Three Stars: July 8-14

3. Mayers pledge $50,000 to support Smeal Trading Room
(Penn State News)

In addition to the headlining $50,000 for the Smeal College of Business' Rogers Family Trading Room, former Icer Bill Mayer along with his wife Cynthia (both 1985 graduates), recently donated $12,500 to the men's hockey program.

Both Bill and Cynthia were multi-sport athletes at PSU - the former was on the varsity lacrosse team in addition to hockey, while the latter played field hockey and softball.

2. One-on-One with Mike Williamson
(Dustin's Cafe)

Freshman defenseman Mike Williamson dropped by the studios of radio station CJLD in his hometown of Leduc, AB for a great interview primarily discussing the NHL Draft and Canucks Development Camp (which was still ahead of him at the time), but also touching on his future at Penn State and his past in Spruce Grove.

Possibly the only thing wrong with it: after Williamson cited fellow Spruce Grove Saints-to-Nittany Lions Dylan Richard and David Glen as people who will help his transition to college, the interviewer threw in Reed Linaker as another former AJHLer on the roster. Whoops.

1. TAKE A LOOK! An Updated, Inside Look at Pegula Arena
(WTAJ)

First, I'd like to get a quick beef out of the way with Penn State media: I wish they'd be more engaged in hockey. It seems like every story outside of a couple outlets (the Collegian immediately comes to mind as an exception) is either a) something the athletic department handed out or b) an OMG ARENA! hit, which is about the easiest thing in the world to crank out if you need to fill a couple minutes. It would be nice to see someone get a bit proactive, as Onward State recently did when they smoked everyone on the PSU football in Ireland story. Where's that initiative for hockey?

WTAJ is the one local TV station that has been, for the most part, on top of hockey throughout, so they deserve credit for that. And this story with "an updated, inside look" at Pegula Ice Arena is well done, although I expected more behind-the-scenes stuff and not just shots of the seating bowl and main lobby until the last ten seconds.

Also... "As steep as code allows." Finish your drink!

Best of the Rest

Dylan Richard is part of the Spruce Grove-to-Penn State pipeline

Saints hockey program continues to breed success
(Spruce Grove Examiner)

A nice look at the highly-successful and aforementioned Spruce Grove Saints program that has produced current Nittany Lions Williamson, Richard and Glen, and also had two players selected in the NHL Entry Draft last month (Williamson and defense partner Carson Soucy, taken by the Minnesota Wild in the fifth round).

Ice Dogs' Geoff Beauparlant to coach Brown Bears
(juniorhockey.com)

Former Icers goaltender Geoff Beauparlant (a 2002 graduate) has continued his ascension in the coaching world with his hiring as the new head coach of the NAHL's Kenai River Brown Bears in Soldotna, AK. Since 2010, he had been an assistant with the league's Fairbanks franchise.

Beauparlant was 27-2-1 during his college playing career, primarily as a backup to John Sixt, Mark Scally and Scott Graham, and won ACHA National Titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Eagan's Nick Wolff to take physical hockey style overseas
(Minneapolis Star Tribune)

While recruit Kevin Kerr recently missed out on selection for the U.S. Under-18 squad for the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament next month, it's at least possible that PSU ends up with someone from the team anyway - bruising Eagan (MN) High School defenseman Nick Wolff.

Wolff hopes to play college hockey sometime down the road and has already taken unofficial visits to Miami (Ohio), Ohio State and Penn State. But his plans for now call for first staying at home and finishing high school with his family and friends.

Some junior hockey after high school seems likely for Wolff. He will be eligible for the 2014 NHL draft next June.

Because of his size, work ethic, rapid development and recent exposure, Taylor believes Wolff will garner 'a ton' of Division I interest this season.

NCAA 2013 draft review
(Hockey's Future)

Here's a densely-packed look at how collegians nationally fared in the NHL Entry Draft, including a paragraph's worth of a nod to the history made at Penn State.

Me getting to drop a Habs jersey on TYT is one positive to Michael McCarron going pro

WMU hockey freshman Michael McCarron will play for London Knights and forgo college career
(mlive.com)

College hockey's draft presence took a big hit when Michigan State Cornell Western Michigan commit Michael McCarron, the only potential NCAA player selected in the first round, decided to pass on school and go pro. The National Team Development Program product signed an entry-level contract with the Montreal Canadiens and will play for the Ontario Hockey League's London Knights this season.

WMU hockey coach Andy Murray says release of Garrett Haar came after academic problems, 'issues of integrity'
(mlive.com)

Bad news came in twos for WMU, as the day after losing McCarron, the Broncos dumped junior defenseman Garrett Haar from the program. Head coach Andy Murray, who had already placed Haar on suspension for the fall semester due to academics, explained...

“First of all, I want to say we tried real hard with Garrett to help him,” Murray said. “We gave him every bit of academic assistance we could, including having people walk him to class, tutors and everything we could do, but you have to be committed to it and unfortunately he wasn’t.

“There were issues of integrity between the coaches and his teammates that were not at an acceptable level.”

Ouch. Haar claimed, via Twitter and included in the link above, that leaving was his decision. His comment preceded Murray's statement, so I'm guessing that he was taking a chance at saving face while assuming, incorrectly, that the school would remain silent on the story. He's apparently not the brightest guy in the world, so those things will happen.

Incidentally, Haar was a 2011 seventh-round draft pick of the Washington Capitals and was at the team's development camp with PSU's Patrick Koudys while all of this was going down.

