GRAND FORKS — The UND hockey team took a trip to Davos, Switzerland, over Christmas break in 1982 to play in the Spengler Cup. It added two additional exhibitions in Kreuzlinger and Lucerne on that trip.

More than 40 years later, the Fighting Hawks may head overseas again.

UND has been exploring the possibility of competing in the 2027 Friendship Four tournament in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

No contract has been signed and nothing has been finalized. But UND has made significant progress on it over the last several months, according to multiple sources.

The Friendship Four is a regular-season tournament held annually on Thanksgiving weekend. It is played at the home of the Belfast Giants, who compete in the top United Kingdom-based league. Their arena seats about 11,000.

Three former UND players suited up for Belfast last season — Jordan Kawaguchi, Grant Mismash and Gabe Bast.

Boston University won the 2024 Friendship Four and eventually made a run to the NCAA Frozen Four. Quinnipiac won the 2022 event en route to its first national championship.

This season, Miami, Sacred Heart, RIT and Union are participating.

The NCAA allows teams to do a foreign trip once every four years.

This is not the first time UND has looked into playing overseas in recent years — but the other attempts fell through.

UND was close to scheduling exhibition games in Finland when the 2020 coronavirus pandemic hit. Those competitions were scratched due to the pandemic.

UND also looked into previous Friendship Fours, but they didn’t work out.

If 2027 happens, it could be a strong field.

Other potential participants include Quinnipiac and Northeastern, who have both played in the event twice already. The Friendship Four field is generally announced in the fall.

UND has two nonconference games left to fill for 2027-28, so it works scheduling-wise. The Fighting Hawks are set to play two-game series against Bemidji State, Augustana, Minnesota and Wisconsin that season.

The Fighting Hawks already have a destination game on the books for the previous year. They will play Michigan State in Austin, Texas, on Halloween 2026.

College hockey’s biggest ongoing story is the recruitment of Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna, the projected No. 1 overall pick of the 2026 NHL Draft.

McKenna will likely enter the season as the Hobey Baker Award frontrunner wherever he lands, which is extra notable considering last year’s winner, Isaac Howard of Michigan State, is planning to return to school.

Although there’s been plenty of buzz on social media about UND being a top contender for McKenna, as of last week, the Fighting Hawks still had not been able to crack that door open.

Michigan State, Penn State and Michigan — all with significant NIL resources and offers — have long been considered the front-runners. Denver also is in the picture. UND would like to be — who wouldn’t? — but the Fighting Hawks haven’t been in the mix to this point.

McKenna is expected to join UND incoming freshman defenseman Keaton Verhoeff as top 2026 NHL Draft prospects who are enrolling into college a year early.

Several other top players have done that in recent years, including freshman Hobey Baker Award winners Macklin Celebrini of Boston University (2024) and Adam Fantilli of Michigan (2023).

Forward Isaac Gordon committed to UND out of the NCAA transfer portal in late April, but reversed course a couple weeks ago and opted to stay at Michigan Tech.

Gordon, a junior forward from Manitoba, talked about his decision on the Pucks in Deep podcast this week.

“Initially, I was super excited to go to North Dakota,” Gordon told Pucks in Deep. “Obviously, it’s close to home. But I kind of made a home at Michigan Tech. I’ve grown to love it. The place is really special. When I saw they were making some changes and stuff, I went back, and was like, ‘I would have liked to know (that before). I maybe would have thought a little differently.'”

Gordon’s change of heart came shortly after Michigan Tech fired head coach Joe Shawhan and replaced him with Lindenwood head coach Bill Muckalt.

Muckalt previously had success as an assistant at Michigan Tech and Michigan.

Gordon said Michigan Tech was too structured under Shawhan and “it was a grind to create any offense.”

“(Muckalt) is a super modern hockey thinker,” Gordon said on the podcast. “Very creative.”

Gordon also indicated playing time could have been a factor.

“There’s something to say about being comfortable where you are,” he said.

Without Gordon, UND is now searching for two forwards to fill out the 2025-26 roster.

The Fighting Hawks likely have some flexibility on whether they’ll add centers or wingers. Gordon was projected to play wing.

