Much of the attention at the start of a college hockey season is rightly on the teams from the previous year’s Frozen Four.
Conversations about the powerhouses and blue bloods, the traditional powers and new banner holders, all center on a team’s ability to produce the proverbial “next one” to an insatiable group of fans and reporters attempting to rationalize the next great group through the previous year’s lens.
The microscope traditionally forgets about its lost powerhouses, and it didn’t take long for the entire college hockey world to omit or neglect ECAC Hockey in the aftermath of the league’s fight for multiple bids to the NCAA tournament. One year removed from matching the Big Ten for most teams in the 16-team bracket, the rest of the world seemingly overlooked the league for its lack of national powerhouses.
Understanding that unpredictability is probably why ECAC has no problem talking about the national tournament during the earliest days of the 2025-26 season.
“We had a great year last year,” said ECAC Hockey commissioner Doug Christiansen. “It was an extreme success, and we’re obviously really excited for another new year. This is a new year of opportunity with new coaches, a new arena, and new renovations. The league is really investing in the league and the goal, one way or other, is going to be the difference between somebody winning a championship, somebody having home ice, somebody making it to Lake Placid.
“The magic of our league is that anybody, on any given night, can win.”
Few leagues are entering the new season with as much chaotic uncertainty as an ECAC that can’t rightly predict its own parity. Three coaches are entirely new after Cornell, RPI and Yale underwent changes behind their respective offseason benches, and two more teams – Clarkson and Princeton – are in the second year of their newest coach’s era. Eight different coaches have been in their current roles for five years or less, and two of the three coaches with 15-plus years at their current institution are coaching their alma maters.
And at the top of the list, Rand Pecknold remains virtually unchallenged with a Quinnipiac team that’s clinched eight straight regular-season championships while entering into the new world of the NCAA Power Index algorithm for the national tournament’s seeding procedure.
“We like the fact that the playoff is unweighted,” said Christiansen. “We want to make sure that if we have a top seed go to three games in the playoffs, because we all know about the parity in our league, we want to make that [less] punitive for the top schools. That’s something that, for us across the league, is a small adjustment but is reflective of how the gameplay has been. Overall, we’re comfortable with the direction, and we think that the NCAA did a really nice job [with its new format].”
Whether that means a second or third or fourth team is heading to the NCAA Tournament is unclear, but that’s the fun of watching ECAC teams play hockey. They are still among the most historic brands in an ever-changing sport, but they’ve been forced to finally adapt to the changing tides within intercollegiate athletics. The last few years – even with the lack of teams in last year’s NCAA tournament – have been insane to predict and notice.
This year is likely no different.
BROWN
HEAD COACH: Brendan Whittet, entering his 17th season at Brown
LAST SEASON: 14-15-3 overall (9-11-2, 28 points, 8th in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Ryan St. Louis (13g-11a-24pts); F Brian Nicholas (11g-14a-25pts); D Alex Pineau (7g-9a-16pts); D Ethan Mistry (2g-10a-12pts); F Ivan Zadvernyuk (3g-7a-10pts)
KEY LOSSES: F Tyler Kopff (9g-19a-28pts); F Max Scott (12g-14a-26pts); F Brendan Clark (6g-6a-12pts); G Lawton Zacher (14-11-2, 2.48 GAA, .917 sv%)
KEY ADDITIONS: D Ashton Bynum (Austin Bruins, NAHL); D Owen Dyer (Des Moines Buccaneers, USHL); G Freddie Halyk (Tr., Denver, NCHC); F Ben Poitras (Tr., Northeastern, Hockey East); F Mike Salandra (Tr., Quinnipiac, ECAC); F Brendan Tighe (Madison Capitols, USHL)
2025-26 PREDICTION: Losing goaltender Lawton Zacher to the offseason transfer portal really put a damper on the pleasant surprise from Brown’s overall defensive development during the 2024-2025 season. The roster had seemingly began adhering to a more physical and staunch style that exemplified some of Brendan Whittet’s best teams, so the steps taken to pull the Bears out of the league’s bottom four for the first time in three years took a big hit with the loss of arguably its best and most notable asset.