List of college hockey players at NHL Development Camps
(Western College Hockey Blog)

We already know about the Penn State Five, but who else represented college hockey in an NHL development camp this summer? Unofficially, Michigan led the Big Ten with 15 players, followed by Minnesota (14), Wisconsin (12), Ohio State (10) and Michigan State (8). Don't panic over the difference between their numbers and ours - the list includes alumni, and PSU's a bit shorthanded in that area for obvious reasons.

Know Your Enemy: Minnesota
(Without a Peer)

I'm not even going to try writing a Minnesota preview this season. Thanks to the FoTYTs at RPI blog Without a Peer, I can just shoot out the link to this one again, since it deftly blends the past into the present as I like to do it, except better.

Kelly Seward: B-lo to the show

Flaunting their skills for Old Glory
(Buffalo News)

Nittany Lion freshman Kelly Seward is merely one player produced by a rapidly expanding women's hockey scene in Western New York, with the charge led in large part by Seward's Buffalo Bisons program.

Pittsburgh Penguins continue to drive local hockey participation upward
(City of Champions)

A bit south of Buffalo, the present growth trend of USA Hockey-registered players in western Pennsylvania - often called The Crosby Effect, after Sidney of course - has continued for an eighth straight year. Impressively, the western half of the commonwealth, despite being at a fairly substantial population disadvantage to the east, accounts for more than 13,000 of the roughly 30,000 Keystone Staters who play hockey.

Pennsylvania, which was frequently beaked as "not a hockey state" back when Penn State announced its NCAA transition plans, has the fifth-most registered players in the nation.

Corbett Named Head Coach
(uahhockey.com)

I'm not sure how Alabama-Huntsville continues to land quality coaches given the program's still-lingering uncertainties, but they've pulled it off once again in the form of now-former Air Force assistant Mike Corbett, a much better Corbett than the one we got stuck with.

"Mike Corbett has spent the last decade recruiting elite young men to the United States Air Force Academy and winning championships," said UAH Director of Athletics Dr. E.J. Brophy. "We are very confident that he is the man to lead Charger Hockey into the prestigious WCHA and back to winning on a consistent basis here at UAH."

Former coach Kurt Kleinendorst, who left the program suddenly and after only one season back in May to return to the professional ranks, can now sleep at night I suppose.

@MarkHorgas
(Twitter)

Let's close this out with a shot of the community rink at Pegula Ice Arena, because it's a vitally important part of the facility that always gets the short end of the stick.

Hockey-Related Revenue Questions Answered?

Throughout TYT's existence, I've taken many positions on different issues. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm not, sometimes I change my mind. One position I've held fairly consistently is that the Big Ten Network's impact on hockey was being overhyped by school and conference officials. Given hockey's sad history on television generally, the thought that BTN is unlikely to add many new subscribers or advertisers solely because of the sport and the equal division of network revenue among conference members, I felt it was a reasonable opinion.

Today, I'm owning up: There's a pretty good chance I was wrong about that. According to Minnesota-based publication Let's Play Hockey...

It's just a tweet with no link and no named source (something that didn't go unnoticed by BTN personnel), so assign credibility as you generally would for something like this. For whatever it might be worth to you, I'll vouch for LPH on matters within the state of Minnesota - and clearly, this information could have come from a source at The U, as they call it up there - although they're hit and miss on many things beyond their home state's borders. One of the more famous misses came in 2011, when LPH advanced the rumor that Illinois was on the verge of adding NCAA hockey through a donation from Jimmy John's founder Jimmy John Liautaud.

For now though, we'll proceed as if the news is true. I just try to be as honest as I can about information, because I despise when people, like Let's Play Hockey right now for example, drop intel without giving audience members a chance to assess its credibility for themselves. Equally maddening is the tendency of LPH to drop a bomb and walk away, offering nothing in the way of follow-up or additional information. That's what happened with the Illinois story, and it's probably what will happen here as well.

Anyway... how much is $2 million annually in terms of college hockey? It's a lot. A ton, actually. It's more than many NCAA Division I schools spend in total. Precise bottom-line numbers aren't always easy to locate, but back in 2009 when Bowling Green's program was near death, it was reported that the Falcons' annual expenses were roughly $1 million, generally considered typical for a lower-middle class program. Even among Big Ten schools (again, in 2009), spending was minuscule compared with the much-more-publicized football numbers, ranging from $2,155,223 (Minnesota) to $4,002,512 (Wisconsin).

Just to touch on some more current data regarding components of a hockey program's budget, Penn State's highest possible undergraduate tuition in 2012-2013 (for an out-of-state, upperclass nursing student) was $32,992. Multiply that by 18 scholarships, and you get $593,896. According to Department of Education filings for the 2011-2012 academic year, Big Ten schools spent between $437,047 (Ohio State) and $933,506 (Wisconsin) on operating expenses for men's hockey.

There are, of course, many other pieces of the pie including things like coaching salaries and recruiting expenses. Still, I've hit two pretty big chunks, and it's safe to say that the checks from BTN, if they are in fact coming, will go a long way towards ensuring Penn State hockey operates in the black each year. That's true even when accounting for the women's program and for the fact that the Pegula Ice Arena will be operated as its own entity, much like the Bryce Jordan Center, and won't feed directly into the hockey programs.

It's fair to ask how BTN is able to commit $12 million to the hockey schools on top of the usual payouts ($284 million to the 12, soon to be 14, members at last check) before a single conference game is televised and particularly considering the factors noted at the top of the post. And really, your guess is as good as anyone's at this point. BTN is expected to broadcast 40 hockey games in 2013-2014, up from 15 this past season, which may have spurred a bump in ad revenue. It's entirely possible that the other shoe to drop will be a press release about how Ro-Tel has signed on as the title sponsor for all Big Ten hockey telecasts and the league tournament. Or maybe, as Western College Hockey Blog's Chris Dilks suggested, it's all just an accounting trick based on the windfall created by the admission of Rutgers and Maryland to the conference.

