BEMIDJI – Travis Winter wasn’t expecting to get the call, but he wasn’t surprised he got it either.

On Wednesday, USA Hockey announced that Bemidji State’s men’s hockey associate head coach would serve on the American bench as an assistant for the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship. Winter got the call from head coach Bob Motzko “a few weeks ago.”

Winter will officially serve as a video coach. Boston College’s Greg Brown, Augustana’s Garrett Raboin, USA Hockey’s David Lassonde and Minnesota’s Steve Miller and Jacob LeRoy are also on staff.

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity,” Winter said. “It’s very exciting. Anytime you can participate in a tournament like that and represent your country, it’s something that you don’t want to take for granted. You get excited for it; how can you not?”

The World Junior Championship begins in the Twin Cities on Dec. 26 at the Xcel Energy Center and at the University of Minnesota’s 3M Arena at Mariucci. The WJC runs through Jan. 5, 2026.

Winter will get the best of both worlds when the calendar flips to 2026. While Bemidji State typically plays a series on the second weekend in December, and on the first weekend in January (or a New Year’s Eve game), the Beavers are off from Dec. 6 to Jan. 9.

Scheduling luck allows Winter to serve on Team USA’s staff with the potential of not missing a BSU game, save for an exhibition against the Gophers on Jan. 2.

More importantly for Winter, with the WJC being in Minnesota, it’ll become a family event for the St. Cloud native.

Courtesy / Brent Cizek Photography

“It’s the State of Hockey, and our state’s going to knock it out of the park with how they handle it,” Winter said. “They’re going to put on a great show. It’ll be an experience I get to share with my family, with it being in the Twin Cities. They’ll get to be a part of it, too, which is special.”

Winter will enter his 12th season on the Beavers’ staff this fall. He was an assistant head coach for eight seasons, then spent the last three seasons with the title of associate head coach under Tom Serratore.

Winter played for BSU from 2005-09, serving as a captain in his final two seasons. After he graduated, Winter was hired as an assistant for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in the United States Hockey League for four seasons, then spent a year as the head coach for the North American Hockey League’s Aberdeen Wings in 2013-14

Winter came back to Bemidji State in 2015 for his first season as an assistant, and he hasn’t left since.

“I think this honor is a testament to the respect of our program, what people think of our program and the things we’ve been able to accomplish over the years,” Winter said.

Motzko is one of college hockey’s most revered coaches. Since being hired by Minnesota prior to the 2018-19 season, he’s posted a record of 161-82-21. Combined with his previous 13 seasons at St. Cloud State, Motzko has a career record of 437-274-70, with 13 trips to the NCAA Tournament, including three Frozen Four appearances.

Motzko replaces Denver’s David Carle as Team USA’s WJC head coach. Carle led the Americans to back-to-back WJC titles in each of the last two tournaments.

“(Motzko) asked if I’d be interested in helping out and went over the expectations for different roles,” Winter said. “He asked if I’d be comfortable doing that, and I said, ‘Yeah, of course.’

“I don’t know if you ever expect that call to come. With Bob being the head coach and being part of his circle in the hockey world, you’re kind of thinking you might get a call. But there’s a lot of other qualified guys, so you don’t spend too much time pondering that. When he called, it was awesome.”

Motzko and Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore have a long-standing relationship. Their relationship helped Winter build rapport with Motzko over the years, ultimately leading to Winter’s selection as an assistant.

“Typically, when these coaching staffs get assembled, they’re put together with people they’re familiar with,” Winter said. “They’re familiar with their expertise and strengths as coaches. They want to make sure they cover all areas. Obviously, in working with Tommy, he’s had a big influence on that.”

Like many Bemidji residents, Winter has been hard at work on community restoration following the severe thunderstorm and 100-plus mile-per-hour winds.

On Tuesday, Winter, BSU assistant coach Joe Wegwerth and members of Bemidji Covenant Church and Bemidji Youth Hockey helped clean up Paul Bunyan Park.

“I’ve never seen anything like this; not even close,” Winter said. “Joe and I were there, along with some members of our church and Bemidji Youth Hockey. We have a pretty good group. We were just old-school raking, making piles.”

Before he stepped onto campus in Boulder as a member of the Colorado Buffaloes, class of 2024 quarterback Julian Lewis signed a groundbreaking deal with Athletes First, a sports agency.

At the time, a senior at Carrollton (Ga.) High School, Lewis was one of the first athletes in the state of Georgia to be represented by an agency after the Georgia High School Association changed its guidelines to allow high school student-athletes the ability to participate in NIL without losing their eligibility.

