Season 5 Episodes 55 & 56 of the Chasing MacNaughton Podcast from Tech Hockey Guide; Culture and Best Wishes. This week, Tim Braun, Dustin Lindstrom, Rob Gilreath and Matt Cavender were joined by the 2023-24 captain of the Northern Michigan Wildcats, Artem Shlaine. In this episode, they discussed Artem’s time at Northern Michigan, his experience with the transfer portal, the transfer portal as a whole, Tim’s April Fool’s story that turned true, how the CCHA can maintain national relevance, Dustin reading a review and Tech’s options within the portal.
How did you get here?
The conversation with Artem started with Tim asking Artem to talk about how he arrived at Northern Michigan. Artem talked about being born and growing up in Russia for 15 years, and the differences between hockey and education in Russia compared to the US. Artem talked about moving to the US with his parents when he was 15, playing at UConn for one year then transferring to Northern Michigan.
Tim The Prophet
The reason Artem joined the guys on the podcast was Tim’s April Fool’s Day article which poked fun at the number of Northern Michigan players joining the transfer portal. Artem was one of the players that Tim jokingly put into the portal. Tim asked Artem about his reaction to the article and Artem talked about the media and other connections seeing the article and asking him what was going on. Artem talked about an offer he had from the New Jersey Devils, but turned down because he wanted to continue playing college hockey to give himself a shot at an even better offer. Artem spent a lot of time covering the reasons players will join the transfer portal including increased playing time, scholarship money availability, bad culture and coaching changes.
Setting The Record Straight
Artem made sure to make the point that there was no problem at Northern Michigan causing this many players to enter the transfer portal. He talked at length about his relation with head coach Grant Potulny and how he has helped guide Artem through the transfer portal process. Artem reiterated several times that each player has their own reasons for entering the transfer portal. The guys also talked about how the COVID transfer rules affect player eligibility and their decision to transfer or not.
Tim asked Artem what process he’s been using to whittle down the list of schools he’d like to transfer to. Artem talked about the difference in perspective between being recruited as a teenager versus having a couple years under his belt. His focus is much more on the culture of the team and locker room, rather than bright and shiny facilities. Artem talked about the lifelong relationships that hockey players build with their teammates.
Stepping Stone
The guys talked about ways to avoid the CCHA becoming a feeder league for other conferences. Artem talked about the top scouts who consider the CCHA a lower tier league and how players’ NHL teams can get in their ear to persuade them to transfer. Artem talked about the CCHA being a league that more closely represents the NHL level of hitting and defense compared to offensively minded leagues.
Later in the show, the guys revisited the topic and Tim wondered if the small town aspect is a selling point of the CCHA to recruits. Artem talked about the atmosphere at the Northern Michigan/Michigan Tech games being a big selling point to recruits as well as having the arenas full for non-rivalry games. Tim also asked if Michigan Tech’s success in reaching the NCAA national tournament would help with recruiting, even if the results haven’t been great. Artem talked again about each player having their own criteria for choosing a school but said that every detail matters. He also talked about every player wanting to play in the NCAA tournament. This lead to a conversation among the guys about the CCHA’s out of conference record this past season and how it hampered the league’s national image.
The Flip Side Of The Coin
Steering the conversation from the transfer portal, Rob asked Artem if he knew anything about the UP before coming to Northern Michigan. Artem joked that he didn’t know it was in the UP until very close to his arrival date and pointed out that he based his decision entirely on the coaching staff and the culture of the team, not the location.
Rob also asked Artem what it’s been like playing on the Northern Michigan side of the rivalry against Michigan Tech. Artem said that the atmosphere is unlike any other college hockey rivalry. He talked about the entire town getting into the game and people recognizing him at the grocery stores.
Dustin Reads A Review
The header should be pretty self explanatory as to what happened at this part of the podcast.
Michigan Tech And The Transfer Portal
Towards the end of the show the guys talked a bit about the players in the transfer portal for Michigan Tech. None of the guys had issues with the players who entered as graduate transfers and talked about needing to limit Michigan Tech becoming a farm team for larger programs.
Cut for time
This week’s cut time for Patrons is approximately 20 minutes long. There was a conversation about the Sports Aux app used to rank college hockey coaches. The guys discussed whether the European soccer model should be used in the NCAA. The guys asked Artem about playing with his brother. There was extended discussion on the Michigan Tech players in the transfer portal.
Learn More
For additional information and more episode liner notes, check out our episode overview on Tech Hockey Guide. To make sure we can afford all our fancy equipment we purchased for the podcast and the THG website in general, please check out our Patreon page and consider joining. Patrons at our Black Level or above receive an authentic MTU jersey patch and access to extra podcast content including extended versions of our other episodes. This week’s extended version is about 117 minutes.
RAW AUDIO: This post is for patrons at the Silver Level ($25/ mo) or above which includes unedited audio and usually drops the night the podcast is recorded.
RAW VIDEO: This post is for patrons at the Gold Level ($10/mo) or above which includes unedited video and usually drops the morning after the podcast is recorded.
EXTENDED AUDIO: This post is for patrons at the Black Level ($5/mo) or above which includes extended audio content and usually drops the night after or 2nd morning after the podcast is recorded.
Mitch’s Misfits Amazon wishlist is still having items added as we figure it out, but you can take a look by clicking here and a reminder, if you rate the Podcast 5-stars, we’ll read your review on the podcast. Thanks again to our sponsors: Arcadia Insurance Group and Aaron Pieltia, Fiebke Dental in downtown Rhinelander, Wis. and Livonia Technical Services.
Check out Tech Leadership 4.0: Leading in a Technologically Driven World and The Power of Deduction: Failure Modes & Effects Analysis for Design: Second Edition written by our very own Old Dog, Mike Anleitner
Follow us on twitter at ChasingMacPod. Join our Discord server for discussions covering Michigan Tech hockey and more. You can submit questions through our email address, ChasingMac@techhockeyguide.com. Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Please rate and review to help us reach more people, and tell your friends. Please check out Jonathan Zamaites’ series previews every Friday, Mike Anleitner’s Old Dog in Texas column every Wednesday, Zach Aufdemberge’s Analytics With Augie and Nathaniel Brose’s nationwide hockey columns. Also, keep an eye out for new recruiting articles that Nathan Cima writes. As always, special thanks to our patron saint Doc McResin for his generous donation to get this thing running, we hope you enjoy. Also, thanks to The Thank You Notes for all the bumpers in today’s episode. If you like what you hear, check them out at thethankyounotes.bandcamp.com.