Right now, UND has 13 forwards, eight defensemen and three goalies set for this season’s roster.

A few former UND players collected votes for major NHL awards this season.

Defenseman Jake Sanderson of the Ottawa Senators finished 10th in voting for both the Lady Byng Trophy (best sportsmanship combined with playing talent) and the Norris Trophy (best defenseman).

Forward Jackson Blake of the Carolina Hurricanes finished ninth in voting for the Calder Trophy (best rookie).

Former UND defenseman Aaron Schneekloth has been named an assistant coach with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken.

Schneekloth has spent the last 19 years with the Colorado Eagles organization — seven as a player, 12 as a coach.

The Eagles have gone from the Central Hockey League to the ECHL to the American Hockey League during his time.

He was a player when the organization transitioned from the CHL to ECHL. He was a coach when they went from the ECHL to the AHL.

Schneekloth was Colorado’s head coach the last two seasons.

• Former Grand Forks Central and UND defenseman Paul LaDue has signed with Rögle BK in Ängelholm, Sweden, for next season. Rögle BK plays in Sweden’s top league. LaDue scored five goals and tallied 17 points in 50 games last season for MoDo in Sweden’s top league.
• UND incoming freshman defense Sam Laurila, expected to be a mid-round NHL Draft pick on June 28,

  talked to WDAY TV this week

  about going undrafted a year ago. Laurila said: “I think it was really good for me. Kind of makes you mad and kind of makes you want to get back to work.”

• The Athletic’s hockey prospect expert

  Corey Pronman posted a seven-round mock

  draft this week. Among the incoming/future UND players on the list: Cole Reschny (18), Cooper Simpson (77), Laurila (136), Andrew O’Neill (166) and Ashton Schultz (171).

• FloHockey’s prospect expert

  Chris Peters posted his top 100

  for the draft. UND players on his list: Reschny (15), Laurila (74) and Simpson (94).

• Christian Wolanin tallied an assist Tuesday night as the Abbotsford Canucks took a 2-1 series lead on the Charlotte Checkers in the AHL’s Calder Cup Finals. Matt Kiersted and Riese Gaber (injured) play for Charlotte.
• Vancouver picked Ashton Bell with the first pick of the PWHL Expansion Draft. Bell was signed to play at UND when the women’s program was cut. Bell had been playing in Ottawa.

Over the last few years, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) has changed the entire landscape of college sports.

Athletes are now able to profit off themselves, resulting in paydays in the high six-figures or reaching seven figures for some of the top players, particularly in men’s basketball and football.

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LaNorris Sellers is expected to be one of the best quarterbacks and overall players in college football this fall. The South Carolina signal caller is a preseason Heisman Trophy candidate, and if all goes well, could be picked very high in the 2026 NFL Draft.

After a breakout 2024 season, Sellers received plenty of back-channel overtures from other programs trying to lure him into the transfer portal. According to his father Norris, one of them dangled an $8 million offer over two seasons.

“He was offered all kinds of crazy numbers,” Norris Sellers told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic. “I told him he could say, I’m gonna stay or I’m gonna go. By my two cents: It was to get into college on a scholarship, play ball, get our degree and go on about our business. This NIL deal came later. We didn’t come here to make money. We came here to get our education, play ball, and with schools calling, we’re not gonna jump ship because they’re offering more than what we’re getting. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Eye-popping NIL offers have become part of the game for elite quarterbacks lately. Georgia transfer Carson Beck reportedly signed a $4 million deal with Miami this offseason, and in 2024, former Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers was rumored to have been approached with a $6 million offer to transfer, which he declined.

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In the case of Sellers, the money wasn’t worth moving on from the program where he has established himself.

“I’ve been playing football all of my life for free,” LaNorris Sellers told Feldman. “I’ve built relationships here, my family’s here, my brother’s here. There’s no reason for me to go someplace else and start over.”

South Carolina finished 9-4 in 2024, with Sellers throwing for 2,534 yards, 18 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The 6-foot-3, 242-pound dual-threat added 674 rushing yards and seven scores on the ground.

