State of the UConn Hockey Hub

We’re closing in on the final stretch of UConn men’s hockey’s regular season, so we decided it would be a good time to update everyone on a few things.

Over the last month, we asked you to fill out a subscriber survey to hear how we were doing and what we could improve on. We want the Hub to be a two-way street where we not only produce the content but you also have a say in what goes on.

We read every single comment you left on the survey and wanted to share our thoughts and answers here to give you an understanding of what’s happening behind the curtain.

Before we get into that, to update you on where we stand at the moment. We started this project without any expectations for the number of subscribers, so we’re thrilled to have 14 of you on board.

We want to emphasize that the free articles on The UConn Blog and the premium content on the Hub are interconnected. By subscribing, you are supporting all of our UConn men’s hockey coverage in addition to everything you get with the Hub. Thank you.

Once the world returns to normal and Zoom press conferences become a thing of the past, a portion of the subscription revenue will go directly towards helping us travel to road games to maintain our coverage of the team. While the recap will end up on The UConn Blog, it wouldn’t be possible without your support.

Personally, I have really enjoyed having an outlet to get out a lot of my thoughts on the Huskies with the newsletter and podcast. The mission of going deeper on such an interesting team is extremely exciting.

Based on the survey, everyone seems to really like having the video of Mike Cavanaugh’s Zoom calls with the media, even if they don’t watch each one.

One thing that will be going away is the Film Room. Ultimately, it proved to be too time-consuming and technically challenging to pull off on a weekly basis. We’re figuring out something to replace that ahead of the postseason.

Finally, if you didn’t respond to the survey or have any other questions or concerns, you can message me privately on Patreon or respond to this email directly. I’m always happy to chat with subscribers.

Some suggestions have been edited for clarity.

Could you have video interviews with players other than what is available in the post game video?

I’d love to hear more from the players.

In the future, we’d love to do more video content but it’s difficult this season since everything is over Zoom. Mike Cavanaugh’s pregame availabilities have been moved up to 10 a.m. each Thursday morning and that conflicts with the players’ schedules. Hopefully, that will change as we get closer to the postseason but as of now, we’re pretty limited in terms of what we get.

Once things return to normal, we absolutely plan to have more video content for you guys.

If available, posting the current lines before each game if possible along with any scratches and injuries.

Based on this suggestion, we’ve started sending out the lines via newsletter before each game. One time UConn just didn’t post the lines, so we obviously missed them for that game. We’ll continue with that through the end of the season and in the future. Great idea.

More insider info is always nice, like what the coaches really think about teams, the crazy scheduling, etc. Not expecting direct quotes, but you know hockey players/coaches aren't exactly great with answers... what are they really thinking on background could get them to open up? Maybe?

I do my best to sprinkle in some insider info in both the Weekly Roundup and the podcast. It’s a little tougher this year because there are no face-to-face interactions and a lot of questions you may have (i.e why Friday’s game at BU got canceled for non-COVID reasons) are also questions people inside the program have. I’ll always try to say as much as I know in both the newsletter and podcast, though. You just have to read or listen carefully.

I will leave you with this nugget, though. When I had learned Friday’s game had been canceled because BU only had one goaltender dressed, a program source texted me: “Just BU doing BU things.”

Shorter podcast episodes would allow for easier and more frequent listening

As someone who isn’t able to listen to every podcast I want to in a given week, I understand this. We feel like we the podcasts are relatively short since they’re consistently between 30-45 minutes. It can also be tough to find a time for Aman and I to record since games don’t get announced until Tuesday afternoon, so doing multiple podcasts in a week would be tricky.

However, we’ve considered experimenting with the live streams on Patreon either before or after games, so let us know if that would be something you’d be interested in checking out.

A suggestion for the podcast would be to hear player interviews! Both past and present! I would love to hear Rob Nichols or Spencer Naas on the podcast, current players or even assistant coaches.

Can we get former players on the podcast?

Some guests outside the UConn circle. It would be interesting to hear what others think of the UConn program. Also maybe some "where are they now" from past Huskies...interviews...I’d love to hear from Rob Nichols and stories he has.

This is definitely a great idea! Right now, we want the podcast to be focused on what’s happening now but once the offseason gets here, interviews will definitely be a big part of the pod.

And yes, Rob Nichols and Spencer Naas will top priorities.

I would say that my single biggest request is to get more recruiting coverage on the hub. I’m a die-hard fan of all UConn sports and all it takes is a two-second Google search and you can find every single recruit for UConn football and basketball for the next three years. College hockey recruiting is tougher to follow than a physics class. There is almost nowhere to get ratings on players and you have a better chance of finding Carmen Sandiego than you do of figuring out what other schools a kid had offers from most of the time.

I totally understand the frustration with the lack of recruiting information out there. But to be fully honest, I often don’t even know about a player until just before or after they’ve already committed.

We’re also trying to improve recruiting coverage with our recruiting database, which launched last month and features ratings for the 2021 class. Once this season ends, I’m planning to learn more about the players in the 2022 class and beyond so I can properly assess what their rating should be.

A roundup of how former UConn players are doing in pro leagues around the world would be neat, not just the NHL guys but I wonder how the guys in Europe are doing.

I love this idea and have been wanting to do something like this for both former players and all the program’s commitments as well. But similar to the podcast interviews, that’ll be offseason content since our hands are pretty full with the current season, especially since we’re in the home stretch.