Are we one step closer to seeing the Blackshirts in Big Ten hockey?

The $2 million payout has obvious effects well beyond the present six conference members. It signals the introduction of real television money to college hockey (sorry North Dakota, your cute little broadcast network is no longer top-of-the-food-chain stuff), something that has big - and not necessarily in a positive way - implications for a lot of schools that are used to big-time status but might have to settle for a mid-major reality. Naturally, it's also quite a chalupa laying out there for any other Big Ten members considering adding hockey... like Nebraska.

If you assume that college hockey programs will break even with revenue approaching $3 million [note: a reasonable assumption, as indicated], then a $2 million television deal for Big Ten hockey programs should make hockey viable at any Big Ten school. Each campus is going to be different: is there a facility available to play hockey, and how much will it cost to operate? Are there any Title IX issues that are raised by starting a men's hockey team, and would you need to add another women's sport to compensate.

And that includes Nebraska. I've long felt that Husker hockey probably wasn't viable at Nebraska. Shawn Eichorst dismissed the idea of hockey in February on his statewide call in show, and should have known at that time that this type of revenue was being discussed. But these numbers are hard to ignore. If they are true, that is.

Okay, so it's not set in stone that the BTN money will lead to new programs. But let's circle back to Penn State for a moment before leaving this because the dollars and cents flowing through PSU hockey look pretty rosy even beyond BTN money.

According to the Nittany Lion Club's recently-issued annual report (not yet online, unfortunately), there are at least seven men's hockey scholarships endowed at the "highest and most fully funded levels in Intercollegiate Athletics." Four of the seven originated with the Pegula donation and are named after Terry's children (both with Kim and from his first marriage). The others are named after Joe and Heidi Battista, Ralph Kerr and the John Davis family. There is also one "fully funded" women's hockey scholarship named after Laura, another Pegula daughter. The list presented in the NLC report is identified as "a portion of" the scholarships across the athletic department, leaving open the possibility of more than the seven and one given being in place.

Beyond those, many smaller donations have been made towards the endowment, including five listed in the Spring NLC Newsletter alone.

Furthermore, ticket sales for the coming season have been brisk, with Battista telling the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Scott Brown that season ticket deposits are in for 3,000 of the 5,000 non-student seats in the PIA. While I continue to believe that consistently filling the place may become a concern down the road if the inevitable dissolution of its novelty isn't met with a lot of winning, in the short term, things look fantastic.

Fantasic on the ice, fantastic on the business end as well. Look out, college hockey.

Did The Icers Matter?

With Maryland and Rutgers joining the Big Ten this week, some attention was given to the question of whether either school would take advantage of their new conference's sponsorship of hockey by adding NCAA Division I hockey to their athletic offerings. Big Ten hockey, as I'm sure you know, presently only involves six of the (now) 14 league members, so speculation regarding those (now) eight members without NCAA hockey is a favorite pastime of bored hockey bloggers.

Contrary to the assertions of many entertaining that topic who declared that neither school has a hockey team, both have ACHA programs, although at decidedly different points in the hierarchy. Maryland, once upon a time, was a conference rival of the Icers in the short-lived ACHL (although not a particularly competitive one - PSU never scored fewer than 12 on them in five meetings over two ACHL seasons from 1992 through 1994), but today, they're stuck in the rather large middle class of Division 2. Sometimes they're decent (relative to the division), sometimes not.

Jason Adams, a huge part of his team's recent successes, has helped Rutgers to a 9-4-0 start this season.

Rutgers, on the other hand, has become a pretty solid program after years of struggle following their 1998 elevation to Division 1. In recent seasons, the Ice Knights typically have won one of the weaker D1 conferences, the NECHL, collected an autobid to to the national championships, and lost once there. RU has certainly had moments - they beat defending national champ Delaware on October 26th and toppled Rhode Island last year, to cite two examples - but generally, they have struggled to break into the upper levels of D1. To its credit, the program upgraded leagues to the ESCHL (formerly PSU's home) this season and looks to continue growing.

However, with no disrespect whatsoever intended (I happen to like Rutgers' program), it's a fair statement that neither school's team is at the level of the Icers prior to the NCAA transition.

For years, Penn State and Illinois probably led the nation in "when are you guys going NCAA?" Part of that was due to the two schools' prominence, location and the promise (or specter, for some) of Big Ten hockey. Most of that, in my opinion anyway, was due to the status of the Icers and Fighting Illini as arguably the two most successful ACHA Division 1 programs of the last 10 or 15 years. I mean, why always PSU and Illinois, but not Northwestern, Indiana, Ohio State (oh right... keep forgetting, sorry) or Iowa? ACHA prominence and visibility is really the best, simplest explanation.

For a while though, I've been somewhat dismissive of the significance of that last point. Through all of the wins, All-Americans and Murdoch Cups, after all, both schools need(ed) a pile of money and an arena. No way around it - that has always been and will always be the case. So really, what do ACHA wins even matter in terms of the NCAA? If someone shows up with, say, $102 million, NCAA hockey gets started regardless of whether the school had good ACHA D1 program, a bad NAIH program, or nothing at all.

Now that we're 25 percent of the way through an actual NCAA Division I hockey season fresh off of a transition from ACHA D1, I thought it might be worthwhile to re-visit that position. Just how important were the Icers to the successful re-establishment of varsity hockey at Penn State?

