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April 4, 2025 • 12 mins
Recently introduced, new UND Hockey Head Coach Dane Jackson, joins Tim & Paul to discuss North Dakota Hockey moving forward.
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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Morning man. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Yesterday.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
I would Yeah, that was a busy day. So but
it was obviously, you know, fun to see some you
know and and hack there and see you have our
players there for me and a bunch of old teammates,
so it was that makes it pretty special.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Well, you've got to fill out your your coaching staff, right.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yeah, Well it's it's been. I've been working on it.
It's been. It's been a process, so trying to talk
to some people and uh find out who would be
a good fit for the kind of different roles that
we're looking at.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
So it's been.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, we've been working hard on behind the scenes and
uh yeah, just trying to make sure we do a
real thorough process and get the right guys.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I thought it was interesting when you said you might
have to hire like a general manager type. How's that goal?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, well, you know, I remember reading about it a
little little while ago. Was it was it Stanford was
a written article about Standford. Do I think what was it,
Andrew Luck maybe, Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yeah, there's a lot of programs.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, yeah, anyways, that was just interesting to say, hey,
like they're they're working in in you know, partnership. Uh
but it's just kind of an idea where there's you know,
just you know, you got coaching duties kind of really
like coach your team, like the act of coaching, like
talking to guys you know, on the ice, doing skills
on the age, running practice, you know, sitting and watching
video together. You know, all those types of things, like

(01:27):
the actual coaching part, which is so important. And then
you know, there's just so many other things that you
have to do in this day and age in the
in the head coach chair, as far as you know,
alumni relations, you know, raising money, kind of the roster management,
of talking to agents, who's leaving, you know, who's maybe
coming in. It's just there's just so many things around

(01:48):
the outside with the you know, we always had to
do the roster stuff, but there's just so much more,
it seems like, with the outside forces of that kind
of some of the money that's involved in the game,
and you know, like any of us love it, but
it is part of the game, and uh, we got
to be uh, we got to be part of it.
You know, I think kind of getting off topic a
little bit, but as we kind of go forward, that's

(02:08):
kind of one of my thoughts is we we got
to We always want to recruit guys that want to
come to North Dakota for the right reasons.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
They want to come for the winning, they want to
come for the development, they want to be part of
a historic program, they want to be part of a
cool culture, you know. And then and then if we
have guys that are coming for that reason, and you
know we're in a battle with somebody else, you know,
we can you know, some of these guys don't come
from a lot of money, and they're traveling from a
thousand miles away. So if we can help them, get
them a little bit of money to help them with
their travel, help them live because they're we're asking the

(02:36):
train so hard in the summer instead of getting the
summer job like we used to as kids and stuff.
I think there's a there's a level that we can
we can get guys too. That's kind of fair and
and and we kind of still can win battles. But
we definitely don't want to be in the market of
just buying players to come to North Dakota. That's not
that's not what we're about. And we want guys to
be here for the right reasons.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Coach. If I could just congratulations number one, that's awesome
to see you in this role. But I just I
did have one quick question from a fan that had
had asked me the question. I wasn't entirely sure. So
if there is somebody that is essentially a general manager
a GM like you were just talking about, were other
football programs that's quite common across the country and things,

(03:19):
is that in addition to assistant duties or is that
a standalone That was the question I said, I didn't
really know, I better ask that question.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
Yeah, it's kind of a combination thing so that we're
only allowed to have kind of four accountable coaches. You
have a head coach and then you have three other
other people that can basically actively recruit and talk to
student athletes that are recruitable and then coach.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Our student athletes. So yeah, if I if I kind
of designated that whatever title you want to put on.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
It, that would be accountable coach.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
So you know, in my vision, we would have that person.
That person would be didn't mean that once in a
while he's you know, on the ice with this still
practicing around the rink and talk to the guys. Is
good rare, rarely ever be on the bench. You know,
maybe maybe odd time we had you know, everything kind
of nailed down, it was at the end of the
season or something like that. But yeah, basically that guy's

(04:11):
main core duties would be to be out kind of
on the road recruiting Washington players, doing the kind of
the management of the cap capology type things. And and
then then I'd have two other assistant coaches that would
be kind of here with me on a day to
day basis, you know, coaching, doing video, all those type
of things.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
Perfect.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, the one uh, one question I get from people say, well,
are we what are we going to say different on
the ice with Dane? Uh? Any way to explain that?

