Hockey Transfer Hello: Jake Barczewski
Nice pick up for Brandon. One of the biggest question marks for next year's team is goalie so Jake's addition should theoretically create a 3 way competition between Noah West (Sr) and Marcus Brannman (Fr). West entered the portal when it opened on March 20th and I don't recall if he pulled himself out. I would not be totally shocked if he ended up transferring as Barczewski probably transferred here expecting to start but TBD.
I can't seem to tablize things anymore (not sure if that went away in updates) but you're basically looking at 3 semi-unknowns on the roster
- West posted a .915 in 19 GP as a freshman at RMU and has seen limited time since coming to Ann Arbor
- Barczewski played 4 seasons with Canisius playing as a full time starter in 3 of 4 seasons and splitting a 4th. He posted .905, .926, .923, and .918 save percentages in Atlantic Hockey
- Brannman posted a .901 in the USHL
I'd guess West and Barczewski will split time to start. You really have no clue what you've got in West since he barely played...but I don't think Jake came here to split time and I'd guess he'll be getting most of the minutes by the new year
https://twitter.com/barczewski_jake/status/1649070839420035074?s=20
April 20th, 2023 at 12:35 PM ^
Welcome Jake and Go Blue!!
April 20th, 2023 at 12:36 PM ^
phenomenal pickup
April 20th, 2023 at 12:49 PM ^
Goalie news is good news!
April 20th, 2023 at 12:54 PM ^
Interesting. Ten days ago Seth said this:
While the skaters are making room for youth, Michigan will definitely be a player in the goalie portal now, since backup (who came to be a backup) Noah West is also in the portal, and freshman Tyler Shea is an overager who only dressed for three games this year. Brown goalie Mathieu Caron seems like the one and only target for now; the rising junior put up a 2.49 GAA and 92.1 save percentage for a terrible ECAC team. No other goalie in the portal looks plausible, though you never know who else might pry loose.
So was Barczewski not in the portal at that time, or was he in the portal but Seth didn't see him as a plausible target? Also wondering how Seth is using "plausible" there - does that mean in terms of the likelihood of transferring to UM, or in terms of the potential upgrade if they transferred?
I read "plausible" to mean "only guy worth getting," which *whelp* considering someone on here posted that Caron committed to BU.
IDK, hope for the best for the goalie situation. Probably not going to be a shutdown goalie, but hopefully at least good enough not to sink the team...
Well, I can't find evidence of when Jake entered the portal and portal news is murky. It might've just because Caron was one of the few power conference goalies of note in the portal who may be someone who could start for Michigan. I'd say Barczewski's .910-.920 in Atlantic Hockey is unlikely to translate 1:1 to the Big Ten but I also think he's clearly one of the better goalies in the portal right now. He did seem to hold up to Minnesota alright in the tournament before the dam burst
Then again West posted a .915 as a freshman at Robert Morris so who knows.
According to the Twitters, Barczewski was in the portal on March 27 so definitely at the time of Seth's piece.
I'm pretty sure that Barczewski was discussed during a podcast or roundtable as a possibility (I remember Canisius not his name lol). Caron was obviously the first guy to look at but I don't think that Barczewski was dismissed out of hand. The challenge is trying to guess how a goalie from AH translates to the B1G. /shrug
Cześć Barczewski!
(hello Bar-che-ski)
I am not a college hockey expert but have begun following it more closely.
Are freshman goalies like freshman QB? Usually not very good?
Goalies in general are weird voodoo magic. A freshman in theory could be lights out or they could take awhile to develop into anything from "fine" to a literal brick wall. Hard to tell, but I'd put more faith in an upperclassman starting and being more consistent than a freshman until proven otherwise.
Edit: to answer your question, yeah I guess it's a bit like QB on a football team but with higher stakes if you're wrong because you can't cover up a bad goalie that well like you can a bad system QB.
The issue with college hockey is that you can’t just label someone “freshman.” We talking about an 18 year old freshman? A 20 year old overager (used up all his juniors eligibility) freshman? A guy on NHL radars? Academic year is pretty irrelevant in college hockey, for all positions.
great news! very experienced goaltending!
https://www.michigandaily.com/ice-hockey/goaltender-jacob-barczewski-commits-to-michigan/
from the M Daily:
"The No. 3 Michigan hockey team’s goaltending room just got deeper.
On Thursday, the Wolverines added senior goaltender Jacob Barczewski from Canisius out of the transfer portal. A four year starter for the Golden Griffins, this season he led Canisius to an NCAA tournament bid where it was eliminated by then No. 1 Minnesota in the first round.
The two-time Golden Griffin hockey team MVP (2021, 2022) provides a breath of fresh air into a Michigan program searching for a steady-handed replacement for departing junior goaltender Erik Portillo. Moreover, with current freshman goaltender Tyler Shea in the transfer portal himself, more depth never hurts.