Because of that, Brown isn’t likely to gain much ground unless another and bigger surprise offers a major breakout, but the swirling winds around ECAC means the Bears also shouldn’t take a major step backwards. Ashton Bynum is a big body that’s always been at home on Brown’s blue line, and a pairing with a six-foot, two-inch Owen Dyer is a potential rookie boon for a team that added transfers from the hard-nosed teams at Denver and Northeastern.
“I like the team,” said Whittet. “I like the direction that we’re going in. I like the players that are returning, and I really like the players that [arrived] via the portal or as freshmen. Roster composition in today’s day and age is ever-changing and ever-shifting, but we did a really good job in terms of the players that we brought in, and players are going to add to a lot of what we already have.”
PREDICTED FINISH: Ninth
CLARKSON
HEAD COACH: JF Houle, entering his second season at Clarkson
LAST SEASON: 24-12-3 (15-6-1, 45 points, 2nd in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: D Tristan Sarsland (8g-15a-23pts); F Ryan Bottrill (8g-11a-19pts); F Talon Sigurdson (10g-8a-18pts); F Luka Sukovic (7g-9a-16pts); D Tate Taylor (3g-13a-16pts)
KEY LOSSES: F Ayrton Martino (25g-26a-51pts); F Ellis Rickwood (10g-25a-35pts); F Ryan Richardson (11g-19a-30pts); D Trey Taylor (9g-20a-29pts); G Ethan Langenegger (22-10-2, 2.14 GAA, .914 sv%)
KEY ADDITIONS: D William Bishop (Val-d’Or Foreurs, QMJHL); F Justin Cote (Quebec Remparts, QMJHL); F Remi Gelinas (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, QMJHL); D Matthew Mayich (Ottawa 67’s, OHL); F Adrian Misaljevic (Kitchener Rangers, OHL); F Mael St-Denis (Rimouski Oceanic, QMJHL); F Owen Van Steensel (North Bay Battalion, OHL);
2025-26 PREDICTION: Clarkson lost arguably the most top-end talent from teams within the ECAC, but a heavy-handed approach to recruiting should help provide the Golden Knights with the replacements capable of maintaining the program’s top tier status behind Quinnipiac’s extensive Cleary Cup success.
A whopping seven players arrived in Potsdam after spending time in the Canadian junior hockey circuit, and those names are likely going to provide some pop to a team that’s now without Ayrton Martino, Ellis Rickwood and Trey Taylor. Remi Gelinas, for example, scored 25 goals for Rouyn-Noranda while William Bishop potted 43 points in 64 games for Val d’or, and Matthew Mayich is a sixth-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues after scoring 42 points in 66 games in last year’s OHL.
“The biggest challenge is going to get everybody to mesh together,” said Houle. “It’s going to take a little while. We had some transfers. We have CHL players, and then we have some returning players. The different types of players that are coming in, for them to mesh, it might take a little while. There are big shoes to fill with Rickwood, Martino, and Trey Taylor leaving, so hopefully some of the players that are returning will take a step and these young freshmen will be able to play at a high level right off the bat. We feel pretty good about that, but getting a team together is going to be the biggest challenge.”
PREDICTED FINISH: Second
COLGATE
HEAD COACH: Mike Harder, entering his third year at Colgate
LAST SEASON: 18-15-3 (13-7-2, 42 points, 3rd in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Max Nagel (6g-18a-24pts); D Michael Neumeier (8g-12a-20pts); G Andrew Takacs (17-12-2, 2.77 GAA, .903 sv%)
KEY LOSSES: F Brett Chorske (15g-19a-34pts); F Alex DiPaolo (11g-15a-26pts); D Tommy Bergsland (4g-20a-24pts); F Ben Raymond (9g-9a-18pts); D Reid Irwin (6g-11a-17pts)
KEY ADDITIONS: F Tyson Doucette (Sarnia Sting, OHL); G Reid Dyck (Swift Current Broncos, WHL); D Luke Malboeuf (Dubuque Fighting Saints, USHL); F Easton Wainwright (Sarnia Sting, OHL)
2025-26 PREDICTION: Head coach Mike Harder produced consecutive third place finishes in his first two seasons, but being forced to replace mainstays like Brett Chorske, Alex DiPaolo, Ben Raymond, Tommy Bergslund and Reid Irwin means that the emergence of players like Neumeier need to continue buoying the team through its next phase.
