'25-'26 Mid-Season Report Card
Year 1 of the "Lang Rebuild" has had ups and downs, but seems to be right on track
Coach Lang said on Big Board Sports with Rodger Wyland last week that in Year 1 at AIC they had to put a team together, in Year 2 they got really young and in Year 3 they got really good. It seems he is following the exact same model as he looks to get this program up off the mat, and into a perennial contender. The staff seems hellbent on doing this the right way and not “skipping any steps”, and so far, I would argue we are right on track.
RPI is 5-13-0 at the break after starting 0-6, battling hard in the middle of the season to a 5-5 mark with wins over Union, Clarkson, and Lowell, and finishing with a disappointing weekend against Quinnipiac and Princeton. They sit 11th in a bunched-up conference, have picked up some huge wins on the recruiting trail, and are right about where I would have expected at this juncture.
Forwards:
I think the forwards are just about where I would have predicted before the season. The criticism before the season of the forward unit was that it lacked explosion in the form of a true top-line, and unfortunately that has played out. On the other hand, the unit did look to have some depth, which has also played out for the most part. Prior to the season, we tiered the group as follows:
Looking back, we were correct on the roles, I’d say the one exception has been Matthew Buckley sliding up and Tinling and Tapper coming down a bit. The bottom 6 has been productive as we predicted, and basically propelled RPI to a sweep two weekends ago against Niagara.
Filip Sitar and Matthew Buckley have been the biggest surprises on the good side. The question for Sitar was if the increased role would lead to more production, and I would say the answer is unequivocally yes. Buckley on the other hand was confusing because he had a huge year in the OHL in 23-24 but was a bit disappointing in 24-25. His production has cooled off, but statistically he has been RPI’s best forward on a Corsi and xG basis. Both of these guys are real building blocks that Lang must be eager to retain and develop.
To get where they want to go in the 2nd half, they need the returners to elevate so they can truly run 3 lines out there that can produce. Tinling, Rullers, and Tapper have been quiet, perhaps a bit snakebitten, but we all know what they are capable of. This has been the missing piece in the first half.
What I would call out here is RPI’s finishing ability was clearly strongest in the middle 6. They have generated at a somewhat similar clip, but in those middle games they converted the opportunities they had, whereas early on and recently they have not. A lot of this is skill driven and hard to coach, but it is still critical to winning. At the end of the day, it has to be a focus of the program right now to recruit players that help the team possess the puck more, because their margin for error is really small.
Defense:
Our conversation about the defense through the preseason was that they are young and will have growing pains, but that it should benefit the program in the long run. There’s definitely been some good and a couple guys have established themselves as building blocks going forward. For the most part though, RPI hasn’t possessed the puck enough and this hurts them offensively. This team under Lang doesn’t get caught in its own end the way they did the last few seasons, but they struggle to truly move pucks from their own end into the opposing zone for sustained offense.
The bright spots to me for me have been Thomas Klassek and Kaz Sobieski, two young guys who have a world of talent and should become excellent players here. Sobieski has clearly been the #1 guy for the Engineers and has been a mainstay on the top pair and PP unit. His defense hasn’t been perfect, but I think it will keep developing with time. I see a top pair of Grayson Burzynski (more to come on that one) and Kaz Sobieski for the next two years, and that gets me very excited. Klassek is also a work in progress defensively, but he skates very well and has offensive ability that you can build around.
The left side has been fine but lacks a standout, for the most part Gustavs Ozolins has filled a void on the top pair, but RPI needs more from that unit. Gunnar VanDamme started strong but has faded a bit, and Lucas Lemieux has been quiet to start. We thought Lemieux was a bit raw but had a huge ceiling coming into RPI, so hopefully his game elevates as the season goes on and helps this group. Hilditch and Jovanovic have played sparingly but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far from both.
My question for the 2nd half? Do we see a full-blown youth movement or do the likes of Russell, Goffredo, and VanDamme elevate their games enough to force those guys to wait their turn.
Goaltending:
Teams live and die by their goaltending. It’s just the truth of this game. RPI’s has been all over the place to say the least, but Nathan Krawchuk seems to have emerged as the Engineers best option. This is encouraging given Krawchuk’s young age, and he has certainly shown flashes. Bruveris has had some good games but has been disappointing for the most part. Given Krawchuk’s age and the staff’s vested interest in his development, I expect him to be given the keys in the 2nd half to investigate what they have in him. Whether or not he is the long-term starter remains to be seen, but I think he has certainly proven so far that he is part of the puzzle.
Between the two of them though, the goaltending has been a lot better as the year has gone on. RPI basically outplayed Miami for the weekend, who sits at 10-6-2 in the NCHC, but goaltending let them down a ton. It has progressed dramatically and directly led to wins against Union, Lowell, and game 2 against Niagara.
Recruiting and Miscellaneous:
We will have posts out on these guys shortly, but it’s hard to wrap up the first half without touching on the recruiting wins RPI has gotten. Lang has said multiple times that some of their most important wins right now have to come on the recruiting trails, and that certainly came to fruition this week.
Assistant Coach Matthias Lange is coaching for Austria in the IIHF World Championships right now. Best of luck to Coach Lange!
Hecker Commits
We had a piece go out last week detailing Ryan Hecker’s commitment to RPI. He is definitely a few years away, but the aforementioned 4 players, Hecker, and Gosselin now bring the pipeline recruited by Lang to 6.
RPI is headed the right direction as a program halfway through the 25-26 season. This season was always going to be a transition, but I’d point towards programs in year 2 of a head coach like Miami and Princeton as reasons to be excited. It doesn’t take long to remake a roster in this era, and the systems that Lang plays all look very dependable. Stay the course as this thing slowly builds — we are on the right track.