 11:51:17 AMIn favor of there being a 2026 Frozen Apple (ie even-year) MSG game: There is nothing else scheduled at MSG for Thanksgiving Saturday (if you see the Rockettes, unclick all the MSG properties until you only have the MSG main arena). Google says the Cornell-Quinnipiac 3-3 tie drew 16,593, the largest attendence for 2024-25 college hockey.

That season's national championship game beat that by a few hundred (https://www.collegehockeynews.com/box/final/20250412/wmu/bu_/) but it's still an impressive number.

The Rangers are pretty likely to have an afternoon game that day once the NHL schedule comes out.

True but that's usually the case.  Ranger game in the afternoon, Cornell game at night.  Of course it's happening.

Thanks for the schedule!  Just grabbed my tickets so I am officially part of the lynah faithful now.

Better to be on the road in early 2027 than for the whole second half of the year like 2026.

Quote from: stereax on June 05, 2026, 05:14:49 PMMcMahon on Twitter:

Breaking: The NCAA D1 Cabinet met and further discussed the hockey model today.

Sources say the NCAA will adopt hockey's proposed model, where the eligibility clock begins the season following an athlete's 19th birthday or college enrollment, removing HS graduation.

I would think it's age 19 or college enrollment, whichever comes first.  Since many players repeat years in prep school or need at least one year of junior hockey I don't think it changes much.  How many 19 year olds are playing college hockey and staying 4-5 years.  I agree for those kids ivies are at a disadvantage if there is no mechanism to play a fifth year but wouldn't 5th year players need to matriculatecdonegow wherever they play? This can't be a tough problem to solve

The issue really is that the way things have evolved, the different pathways really don't jibe with one another.  30 years ago, you might play public school hockey or prep school hockey and if you were a great player, you went on to play in college.  Separate from that was the junior hockey system which was geared solely towards NHL development.  As it has evolved though, kids are expected to play 2 years of junior hockey before playing D1 and, now, D3 hockey. A lot of the driving force behind it is money, and I dont just mean NIL money.  I mean, these junior leagues showed up and inserted themselves into the conversation.  So at the D1 level, other than the best players in the world, you don't have any 18 or 19 year olds playing, and so, if you aren't Mack Celebrini, you need to go play against other kids your age for a few years so you can show up and compete against the 20 and 21 year old freshmen.  For what? And now that the CHL doesn't cost anyone their eligibility, that's clearly the best pathway. 

The last 2 years my son went to the Matterhorn Fitness Showcase in Florida - its one of the premier showcases and is set up down in Florida to take place right about now, just after the NCAA coaches convention, so that coaches from all the Ivies, ECAC, Hockey East all come to it.  (by the way it was founded and is run by our own Ryan Vesce and his wife Kate, 2 Cornelian gems if there ever were any - they fly members of the Cornell band down to play the fight song after goals.  Do you have any idea how cool it is for your kid to score a goal and hear the band playing the fight song? but I digress...). In any case, at last year's event, one of the coaches stood up and told everyone that since the recent change in CHL and NCAA rules, 95% of all commits were coming from junior hockey.  Before that, a lot more were coming from Prep schools. 

What's really evolved is that these are two very distinct pathways.  Either you are playing hockey or you are a student. Some have stated that it's always been that way.  My experience as a student and a student-athlete was that perhaps admissions standards at the Ivies were not as tough for athletic;etes, but those guys were all still smart people who mostly worked hard at both school and in sports with the understanding that they were both.  But now it really is difficult to excel academically and still pursue intercollegiate sports - and the system has made it that way.  Lots of kids that my son played with growing up have gotten pulled away by academies, which basically foregoes a decent HS education, and then committed to schools.  Sometimes they make it, sometimes they get dropped. The juniors thing adds a whole new level to it,  For those years, you are not a student at all.  And I personally have know several kids who were Cornell commits (that we have discussed on  this board) who were absolutely spectacular prep school players and then in juniors, just showed up and the coach hated them.  Or the level of goonery tolerated at those levels resulted in injuries.  And they wound up not playing here.

The question becomes is the NCAA - and Im really just talking about hockey here I guess - just another conduit to the NHL, or is it a destination in and of itself? The very top players in many sports play in the NCAA for a year or two, then turn pro.  Hockey is the only sport in which the Ivies are nationally relevant in this regard.  So there is the idea of them recognizing that they can offer a great hockey program and experience (and Im sorry I disagree that playing in the Big Ten or wherever is so much better than the ECAC for a few years), but also get a year or 2 of an Ivy education under their belt - that they can ALWAYS go back to.  And for the four-year players, the student athlete concept should somehow remain relevant and important.  When you start bringing in kids who played great in the Q or the OHL, you are bringing in kids who basically went to generally subpar online schools for years.  They are not remotely equipped for a place like Cornell academically.  And that should still matter. I wish I knew what the solution was.

Quote from: abmarks on May 02, 2026, 12:28:49 AMCan someone explain the realistic way a kid delays HS graduation by a year two?

Short of failing something that is required for graduation, or getting permission to take an entire year off from school I can't figure it out.   Probably easier to do at a private school, but I'm trying to picture the kid who goes to a public US high school.

