Gopher hockey freshmen growing up fast in season's early stages (2024)

Hockey is a game of mistakes, and 18- to 20-year-old college freshmen are especially known for making them as they adjust to playing against teams with rosters that include experienced players up to 25 years old. The University of Minnesota men’s hockey team has, as expected, made its fair share of mistakes getting through a gauntlet of ranked opponents over the first four weekends, but a surprise has been how quickly the team’s freshman class is acclimating.

The Gophers split their first three weekends, displaying inconsistency with puck management and confidence, but coach Don Lucia said it was often his older players struggling and not the freshmen. After losing top-nine forwards Justin Kloos, Vinni Lettieri, and Taylor Cammarata to graduation in the offseason, Lucia hoped he could plug a few of his incoming freshmen right into those roles.

Center Casey Mittelstadt quickly established himself as one of the team’s top scorers with two goals and five assists through his first seven games, but he is not the only player contributing to No. 5 Minnesota — now 5-3 after a sweep of Clarkson this past weekend. Winger Brannon McManus is one of the youngest players in college hockey at 18 years and 3 months, but he showed an elite-level shot by scoring three goals against Penn State in his third collegiate game. Forward Scott Reedy’s strong all-around play has put him as a valuable contributor on Minnesota’s top line with Mittelstadt and leading scorer Rem Pitlick. Forward Cullen Munson joined the program as a late summer depth addition and provided just that when injuries and suspensions hit the lineup.

The Gopher blue line tougher for youngsters to crack, with six NHL-drafted defensem*n ahead of freshmen Sam Rossini and Nate Knoepke. Lucia said he usually gives his returning players the first chance at spots in the lineup, but Rossini has worked himself into the line chart for three games and Knoepke made his debut Saturday against Clarkson.

Of the incoming players, Reedy certainly most looks the part of a college hockey player, measuring 6-foot-2 and weighing 199 pounds after spending the past two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program.

“Just physically, going to USHL as a 17-year-old isn’t the easiest thing,” said Reedy.“NTDP do a great job making sure we’re in the weight room, putting on a lot of muscle. A lot of it the last two years has been putting on that good weight and being physically stronger on the ice.”

San Jose drafted Reedy with its fourth-round pick, 102nd overall, in the 2017 NHL Draft, after he was among the top NHL combine performers in grip strength, pro agility and VO2 max. Lucia said Reedy along with Mittelstadt makes Minnesota deeper offensively, provides him a lot of options up front, and has made him feel comfortable enough to play 11 forwards some nights this season. Reedy — one of the few right-handed shots on the roster — has seen some time on the power play as a net presence forward, and Lucia said his ability to take some draws will help throughout the season.

“I’m a skilled power forward, use my body to protect the puck and then use my creativity and hockey sense to create plays all over the ice,” Reedy said. “I think just being able to play center and wing will help me to play here, wherever I fit into the lineup, wherever I can help the team most is where I’ll be.”

ThePrior Lake, Minn., native played bantam hockeywith McManus at Shattuck-St. Mary’s, where they won the school’s first national bantam title. McManus started playing roller hockey, then ice hockey and at 14 years old moved from Newport Beach, Calif. — following friend Ben Lown who now plays at Miami University, to the state of hockey. His brothers gave up the game, but McManus continued to excel in Faribault, becoming the youngest verbal commit to Minnesota at 14 years, nine months and the first commit of the 2017 class.

“Once I saw the campus and got to know some of the boys on the team, it really felt like this was where I wanted to go,” McManus said. “And then over time after I committed, I was like, ‘I’m in a good spot, this is it.’ I knew I didn’t want to go out East, knew I wanted to be in the Midwest.”

He became just the second Californian in the modern era to play at Minnesota, and while Lucia is not expecting hat tricks on a regular basis, he recruited him for offense. McManus was always among the leading scorers at the USA Hockey Player Development Camps and has a shot that impressed his teammates immediately.

“That’s what he is, he’s an offensive player — he’s been that way his whole life going back to Shattuck,” said Lucia. “He was going to get more minutes. I told him after the game when we took him out against Union that probably the reason we took him out was not that he played poorly, but (Jack) Ramsey, (Darian) Romanko and (Ryan) Norman played so well I couldn’t take them out, and so you’re a freshman, that’s the way it works. He just said I don’t want to come out again.

“I think you saw that in the game [against Penn State]. Those were goal scorer’s goals, not everyone can pick top corners from distance and that’s the difference in a true goal scorer, to have the ability to do that.”

🐐🎩#SteelAlum Brannon McManus (@Bmcmanus7) tallied his first 3 NCAA goals on Sunday afternoon!

📹: @GopherHockey pic.twitter.com/1iWFxAUjKq

— Chicago Steel (@ChicagoSteel) October 16, 2017

While McManus was the first player for the class, Munson was the last piece added this past June. After winning two state titles at Edina High School while playing with current teammates Tyler Nanne, Ryan Zuhlsdorf, and Connor Hurley, the forward committed to Army. Munson visited West Point, loved it, but later decided five years of serving and a nine-year commitment just wasn’t for him.

“It’s been a long journey, but I don’t regret anything,” Munson said. “I had a blast in Janesville, in Edina and ending up here was unbelievable. I never thought I would be here — I just grinded it out and it all worked out.”

Munson played three seasons in the NAHL with the Janesville Jets and at 21 years old is an experienced incoming freshman that Lucia has added to provide some depth, which came in handy already this season when the Gophers were down two forwards to injury and one to suspension. The coach was glad to see Munson show he can gobble up some minutes and create some competition for playing time.

The freshman defenseman showing the most promise right now for playing time is Rossini, who completely lost last season due to a torn ACL and sprained MCL/LCL while playing an exhibition game for the Penticton Vees in the BCHL. He is over a year out from the surgery, and the 6-foot-3, 198-pound blue-liner says everything is back to 100 percent.

“It’s taught me a lot and it’s made me a stronger person and player,” Rossini said. “I think if anything happens, I can battle through it. I feel like I’m not affected by much anymore because I’ve seen it all.”

Rossini played his freshman and sophom*ore seasons at Burnsville High School before signing a tender with the Waterloo Black Hawks in the USHL in April 2014 and then committing to Minnesota two weeks later. Despite scoring a goal in his debut with Minnesota, he’s never shown up much in the scoresheet and considers himself more of a good skating, good first pass, defensive defenseman. Lucia likes what he has seen from Rossini moving the puck and notes that he’s a good penalty killer who can contribute there this year.

Knoepke, the other freshman defenseman, played at Lakeville South High School and then with Reedy at the USNTDP the past two seasons. Central Scouting ranked the Farmington, Minn., native 79th among North American skaters for the 2017 NHL Draft Prospect Rankings, but he was passed over during the seven rounds.

“For about a day I was pretty disappointed, but after that I turned it into motivation,” Knoepke said. “I realized you can’t pout, you got to get back in the weight room right away and skate and get better. There’s a lot of stories of guys that went undrafted and went on to have successful careers, so hoping if I have a good year this year we’ll see what happens.”

Lucia made sure to get Knoepke some experience against Clarkson this past weekend ahead of the Big Ten schedule resuming, and the 6-foot-3 defender showed enough to his coach that he will continue pushing the players ahead of him for ice time during the season.

(Top image credit: Daniel Mick)