The move sent shockwaves through the high school sports landscape. The Los Angeles-based Athletes First agency is highly accredited as they represent a large number of NFL players that include Aaron Rodgers, Justin Herbert, Justin Jefferson and numerous other NFL stars.

Lewis, a five-star prospect and consensually rated as one of the top QB recruits in the 2024 class, was committed to the USC Trojans at the time of his signing.

Fast forward over a year and a half later and he’s competing for the starting job with the Buffaloes as a true freshman. Lauded for his accuracy, poise and arm strength, Lewis is on a favorable path to joining his fellow agency-mates in the NFL.

Speaking to the accredited nature of Athletes First, they began “an exclusive, three-day summit of NFL offensive linemen in Las Vegas spotlighting the strength, personality, and performance of the league’s best players at these positions,” a social media post wrote.

The event, titled “Big & Beautiful presented by BTL,” will be hosted and led by retired eight-time Pro-Bowler Tyron Smith with the help of Detroit Lions offensive tackle Penei Sewell, Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Tyler Smith and Washington Commanders center Tyler Biadasz.

BTL Aesthetics, the brand presenting the event, will include its services surrounding physical and mental recovery in the Athlete Recovery Lounge.

Lewis already has an NIL valuation of $1.1 million thanks in part to Athletes First — a number that will more than likely grow with time on the field and with the help of an experienced, highly-regarded agency with strong NFL ties.

ABOUT MILLER

Steve Miller, associate head coach of the University of Minnesota men’s ice hockey team, has influenced significant success both at the collegiate level and on the world stage during his time behind the bench over parts of the last five decades.

Miller has served as an assistant coach for eight previous U.S. National Junior Teams, with six medals to his credit, including gold four times (2025, 2024, 2021, 2017), silver in 2019 and bronze in 2018.

Over his more than 35-year coaching career, which began at St. Mary’s University in 1988-89, and has included stops at Miami University, University of Denver, Providence College, Air Force Academy, Ohio State University, and today Minnesota, Miller has three NCAA national titles to his credit, along with numerous conference regular-season and post-season championships, and NCAA Tournament appearances.

The Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, native – who was honored with the American Hockey Coaches Association Terry Flanagan Award in 2009 recognizing an assistant coach’s career body of work — has coached or recruited more than 25 players who are currently playing in the NHL.

The wait is finally over, Alexander Mogilny is finally headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2025. 

Mogilny has been one of the biggest Hall snubs since 2009 and is remembered as one of the premier goal scorers during his 16 seasons in the NHL, which included time with the Sabres, Canucks, Devils and Maple Leafs. 

Through his career, Mogilny recorded 473 goals and 559 assists for more than 1,000 points and was part of hockey history when he became the first Soviet player to defect to play in the NHL back in 1989. 

The story of Mogilny’s defection feels like one right out of a spy novel. He left the Soviet Union team at the 1989 World Championships in Stockholm with the help of Sabres brass, who helped orchestrate the entire episode to get him to Western New York. 

Mogilny made his NHL debut with the Sabres that fall on Oct. 5, 1989, and began what is now a Hall of Fame career. 

He set a single-season goal-scoring record for the Sabres during the 1992-93 campaign when he put up 76 goals that year. 

Mogilny won a Stanley Cup with the Devils during the 1999-00 season after he was traded to New Jersey at the deadline. 

He also took home a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics as a member of the Soviet team and a gold at the 1989 World Championship. 

“I am happy to be part of a great organization like the Hockey Hall of Fame. I want to thank both my Russian and NHL teammates for helping me achieve this honor,” Mogilny said in a statement. 

Joe Thornton, Duncan Keith, Zdeno Chara, Jennifer Botterill, and Brianna Decker join Mogilny in the player category and Jack Parker and Danièle Sauvageau in the builders category are part of the Class of 2025. 

Chara bookended his career with the Islanders, who drafted him in 1996 and played for the organization from 1997 to 2001 and was dealt in one of the most debated trades during the tenure of former general manager Mike Milbury.

Chara’s NHL career, which spanned from 1997 to 2022, also included time with the Senators, Bruins and Capitals. 

He is best remembered for his time in Boston, where he served as captain and helped the Bruins win a Stanley Cup in 2011. 

Chara played in 1,680 games – the most by an NHL defenseman and third most among any player in the league – and averaged 23:33 of time on ice per game. 

Chara returned for one final stint with the Isles during the 2021-22 season, scoring a goal in his final game of his career on April 29, 2022. 

The Hall of Fame induction will take place on Nov. 10 in Ontario.

In a world where many questions regarding collegiate student-athlete compensation have been answered, even greater concerns are looming.

On Monday, Texas A&M Director of Athletics Trev Alberts spoke to the media regarding Texas A&M’s future financial plan in the wake of the NCAA v. House settlement.