The Raiders are naturally like any other team in that respect because gelling the existing infrastructure into a newly-built roster is no different from the rest of college hockey, so how they perform in the early part of the season will go a long way to setting the right pace. There’s a four-game swing through Boston University and Maine that’s sandwiched around Atlantic Hockey America opponents, which in turn translates to plenty of opportunities for new players recruited largely from the CHL and not from the transfer portal.
“I’m excited to play the best teams in the country that we can play,” said Harder. “We have to schedule 12 non-conference games, and it’s the most in the country. Sometimes you’re just trying to fill your schedule, but the thought was that if we want to be the best, we have to beat the best. So it’ll be a great experience, and we’re trying to do a tour through the Big Ten as well. It was really about [asking] ‘why not?’”
PREDICTED FINISH: Sixth
CORNELL
HEAD COACH: Casey Jones, entering his first season at Cornell
LAST SEASON: 19-11-6 (10-8-4, 36 points, 6th in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Ryan Walsh (17g-14a-31pts); F Charlie Major (5g-13a-18pts); F Nick DeSantis (5g-9a-14pts)
KEY LOSSES: F Dalton Bancroft (15g-12a-27pts); F Sullivan Mack (9g-15a-24pts); D Tim Rego (8g-16a-24pts); F Ondrej Psenicka (9g-13a-22pts); D Ben Robertson (2g-13a-15pts); G Ian Shane (17-11-6, 2.21 GAA, .905 sv%)
KEY ADDITIONS: G Alexis Cournoyer (Cape Breton Eagles, QMJHL); F Gio Digiulian (Lincoln Stars, USHL); F Aiden Long (Madison Capitols, USHL); D Xavier Veilleux (Muskegon Lumberjacks, USHL)
2025-26 PREDICTION: Cornell faced arguably the strangest 2024-2025 campaign after the sixth-place Big Red faced down injury after injury during the regular season. They were never right, but finally getting right down the end of the regular season spurred the team to a repeat championship and a Cinderella run that landed head coach Mike Schafer just short of the Frozen Four in his final season behind the bench in Ithaca.
This year’s Big Red are now left to hold the receipt of that transition period. On the one hand, a healthy Cornell upended the No. 2 overall seed in the national tournament before dragging Boston University to an overtime Regional Final. On the other hand, losing the wrong personnel cost the team its lofty setting and an opportunity at unseating Quinnipiac’s stranglehold on the Cleary Cup.
New head coach Casey Jones is no stranger to this scenario, and Cornell’s ability to bridge from Schafer to its new regime creased those lines by allowing Jones to filter into the conversation at various points during last season. His acclimation to his alma mater was, in a way, completely dissimilar from his early tenure at Clarkson, but enough elements exist to let him take the baton from Schafer in a big way.
“I had a real good opportunity to build relationships [with the players] and get a chance to see them all play,” said Jones about his roster. “I have a good feel for our guys coming in and how we’re going to utilize them and how they are getting integrated into our squad. You don’t usually get that opportunity as a head coach, so I think that put me in a really good spot, especially with 14 new players.”
PREDICTED FINISH: Fourth
DARTMOUTH
HEAD COACH: Reid Cashman, entering his fifth season at Dartmouth
LAST SEASON: 18-13-2 overall (12-9-1, fifth in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: D CJ Foley (11g-19a-30pts); F Nikita Nikora (4g-26a-30pts); F Hayden Stavroff (10g-12a-22pts); F Hank Cleaves (5g-16a-21pts); G Emmett Croteau (13-4-0, 2.10 GAA, .903 sv%); G Roan Clarke (5-9-2, 2.70 GAA, .895 sv%)
KEY LOSSES: F Sean Chisholm (15g-12a-27pts); F Cooper Flinton (11g-13a-24pts); D John Fusco (11g-10a-21pts); F Luke Haymes (12g-6a-18pts);
KEY ADDITIONS: F Andrew Clarke (Des Moines Buccaneers, USHL); D Cooper Cleaves (Green Bay Gamblers, USHL); F Brock Cummings (Prince George Spruce Kings, BCHL); D Brock Devlin (Anchorage Wolverines, NAHL); F Nathan Morin (Chilliwack Chiefs, BCHL); F Ryan Schelling (Langley Rivermen, BCHL);
2025-26 PREDICTION: Last year’s fifth place finish and eventual advancement to the ECAC postseason semifinals produced a worthy encore to the Big Green’s surprising 2023-2024 breakout campaign and resurgent reputation. Now, as the main players from the two-year run start to move on, the returning talent within the Dartmouth program are being tasked with creating the torch-passing legacy that normally eludes a team losing a successful core.