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, Well, one thing I tried to articulate yesterday in
my speech was I think we've gotten away a little
bit from our kind of core identity of of what
we've always kind of how we've always built our teams here, Tim,
you know, uh, you know, I know when Gino was
our head coach and I got recruited by Dean Blair
and Curies like they did a lot of time spend
a lot of time talking to me about, Hey, this
is who we are this is what we're all about

(05:06):
as far as our team first play, are getting character
guys that are worried about the group, as far as
our toughness, our physicality, our kind of our tenacity and
how we play the game. And hey, by all means
we by all means we need skill and ability to
make plays. But I want to make sure that our
core value is Hey, we are consistently kind of having

(05:27):
that that North Dakota mentality of having tough, physical, hard
to play against teams. And then yes, we would we're
going to get competitive skill, hard skill to go with that,
you know, like like when when I talk about that,
like we don't need all guys like you know, uh
Brad Malone, Shane Pinto, uh Mark Senden or Cole Smith,

(05:47):
Like like to me, Jackson Blake was competitive skill, Like
he would go to the net and get cross checked
to score a goal. He would take a hit to
to you know, be the guy and make a nice
little path. That's competitive skill like those those kind of those.
We cannot have guys that aren't willing to win battles
or win races or take hits to make plays in

(06:09):
our lineup. So you know, that's one thing that I
don't hope. I know people will see that as we
you know, work through and construct our roster over time,
you will see us definitely getting back to that. You
know what I believe is the core identity of the
University of North Dakota hockey team.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, it'll be interesting to keep an eye at it
and see what. There was a guy there yesterday that well,
it isn't a tough skill, Louis Jammerni because one of
those guys that fit into that mold a little bit.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Right, Oh yeah, And you know, don't get me wrong
to him, like we I think we had lots of
players on our team that did that. But you know, again,
I want I want every player to have that mindset.
That doesn't mean every guy is going to be six
feet two hundred pounds and and you know, a killer,
but it is going to mean that everybody is gonna
got to play, uh like that identity with with some

(07:04):
competitiveness to win talks like and again I kind of look,
you know some of our you know, great smaller players
over the years, like but Reece Caper is a great example.
Like Reece Caper, uh epitomized you and d hockey he'd
be the first one to go win a battle in
the four check in and take it from a big
d He'd be the first one on a breakout to
take a hit, to chip a puck out, you know.

(07:24):
And he played hard. He was not a big, big man,
but he he had the heart of a lion, and
he was competitive and he's everything for the team. So
you know, yeah, well we'll get back to that. And again,
it's a it's always a blend when you put together
a team, but I just want that to be our
core identity about how we're kind of uh you know,
running our organization.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Did you expect Sasha Blava to depart? Uh?

Speaker 1 (07:52):
No, Like we we know as a chance, you know,
we knew that teams are It's just how it is nowadays.
Teams are working the back channels through agency groups and
stuff and offering a lot of money, you know. And again,
like I said yesterday, you know, I think Sasha was
a did fit our mold. Obviously a great player. I
think he did play hard. I thought he did, you know,
check the score and work and everything else. At the

(08:14):
end of the day, tim like I also did say,
we got to have guys that you know, have a
connection to our program and want to be here. You know,
We're never just going to be outbidden everybody for a
for a player. You know, I talked to him a lot.
I thought he had a great year. I thought he
had good development. I absolutely think that that should be
what top young guys are or should be focusing on.

