On Thursday, Miami and goalie Shika Gadzhiev mutually parted ways, since the Russian-born netminder was unable to secure NCAA eligibility 10 weeks into the season despite both sides’ best efforts.
The same day, the RedHawks announced the addition of Quebecker Mathis Langevin to replace him on the roster.
That news caused smoking keyboards in both the college hockey and juniors worlds on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.
New NCAA roster limits under this spring’s House settlement prohibit teams from adding players mid-season, and Miami play-by-play announcer Greg Waddell discussed the move with head coach Anthony Noreen prior to the RedHawks’ game against Colorado College on Friday.
“We were able to, one-time, designate players that would not count against our 26-man roster cap,” Noreen said. “So we do have some players that maybe…wouldn’t have been here, maybe wouldn’t have been brought in from juniors — we would’ve had them play another year — if we were only able to be at 26. So we were able to designate some guys, and a decision kind of we made as a staff was: Let’s leave one of those spots open, just in case.”
Which means Noreen’s coaching staff was already two moves ahead of the ambiguous NCAA before the season began. Noreen also credits Robbie Trittschuh, the team’s compliance head, with helping pull off the roster end around.
“A lot of questions that we got in the college hockey world (Thursday) was, how in the heck did you lose a guy from your roster and add a guy? You’re not able to do that,” Noreen said in the interview. “And the answer amongst us is we kept a roster spot open in case something happened at any position. Obviously that worked out — it could’ve just been a wasted spot — but we felt like we had enough numbers and depth there that we were able to do that.”
With roster limits in place for schools that opted into the House settlement, the Miami coaching staff was faced with the possibility of having just two eligible goalies if Gadzhiev was declared ineligible all season or left to pursue a professional opportunity like he did late this week.
“That’s something that we’re always talking about, evaluating, is hey…you don’t ever want to be caught red-handed, where it’s like, you don’t know what to do because you lost this or this position or that,” Noreen said. “So it’s an ongoing conversation we always have, if we get banged up here, what can we do here? If we’re light here, what can we do?”
Gadzhiev took his pads an hour south and signed an amateur tryout contract with the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones, where he was the emergency backup on Friday.
Miami was optimistic he would be allowed to play this season, especially in the past couple of weeks after he passed an in-person high school equivalency test in Slovakia, but the NCAA hasn’t budged despite allowing players with ECHL and even AHL experience to dress for Division I games.
“Obviously as the Shika thing drug out longer and longer, you know that it’s a possibility (he would leave), so you’ve got to start looking at it, and I think (general manager) David (Nies) did a great job at evaluating it and having some options,” Noreen said. “One of those things that’s just a little bit out of our hands, super unfortunate because obviously we love the kid and would have loved to have seen him in a Miami jersey this year. Obviously (it) didn’t work out. At the same time, we’re glad that we’ve got two really good goalies here right now that we believe in, and obviously we’ve got a new goaltender coming in. And that was part of it from our end too was hey, if this didn’t work out, we’ve got to be ready for the next move, so we were able to move pretty quickly and make sure that we’ve got three here and we’ll be fully ready for the second half at that position.”
Langevin posted quality numbers in limited action Rimouski of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League last regular season, going 9-3 with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.
But he took over the starting job in the postseason and put up video game stats, posting a 1.57 GAA and a save percentage of .944 in 18 games as Oceanic advanced to the Gilles-Courteau Trophy final, which they lost, 4-games-to-2.
Rimouski also qualified for the Memorial Cup — the tournament for the top teams in all three arms of Canadian juniors — since the host earns an automatic bid.
This season, Langevin returned to a backup role with Rimouski, where he has an .891 save percentage, playing in just 10 of 28 games and only 561 minutes.
“We had an unbelievable opportunity for someone to come in, and Mathis Langevin is an elite goaltender,” Noreen said. “He’s a guy who played in the Memorial Cup, and for anyone who knows junior hockey, the Memorial Cup is it. And if you look at his stats and his numbers from there, he’s big, he’s athletic, he’s proven it at the highest level before college. We’re extremely excited to get him in here, just like we are with Benji (Motew) and Matteo (Drobac) and what they’ve been able to do so far. We think we’ve re-solidified that position. Obviously, we wish Shika the best and look forward to him getting to play some games as well.”
Waddell asked if the coach’s creative means to add Miami’s newest goaltender will be referred to as the Noreen Rule.
“We’ll see,” Noreen said.
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