That said, it’s nearly impossible to replace hard-nosed cultural stalwarts like Sean Chisholm, John Fusco, or Luke Haymes, so the team needs to find a way to protect against taking too far of a step backwards. Having two goaltenders return is naturally a good way to have that happen, and the expectation is that someone grabs the opportunistic brass ring while the rest of the team settles into place.
“Our hope is that someone takes [the goaltending job] and runs with it,” said Cashman. “If someone takes it, they can have it while knowing that the next guy’s ready to push him if you give him an opportunity. We have a little bit more time, and whoever gets that first game against Stonehill, if they play well, they’re going to get the next game. If they don’t, that next guy is going to be ready for that opportunity.”
PREDICTED FINISH: Seventh
HARVARD
HEAD COACH: Ted Donato, entering his 21st season at Harvard
LAST SEASON: 13-17-3 overall (9-10-3, 31 points, 7th in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Mick Thompson (14g-18a-32pts); F Casey Severo (16g-12a-28pts); F Joe Miller (5g-18a-23pts); F Ben MacDonald (5g-11a-16pts); D Ryan Healey (4g-9a-13pts); F Philip Tresca (4g-9a-13pts); G Ben Charette (5-8-2, 2.77 GAA, .909 sv%)
KEY LOSSES: D Ian Moore (3g-11a-14pts); G Aku Koskenvuo (8-9-1, 2.81 GAA, .902 sv%)
KEY ADDITIONS: D Donato Bracco (U.S. National Development Team); F Aidan Lane (Brampton Steelheads, OHL); F Heikki Ruohonen (Dubuque Fighting Saints, USHL)
2025-26 PREDICTION: Harvard jumped from seven wins to 13 wins by gaining a few impressive victories over Quinnipiac, Merrimack, Colgate, Northeastern, RPI and Clarkson over the individual course of its 2024-2025 season. Compared to the previous year when the wins were fewer and further between, the more logical number needs the Crimson to move one step forward after they gained home ice during last season.
Returning every major piece of production will certainly help, but deepening those roles and improving the team with the addition of a couple of other recruiting pieces is the next challenge for Ted Donato’s next construction project. Given his track record, there’s reason to believe that Harvard is due for a breakout that’s maybe bigger than last year’s third place game win in the Beanpot.
“As a coach and as a program, we have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder,” said Donato. “We want to inch our way back towards the top and get ourselves back to Lake Placid. It’s an exciting time of year, and I think we’re a little bit mature of a group. I think we have some additions that will bring real value, and while our first official day is [this weekend] for practice, we’ve had some hours on the ice with our guys. There’s a real energy and a little bit of bite in our group, which is exciting.”
PREDICTED FINISH: Fifth
PRINCETON
HEAD COACH: Ben Syer, entering his second season at Princeton
LAST SEASON: 12-15-3 overall (7-12-3, 25 points, 9th in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Brendan Gorman (7g-17a-24pts); F David Jacobs (7g-17a-24pts); G Arthur Smith (7-7-2, 2.96 GAA, .899 sv%)
KEY LOSSES: F Adam Robbins (11g-18a-29pts); F Ian Murphy (11g-12a-23pts); F Nick Seitz (5g-18a-23pts); F Jack Cronin (11g-8a-19pts); G Ethan Pearson (2-8-2, 4.05 GAA, .855 sv%)
KEY ADDITIONS: F Seamus Latta (Victoria Grizzlies, BCHL); F Matt Souliere (Ottawa 67’s, OHL); G Dan Moor (Omaha Lancers, USHL)
2025-26 PREDICTION: A dozen wins is a modest number for an Ivy League school competing in a half-dozen less games than the rest of its college hockey brethren, but Princeton ended its 2024-25 campaign by earning four wins over NCAA Tournament teams. The Thanksgiving break sweep over Ohio State was especially damaging to the Buckeyes by the end of the year, and even Bentley’s Atlantic Hockey America championship run couldn’t begin until the Tigers took two wins away from the Falcons.
