Couch: A year in, Adam Nightingale has turned MSU hockey into a desirable destination for recruits, transfers
EAST LANSING – It’s hard to imagine a better year for Michigan State’s hockey program, given the decade that preceded it. In 13 months, Adam Nightingale and his staff have delivered the sharp turn that starved and weary MSU fans have been hoping for, season after season, as they squinted to see signs of progress.
Just as important as the buzz and competitive hockey that returned to Munn Ice Arena last season is the newfound respect with which players and prospects view the program — a program that, a year ago, was a tough sell to recruits and transfers, even for an energetic and hungry new staff.
“Where you probably see that respect the most is on the recruiting side,” Nightingale said Friday. “We can say what we're going to do, but we hadn't played a game yet, so it's hard to really put a finger on anything you’ve really done. Now I feel like, most kids, we can go talk to and that's a good thing. … We’ve had a lot of success (recruiting). We haven't had a ton of nos. I do feel like when we go into someone's house or make a phone call and it's Michigan State (calling), they're excited about it.”
The evidence of that is showing up on MSU’s roster, which includes 13 incoming players, five of whom are transfers, choosing to play for the Spartans in the past three months: Forwards Red Savage (Miami-Ohio), Reed Lebster (UMass), Joey Larson (Northern Michigan) and Isaac Howard (Minnesota-Duluth) and defenseman James Crossman (Brown).
Lebster, a grad transfer who grew up in West Michigan, had 22 points as a senior last season at UMass. Larson tallied 27 points as a freshman at Northern Michigan. Savage is a Detroit Red Wings draft pick. Howard, a first-round draft pick of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, is the biggest name among them. He played for Nightingale for two years at the U.S. National Development Program and led the team in scoring both years — a team with six NHL first-round draft picks on it.
“He could have went to any of the (other) 61 schools (in college hockey) when he went into the portal,” Nightingale said of Howard, who will be a sophomore at MSU this coming season. “I think there's a comfort level there. I coached him. Even the recruiting process, when he went into the portal, it wasn't a long process. It was, ‘I coached you. I'm not going to recruit you. Either you want to come or you don't. You know how we're going to do things.’ And he wanted to come. So I thought that was a good sign for the program.”
What’s enticed these transfers — beyond relationships, a newly renovated facility and the possibility of winning — is, as Nightingale put it, “concrete evidence” that players in the program are improving. There is no substantial NIL in college hockey. Your currency as a program is being perceived as a place that develops players into pros.
What transpired in-house last season at MSU opened some eyes. Nico Müller and Jagger Joshua had sizable jumps in production. Cole Krygier led the Big Ten in goals by a defenseman. None of that was expected.
“Cole is a great example,” Nightingale said. “A year ago, he was in the portal and no one wanted him. A year later, he signs with the Los Angeles Kings.”
Müller saw his game blossoming to the point that, at Christmas, he asked Nightingale if he could return for an extra year, in 2023-24, rather than go back to Europe and play professionally right away.
“He knew he was getting better here and he wants to play in the National Hockey League,” Nightingale said.
The challenge after last season is building on the first truly tangible momentum the program has felt in some time. Winning ahead of schedule can create expectations that are tough to live up to. Ask Mel Tucker. On the other hand, MSU’s fan base, at this point, doesn’t have the stomach for a glacial-paced hockey rebuild anyway. So that’s not really a palatable option, nor is it Nightingale’s style, which makes him a good fit for the moment. Because the transfer portal — if you can lure the right transfers — allows for a faster roster remake, until you get to a point where you don't have to lean on it. Nightingale would like to get there. For now, it's a needed tool.
“I do think we've added talent to our roster, for sure,” Nightingale said. “Now it's up to us as coaches to make sure that we’re a team and that the players buy into that. … But on paper, I would say we've increased our talent.”
That goes beyond the transfers. The incoming freshman class has some intriguing players, including forward Gavin O’Connell, who committed in March, and goaltender Trey Augustine, who’s likely to play a prominent role out of the chute.
Last season’s team did next season’s team a favor by being barely left out of the NCAA tournament. One more win would have done the job, vaulting the Spartans all the way up to No. 12 in the Pairwise Rankings, Nightingale said. That’s something the coaching staff can use — a reminder that one night of wandering focus can be the difference. Coming up just short of the NCAA tournament also gives this coming year’s group something reasonably attainable that would be new and exciting, for the program and its fans.
“The other side of it, though, is that we do have a lot of turnover on our roster,” Nightingale said. “So I don't want to make the assumption that they all understand that. Definitely it's a talking point. But I do want us to make sure we still have that same approach — where it's one practice at a time, one shift at a time, one game at a time. I think that really worked well for our group.”
In that sense, this season has an element of starting over. And yet this summer, for Nightingale, his staff and their program, feels very different. Not just for their lives and families, which are settled, but also the standing of the program they're operating.
“It's exciting,” Nightingale said. “In my heart of hearts, I've always felt like Michigan State should be a top option for a kid. And so we're excited about that. Our job is not just finding the best players, it's finding the right players, ones that fit how we want to do things and ones that are team guys and want to put the team first and are low-ego guys. I think that's really important for what we're doing.
“We're excited that we have access to a lot of these players and that'll continue to help our program grow.”
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: MSU hockey under Adam Nightingale has respect of recruits, transfers