My high school days were certainly a long time ago (HS class of '85) but this only ever happened iirc if you basically flunked most of your classes one yr, or had a medical issue that made you miss too much class (kid had a serious car accident requiring lengthy rehab, or the occasionally pregnancy and child birth )

You could do a PG year at a prep school, but if that is helpful to you , you're not a D1 level player

Quote from: ugarte on April 22, 2026, 04:33:38 PM

Quote from: BearLover on April 22, 2026, 04:15:26 PMRated 114 by NHL Central Scouting. We now have recruits at 96, 112, and 114 in this year's rankings, plus Caton Ryan at 177.

Daniel Walters is really good at hockey?

It's great to be ranked at all, so that's good.  Just bear in mind that the rankings you're looking at are only including North American skaters.  So overall rankings tend to be much lower.  still all could be drafted.

Quote from: Redscore on April 20, 2026, 08:54:17 PMGuy is a really good goaltender but a Rockhead and got bad advice.  Let's move on. Maybe he gets what he wants and is an NHL star out of Wisconsin, but the odds are against that.  And it sounds like Math was not his strong suit.

Totally agree he made the wrong call.  Hicks outplayed both him and Hauser in the tournament.  If Cornoyer wants to get to the next level, that level was readily available to him as Cornell's #1.  Wanna go to the nhl? Spend a year stealing games for Cornell and take them to a frozen four. 

Having had a son who played prep school hockey the last few years and played at all kinds of showcases as well, people do things all the time to try to get what they perceive as an edge.  And people make wrong decisions all the time. 

One thing I've learned is you go where you're wanted.  Cornoyer was the #1 here.  I respect that he expects himself to be the #1 at Wisconsin, but for all we know that coach is bringing him in to get more out of Hauser.  Believe me I know from firsthand experience these last 2 years when you have a coach who thinks you're da bomb you play for him as long as you can.

Quote from: The Rancor on April 19, 2026, 08:54:25 AM

Quote from: Bluelightning on April 19, 2026, 06:42:41 AMPossibly Rousseau is coming here mainly because he is thinking (or told) he won't have to split  playing time. He had to split time with Albin Boija in Maine. When Boija was on his game, he was better than Rousseau (4 shutouts, 2 decent games at Denver, etc). But when Boija was off it was gross.
    An athlete entering the portal because he wants a better education? That would be refreshing. He has an amazing opportunity presented to him now: start for Cornell hockey and possibly graduate with Ivy League degree. Win-win.
      Amazing how placated I feel getting Rousseau even after comparing game by game stats to Cournoyer. It was our best (and probably only) option and Casey got it done. Hats off to him. He came to Cornell with impossible shoes to fill. Did great job in season 1 but now has lost top goaltender, forward and one of top defensemen before their senior year.

This is a good pick up, but he will have to battle for starts against Roest, and presumably Katz, as well as Cirka who may or may not come this season, but next year for sure.

Quote from: Pghas on April 19, 2026, 06:17:43 AMI have to say I'm pretty unimpressed with Cornoyer's decision and also the way he is handling it.  Maybe he really hated Cornell because kit strikes me as unusual for any player to not at least acknowledge his current team and coaching staff.  I guess the competition in the big ten is better but idk.  I think their coaching staffs are using that idea to poach higher level players from the ECAC. I also don't understand -as far as I can tell Wisconsin just went on a run.  They are not a perennial powerhouse.  Plus as someone mentioned above Cornoyer is going to have to compete for his spot.  I don't know I guess there is lots more behind the scenes that I don't know about. 

Agree with you, seemed really unclassy to make the 'level up comment' when Cornell was 2 games away from losing in the Championship too.
That said, Wisconsin is definitely a perennial powerhouse, the last few seasons they haven't won the big one, but they have 6 times- and 9 for the women.
Yeah the last one was in '06 but I'm not sure we can talk smack on that one. For sure the old WCHA and the Big 10 are tough hockey leagues, but Cornell has held it's own against them. So, yeah something else happened, or maybe it was the plan all along. But it doesn't matter because we have a new set of goalies, an awesome freshman class returning for more as sophomores and (for now) our Captain- and of course our Coach. We skate on.

Since winning the natty in 2006, they've lost in the national championship game once in 2010 and been to the NCAA tournament 5 times, 4 of which they got bounced in the first round.  Over that same period ( Cornell lost 1-0 in the regional finals to the national championship team) Cornell has been to the tournament 10 times.  And while there are some weaker teams in the ECAC, let's not make believe they are rolling over a bunch of patsies on their way to the dance every year. 

I don't know I just think it was a bad choice by him. But I'm biased!

I have to say I'm pretty unimpressed with Cornoyer's decision and also the way he is handling it.  Maybe he really hated Cornell because kit strikes me as unusual for any player to not at least acknowledge his current team and coaching staff.  I guess the competition in the big ten is better but idk.  I think their coaching staffs are using that idea to poach higher level players from the ECAC. I also don't understand -as far as I can tell Wisconsin just went on a run.  They are not a perennial powerhouse.  Plus as someone mentioned above Cornoyer is going to have to compete for his spot.  I don't know I guess there is lots more behind the scenes that I don't know about. 