Roster Ramifications

At the tail end of Frank Serratore's legendary postgame on November 9th, he made maybe his only misstep of that beauty when he said "it's not like [Penn State is] bringing guys in from club hockey."

Not quite true.

The fact is that eight of 27 players on Penn State's inaugural NCAA Division I roster came to University Park with no clue that they would ever have a chance to play NCAA Division I hockey. They're not insignificant pieces either - forwards Michael McDonagh and Michael Longo are lineup regulars, with net-front wizard McDonagh fourth on the team in scoring. Defensemen Brian Dolan and Rich O'Brien will be relied on heavily over the next couple months with Mark Yanis' fractured ankle testing the blueline group's depth. Eric Steinour has played in more than half of the games so far, and while Dom Morrone has only dressed once, it was an outstanding turn on the top line in the Nittany Lions' last game, a 5-1 win over Air Force.

"Original Icers" like forward Michael McDonagh were able to make an impression by playing a high level of hockey in 2011-2012 - and are now key contributors on an NCAA Division I team, which has benefitted the program in many areas.

An additional eight players arrived at PSU last season - after the NCAA announcement, of course - and played one season as Icers before joining the NCAA roster. While these players (which include guys like captain Tommy Olczyk, goalie P.J. Musico, and DI transfers Nate Jensen, Taylor Holstrom, Bryce Johnson and Justin Kirchhevel) certainly came in with an eye on the NCAA, the presence of a top-end ACHA program was still vital in their cases. Guy Gadowsky and his staff, which coached the final Icers season, were able get in, implement systems, make evaluations, and begin to lay a foundation for their program's culture. The transfers probably don't end up as Nittany Lions without the ability to play highly-competitive hockey during their required year in residence. For the others, most of whom arrived without any promises, the Icers represented a chance to make an impression in a way simply not possible even at a lower-end ACHA D1 school. It's also worth mentioning that PSU's good ACHA Division 2 program may have helped as a contingency plan for those in that situation, one that has been pursued by former NCAA hopefuls Brandon Russo and Forrest Dell, among others.

Recruiting Flexibility and Focus

Other than the tangible on-ice contributions of those players the Nittany Lions' surprising 6-3-0 start, it's important to look at what those previous two paragraphs mean in the big picture. PSU's roster has six seniors, six juniors, five sophomores and ten freshmen. A little young? Sure. But not nearly as young as one would expect from a first-year NCAA program.

There's a ripple effect in recruiting of course, and it's very telling that the Nittany Lions are only (as of this moment) bringing in five new players for the second NCAA season. Thanks largely to the class balance made possible by the Icers, Penn State can hone in on talent, need, and fit, as opposed to grabbing every warm body out there in order to fill out a roster. This sort of focused recruiting effort has led to early successes above and beyond what may have been possible with trying to go 0-to-27 in a short time frame. Additionally, the Icers have provided the Nittany Lions with a large collection of quality players willing to play without scholarships, allowing even greater flexibility with the available money moving forward.

It's not hard to imagine some sort of alternate reality where PSU has either no ACHA team or an ACHA team lacking the quality to offer anything to a DI-level player. I don't think it's any sort of exaggeration to say that it would have been a much larger struggle to get things going. At the very least, it's extremely unlikely that the team would be as immediately competitive as it has been.

Built-In Support

There are, of course, several other areas where the Icers have enhanced the Nittany Lions. Actually, "enhanced" is the wrong word - did Terry Pegula suddenly roll out of bed a few years back and say "hey, I went to Penn State 30 years ago, maybe I should chip off nine figures to start NCAA hockey there?" Of course not. His son Michael attended PSU hockey camps. He remained a fan of the Icers. And of course, like so many of us, he was drawn in by the charisma of Joe Battista. Simply put, Pegula doesn't exist to us without the Icers.

Penn State, thanks to the Icers, had a ready-made supply of support from day one.

Even beyond Pegula, the Icers have provided a ready-made pool of support. Two other high-profile donations - from Paul and Nancy Silvis and from John and Karen Davis - also came from people with ties to the non-varsity program. Surely, there have been numerous others from fish dating back to the Icers but not big enough for a press release, myself included. The team has a booster club that was formerly called the Icers Booster Club. From the start, Penn State has had a pool of donors, fans, sponsors and even official personnel (Billy Downey and Steve Penstone, anyone?) made possible by the Icers. Enjoy this blog? Credit the Icers for that too.

The team even has a fascinating built-in history (that extends well beyond the 1940 through 1947 period, trust me), should the athletic department ever choose to embrace it. Does that directly translate to wins and losses in the present day? Probably not, but it is a source of pride for many, and pride can be converted to dollars in most cases.

So you tell me, does having a top ACHA program matter? Would Illinois be in a better position to make the jump than Maryland or even Rutgers? I think the answer is pretty evident.

Breakout Past: John Davis Feature

Here's a feature from the February 27, 1985 Daily Collegian on goaltender John Davis, written late in his senior season. When Davis' career ended, he was the Icers' all-time leader in both career and single-season wins. He backstopped Penn State's first national championship team in 1984, and also notably stopped 49 of 53 shots in a 4-4 tie with once-and-future NCAA Division I team Notre Dame that season. Davis was both president and vice president of the ice hockey club's business arm, later to be known as Hockey Management Association.

Click to enlarge.

Many of you surely recognize Davis' name from more recent Penn State hockey news, but for those of you who don't...

