DULUTH — The first time Minnesota Duluth associate head coach Adam Krause was on the News Tribune’s Bulldog Insider Podcast in October 2018 came after he had been hired by Scott Sandelin as an assistant.
A first-time coach coming out of professional hockey, Krause joked the only territory he was assigned to recruit was his hometown of Hermantown — an important, but easy place to sell UMD.
ADVERTISEMENT
Krause’s territory and recruiting responsibilities have grown significantly since then. Now he’s the one Sandelin has put in charge of organizing the Bulldogs' recruiting strategy across the globe.
That job just became a lot harder in recent months after the NCAA lifted its ban on major junior players. It was announced in the fall that players from the Western Hockey League, Ontario Junior Hockey League and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League — who are all under the banner of the Canadian Hockey League — will be allowed to play NCAA hockey and can sign with teams starting Aug. 1, 2025.
UMD has already received a verbal commitment from 20-year-old defenseman Grayden Siepmann of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades. He’ll join the Bulldogs next season.
While NCAA rules prevent Krause from talking about Siepmann, he was able to sit down with News Tribune college hockey reporter Matt Wellens on the Bulldog Insider Podcast to discuss how UMD’s recruiting strategy has shifted since the CHL ban was lifted and what the NCAA recruiting landscape could look like in the future.
Below is an edited excerpt from this week’s episode.
Bulldog Insider: The discussion about letting CHL players into the NCAA has really heated up in the last year. How prepared were the Bulldogs for the rule change?
This has been talked about, but the actual change of the rule happened sooner than anyone expected.
ADVERTISEMENT
Adam Krause: There was a lot of conversation the past few years that it probably was going to happen. By the letter of the law, it didn't make that much sense to not gain access for those players to the NCAA. They weren't getting above necessary expenses more so than even the USHL kids or the BCHL kids that we normally recruit. So, it does make sense.
We were starting to get our ducks in a row in terms of building relationships and doing those things. It's a major change. It's a major change of the amount of players that we have access to. Being efficient with our time and making sure we're prioritizing the right leagues in the right areas.
We're really focusing on the Western Hockey League. That's Western Canada, an area that we're already recruiting in. The one change is probably not so much adding more workload.
It's just prioritizing that league over maybe some of the Tier II junior leagues in that area.
So we're just probably prioritizing our focus and narrowing our focus in on that league.
BI: Was the rule change something you, Scott and the staff was supportive of?
Krause: I think so. Again, like I said, it just makes sense. It will help get more players into college hockey. The path is being proven that it works. College hockey is an appropriate part of the process for a lot of kids. You’re prioritizing the off-ice things and you see the numbers growing in the highest league, the NHL.
ADVERTISEMENT
There’s a lot of kids considering college anyway. Early on in my recruiting — before the rule change — you’re trying to convince a 15 or 16-year-old not to sign that (CHL) contract, wait it out, go play Tier II junior hockey in Western Canada and then come to college.
The one challenge was it wasn't so much that the parents and the kids weren't excited about college and the prospect of college and the rinks they see and the student bodies and the resources. It was more so, ‘What do I do before I get there?’
There were restrictions. If you were born in a certain province, you had to play what they call Junior A or Tier II junior in your province. So these players weren't super excited about staying and having to play in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League or the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League for two years before they could move on. They all wanted to go play in the BCHL or come down to the USHL. Age restrictions and territorial restrictions didn't allow that to happen, so they thought the (WHL) was going to be a better option for them.
I wasn't that they weren't excited about college or didn't believe in it. It was, ‘What am I going to do before I get there?’ That was something that was the reason, I think, a lot of those players didn't come to college.
BI: How long has UMD been scouting these major junior leagues?
Krause: We’ve probably been doing our research maybe for the last year. A lot of these players that are on these teams, we watched when they were younger. We were optimistic that they might choose a college path early, before the rule changed. They didn't. So we are familiar. We we go to these games, we watch them on video. We do remember a lot of these names. It's not completely foreign to us.
We haven't been in rinks, in the leagues, until the rule change recently, until the last 3-4 months or whatever it's been. It's been a good few months to build some relationships with teams. There's still a lot of teams that are very apprehensive of allowing colleges access to their players because generally they keep their players until they are 20 years old, almost all the time. We're a threat to them in terms of taking their players at 18 or 19 years old.
ADVERTISEMENT
There's been certainly some building of relationships and we're trying to do it the right way, just like we always do. We’re trying to build those relationships first and dealing with older players like we have been, has been a little bit easier transition.
BI: So you're saying the old NCAA-CHL rivalry wars are still there for some of these teams?
Krause: It probably is amplified now that there is direct competition and conflict, that we're coming into their rinks and convincing their players to cut their time short with those teams and come down to college. I think it only enhanced that conflict or that difference in belief of what's right or wrong. Playing 60-70 games for four years versus coming to college, taking a step back in the games and getting in the weight room more and practicing more and building your body at a time — that's 18-22 years old — where you can really take advantage of growing and getting ready for that next level.
There's difference in beliefs of what's best for the player.
Like I said, the trends have shown college hockey really is proving that it's a really good path for a lot of these players.
Check out the full episode for more from Krause and UMD’s recruiting strategy. You can find the Bulldog Insider Podcast at DuluthNewsTribune.com/BulldogInsider , and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop Thursdays throughout the UMD men's and women's hockey seasons.
The Trust Project