I'm going to choose to believe that losing Cornoyer is not going to be the disaster we are worried it could be.

Denver was a great team playing well for sure.  But let's be honest- Denver was totally overmatched in the frozen four.  Hicks won that Natty for them. Cornoyer was great, would love to have him back.  But Cornell split with Colgate, Princeton, Quinnipiac and Dartmouth.  Lost one to Harvard in the quarters, lost to Princeton in ECAC semis.  Blown out by Denver in NCAAs. He didn't steal a single game for us.  He made saves and was very solid.  A team like Wisconsin will look at him and say well if he'd been in goal maybe he's good enough to get us over the Natty line.  But he is not a Hicks.  Honestly Cornoyer stock goes up much more if he has faith in himself, stays at Cornell, and this year does steal a few games and we ride him to an ECAC title or frozen four berth.  Playing behind a strong annual contender and being good enough doesn't get you to the next level.

Now I have no idea what else is it play. For all I know, he doesn't like Cornell, or the academics are too hard for him, which he discovered after a truncated recruitment process, or perhaps the locker room, environmental coaching environment is toxic to him or not great. And those are all reasons to leave that I totally understand. But the truth is the transfer portal was really set up so the kids who were recruited and signed in attending university and then don't get the kind of ice opportunity that they want can seek that opportunity, not for people to seek upward mobility within the system, which theoretically really shouldn't work. But Browne is losing one of their best players to Dartmouth. That's kind of a shitty thing. It makes you wonder if people's commitment needs to be longer than it is unless they're not given an opportunity or ice time.

Maybe they come up with a system where the coach submits a list of 10 or 15 names, probably closer to 10, of kids who are protected and can't enter the transfer portal. That way the top players on every team can't be poached away by other top teams. Otherwise what you're gonna have is a real imbalance of power in the system is really gonna fall apart. And that is not the way this is supposed to work. Coaches are supposed to recruit before kids start college, not during college be able to fill them away. If we're gonna run it like pro sports, then let's run it like pro sports. No fair everybody being a hired gun year to year.

Quote from: BearLover on April 15, 2026, 09:58:03 AMHighly doubt we're competitive for Quentin Mille and at this point I'm not even sure we want to play this game...

Quote from: adamw on April 15, 2026, 10:00:17 AM

Quote from: BearLover on April 15, 2026, 09:53:48 AM

Quote from: Snowball on April 15, 2026, 09:12:37 AM

Quote from: BearLover on April 15, 2026, 01:12:24 AMWow, much bigger freakout by the non-BL posters in response to this news than when Robertson ditched last year. Why is that?

What I actually enjoy most about Cornell hockey isn't the chance for an NCAA run, though that's always fun, it's the season itself. The rhythm, watching a roster grow up together. Seeing freshmen turn into real players (Charlie Major!) and lines develop real chemistry over time.

If roster churn becomes constant, it's basically free agency every offseason. That continuity is gone and with it, a big piece of what made this program endearing.

Right, but to me, the Robertson transfer was the canary in the coal mine.

Anyway, if people want to take their outrage and shift that energy towards something productive, a few things come to mind:

• write a letter to the Ivy League administrators about how allowing grad transfers would further the educational goals of the league. Lack of 5th year eligible players will kill us once that becomes the new rule. Staff directory here: https://ivyleague.com/staff-directory
• reach out to Casey and ask his thoughts on the new college climate and how he sees Cornell keeping up. Ask him what is fans can do to help. It may tie in with the next bullet point...
• look into what Penn basketball did, since this seems to be the only precedent for a successful model of paying players in the Ivy League. What are the details of their arrangements? A key point here is that it's orders of magnitude more expensive to pay players in basketball than in hockey - so to the extent Penn boosters have successfully accomplished this, it could be ported to hockey for relatively cheap. The other key point is that outside of big state schools, American universities tend to be broke af. The Ivies are the exception. If we actually instituted an NIL program we'd have more money than almost anyone outside the Big 10

My understanding is that Cornell is, or will be, partaking in the last bullet point.  Casey will certainly unturn any rock to do what needs to be done.  It's just the landscape is a bloody disaster right now, so it will not be pretty.

well for one thing, Cornell does already admit the top recruits into the Dyson undergraduate business school which is the toughest one to get into and puts them on the fast track to said great internships and long term financial success.  But when that is put up against the possibility of an NHL career, even that isn't great.  Still, the vast vast majority of NCAA players will not become impact players or even players at all in the NHL.  So you have to take the "one and done" like basketball does and also keep an eye on players whose developmental arc seems to sync up with an NCAA career.  That said, the players who could have NHL careers are going to be the ones that get you the best chance of winning.  Dartmouth has already announced that Cleaves, Stavroff and their top D and goalie are coming back next year.  Pretty sure they were all undrafted and will benefit Fromm another NCAA year, and that its not a loyalty to Dartmouth while the NHL is knocking at the door thing.

Think summer recruiting visits to my buddy's house on Cayuga would help?

Fuck.

Twitter verse has him headed to Wisconsin.