Losing to Brown in the first round of an ECAC Tournament postseason offers an indicator that a much higher ceiling exists for Princeton, and while natural holes exist after several of their losses, the Tigers added options with the potential to shift into a new and different style of play. Extrapolating that style into wins only needs to yield three or four points before a playoff game can return to New Jersey, and a successful recruiting cycle north of the border is an intriguing additive piece to a team that last played a home playoff game in 2018.
“I’m looking for us to be consistent throughout the year,” said Syer. “We had some different ebbs and flows last year. I thought our compete was very good, but to be able to be consistent from weekend to weekend is really important in this league because points are hard to come by. The more consistent that you can be, the better off your program can have at obtaining success.”
PREDICTED FINISH: 7th
QUINNIPIAC
HEAD COACH: Rand Pecknold, entering his 32nd season at Quinnipiac
LAST SEASON: 24-12-2 overall (16-5-1, 50 points, 1st in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Jeremy Wilmer (15g-25a-40pts); F Mason Marcellus (10g-28a-38pts); F Andon Cerbone (15g-20a-35pts); F Tyler Borgula (12g-13a-25pts); F Chris Pelosi (13g-11a-25pts); G Dylan Silverstein (12-9-2, 2.25 GAA, .903 sv%); G Matej Marinov (12-3-0, 1.75 GAA, .928 sv%)
KEY LOSSES: F Travis Treloar (16g-20a-36pts); F Jack Ricketts (20g-7a-27pts)
KEY ADDITIONS: D Logan McCutcheon (Lethbridge Hurricanes, WHL); F Ben Riche (Prince George Cougars, WHL); D Brady Schultz (Halifax Mooseheads, QMJHL); D Graham Sward (Wenatchee Wild, WHL); F Antonin Verreault (Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, QMJHL); F Markus Vidicek (Moncton Wildcats, QMJHL);
2025-26 PREDICTION: Quinnipiac entered last season with a roster bidding farewell to the final pieces of its national championship pedigree, and nearly everyone danced on the Bobcats when they struggled to consistently win hockey games at the start of the season. Yet by the end of the year, the final joke was on the rest of the league when Rand Pecknold collected his eighth consecutive Cleary Cup and extended the nation’s longest active NCAA Tournament qualification streak.
Unfortunately for the rest of the year, the team that looked vulnerable for increased swaths of the 2024-25 season is back in full force for the upcoming seasons. Nearly every position retained an impact player or two, and even the goaltender spot has multiple players who understand how to play their role within Rand Pecknold’s team-based system. Adding a number of CHL players included a 100-point scorer in Antonin Verreault and a professional-grade defenseman in Graham Sward, who had originally played 47 games for the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals after spending several years in the WHL.
None of that translates to immediate success, of course, but the paper product is nearly untouchable.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Pecknol. “Kids are still battling for spots. Kids are battling to be on the power play and the penalty kill. I always say to our guys that things change over the course of the year. Guys that might not be killing now could be getting it done in January and February…I think that’s one of the reasons that we’ve had success. We push our kids to be better. We don’t lock them into certain roles. Certainly, they’re in roles, but they can always change their fate and get more ice time, and we want to encourage that to have guys battle every day.”