Intercollegiate Athletics announced [on April 15, 2011] a leadership gift from John N. and Karen M. Davis to the Penn State Ice Campaign. The family's gift will endow a full position scholarship for a goaltender as well as the naming gift for the men's hockey head coach's office. The office will be named the "Joseph M. Battista Head Coach's Office" in honor of former Icer head coach and current Associate Athletic Director for Ice Hockey Operations Joe Battista.

The Davis family joins Paul and Nancy Silvis, co-chairs of the Penn State Ice Hockey Campaign, as leading supporters of the ice campaign with this gift, the second major contribution the campaign has received since Terry and Kim Pegula's $88 million commitment last fall for a new ice facility as well as the start of Division I men's and women's ice hockey programs at Penn State in 2012.

"The hockey team becoming a varsity sport is a dream that a lot of us have had since we first put on the Penn State jersey," said John Davis, who played for the Icers from 1981 to 1985. "Karen and I feel fortunate to be able to give back to the University, in particular to help support a scholarship for the ice hockey team. I am also proud to join the effort of a fellow Petroleum Engineering graduate, Terry Pegula, who has made the dream of so many become a reality."

Hey, you know how big I am on the past-present connection.

Davis was inducted into the Penn State Hockey Hall of Fame in 1996, the same year as current women's coach Josh Brandwene. Obviously, he's been quite successful in business as well, working as a petroleum engineer for Exxon and Netherland, Sewell & Associates before founding Alpine Gas Company in 2003.

Three Stars: April 23-29

3. ACHA 2012 Academic All-Americans Announced
(achahockey.org)

Sara Chroman, Lydia Scott and Lindsay Reihl represent the Lady Icers among the list of 2011-2012 ACHA Women's D1 Academic All-Americans. UMass, by the way, had none. Not that I'm still bitter or anything. But PSU's better at both hockey and academics.

2.Pegula Ice Arena Becoming a Reality
(gopsusports.com)

I know this is largely just another collection of quotes from the groundbreaking, arranged differently. Still, there's always room on TYT to give a student writer some support (even if Ms. Johnson probably got more pageviews on her own than TYT gets in a month, but whatever).

1. Gadowsky looks back at year one
(Lions 247)

I probably don't give Andrew Dzurita enough love in these posts for the simple reason that I don't want to rip off his pictures and get sued. Luckily, a Q-and-A with Guy Gadowsky means I can just rip off someone else's picture. Anyway, here's some of the juicy stuff:

[On the scholarship breakdown] You can’t go out and spend 18 scholarships in one class, that isn’t taking care of the program. We have to gradually move a long, and until we have four full recruiting classes under our belt we won’t be able to see how things are going. It is certainly a process, and when we get to the Big Ten, they certainly are the best college hockey programs in the nation. They have tons of tradition and success that they can draw from and we are the new guys on the block, so it is going to take a couple of years to see where we stack up – but that is part of the fun of it.

We can only release [next year's schedule] when all of the contracts are back, so right now there isn’t anything we can talk about regarding next year’s schedule, and there isn’t a timetable I can give you on when it will be out.

As a reminder, feel free to check this page out for pieces of the schedule revealed by those with looser lips than Gadowsky.

Best of the Rest

Hilton Commits to UBC
(ajhl.ca)

Remember Jessi Hilton? Sure you do. He committed to PSU last summer, then rapidly decommitted when 12 games played with the WHL's Calgary Hitmen interfered with his NCAA eligibility. Fortunately for him, the CIS doesn't care about his time in major junior, so he'll be headed to the University of British Columbia for the coming season. Nice to see that saga have a happy ending.

Pegulas increase Penn State Hockey commitment to $102 million
(Penn State Live)

Since I openly scratched my head at the cost of the arena jumping from $75 million to $89 million at one point, here's something that breaks it down quite nicely. The Pegulas are now in for $102 million, as we know. $89 million of that will pay for the arena, while $13 million will endow scholarships. Additionally, $3.7 million has come in from other donors, headlined by John and Karen Davis as well as Paul and Nancy Silvis. Administration is seeking another $6.3 million in private gifts. There you go.

Chicago has the sickness.

Four Schools to Play Outdoor Doubleheader in Chicago
(College Hockey News)

While it's still not finalized...

Wisconsin and Minnesota, and Notre Dame and Miami, will play in doubleheader outdoor games next season, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The games would be played at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013.

To quote Joe Battista, "we want to play in that game."

College Hockey Inc. to Get New Governing Body
(College Hockey News)

The contentious dismissal of Paul Kelly seems to have led to changes in the way CHI is run, although no changes in mission or direction are expected.

Pegula's Commitment "As Strong As Ever"

Not pictured: the guy who handed the Pegulas both those sticks and a reason to believe in Penn State hockey.

As much as I want to completely wash my hands of what's happened at Penn State over the last week (and believe me, I've tried at every step of the way), unfortunately another hockey angle to the story has surfaced. It's something that started as a few snide tweets and message board posts, but later escalated into something reported by legitimate news outlets, like College Hockey News. Yep, it's the Penn State hockey d-day scenario:

Meanwhile, could Pegula conceivably pull his donation to the university? They're almost ready to break ground on a new arena that will bear his name.

Fortunately, that question was answered rather quickly today.

It appears the development of the programs and the arena they will share will not be halted. Terry Pegula, whose $88 million donation is funding the men's program and the arena, to be named the Pegula Ice Arena, has told Penn State officials that his family's commitment is "as strong as ever."

That's according to Joe Battista, the associate athletic director for ice arena and hockey development, who responded to an email by first acknowledging that hearts are heavy for the victims and their families.