While the mysteries of athlete compensation have been solved, it is far from over, as the NCAA is still having to deal with a number of lawsuits, and NIL regulation is still a massive concern to athletic directors and coaches across the country. With NCAA president Charlie Baker pushing Congress for a limited antitrust exemption to protect college sports from a slew of lawsuits, Alberts offered a differing opinion.

“We don’t need broad antitrust exemptions,” the Aggie AD said. “We need a skinny NIL bill that will basically do the foundations of what we need to be able to not live in a litigious environment every day, where we’re playing defense. We need to be playing offense.”

Alberts is correct in acknowledging that college sports need reformation in the form of NIL legislation, but with lawsuits piling up and the future of college athletics becoming more unstable with each passing day, is an antitrust exemption needed in order to achieve litigation-free player compensation AND competitive balance?

The reason the House settlement came around is that the NCAA couldn’t handle getting sued and losing lawsuits forever.

Alston v. NCAA, Carter v. NCAA, Hubbard v. NCAA, etc. These were almost all losing battles, and every dollar that the NCAA has to spend on legal fees is a dollar not being directly invested into collegiate sports. Despite the efforts to repair damages with this settlement, it is far from perfect. A large downside of this settlement, as it was explicitly said by Judge Claudia Wilken, is that it does not protect the NCAA from future lawsuits.

Aside from the Title IX lawsuits that are already on the table in just the first few weeks, there are a few more aspects of the settlement that people could challenge in court:

1. “Anti-competitive” nature of having a salary cap
2. NIL Go clearinghouse process and restrictions

This raises the question of how do we avoid these exhausting lawsuits while also ensuring competitive balance with NIL?

Right now, there seem to be two clear solutions:

1. The NCAA is granted Congressional protection (antitrust exemption)
2. The NCAA and its athletes come to a collective bargaining agreement (CBA)

Let’s break down what each of those pathways would entail.

Limited Antitrust Exemption
A limited antitrust exemption granted by Congress would allow the NCAA to operate in a capacity that shields it from lawsuits. An antitrust exemption would likely allow the NCAA to have ultimate say when it comes to player compensation, NIL compensation, transfer portal regulations and more. It would also allow the NCAA to preserve the concept of “amateurism” and not claim athletes as employees, which would have its benefits.

While this kind of congressional protection could allow the NCAA to set and enforce uniform guidelines to stabilize college athletics without the fear of lawsuits, there are downsides. It could potentially allow the NCAA and its schools to not comply fully with Title IX. This antitrust exemption would also likely take away any and all ability for athletes to negotiate for fair compensation and allow for the NCAA to operate behind a veil with no obligation to be transparent and accountable for its actions.

Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)
Collective bargaining through employment is often seen as a middle ground to antitrust exemption that allows for athletes to have greater bargaining power. The NBA and NFL both have collective bargaining that dictates how revenue is split between owners and players, scheduling, drug policies, player safety and more. It is not exactly apples to apples when comparing these professional leagues to college athletics because not every sport generates revenue. Plus, you’re talking about just 1,700 players that play the same sport the way that the NFL is. You’re talking about over 540,000 student athletes across more than 20 sports (both men’s and women’s). This CBA would be much more complicated than anything the professional sports leagues have seen.

However, if every athlete agrees on certain standards, you can distribute compensation fairly without a fear of lawsuits while also agreeing on a more stable middle ground in terms of NIL and transfer portal regulation that would stretch uniformly across every school in the league. There wouldn’t be a need for Congress to write new NIL laws that preempt state laws. The NCAA, with the help of athletes and other representatives, could agree on regulations that would be enforced by the NCAA and difficult to challenge in court because they would be a part of the CBA. Even though Deloitte’s NIL Go clearinghouse does some auditing and regulating now, the process and “fair market” evaluations are not necessarily protected from litigation. Also, it’s not certain that complete competitive balance would be achieved through this, as some schools may not be able to afford paying athletes as “employees” if they have to meet certain minimum wage standards. You’re already seeing Olympic sports get cut from many schools, but a CBA could have the potential to accelerate those deficits and prevent many collegiate athletes from participating in sports at all.

The question is, with the NCAA trying to avoid lawsuits while athletic directors and coaches are demanding clear, uniform and enforced NIL regulations… could a limited antitrust exemption or a CBA be the answer to all of this?

Either way, greater power would be granted to the NCAA (or some other entity) that would allow it to operate without fear of litigation.

It could be a good thing for college sports to have basic uniformity where everyone is happy with their compensation, as well as competitive balance.

However, can we trust the NCAA to operate efficiently, transparently and with the athletes’ best interest in mind?

They have had 119 years to prove that and have, thus far, failed.