PREDICTED FINISH: First
RENSSELAER
HEAD COACH: Eric Lang, entering his first season at RPI
LAST SEASON: 12-21-2 overall (7-15-0, 23 points, 10th in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Dovar Tinling (10g-10a-20pts); F Jagger Tapper (8g-12a-20pts)
KEY LOSSES: D Will Gilson (8g-16a-24pts); F Tyler Hotson (6g-16a-22pts); F Felix Caron (6g-15a-21pts); F Jakob Lee (13g-7a-20pts); F John Beaton (6g-13a-19pts); D Elliott McDermott (3g-15a-18pts); F Jack Brackett (6g-11a-17pts); F Jake Gagnon (8g-7a-15pts); G Noah Giesbrecht (11-19-0, 3.51 GAA, .897 sv%)
KEY ADDITIONS: F Ethan Bono (Tr., Merrimack, Hockey East); F Matthew Buckley (Oshawa Generals, OHL); F Ethan Elias (Tr., St. Thomas, CCHA); G Nate Krawchuk (Sudbury Wolves, OHL); F Jackson Kyrkostas (West Kelowna Warriors, BCHL); D Lucas Lemieux (Trail Smoke Eaters, BCHL); F Filip Sitar (Tr., UConn, Hockey East); D Gunnar VanDamme (Tr., Alaska-Anchorage; D-I Independent); F Tyler Wallace (Tr., Niagara, Atlantic Hockey America); F Luc Wilson (Tr., Minnesota State, CCHA)
2025-26 PREDICTION: RPI’s decision to replace head coach Dave Smith with former American International bench boss Eric Lang brought one of college hockey’s greatest builders to the Capital District for a new challenge. Long recognized for his penchant at building a winning team despite a lack of resources and even a lack of a permanent home building, Lang is unlike any other coach in college hockey and represents a clean break from the Smith era – even as he enters ECAC from the same Atlantic Hockey conference that produced the former Canisius head coach.
The resulting roster overhaul left Lang without a top scorer or an incumbent goaltender, but attacking the transfer portal and continuing the recruiting trail set forth by his predecessors created a roster that’s now fit to play a style of hockey that hasn’t been seen at Houston Field House. As proven at his previous stop at AIC, that might not immediately translate into wins, but the thought of a gelling and physical team is a big reason why the Engineers have a chance to resemble the Yellow Jackets and their ability to completely derail some team’s season as the calendar shifts into its hottest weeks.
“We needed 20 players in April,” said Lang. “We had seven or eight returners but only six that played college hockey games. Credit to those six for hanging in and not jumping for their life rafts because there was a little bit of a window where they could have gone into the transfer portal. It’s obviously not an ideal situation to bring in 20 players in April and May, but we were incredibly selective in how we went about it. It’s early, but we’re pleasantly surprised by how our group is gelling and coming together, and we’ll find out what it looks like once we get out there against the bad guys.”
PREDICTED FINISH: 10th
ST. LAWRENCE
HEAD COACH: Brent Brekke, entering his seventh season at St. Lawrence
LAST SEASON: 9-24-2 (5-15-2, 18 points, 12th in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Tyler Cristall (8g-9a-17pts); F Isaac Tremblay (4g-8a-12pts); G Mason Kucenski (8-19-1, 2.98 GAA, .900 sv%)
KEY LOSSES: F Greg Lapointe (11g-8a-19pts); F Felikss Gavars (6g-9a-15pts); D Mason Waite (4g-12a-16pts); F Tomas Mazura (1g-13a-14pts); D Philippe Chapleau (3g-8a-11pts)
KEY ADDITIONS: D Andrew Brown (Cape Breton Eagles, QMJHL); F Frankie Carogioello (Tr., Miami, NCHC); F Sam LeDrew (West Kelowna Warriors, BCHL); D Teddy Mallgrave (Waterloo Black Hawks, USHL); F Rasmus Svartstrom (Cranbrook Bucks, BCHL)
2025-26 PREDICTION: St. Lawrence’s dubious distinction as the last place team in last year’s ECAC landed the Saints in their first 12th place finish since the ill-fated 2019-2020 season, but that didn’t stop Brent Brekke from injecting the right kind of hope into the offseason. Unlike last year’s recruit-heavy addition that yielded several transfer portal additions, the Saints stayed the course by making strategic moves to their roster that didn’t lose all that much from its 2024-2025 campaign.
The hope is that the lack of flash is exactly what SLU needs to cure its finish from last season. What they needed – and what they got – was a boost to the talent on a depth chart that didn’t return a 10-goal scorer, and though that doesn’t automatically mean that a team is heading to the North Country for a first round playoff game, the step-by-step process is more about getting better on a daily basis and avoiding the issues that caused last year’s lack of sync.
“The relentless piece is never going to change,” said Brekke. “That’s something that we want from our team, every single year. We want to be hard to play against. I’m not a big fan of soft skill. Hard skill is going to win you games, going to win you championships, and I think that’s a big piece of being relentless and tough to play against.”
