Minot United boys hockey co-head coach Jordan Willert shows his team a PowerPoint presentation at the beginning of every season with some of the major talking points and expectations for the year ahead.

This year, on the second slide reads a message that sends not only a message to his team, but to the state as a whole in regards to losing one of the deepest senior classes in the program’s history.

“This is not a rebuild; it’s a reload.”

It’s also a rebrand as the Minot Magicians moniker and logo are no more as it relates to the hockey program after being a constant for the past 50 years. Instead, the hockey program will simply go by Minot United to better represent the co-op between Minot High, Minot North, Our Redeemer’s Christian School and Bishop Ryan. The logo will now be a split image of the Minot Magician and the Minot North Sentinel. Minot United will not have a nickname.

The name and logo are different, and so is a lot of the roster. Minot United graduated 10 seniors and had a handful of other non-seniors leave the team to explore other opportunities. Minot United lost its top five scorers from a year ago, led by all-time leading scorer Mackley Morelli. The current Minot Minotauro forward led the WDA in points with 74 in his senior campaign, netting a WDA-best 37 goals and was tied for the most assists in the conference alongside teammate Easton Panasuk with 37.

Morelli ended his four-year career with the Minot hockey program with 192 points on 98 goals and 94 assists, averaging 1.85 points per game. He was named both the state and WDA senior athlete of the year, helping his team to a 24-1-1 record – its best season since 2004-05 – its 19th WDA regular season title, its first WDA Tournament title since 2006 and a second straight third-place finish at the state tournament.

Morelli is far from the only key departure, as Minot United also lost all-state selections Aidan Diehl and Panasuk and all-WDA pick Rylan Roteliuk. In total, Minot United is looking to replace eight forwards, six defensemen and at least one goalie, who contributed 337 points on 128 goals and 209 assists.

“We lost a lot,” Willert said. “We graduated a ton and had some other kids leave for other hockey opportunities. You lose all-time leading scorer Mack Morelli and you lose some really good defensemen and some really good forwards, but the kids that are coming in, they come to work every day, they work extremely hard and at the end of the day that’s all you can ask. I think the expectations are still high. We’ve taken third back to back. Minot hockey only has about four or five of those in their existence in 50 years and we’ve had two back to back. Our mentality going into it is we expect to be in it at the end of the season.”

The past is the past and Willert and Minot United are looking forward to the players that will be on the ice this season.

Senior forward Oliver Thompson and senior defenseman Cole Richeson are the top two returning scorers from last year. Thompson registered 23 points on nine goals and 14 assists, scoring a pair of goals during the postseason. Richeson amassed 22 points on nine goals and 13 assists. Richeson finished last season strong and was a key contributor during Minot United’s WDA Tournament and state tournament run. In six tournament games, Richeson scored three goals and assisted on five others.

“All the guys who have been waiting for their opportunity to be the go-to guys are finally getting the opportunity like myself, Cole Richeson, Easton Bradley,” Thompson said. “Some of those guys were just kind of role guys last year and this year get to take a big role and get to be the big go-to guys this year.”

Willert also highlighted Brady Grosz, Jayce Lemon and Tate Haugenoe amongst others as players that he expects to step up and play a major role for the team this season after being more role players last year. Lemon suited up for all 27 games last season, while Haugenoe appeared in all but two. Grosz was in and out of the lineup, playing in seven contests. The trio combined for 17 points on five goals and 12 assists.

“The culture that has been built here the last couple of years has really changed the narrative,” Willert said. “Yeah, you lose top-end kids and kids that are really good, but you just replace them with kids that are going to come in and are going to work hard and bring their lunch pails and their hard hats and go to work.”

Minot United won’t have the opportunity to ease into the season, as its schedule begins with a pair of road games against teams from the East, opening with Fargo Davies on Friday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s state quarterfinal game, a contest Minot United won, 6-1. It will play Fargo North on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Minot United had a strong showing against teams from the East last season, sporting a 4-1 record. Its lone loss came in the state semifinal round to Grand Forks Red River. The East Region continues to have a stranglehold on the state championship hardware, winning all but three titles dating back to 1961. Minot has two of those titles, coming in 1992 and 2015. Bismarck High had the other in 2014.

Expectations remain the same inside the Minot United locker room, but Thompson believes that other teams might underestimate them this season.

“Last year was cool having a target on our backs, but this year we’re flying under the radar and I think we’re going to catch a lot of people off-guard,” Thompson said. “I don’t think people understand the young guys coming up. It’s us believing in our coach’s gameplan and what they have for us. Our group trusts them and we trust each other. It will be cool to be those young guns that don’t really have any expectations.”

Neither Willert or Thompson addressed any concern about on-ice chemistry, even early in the season despite the roster overhaul. The current team has been skating together dating back years and have been skating together throughout the summer and spent countless hours in the weightroom.

“The nice thing is that most of these kids have grown up together,” Willert said. “I can go down the list and tell you who’s best friends, who hangs out together, who goes hunting together. They all grow up together and we skate all summer. This year more than last year, you might see some juggling early on in the season to find that chemistry. I don’t think it’s going to take that long. I’ve always been that coach who doesn’t really care how we get out the gate. I want to make sure we’re peaking come late-January into February. It’s all about finding out who can play. We’re going to Fargo this weekend and we’re going to roll four lines. We’re going to role six defensemen and we’re going to find out who can play in certain situations.”

With all the offensive firepower Minot United lost from last year, it will be a difficult season to replicate. Last year’s team averaged 5.7 goals per game and scored 7+ goals 11 times. In WDA play, Minot United led the conference in goals scored (97) and fewest goals allowed (25).

Minot United sees the West Region playing out a lot like it did last year, with itself, Century and Legacy battling for the top spot, but Willert also believes that every other team has the potential to make some noise. Mandan was the lone team in conference to knock them off last year. He sees Jamestown and Bismarck High improving under newer head coaches and the Demons bringing back all-state goalie Owen Deeter (3.36 GAA, .912 save percentage, 3 shutouts). Bottineau/Rugby could also pose a challenge with its top forward in Peyton Getzlaff (18 goals, 20 assists).

“I think we’re right there in the top three,” Thompson said. “I think it’s going to be another year where it’s Century, Legacy and us. I think it will be a tight top three just like it was the year prior.”

The uniforms will be different. The name will be different. The names at the top of the stat sheet will be different. But whether they are the Minot Magicians or Minot United, the team expects to see its name on the state tournament bracket once again this season.

“The culture has changed within our program to where we expect to be playing on Friday night at the state tournament,” Willert said. “That’s just the expectation. Does that mean it’s going to happen every year? No. I’m a realist. You’re going to have some years where you are down, but I expect us to be playing Friday night with a chance to go to a state title on Saturday. This group can get there.”