The First Two Commitments of the Lang Era
Tyler Wallace and Alfred Lindberg commit to RPI out of the transfer portal
We got our first insight into the type of team that Lang wants to build right away. Just two days after his hire was announced, Mike McMahon reported Tyler Wallace and Alfred Lindberg, who both primarily play at center, had committed to RPI out of the transfer portal. Wallace spent two years at Niagara where he put up 27 goals and 56 points in 76 games. Lindberg played under Lang at AIC where he scored 18 goals and 33 points in 53 games.
Tyler Wallace
After watching some of Wallace’s shifts from this past season, the biggest thing that stood out to me was his ability to make the game easier for his linemates with good passing and movement. He’s not often the player carrying the puck around the ice - instead, he’ll receive a pass and immediately dish it off to another player with more space to work in. His quick decision making on the puck really stands out.
His off-puck movement is equally strong – both in drawing in defenders to open up space for teammates and just generally getting to good spots on the ice for scoring rebounds and receiving passes. Wallace makes up for his lack of speed with a good vision of where to be on the ice.
When Wallace does have the puck, he’s good at not turning it over. He uses his size well to hold other players off and retain possession. It’s likely a big reason that Lang went after him in the first place. At AIC, Lang talked about employing a European style of play, emphasizing puck possession, and that very well could be a style he’s trying to replicate at RPI.
If that’s the case (and it very much does look that way given the profile of these two commits), then Wallace should fit right in. A proven scorer at the college level who also does the little things to help the team keep puck possession.
Alfred Lindberg
Lindberg’s style of play is quite a bit different than Wallace. He is constantly looking to get on the puck and carry it. Truly a fun player to watch on the ice.
Lindberg was one of AIC’s go-to guys for creating zone entries, and was often able to do it while keeping control of the puck, using quick changes of direction and good stickhandling.
If you are trying to build a team based around puck possession, adding a guy who got more controlled entries than most of the country is not a bad place to start. Not to mention that he will already be familiar with how Lang wants his team to play.
One interesting note on Lindberg’s card above is that he didn’t get many assists this past season despite a large amount of shot assists. He was setting up teammates for shots at a good rate, but just didn’t collect any points on the scoresheet for it. You can see this also reflected in the disparity between his Goals For % and his Expected Goals For %. It all suggests that he was a bit unlucky this past season.
All-in-all, Lang’s first two additions appear to have set the direction for the RPI rebuild - it’s a fundamental shift in the identity of the team. Going from a quick-transition focused game to one centered around puck possession. It’ll be fun to watch the roster keep growing over the next month or so.
Stay tuned - we’ll have more on the latest portal pickups and new recruits in the weeks to come!