The Gamecocks will open the 2025 season against Virginia Tech on August 31.

Star College QB Reportedly Turned Down $8 Million This Offseason first appeared on Men’s Journal on Jun 17, 2025

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Ten members of the Wesleyan women’s crew team earned Scholar-Athlete honors from the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA), as announced on Tuesday afternoon.

Wesleyan’s 10 honorees rank fourth-most in the nation among Division III programs. In total, over 1000 student-athletes earned Scholar-Athlete honors across all NCAA Divisions. To qualify for selection, student-athletes must have at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA through the fall 2024 semester and be in their sophomore year. Student-athletes must have rowed a minimum of 75% of the current spring races or competed in the conference championship race (National Invitational Rowing Championship).
 
Among the list of Cardinals who earned Scholar-Athlete honors includes three-time honoree Ava Olson ’25 (College of Social Studies, History double major) while several earned the distinction for the second time in their careers including Aleah Hurwitz ’25 (Art Studio, Sociology), Cadence Cole ’26 (Anthropology, Archaeology), and Nora Printy ’26 (Biology, German Studies, Mathematics). Making the list for the first time in their careers is Annabelle Miller ’25 (Earth and Environmental Sciences), Clara Preisig ’25 (Neuroscience and Behavior, Psychology), Alexandra Stanislaw ’25 (Italian Studies, Science in Society), Hailey Hutchison ’27 (Undecided), Julia Lissack ’27 (Mathematics, Economics), and Ruby Roberts ’27 (Undecided).  

SUNRISE, Fla. — From the trade deadline bargain bin to a Stanley Cup champion in a little over three months, Brad Marchand is the new gold standard for how an in-season pickup can reinvigorate an NHL team.

The Florida Panthers surrendered a future first-round pick to the Boston Bruins and paid Marchand just $109,375 in salary before turning him loose for an unforgettable spring on the edge of the Everglades.

Marchand scored 10 goals from the third line during Florida’s second straight championship run, helping transform the Panthers into the deepest team in hockey. That included two game-winners during a six-game Cup Final win over the Edmonton Oilers that ended up being much more lopsided than the battle between the teams last June.

The biggest difference?

The presence of a 37-year-old who brought the tenacity of a champion to the lineup and the joy of a kid to the dressing room. Marchand and the Panthers proved to be a match made in hockey heaven — above even the expectations of the player himself.

“You never know how things are going to play out,” Marchand said. “I just wanted to come in and buy in and be part of the group and play whatever role I was put in and do it to the best I possibly can. When you walk into this room and you see what guys are putting themselves through every day to prepare and to sacrifice and how dialed in they are, you just kind of follow suit.

“They’ve built an incredible culture in this room. It’s very easy to follow. And when you do that, you just leave it all on the ice. We have a good team, so good things happen in here and we have a lot of fun.”

Marchand unleashed 14 years of pent-up emotion when he lifted the Stanley Cup above his head again at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday night. He’d won the trophy with the Bruins in 2011 at the end of his first full NHL season, but was on the losing end of championship series in 2013 and 2019.

Brad Marchand first lifted the Stanley Cup in 2011. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

He vowed to treat this opportunity like it might be his last.

That capped a remarkable run for the veteran winger in Florida after being one of the final players moved before the March 7 trade deadline. Marchand didn’t make his Panthers debut until March 28 because of injury, but looked immediately at home after finding a spot on the third line beside Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen.

That trio chewed through opponents all spring, with Florida outscoring its opponents 21-7 during Marchand’s five-on-five minutes. Multiple Panthers labeled them the team’s most effective line while dispatching the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Carolina Hurricanes and Oilers on the way to another championship.

Needless to say, the first trade of Marchand’s NHL career worked out better than anyone could have imagined. He admitted to feeling anxious about the move after 16 seasons in Boston and wasn’t initially sure how he’d even fit in with the Panthers.

“When you look at the lineup, I was honestly like, ‘I think I’m playing fourth line again. Back to my roots,’” Marchand said. “I didn’t have many expectations. I knew playing against the Panthers this year that they were the team that I felt in the East was the team that was going to make a run. So I was just excited to be part of it. I didn’t have expectations of where I was going to play or what I was going to do.”

