ELynah Forum

Quote from: Redscore on April 20, 2026, 08:54:17 PMAnd it sounds like Math was not his strong suit.

Did you read his quotes? Apparently grammar is also not his strong suit.

To make it easy for anyone who missed them...

"I want my goalie partner to play good so I can play better than him," Cournoyer told BadgerExtra.com. "It's nothing personal. It's just my mentality as a person. I want me and [Hauser] to play good and get this team to the next level next year together."

Quote from: BearLover on April 20, 2026, 11:49:48 AMThat part I got. But his reasoning for transferring is what I want to know, and that is still a mystery. Did he transfer because he though Wisconsin would give him a better opportunity to sign pro? Because he was struggling in school/didn't want to go to class anymore? "He only cares about hockey" seems clear, but why transfer? I can think of several reasons, but we don't have much clarity as to the ones that led to the decision, other than maybe a vague allusion to the "education" bit.

If I had to guess, I think a huge part of it may be Cournoyer's belief in himself that he will win the starting spot at Wisconsin (in spite of the quote he gave about Hauser pushing him.) If, on the other hand, he really believes that he'll be splitting time with Hauser then I'd say he's either pretty damn short-sighted, or other factors (academics, as others have suggested) were in play.

Quote from: BearLover on April 19, 2026, 09:40:10 AMSurprised Cournoyer did not take home the Wendal and Francelia Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement

I know you were joking, but as a freshman he actually wasn't eligible:

--
The Wendell and Francelia Earle Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement

An annual award endowed in perpetuity by the Earle Family, honors Wendell, Cornell Professor in CALS and team advisor, who, with his wife Fran, hosted Cornell Hockey players for 15 years and entertained their families. The award recipients are the team members from the sophomore, junior and senior classes who have achieved the highest cumulative grade point average. Introduced and presented by the Earle Family.

Quote from: stereax on April 19, 2026, 09:30:49 AMApparently he is also nicknamed Rooster, like Roest, haha.

Not Stereax level, but...

Quote from: stereax on April 18, 2026, 01:01:01 AM

Quote from: andyw2100 on April 18, 2026, 12:55:38 AM

Quote from: adamw on April 18, 2026, 12:45:45 AMBTW - the story I heard is that Cournoyer's agent -- who is not very college hockey savvy -- was sending out e-mails to anyone that would listen. Wisconsin -- which had been shopping for a goalie, but not him -- was surprised to get an email like that out of the blue. And then things happened from there. Cornell's staff has been very aggressive in covering their butts from the expected increased amount of transience in college hockey now. But that is one they didn't really have an inkling about, as you can tell.

I get that the Big Ten is better overall than the ECAC, and has a higher profile. But it's completely misguided to believe he didn't have every opportunity to excel, improve and impress NHL types by staying at Cornell. I believe it demonstrates a lack of understanding for what he was getting into in the first place. So in that regard, que sera sera. It was a coup at the time, but he's also replaceable. The only issue is the timing, so we'll see.

I think Cournoyer is taking a huge risk for potentially little reward.

Best case scenario he beats out Hauser for the starting spot, and winds up starting for a team that may be marginally better than Cornell, with a marginally higher profile, in a marginally better league.

Worst case scenario Wisconsin figures out that "it was the system" at Cornell, decides Hauser is actually stronger, and Cournoyer sits most of the year, waiting to transfer again.

I think objectively it was a bad move on his part.

The thing is, I don't even know if Wisconsin is better than Cornell or if they just went on a 24-25 March Big Red Linsanity run!

Yeah. That's why I wrote "may be marginally better." I'm not willing to concede that they are/will be.

Quote from: adamw on April 18, 2026, 12:45:45 AMBTW - the story I heard is that Cournoyer's agent -- who is not very college hockey savvy -- was sending out e-mails to anyone that would listen. Wisconsin -- which had been shopping for a goalie, but not him -- was surprised to get an email like that out of the blue. And then things happened from there. Cornell's staff has been very aggressive in covering their butts from the expected increased amount of transience in college hockey now. But that is one they didn't really have an inkling about, as you can tell.

I get that the Big Ten is better overall than the ECAC, and has a higher profile. But it's completely misguided to believe he didn't have every opportunity to excel, improve and impress NHL types by staying at Cornell. I believe it demonstrates a lack of understanding for what he was getting into in the first place. So in that regard, que sera sera. It was a coup at the time, but he's also replaceable. The only issue is the timing, so we'll see.

I think Cournoyer is taking a huge risk for potentially little reward.

Best case scenario he beats out Hauser for the starting spot, and winds up starting for a team that may be marginally better than Cornell, with a marginally higher profile, in a marginally better league.

Worst case scenario Wisconsin figures out that "it was the system" at Cornell, decides Hauser is actually stronger, and Cournoyer sits most of the year, waiting to transfer again.

I think objectively it was a bad move on his part.

Quote from: stereaxsomehow i doubt the sole reason he went to wisconsin was a "new level". although that's ASSHOLISH to say!

Fixed your post...

Quote from: underskill on April 17, 2026, 07:39:47 PMCournoyer said he entered the transfer portal because he was looking for a new challenge.
"I just wanted to jump to the next level," he said. "I decided to enter the portal because we thought, my family and my adviser, that I could get a better opportunity. And Wisconsin reached out right after so it worked out pretty well."