While that comes as a relief to an extent, it's not that much of a surprise to myself, or to CHN for that matter (in fairness, I quoted them a little out of context above).

Let there be no mistake about it, I have nothing but disdain for the vast majority of people in positions of power at Penn State right now - extending well beyond the deposed Graham Spanier and the almost-kind of deposed Tim Curley to include both the board of trustees and the athletic department. However, one of the few exceptions to that statement is Joe Battista. While I have occasionally disagreed with him about one thing or another, the fact remains that I have an unwavering belief in the type of person he is and his ability to build hockey programs that can restore some pride to a reeling university. Same goes for Bill Downey and all of the coaches for both the men's and women's programs. I hope you believe me when I say that I don't believe we've made a single misstep with a hire yet, and that, of course, started with Battista.

Know who else has faith in Battista? Terry Pegula. Before questioning whether he'd ever pull his donation, it's important to remember how it started: with that faith in Battista, eventually backed up with a rather large check. This was never about charlatans like Curley and Spanier, although they were more than happy to show up for the photo ops and take their undeserved credit (see above). It was never even really about the university - Pegula graduated from Penn State in 1973 and was more or less just another anonymous alumnus before (now) famously approaching Battista to ask why PSU didn't have a varsity hockey program.

Even today, with his mega-donor status, he hasn't exactly immersed himself in the university in any way that doesn't involve Battista's presence. In fact, it could be argued that his non-Battista PSU-related business has actually been counterproductive to the university, including his stumping for new football head coach Tom Bradley to be hired away by Temple last December and his relationship with Pennsylvania governor/PSU budget-slasher Tom Corbett, to cite two examples.

UPDATE 3:35 P.M.: Pegula has released his own statement. It reads in full:

“The events that are unfolding at Penn State University are deeply troubling and a matter of great concern to me and my wife Kim. As many have expressed, our primary concern is for the individuals and families who may have been victimized.”

“Penn State's reputation has been severely tarnished. We are encouraged to see the University trustees have begun the process of restoring integrity and trust in the institution. This process will take a period of time and trust will need to be re-earned as a result of these recent disclosures.”

“Penn State is supported by millions of students, alumni, faculty, staff and administrators. Our own support for Penn State and its hockey program is well known and will continue. We expect the University will carry out its educational mission with high standards and integrity.”

Three Stars: October 10-16

Still waiting for my free t-shirt.

3. Icers' goal remains same in transition year
(Pennsylvania Puck)

If you're not on the PA Puck bandwagon yet, you need to get there. They've been pumping out a quality PSU piece once a week. I can barely keep it together pumping out five crappy pieces a week, and I don't cover other teams.

2. Solid Start
(The View From the Booth)

Steve Penstone did some great work this week - adapting pretty well to a tough setup for the games at Illinois, grinding out fantastic intermission interviews with Ed Olczyk and Teddy Hume...so here I'll link the one thing he's done in the last week that I don't think I linked anywhere else: interviews with Bryce Johnson and Guy Gadowsky.

1. Penn State men's ice hockey getting a start with new coach
(Philadelphia Inquirer)

Whatever happens, please don't ever let me lose perspective on just how cool it is that Penn State hockey is now worthy of conversation in major papers. Oh and hey, there's a video too, in which we find out that The Namesake wants the "rockingest" arena in college hockey.

Other famous "rockingest" things in history: Ellie's birthday party for Craig. That one didn't end so well.

Best of the Rest

Lady Icers prepare for College Hockey America conference
(Daily Collegian)

Freshmen fitting in with Lady Icers' team
(Daily Collegian)

The Collegian decided to write two articles about the Lady Icers this month. Wasn't really expecting that.

Cycling the Puck with Dave Sottile
(Pennsylvania Puck)

Remember that fundraising we were doing that we haven't heard anything about in a while?

“Our goal is to raise another $10 million,” [Joe] Battista said. “We’ve raised $3 million in addition to the Pegulas’ gift. We have a goal of – at minimum – raising $7 million more, and that helps put us into the area where as long as we’re filling the building, keeping the ice rented and selling merchandise, we’re going to be able to meet our goal.

“Our goal is for the building to be self-sufficient and the hockey programs to be self-sufficient, and that’s quite a goal,” Battista said. “Right now, 20 of the 36 scholarships fully endowed.”

My only question there: is it just me or is fundraising lagging a little after a hot start? Battista's words seem to make it pretty clear just how tight of a rope the program will be walking to remain self-sufficient, so hopefully that $7 million is coming. As well as all of that other stuff that also needs to happen.

Sux 6: The best things to do in Siouxland (Oct. 13-19)
(Sioux City Journal)

I'm not going to complain that the Journal ran a picture of last year's team calling it this year's pink jerseys. Not when Tommy Olczyk (center) and Matt Skoff (far right) are included. Also, as current or former Muskies, both apparently like boobs.

1. The Muskies heart pink, and boobs!
$3 of every ticket goes to Breast Cancer Awareness for this Pink in the Rink Musketeers vs. Lincoln hockey game. Happening at the Tyson Events Center, the puck drops at 7 p.m. Saturday. Be sure to wear pink.

ECAC Hockey Journal: Opportunity trumps loyalty
(hockeyjournal.com)

This guy's not a fan of what happened with ECAC coaching changes this past offseason, which obviously involved Gadowsky. I'm not a fan of this guy, so we'll call it even.

@JLPegula
(yfrog)

Surprise visitor at Icers practice last Wednesday: The Namesake, and a guy who holds his coat.