With one year of eligibility left, Barczewski looks to serve as a bridge goaltender towards the Wolverines’ future.
And in that one year, Barczewski looks to make an immediate impact. Boasting a .918 save percentage, coupled with a 2.65 goals against average for the 2022-2023 season, Barczewski was the bedrock of a competitive Canisius team that caught fire down the stretch of last season.
Though the starting job is never assured, Michigan returns junior goaltender Noah West and are awaiting incoming freshman Marcus Brännman. But Barczewski’s leadership history has proven successful at the collegiate level, making him an attractive candidate for the Wolverines’ day one starter.
For now though, Michigan can breathe a sigh of relief in adding an experienced goaltender to a still-developing room."
Two-time first team all-conference. Even for the worst conference in D-1 that's still pretty impressive, especially at goalie. My guess is that he and West are platooning at the beginning of the season and that barring injury Brannaman ends up redshirting.
Sounds like people are sleeping on the USHL goalie Brannman.
I wouldn’t say anyone is sleeping on him so much as people looking at the situation realistic. You’re talking about a goalie with a .901 save percentage in the USHL. That doesn’t generate much confidence in his ability to play a significant role as a freshman. If he can, he can prove it in practice and earn his role.
Strauss Mann posted a .932 and Portillo posted a .915 in their last season in the USHL for comparison. Brannman doesn’t project to either of their levels.
It's hard to compare stats across teams and years. The team that Strauss was on won the Clark Cup, and Portillo's DBQ team was 33-13.
This DBQ team is more middle of the pack, and, sure, it could be that Mann/Portillo are better and better goalie = more wins, or it could just be that their team ISN'T all that great.
One thing I do like is that the other DBQ goalie is slated to go to DU and Brännman has a GAA that's a full goal better and has him by 36 points in save percentage. If you can make a direct comparison with another guy on the same team, it's nice when your guy is smoking the other guy.
I'd take Kaiden Mbereko or Simon Latkoczy in a heartbeat and they had an 0.898 and a 0.887 last year in the USHL. So it's not as simple as "0.901 isn't very good. He probably isn't as good as Portillo."
I’m not looking strictly at the save percentage and saying he probably isn’t as good as Portillo. That’s the general consensus from scouts and even our own coaches. If the prevailing thought was “Michigan has another Portillo on their hands,” you wouldn’t see Michigan fishing in the portal for a veteran starter. There are major questions surrounding Brannman’s ability to come in and perform at a high level as a freshman.
The team that Strauss was on won the Clark Cup, and Portillo's DBQ team was 33-13.
I mean you said it yourself. Better goalies = more wins. If Brannman had a save percentage somewhere in the .915-.930 range, they win more games. Simple as that.
USHL save percentage isn’t a direct translation to college success. Didn’t claim it was. However, it’s not going to create confidence if you aren’t putting up good stats in juniors and you’re joining a conference like the Big Ten. Obviously the staff is concerned enough to go after a guy with 100 games played.
I don't necessarily agree that they wouldn't be looking in the portal even if they had landed Jacob Fowler or kept Trey Augustine in the fold. Is the fact that they're looking a comment on Brännman, a comment on West (he didn't play much even through Portillo's struggles), or just hedging your bets knowing that you've got a loaded team without a proven goalie and wanting to make sure you have options?
I'm not saying that Brännman is definitely Portillo or definitely Mann. I've never seen him play, so I don't know if he's not that good, if the team around him isn't that good, or what. I suspect it's that the team isn't very good, since his backup was 25-9-1 on Dubuque last year with a 3.13/.898 and is 8-11-2 with a 3.99/.865 this year. He probably didn't just get that much worse.
There are a whole 2 goalies in the USHL that have a 0.915 right now (so even that is a lofty standard...hell, last year there were like 4 guys in that league who had a 0.900), and I'd imagine there will be more than two good college goalies coming out of that league. Brännman also plays in a division with by far the two highest scoring teams.
I'm just saying I wouldn't draw any conclusions about Brännman's ability to step in and play because his save % in the ushl isn't as good as Portillo's was and that there hasn't been a lot of chatter about him. I could be wrong but I don't remember hearing any buzz about Mann until they went on a big run in the playoffs. (I don't even think he was on scholarship for most of his time at Michigan so I doubt they had him pegged to be as good as he was.)
You can say yeah they'd win more games if Brännman had a 0.915 but they'd also win more games if they scored an extra goal a game, or allowed 10 fewer shots a game. It's fairly meaningless to say that. He could go to Youngstown and put up Fowler numbers and Fowler's numbers could get worse if he was on Dubuque. It's impossible to say. We know he's a heckuva lot better than the other guy playing in front of that same defense night in and night out (and who was well thought of enough to commit to Denver), and that's about it.
You’re kinda missing the point.