Next level? That's classy.

I say good riddance. I hope he winds up riding the pine at Wisconsin. He can feel good opening and closing the door for his new level of teammates.

Quote from: stereax on April 15, 2026, 06:45:04 PM

Quote from: underskill on April 15, 2026, 06:42:49 PMhttps://x.com/CollegePuckNXT/status/2044544090298081737

New recruit from WHL

Does that say 49 points in 27 games???

Perhaps it got corrected, but it now says 49 points in 67 games.

Quote from: BearLover on April 15, 2026, 04:28:32 PM

Quote from: andyw2100 on April 15, 2026, 04:21:56 PM

Quote from: adamw on April 15, 2026, 02:48:00 PMI don't think the problem will be getting the money. I think the issue will be how to distribute the money in such a way that flies by Cornell/Ivy/NCAA rules.  NIL is not a pay-for-play bucket. (and yes I know many teams get around this - but ... Ivy)

Exactly this.

I don't think I am violating any expectation of privacy by saying that at one of the Coach's Club luncheons, when Casey was talking about the concept of paid internships, he pointed out that the pay had to be commensurate with typical intern pay. So even if a rich alum were willing to pay a player $30K for a summer internship, that just can't happen.

And because of that, while I think the internship idea is nice, and could make the difference for some recruits between a program that has it and one that doesn't, it's not going to be the kind of game-changer that results in guys like Cournoyer not entering the portal.

Right - though I do think some finance summer internships can be in the range of 20-30k?

Actually I remember being surprised at how low a number Casey tossed out. If memory serves it was something like $6 or $7K. Nowhere near $20-$30, and definitely four figures.

That being said, it could be so early in the process that Casey may have just been throwing out a number that may not be accurate. It was a very informal statement.

Quote from: adamw on April 15, 2026, 02:48:00 PMI don't think the problem will be getting the money. I think the issue will be how to distribute the money in such a way that flies by Cornell/Ivy/NCAA rules.  NIL is not a pay-for-play bucket. (and yes I know many teams get around this - but ... Ivy)

Exactly this.

I don't think I am violating any expectation of privacy by saying that at one of the Coach's Club luncheons, when Casey was talking about the concept of paid internships, he pointed out that the pay had to be commensurate with typical intern pay. So even if a rich alum were willing to pay a player $30K for a summer internship, that just can't happen.

And because of that, while I think the internship idea is nice, and could make the difference for some recruits between a program that has it and one that doesn't, it's not going to be the kind of game-changer that results in guys like Cournoyer not entering the portal.

First of all, Happy Birthday, Stereax!

As for Wines...

Quote from: DafatoneNot at all relevant to the discussion, but about 20 years ago (yikes) a professor told us that Intro to Wines was the most failed class at Cornell.

An engineering friend of mine in the class literally shouted, "lies!" in response to this. Which was pretty entertaining in a huge lecture hall.

When I was a student in the mid-80's, everyone generally wanted to take Wines second semester senior year. I had a friend who had skipped a year of school, and was thus a year younger than most seniors. The drinking age was going up, and he would not have been able to take wines second semester senior year, so he took it in the fall semester. At the time the professor or professors teaching wines would make the first prelim really hard, to encourage people to take the class seriously. Many people did really poorly on that first prelim. They made other prelims or the final easy, so very few, if any, people actually failed, but somehow we didn't know that.

I was creating my spring schedule around the time of the first prelim in the fall. I wound up taking an additional course, so that even if I failed Wines I would still have enough credits to graduate. I knew that if I failed wines and that resulted in my not being able to graduate, my parents would have killed me! So that first difficult Wines prelim resulted in me taking an additional course my last semester at Cornell.

Tough one for the Wisconsin goalie. He lost his stick trying to go side to side, and was stickless for the GWG.

And on that note, has strategy changed and it's no longer in vogue for a defenseman to give their stick to a goalie who has lost his? I haven't watched a replay but it felt like a really long time between when he lost his stick and when Denver scored.

Quote from: BearLover on March 31, 2026, 09:51:06 PM

Quote from: andyw2100 on March 31, 2026, 09:47:45 PM

Quote from: BearLover on March 31, 2026, 09:30:38 PMI could have worded it more clearly, but what I said was that, in comparison to the best teams in the country, the 2003 team and the 2026 were about on the same level.

I gotta correct you there, BearLover. The 2003 team was the overall number one seed in the tournament.

Sure. Speaking purely about talent though. I think this year's team and 2003 were similar levels (normalized against the rest of the country). The difference I'm trying to show was the 2003 was stacked with talented seniors.

Oh. I think I understand what you're saying now. Essentially it boils down to the 2003 team had similar relative talent to the 2026 team as compared to the other teams in Division 1 hockey at the time, but the 2003 team over-performed that talent level, largely due to the fact that everyone had stayed.

Quote from: BearLover on March 31, 2026, 09:30:38 PMI could have worded it more clearly, but what I said was that, in comparison to the best teams in the country, the 2003 team and the 2026 were about on the same level.

I gotta correct you there, BearLover. The 2003 team was the overall number one seed in the tournament.