Brady Cleveland & the Wisconsin Badgers Making B1G Early Statement

With consecutive sweeps over Minnesota and Michigan, Brady Cleveland & the Wisconsin Badgers have issued a major statement to the Big Ten and the nation

At the end of the 2022-23 season, the University of Wisconsin Badgers were less than afterthought in the Big Ten.  

As the Badgers women's team was on its way to a second national championship in three seasons, the men's side completed a 13-23-0 season (6-18-0 in conference) for a distant last place finish in the Big Ten.  Cole Caufield carrying the team to a regular season conference title and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2020-21 was a distant memory, and, unsurprisingly, Tony Granato's tenure as head coach was over.

In came Mike Hastings, from Minnesota State-Mankato.

In eleven seasons at the helm, Hastings had turned the Mavericks into a national power.  He went 299-109-25 for a .719 record.  He won three WCHA conference tournaments and then two CCHA conference tournaments.  He won six regular season WCHA crowns and two more in the CCHA.  He guided the school to its first two Division I Frozen Fours and came painfully close to a national title in 2022, losing to Denver in the championship game having entered the third period with a lead.

Whatever the Badgers issues were under Granato, recruiting wasn't one, and the roster Hastings inherited and supplemented was a promising one.

Among the returners were three U.S. National Team Development Program: Owen Lindmark (a '19 Florida fifth rounder), Cruz Lucius (a '22 Carolina fourth rounder), and Charlie Stramel (a '23 Minnesota Wild first rounder).  Mathieu St. Phalle—a proven B1G scorer—was also back for his senior year.

It also featured a pair of Detroit Red Wing draft picks in Owen Mehlenbacher (a '22 seventh) and Sam Stange (a '20 fourth).

The freshman class included three NTDP products (including 2023 Red Wings second rounder Brady Cleveland), as well as Quinn Finley (of the USHL's Chicago Steel, a New York Islanders third rounder in '22) and Will Whitelaw (from the USHL's Youngstown Phantoms, a '23 Columbus Blue Jackets third rounder). 

Hastings brought three transfers with him from Mankato: Simon Tassy, Christian Fitzgerald, and David Silye.  None of the three are renown NHL prospects, but they are all among Wisconsin's top five scorers ten games into the season.

Given the roster talent and Hastings' history with Minnesota State, there was reason to believe the Badgers could make a serious leap forward straight away, but, of course, the Big Ten is the most talent-dense conference in men's NCAA hockey.

And Hastings' baptism to that conference would be by fire.  In his first two weeks of conference play, Wisconsin would take on Minnesota in Minneapolis then host Michigan at the Kohl Center.  In those two foes, the Badgers would face two of the sport's bona fide blue bloods—both boasting rosters laden with projectable NHL talent and both having qualified for consecutive Frozen Fours.

The response from Hastings and the Badgers?  Consecutive sweeps.  First, against the rival Gophers on the road, then in dramatic fashion on consecutive nights last weekend against the Wolverines, capped by a St. Phalle winner on Saturday night with six seconds to play.

It's early yet, but Wisconsin has issued a major statement to the rest of college hockey. Whatever your priors may have been around the Badgers entering the year, they must now be raised.  Ten games in, Mike Hastings already has Wisconsin looking like a title contender.  He's put the rest of the Big Ten on notice and by extension the rest of the country.  The women's program had been one of the NCAA's best for years under Mark Johnson, and now the men's team appears to be catching up.  It's a scary thought for the rest of college hockey.