Nowhere did I say his save percentage is indicative that he (or other USHL goalies) won’t be a good college goalie. Im simply saying that it’s telling us he’s a question mark at this point. If he was out there with a .915+ save percentage, we’d all feel much more confident in his ability to take the reins from Portillo. Since he ISN’T dominating the USHL, how he translates that to the NCAA as a freshman is much more of an unknown. Enough so that the staff wanted to hit the portal for an established goalie. USHL stats don’t necessarily translate to the NCAA, but the goalies who put up big save percentages in the USHL tend to be good in college.
I’m not “drawing any conclusions about Brännman's ability to step in and play because his save % in the ushl isn't as good as Portillo's was.” I actually said he has the opportunity in practice to take the starter position outright. It’s his play on the ice that will decide where he slots. What I AM saying is his play in the USHL wasn’t good enough for the staff to just roll with him and West. If they felt he was a good bet to come in and dominate as a freshman, they wouldn’t hit the portal. Doesn’t mean he can’t, or won’t. It’s not a knock on Branmann at all. He’s just an unknown.
April 20th, 2023 at 10:29 PM ^
You more or less did.
Strauss Mann posted a .932 and Portillo posted a .915 in their last season in the USHL for comparison. Brannman doesn’t project to either of their levels.
I guess I more or less agree he's a total question mark, but just because he's a freshman as opposed to anything to do with his stats. Most freshmen goalies are going to be. In the top 30 in save % this year in the ncaa there were three freshmen. The best one didn't have good raw numbers in the ushl, one played in the NAHL, and the third also didn't have good numbers in the USHL.
I just wouldn't draw any conclusions period without having seen Brännman or without knowing more about the team he's playing on. If he was on Fargo and had a 0.915 I wouldn't necessarily feel better or worse about him than I do about him having a 0.901 on Dubuque.
The fact that he's 36 pts higher in save percentage than the guy he shares the net with (who was established on the team and is committed to Denver), that he's more or less taken over the net, the fact that he selected to be the backup at World Juniors for Sweden are definitely some points in his favor.
Even the top guys in ushl save percentage have been a mixed bag moving forward. If you look at the top 5 each year you have the Dobeses of the world, but you also have guys who have barely played for ND, AIC, Cornell, etc.
If you want to look at guys above a 0.915 going back 4 or 5 years you have:
A kid who split time for Uconn this year and was fine.
Schmid who did it twice and went to the AHL.
Jaxson Stauber who was a 3rd year USHL guy after he left Kato and went back to the ushl. He ended up being solid for Providence.
A dude who stunk for Bentley
Portillo
Isaiah Saville who was thoroughly average for Omaha (3 years of 0.907)
Brandon Bussi who was fine for WMU.
That's going back to 18-19. 7 guys/8 seasons. And none of them that I'd really consider to be stars. Maybe Schmid since he went right to the pros and has gotten 20 NHL games but not guys coming into college and dominating.
(Then the year Strauss had a 0.932 there were 8 guys above 0.915 that year alone. Weird. And even Strauss split time as a freshman and had a sub 0.900 save percentage.)
It's a crapshoot. Goalies are crapshoots. Taking Barczewski gives you better odds that someone is good. It gives you better odds your backup is good or that you have a 1a/1b without committing long term.
I'm completely with you that he's a big question mark. I would have been driving the bus on Michigan needing to portal a goalie and I'm very happy we got one. I just disagree with the reasoning behind saying he's a question mark. Everything I've seen is that he's been very good overall for Dubuque and is a big reason they're in a playoff position. I'm actually really excited to see him.
See puck. Stop puck.
It's pretty simple.
The last guy we got with Canisius worked out pretty well, and enjoys subs.
He was...OK against Minnesota, but got overwhelmed when they got their major power play. Probably going to struggle against elite shooters (which is to say Minnesota).
There's no guarantee when it comes to goalies in any league, let alone a college goalie. Any one of the 3 on the roster could be that goalie who can steal games. Something Michigan never seems to have. Or they all might not be able to stop a beach ball.
Yeah, at the end of the day, that's really it. There's no way to know what we have until we get into the season. Shit, you don't even know if your returning goalie is going to be the same guy he was the year before (for example, Portillo in 2023 vs. 2022), let alone how a performance on a completely different team at a completely different level will translate...
Maybe the bigger question is if Naurato can find a way to get a goalie coach back on staff.
A third paid assistant was approved by the ncaa, so I'd imagine it'll be a lot easier to make that happen. Assuming Warde is awake enough to approve it.
My understanding is that the third paid assistant will go into effect on July 1. I could be wrong but I wouldn't expect an announcement before then.
April 20th, 2023 at 11:39 PM ^
Forget it, Jake. It's Brannmantown.
Welcome! Go Blue!
Wellllllll Brännman doesn't have a block M on the Dubuque line chart tonight so I guess he isn't coming.
I guess that explains how we'd fit Peck with potentially Slavick from the NTDP who thought to favor Michigan. But it again raises some question marks for next year and then the year after you're looking at Peck/West.