Actually, the other guy is Cliff Benson, a Penn Stater and new chief development officer for the Sabres. But if I had a few billion, I'd hire a guy to carry my coat and give him a fancy title (like, say, "chief development officer") too.

Vees land scholarships to prestigious schools
(bclocalnews.com)

I dare you to find more fail in one paragraph.

Another Vee committed is forward Curtis Loik, who will join the Penn State Littany Lions. The Littany Lions, which will play at the NCAA Division l level for the first time in the fall of 2012 as an independent program. The following year they will move to the newly created BIG 10 hockey conference, joining Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Loik is excited to be part of the new program guided by coach Guy Gadowski.

@PaulyyyyD
(Twitter)

The day before beginning the weekend set at Illinois, the team got the VIP treatment at a Blackhawks vs. Jets game.

You disappoint me, Jake Friedman.

A miracle rally for RIT provides 6-5 win
(Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Next year’s Brick City Homecoming opponent is Penn State, the upstart Division I program that was founded by Terry Pegula’s donation.

In 2013, Michigan comes to downtown Rochester. Yeah, I say the Tigers program is gaining in stature. When you can get the big boys to come to you, you’ve arrived.

"Big boys" before we play a single game? I'll take it.

Lucia signs contract for 3-year extension
(Rink and Run)

The Minnesota coach is still not fired. Quite the opposite, actually.

The Ball Keeps Rolling

John Davis helped bring Penn State this banner. Will a goalie using his scholarship help bring another one?

Penn State announced today that former Icers goalie John Davis along with his wife Karen and family have made a sizable donation to the hockey program.

The family's gift will endow a full position scholarship for a goaltender as well as the naming gift for the men's hockey head coach's office. The office will be named the "Joseph M. Battista Head Coach's Office" in honor of former Icer head coach and current Associate Athletic Director for Ice Hockey Operations Joe Battista.

Pretty cool, congratulations are obviously in order to all involved, as well a huge thank you to the Davises. Battista deserves much more than that named after him, so hopefully the person rich enough to get naming rights on one of the two ice sheets in the Pegula Ice Arena pulls a Davis-level solid. With all the credit appropriately given to Terry and Kim Pegula, let's not forget that they don't exist to us without Battista. For his part, Battista was very Battista-like about the honor.

"I was pretty emotional when John told me of his plans to name the coach's office after me," said Battista. "I tried to talk him out of it. I wanted the office to at least have his family name on it with mine, but he declined and said he wanted my name alone. I was speechless. I am incredibly honored by what John and Karen have decided to do by naming the men's head coach's office after me, and I thank them for their generous gift to the campaign."

Here's a little on John Davis' hockey career.

A member of the Icers from 1981-85, John Davis was the starting goaltender on the club team's 1984 national championship team. He was named Rookie of the Year his first year and also earned All-Star Goalie honors. His 42-19-2 career record made him Penn State's leader in that category when he graduated. He was inducted into the Icers Hall of Fame in 1996. Davis and Battista played together in 1981-82.

The Davis' ability to make donations large enough to get things named after them comes primarily from the gas industry - sound familiar? - so get ready for all kinds of awful wordplay from mediocre journalists ("Penn State turned up the heat in the second period," etc.).

Check out the story for more biographicals, as well as plenty of quotes from all the principals.

This donation, together with the Silvis donation, and of course the Pegula donation put a larger question in my head: has any college sports program ever made waves like this before even playing its first game? First off, the last major-conference (for non-hockey sports) school to start an NCAA hockey program was Ohio State in 1963. So the fact that a school of PSU's ilk is doing so is newsworthy in and of itself, since of course, most large universities in the northeast and midwest have sponsored the sport since the days of yore. Whatever "ilk" and "yore" even mean.

And of course, this major program is getting jump-started by roughly $100 million in private donation money. Three quarters of that will be used to build the best facility in the country, while the rest will do things like endow the Davis family goaltending scholarship, which of course helps ensure the program's financial viability past the start-up.

Finally, there is a piece of this affecting all of college hockey: namely, the Big Ten. There hasn't been a conference shakeup like the one coming in college hockey in almost 30 years, when a bunch of ECAC schools split off and formed Hockey East. And that, frankly, wasn't on the same level in terms of far-reaching implications.

Back in the formative period of TYT, a Wisconsin blogger called Penn State (in the comments) the "St. Cloud State of the Big Ten." That chirp was based largely on the Huskies explosive entry into Division I in 1987-1988 (and a perceived less-than-explosive couple of decades after that, although I think they've done pretty well for a new-ish DI). SCSU had Herb Brooks on board to help. And they eventually (in 1989-1990) had a sparkling new arena, courtesy of a state initiative to build Olympic training facilities around Minnesota. Probably unknown to that Wisconsin loyalist was the fact that former Icers coach Morris Kurtz was St. Cloud's athletic director during the transition.

Of course, the National Hockey Center, capacity 5,763, was built at a cost of $9.5 million - or about $16.5 million today, adjusted for inflation. This is a brave new world, indeed. Thanks again to the Pegulas, the Silvises and the Davises for helping to make it happen.

The Golden Rule

"He who has the gold makes the rules."

And of course, the man with the gold, as related to Penn State hockey, is Terry Pegula.

About a month ago, Matt Walfrand from TakeoverTheGame.com asked me the following question:

"All Buffalo Sabres fans are dying to know, is [Pegula] a hands-on guy or does he stay in the shadows?"

You can read how I answered it at the link - essentially, I said that he's involved yet not overbearing - but upon reflection, I probably didn't think that one through enough. So let's make up for that now.