A pending unrestricted free agent on July 1, Marchand is expected to command more than $8 million per season on the open market, according to league sources.

He will go down as one of the better trade deadline pickups in NHL history. The Panthers acquired him for a first-round pick in either 2027 or 2028, with Boston retaining half of his remaining salary to make the numbers work.

In adding Marchand, the Panthers knew they were getting a high-engine worker. But they didn’t realize what a big impact he would have on their team culture, thanks in large part to his good-natured demeanor.

“Getting to know him a little bit more as a human, he’s more special than I could have imagined on that front,” Panthers general manager Bill Zito said. “As a teammate and as a character human. From that standpoint, it’s like frosting on the cake.”

He was asked if he will be able to keep Marchand.

“I bought a Dairy Queen,” Zito joked after the game during the team’s on-ice celebration.

While Sam Bennett (15) scored more goals for the Panthers this spring and received the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, Marchand arguably had the bigger moments. He won Game 2 against the Oilers with a breakaway goal in double overtime and scored twice with impressive individual efforts in Game 5 to give the Panthers the chance to hoist the Cup on home ice.

Marchand also had an overtime winner against the Maple Leafs in Round 2, which prevented them from falling into an 0-3 hole in that series.

Following a season in which he struggled with health challenges and the weight of the uncertainty in Boston, Marchand saved his best hockey for when it mattered most. No one enjoyed the Cup run more than the oldest member of the Panthers.

“I honestly feel like a young guy again,” he said.

(Top photo: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)

The Oklahoma Sooners have made their priorities clear, and wrestling is not one of them.

With the House v. NCAA settlement officially being approved and allowing revenue sharing in college sports, OU athletic director Joe Castiglione recently announced six sports that will get a share of the $20.5 million this year — football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, and women’s gymnastics. Wrestling, one of the most popular sports in the state of Oklahoma, did not make the cut.

Wrestling gets left behind as OU picks its six revenue-share winners

All six sports are deserving of the money. Let that be clear. Football and men’s basketball are the monsters that have to be fed at every school. Baseball is also one of the most popular sports in America. Women’s basketball, softball and women’s gymnastics are consistent national contenders that have earned the support at OU.

But in a new era of college athletics where only the strong will survive, OU is experiencing the strain of having so many different mouths to feed. And some sports might not survive, including wrestling.

Wrestling has been on life support at OU for some time, but that’s what happens when things aren’t nourished. The sport itself is not to blame, though. Wrestling has brought OU seven national championships, tied for the third-most with football and women’s gymnastics. It’s a sport that could succeed using mostly local talent, which can’t be said for the other sports the Sooners are trying to win at.

Just down the road in Stillwater, Oklahoma State has proven what happens when a wrestling program is supported in this state. Even after a major coaching change last year, OSU still broke wrestling attendance records, even at times drawing bigger crowds than men’s basketball, and remained nationally relevant. Even at the Division-II level, Central Oklahoma is thriving in Edmond. It’s obviously possible and likely.

But none of OU’s athletic decisions have considered wrestling as it sits at the bottom of the Sooners’ sports barrel. OU moved from the Big 12 to the SEC, a conference without wrestling. That move graduated nearly every sport to better conference competition, while wrestling remained in the Big 12 as an affiliate member. And apparently none of that extra money from a richer conference is being funneled to the wrestling program to give it any sort of benefit.

The sport shares a nearly 100-year-old venue with volleyball and men’s gymnastics. Then there was the recent decision to leave wrestling out of revenue sharing, but at least with five additional scholarships as a consolation.

Wrestling is a tradition in Oklahoma, but OU is all in on the new trends of college sports that doom tradition, whether it be in-state conference rivalries, which the Sooners still have in wrestling, or winning by recruiting local talent, which the Sooners could achieve on the mat.

The Sooners haven’t pulled the plug yet on wrestling, but they are letting the sport endure an agonizing death at OU while all it needs is the right antidote to thrive.

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