(08:35):
Like you know, Jake Sanderson had two great years here,
went on and a couple of years later signed an
eight year deal for sixty four million dollars. Like, you know,
that's what That's what I'm going to talk to guys
about and say, hey, like why why would you be
worried about I know you're a young guy, and it
seems like a big difference if if we're at offering
you X amount of dollars and some other team is

(08:56):
offering you. I don't know what it is, twenty year,
thirty or forty thousand more. I'm not exactly sure what
it is in each case. But like, if you've felt
development was the most important thing and you're trying to
play in the NHL, why wouldn't you base your decision
on top development, opportunity, coaching, all those things? You know,
And that's what we'll still do, and you know, and
that's what I believe, and I think I think we'll

(09:16):
win a lot of players that kind of have the
value our program for those things, and you know, guys
that don't have that value, I'm kind of whatever. Well,
I'd like to have fashionable Baron lineup, absolutely, but I
do know that I want guys that want to play here.
And if you don't want to play here, no problem.
We'll find guys and we'll win with guys that want
to play here and care a lot about our program.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
So it has a great point there. I just was
going to say, so in the world of multitasking, it's
a NonStop now in the coaching world twenty four to
seven because there is no off season and the construction
of rosters. Another question I had was how many total
guys now currently will will be brought in during the

(09:56):
summer to comprise to the group that is remaining basic.
So how many guys are you out there actively trying
to bring in, just from a number standpoint, to round
out this roster?

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, good questions. Uh, there's quite a few. You know.
We we got uh, you know, we got some really
good players coming back. You know, I guess I don't
want to get right into it, but you know, we
got there's a pretty big chunk. We're gonna need a
lot of new bodies. Obviously we lost a lot of forwards.
It with a big group of guys, uh there with

(10:27):
you know, all of our seniors. So that was definitely
you know, seven eight, and then we you know, obviously
have some of the departures and uh those few guys
that left. So it's a pretty big number. But uh,
you know, I guess one of the things that I
will speak to is kind of the the idea that,
you know what, we don't really want to plug in holes.
You know, we don't want to just say, oh, we
got to you know, we've got to be so competitive

(10:50):
next year, but we're just going to get a guy
that's that's a one year guy, and he's a pretty
good player. Maybe a little bit, but as than this guy, Like,
I do feel strongly that I'd like to get really
good freshmen to come in. If I could not always
easy at this point, we do like some of our
guys we have in our freshman class. But I do
like the idea of saying, hey, if we're going to
get a transfer, I'd want him to be a two

(11:10):
or three year guy, so we have time to kind
of buy into our culture and really you know, get
immersed in it and feel what we're all about, not
just kind of be a stopgap guy for a year.
So that's that's one of our kind of core principles
that you know, we don't want to use the portal
a ton. We can use it here and there, like
in the situations where we weren't quite prepared for a
guy to leave, like you know, we never really were

(11:31):
often planning a year or more in advance, and you know,
we didn't really think when we brought Jackson Bleake in
that he would be a two year player, you know
and leave. You know, as we got through his second year,
we obviously we saw that that was a probability. I
guess in some type of situations like that, you might

(11:51):
need to bring in the guy to kind of fill
that hole if a freshman isn't ready. But yeah, we're
just we're trying to stick with that mentality going Hey,
core values of getting guys that are U and D guys,
getting guys that want to you know, are tied to
the program and want to play here and get guys
that are going to be here for hopefully a three
or four year period that are going to kind of
dig into the culture and try to be part of

(12:12):
the solution long term.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Dan, appreciate you coming on with us this morning, and
we will keep in touch through the process and try
to stay busy and take a breath once in a while. Uh,
all right.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
I appreciate you guys support, and we'll make this promise
to the UNI fans out there will be a competitive
group next year how we play the game.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
All right, good, thanks Jane, that have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
All right, thanks man.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Thanks Coach Dane Jackson, now head coach of North Dakota Hockey,
joining us on fourteen forty Am The Fan on a
Friday morning.
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