The Rink Live

Training camps and preseason games are now underway in the NAHL and USHL, Team USA had a poor showing at the U18 Summer Series against Canada, and Sydney Wolf and Jordan McAlpine also fill you in on the latest commitments, and decommitments, from the past two weeks. Get ready for the 2023-24 season with The Rink Live Prospects Show presented by Minnkota Windows .

Sydney Wolf and Jordan McAlpine talk about all of the verbal commitments that were announced on Aug. 1 and recap some of the top prospects from the World Junior Summer Showcase and the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

Sydney Wolf and Jordan McAlpine preview the upcoming Hlinka Gretzky Cup and World Junior Summer Showcase. They also discuss the U18 Women's National Festival roster and fill you in on the latest college hockey commitments from the past few weeks. 

Heather Weems recently finished up her first year as the commissioner of the NCHC after being the athletic director at St. Cloud State for the previous 10 years. The conference has had a couple of big changes in the last few months with the announcement of adding Arizona State as a ninth member and replacing Don Adam with Mike Schmitt as its director of officiating. She talks about some of the new...

Robby Jackson is coming off his best pro season. Playing for HC Nove Zamky in the Slovakian league, he was second in the league in goals (30), third in points (51) and 12th in plus/minus (plus-16) in 49 regular season games. He recently signed to play the coming season for HC La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland. Jackson talks about his two seasons in Slovakia and why he decided to head to Switzerland...

Sydney Wolf and Jordan McAlpine talk about all of the college hockey players and prospects taken in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. They also touch on some of the recent commitment news and the latest coaching changes and trades in the USHL. 

It is probably a stretch to think about bundling up and heading into a rink when outside the temperature is well into the triple digits, but such is life in hockey for Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Greg Powers in the midst of another blazing July in the desert. In the past 12 months, after starting their trek into NCAA Division from a club program with no conference home and playing in a tin...

Jimmy Schuldt just got done playing the longest hockey season of his career. The 28-year-old former St. Cloud State defenseman from Minnetonka played his last game on June 21. Game 7 of the Calder Cup Finals was the 97th game of the season for Schuldt, who played for the Coachella Valley Firebirds. It was quite a season for the Firebirds, the AHL affiliate of the Seattle Kraken. The Firebirds are...

Any time the members of the Minnesota Wild — players, coaches, team staff, etc. — get on a plane, or check into a hotel room on the road, or take a bus to a visiting arena, or sit down for a team meal, you can bet that Andrew Heydt played a role in making it happen. As the person in charge of team services and the growing alumni association for the Wild as they approach a quarter-century as the St...

University of Minnesota men's hockey coach Bob Motzko was watching the NHL Draft like most hockey people on Wednesday and Thursday. He got to see another of his Gopher recruits — Oliver Moore — get selected in the first round (19th overall, Chicago). Motzko gives a scouting report on Moore, how he's coached several really good second-round picks recently, discusses how National Team Development Pr...

Jaxon Castor truly has a unique story. His hockey career has taken him through some tremendous ups and downs and to several parts of the country. Castor grew up in Phoenix, played about 1 1/2 seasons in the USHL for the Dubuque Fighting Saints, got traded to the Shreveport Mudbugs in the NAHL, committed to Arizona State but could not get in academically, played a season for the St. Cloud State clu...

Sydney Wolf and Jordan McAlpine recap the NAHL draft, talk about some of the most recent news in the USHL including the announcement of a new commissioner, and discuss some of the newest commitments in girls hockey.

Patti Marshall recently signed a two-year contract to continue playing for the Minnesota Whitecaps in the Premier Hockey Federation. Marshall, 25, played for the University of Minnesota from 2016-20 and then one season professionally in Sweden before returning to Minnesota to play for the Whitecaps and earn all-star status in each of the last two seasons. Before playing in college, she played four...

Former St. Cloud State forward Blake Winiecki recently completed his fifth pro season playing for the Florida Everblades in the ECHL. Winiecki, 29, helped the Everblades win their second straight playoff title by picking up nine goals and 15 points in 22 playoff games. Winiecki talks about the team celebrating their title and how the Gulf of Mexico may have helped do a number on the trophy. He als...

It was a whirlwind and the longest hockey season of Nick Perbix's career in 2022-23. He began the season with the Syracuse Crunch in the AHL, but quickly got a call up to the Tampa Bay Lightning due to an injury. He didn't go back to the AHL. Perbix tells the story of finding out he was called up to the NHL as he was signing an apartment lease in Syracuse. There is also the story of how his parent...

Doug Christiansen's love of hockey began at an early age with his parents taking him to University of Wisconsin men's hockey games when he was growing up in Milwaukee. That led him to playing hockey, getting to the USHL, Union College, play eight seasons of pro hockey, coach professionally overseas and in North America, coach in the USHL and to work for the USHL in two capacities. Christiansen was...

Sydney Wolf and Jordan McAlpine guide you through the latest trades in the USHL and NAHL, the newest coaching hires in junior hockey, and some of the commitments from the past two weeks. 

Michelle Morgan recently began her new job as commissioner of both conferences. She discusses why the conferences are merging on The Rink Live podcast.

At the time, Charlie Lindgren did not know much about cooking. As he was preparing for his freshman season at St. Cloud State in the summer of 2013, Lindgren was living with captains Nic Dowd and Kevin Gravel. Lindgren ended up buying some ribs at the grocery store and there's a fun story that goes along with it. Lindgren, 29, played for the Huskies from 2013-16. The 2022-23 season was the first t...

Nate Ewell got his start in hockey media relations as a student at Princeton, then worked at Michigan State, was one of the founders of InsideCollegeHockey.com and worked with the Washington Capitals before spending a decade promoting the sport with College Hockey, Inc. In 2021 Nate and his family left his native New England and trekked literally cross-country, joining the Vegas Golden Knights as...

Jack Ahcan was able to participate in the AHL All-Star weekend this past season when he had 36 points in 68 games playing for the Providence Bruins, the top minor league team of the Boston Bruins. On this episode of the Huskies Hockey Insider podcast, he talks about several of the close relationships he's developed over the years with former teammates like Brock Boeser, Will Borgen and Nick Perbix...

Sydney Wolf and Jordan McAlpine walk through the USHL Clark Cup final and the NAHL Robertson Cup final before discussing all of the recent coaching and recruiting news of the past two weeks. 

Former Moorhead Spud Will Borgen is back in his hometown after helping the Kraken win the franchise's first playoff series. He also shares his SCSU memories.

Abbey Murphy did not have any other hockey players in her family. So where did her interest in the game come from? A fun story on how she got introduced to the sport through a neighbor. While Murphy did not have hockey in her family, she grew up in an athletic household. Her brother, Dominic, is a wrestler at St. Cloud State. Her brother, Patrick, played college football at Carthage College and he...

Sydney Wolf and Jordan McAlpine discuss the most recent USHL games and preview the Clark Cup final. They also talk about how the NAHL playoffs are going and some of the honors that the league has handed out. Recruiting news, trades, and coaching changes are also mentioned.