The guy gave $88 million. Maybe the impact of that number has diminished in the last few months, so I'll re-state it - it's about 30 times what I'll make over my entire career as a plug who sits at a computer and generates sales reports.

I do have an opinion about donations, that being that they're, well, donations. My wife and I donate to things. We don't expect anything in return - if you want to send a calendar and give us priority on tickets, we won't complain, but you don't have to do those things, we donate because we want to help something meaningful to us. Terry Pegula did not "buy" Penn State hockey like he bought the Sabres, he gave it a gift. Sure, on his level, he gets his name on an ice arena (not to mention this blog) instead of a calendar (although I'm sure he can get a calendar too if he wants one), but it's still a gift.


Plugs who generate sales reports get calendars to hang in their cubes next to their Akron basketball schedule posters and are perfectly fine with it. More fine than I am with that wire I can't do anything about.

However, that's the attitude of someone who's never given $88 million to Nittany Lion Club or anything else. Given that tremendous sum of money, who really expects him to say, "oh yeah, you guys go ahead and do what you have to do, just let me sign off on the decision and CC me on all the e-mails?"

For all I know, maybe he did. He did just buy the Sabres and essentially say "keep up the great work, Darcy Regier and Lindy Ruff." My initial reaction to that was something along the lines of being amazed at his deference to his hockey operations people. But then again, there are other explanations. For all we know, he plans to clean house this summer and realized that making sweeping changes during a playoff push was a risky move. Even if you don't have legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations, those extra home dates in the playoffs are always helpful to small-market teams. Or maybe he carefully evaluated the two prior to taking over and decided they were keepers - after all, both deference and heavy involvement could have led to the end result of retaining Ruff and Regier.

Realistically, it's probably too early to say exactly how Pegula involves himself in hockey ops. We simply don't have enough information yet. Walfrand approached me as a Pegula "expert," but at the same time, I've only "known" Pegula for a couple months longer than him. I'd never even heard of the guy before last August, which I imagine is probably the norm, unless you subscribe to Gas Barons Digest or something.

Now swing things back to Penn State for a second. The status quo, what they have in Buffalo, is always the safe call. But there is no status quo at Penn State, not even a previous coach who inspires the decision-makers to say "we need the opposite of that guy." It's just a job opening and a bunch of rumored candidates. We have a decent idea who some of those might be, but we don't know all of them. And more to the point, we don't know who made them candidates and why.


This guy went from a solid career with Pegula's favorite team to an assistant coach at Minnesota-Duluth. Just saying.


So is he a hands-on guy or does he stay in the shadows? We might be about to find out.

Pegula Ice Arena Lobby: Gone

Not in the literal sense of course, ground hasn't even been broken yet. But forget about it if you want your name hanging there in shiny letters for generations to admire. That privilege now belongs to Paul and Nancy Silvis of State College, who donated $1 million to the Penn State Ice Campaign. The pertinent clippings from the link.

The main lobby of the Pegula Ice Arena will be named after the Paul and Nancy Silvis family. The couple will also co-chair the Penn State Ice Campaign Committee, which will help to raise an additional $10 million to complement the gift from the Pegulas for the ice arena and ice hockey program endowments.

Wasn't the starting number $10 million? Shouldn't it be $9 million now? This is like the time the ice arena was supposed to cost $30 million, then cost $75 million a few years later! Here's Mr. Silvis gratuitously dropping hockey metaphors.

"Nancy and I felt compelled to give to the project because of the important role hockey has played in our lives as well as the opportunities this new facility will bring to the youth of our community," said Paul Silvis. "Joe Battista and I have been discussing strategies to build a new ice facility for many, many years. While the Pegulas' initial gift gets us much closer to the goal, it doesn't quite get the puck in the net. Terry and Kim are looking for assists from others in the community to show their passion for a new ice arena. Through additional gifts from the community we can transform Penn State and the Centre Region into Hockey Valley. It will take a team of passionate players to turn this ice arena into reality."

Where do you get enough money for such a generous donation?

Paul Silvis founded Restek Corporation (Bellefonte, Pa.) in 1985. Restek has grown into an international business manufacturing chromatography columns and supplies that are represented in more than 110 countries...In 2009, Paul Silvis formed SilcoTek, an offshoot of the Restek Corporation. Located in Bellefonte, SilcoTek uses CVD technologies to impart many of the properties of Teflon into steel.

I have no idea what any of that means, which explains in part why I'll never have a lobby of an ice rink named after me. How much for a urinal or two? And what of Mrs. Silvis?

Nancy Silvis is co-owner of the historic Mount Nittany Inn in Centre Hall.

Sweet. Now we just have to get Fight On State, the booster club and Shaner Hotels to chip off a million each and we'll be in great shape! Even the namesake was impressed, saying about three times as much about it as he has about the Buffalo Sabres to this point.

"My wife, Kim, and I, along with the rest of the Penn State Hockey family are thrilled that Paul and Nancy Silvis have stepped forward to be the first major gift after our contribution," said Terry Pegula. "A project of this magnitude can only be accomplished through the efforts and generosity of many dedicated people. Having a family that shares our love for the game involved as we move forward is a major asset. I commend Paul and Nancy on their offer to chair our fundraising committee and hope many more people like Paul and Nancy look to get involved with the hockey program in the future."

In all sincerity, I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. Silvis. Thanks for helping to bring this reality closer, and I hope the view from your lobby is as good as it sounds!

UPDATE: I've just been informed by a guy who knows such things (broadcaster Steve Penstone) that Mrs. Silvis happens to be the mother of Icers forward Kurt Collins. So that explains a lot.