PREDICTED FINISH: 11th
UNION
HEAD COACH: Josh Hauge, entering his fourth season at Union
LAST SEASON: 19-14-3 overall (12-8-2, 40 points, 4th in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Colby MacArthur (7g-22a-29pts); F Brandon Buhr (19g-9a-28pts); F Ben Muthersbaugh (13g-15a-28pts); F Nate Hanley (10g-18a-28pts)
KEY LOSSES: F Caden Villegas (7g-22a-29pts); D John Prokop (8g-19a-27pts); F Josh Nixon (14g-9a-23pts); G Kyle Chauvette (18-13-3, 2.80 GAA, .896 sv%)
KEY ADDITIONS: G Cameron Corpi (Tr., Michigan, Big Ten); G Brayden Gillespie (Brampton Steelheads, OHL); G Brendan Holahan (El Paso Rhinos, NAHL); F Alex Laurenza (Austin Bruins, NAHL); D Etienne Lessard (Lincoln Stars, USHL); F Troy Pelton (Corpus Christi IceRays, NAHL)
2025-26 PREDICTION: The glittery $50 million M&T Bank Center at Mohawk Harbor opens this year with a 2,200-seat arena that instantly places Union near the top of ECAC’s home ice advantages, but creating a true home akin to the Messa Rink that the Garnet Chargers just departed is immediately possible if the team can finish with its best season since the primetime era of the mid-2010s.
They will still have to navigate key losses from last year’s roster, but even the removal of players like Caden Villegas and John Prokop isn’t enough to remove Union from a league that’s more middle-heavy than most years. Add in the likelihood of taking another step forward with a pair of incoming goaltender candidates, and the first trip to Lake Placid since 2017 is more expectation than realistic hope.
“Everybody’s excited about [the new arena],” said Hauge. “To be able to be here on Friday night to see the women get the first win and then get two shutouts over the weekend [deserved] kudos. For us, starting it off with a bang, there’s a great energy in the building and great energy around campus. It’s just an opportunity for our team to kick off [our year] with a great opponent in Army.”
PREDICTED FINISH: Third
YALE
HEAD COACH: Joe Howe, interim head coach
LAST SEASON: 6-21-3 (5-14-3, 19 points, 11th in ECAC)
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Ronan O’Donnell (11g-9a-20pts); F David Chen (10g-7a-17pts); F Micah Berger (5g-10a-15pts); F Zach Wagnon (3g-11a-14pts); F Donovan Frias (7g-5a-12pts); G Jack Stark (3-14-2, 3.75 GAA, .879 sv%)
KEY LOSSES: F William Dineen (6g-12a-18pts)
KEY ADDITIONS: F Braden Keeble (Whitecourt Wolverines, AJHL); F Tom Molson (Victoria Grizzlies, BCHL); F James Shannon (Coquitlam Express, BCHL)
2025-26 PREDICTION: Yale’s upstart draw and shootout win over Cornell felt like a previous eon after the Bulldogs failed to gain any significant traction over the 2024-25 season. They gained a notable win over Boston University during a single game over the holiday break period, but it turned into an anomaly after January and February produced few victories and a 5-1 loss to Cornell in the ECAC first round.
Weathering that storm would have allowed Yale to press forward without any drama ahead of the current season, but then came head coach Keith Allain’s retirement announcement in August. Already late in the postseason cycle, the university appointed assistant coach Joe Howe to an interim role, a move that maintained continuity between the remaining coaches and their incumbent players.
Howe is a rising star in the coaching ranks, but his ability to press the Elis into a fighting position is arguably the most dangerous piece of ECAC’s season. Ronan O’Donnell is a legitimate scorer, and a leadership core featuring David Chen is surprisingly underrated in a league where a deep front line can easily push a team through the standings. Also flying well south of everyone’s attention span is Jack Clark, an All-ECAC type of goaltender who isn’t too far removed from 30-plus save performances. Given the chaos facing ECAC on an annual basis, there’s a real chance Yale could surprise a few folks before the season ends.
“At the end of the day, players win hockey games,” said Howe, “and we’re excited about our group. It’s a group that we’ve been building the right way [after] not being able to utilize some of the tools that some teams got to use out of COVID. [Fellow assistant coach] Rob O’Gara and I got here [knowing] that there needed some work to be done, and it’s starting to come to fruition, so we’re excited about the step that we’re going to take this year, as a group, with what we have in the locker room.”
PREDICTED FINISH: 12th
