Even the most casual observer knew ECAC Hockey faced impossible odds at replicating its success last season.

The only league untouched by realignment found itself entering the 2023-24 year with a defending national champion that represented college hockey’s truest and latest success story, but watching Quinnipiac finally cap its rise to the elitist class included storylines from every corner of the sport’s past and present.

Plenty of celebrations dotted the off-season conversation: Four teams in the national tournament tied the Big Ten for most teams in the 16-team field at a time when conference shifting sought to create smaller leagues devoid of the mathematical ankle weights of last place programs. Harvard and Cornell advanced to their 27th and 24th respective tournaments before the Big Red eliminated top-seeded Denver in the East Regional. Colgate won its first championship since 1990 after advancing out of a first round pilloried for its switch to a single elimination format.

Nobody wanted the best of times to end, and despite the face value changes from the 2023-2024 season, ECAC enters its upcoming year with legitimate clout among the national hockey conversation. It failed to deliver a repeat of the success from two years ago, but the transition year still produced more than a few memorable moments for a conference understated in its parity. As the new year gets set to start, the question of how much ECAC is changing is second only to whether or not this year restores the league to the greatness it achieved two years ago.

And that’s the way it is. -Walter Cronkite

The casual college hockey observer likely took one look at ECAC’s finish from last year and immediately assumed nothing changed after Quinnipiac won its fifth regular season championship in six years. The only team to challenge the Bobcats likewise remained Cornell – the only other team to win the Cleary Cup since Harvard and Union split the 2016-2017 season championship. No team other than Union, Quinnipiac, Harvard, or Cornell cracked the proverbial chestnut since Yale won back-to-back regular season titles in 2009 and 2010, a sign that so much about the league is baked into the consistency within its top tier.

The bottom of the league, meanwhile, remained remarkably similar after three Ivy League schools finished anywhere in the league’s bottom four. Princeton, a team that tied for seventh two years ago but lost home ice on a tiebreaker, found itself dropped into ninth place while Brown found itself on the road for a fourth straight first round postseason appearance. Neither team had been at home since 2018, a year in which Princeton went to Brown as part of the No. 9-vs.-No. 8 postseason matchup.

Yet any hope of them advancing to host a first round series with Yale, another Ancient Eight member failing to finish higher than tenth since the COVID-19 cancellations, was more of a reflection of the parity within the league than an ill statement on either program. All three were a weekend’s worth of work away from hosting a first-round game, and both Yale and Princeton advanced to the quarterfinals in 2023 after winning their first-round matchups.

“With parity comes opportunity for teams to have a fantastic season,” noted commissioner Doug Christiansen. “You look at Dartmouth last year with the improvement that they made [and] you look for somebody else in our league to do something similar.”

That’s the way it is. Things will never be the same. -Tupac

It’s simply too easy to look at ECAC, though, and assume that everything is simply the same after last season’s overhaul. For the first time in nearly a decade, Harvard and Clarkson are operating from underdog statuses after both finished outside the top four as a collective unit. Dartmouth, meanwhile, rocketed into fourth after finishing 11th and 12th over the two prior seasons and gained its first first-round bye in 13 years.

St. Lawrence was the lowest-seeded team to advance to an ECAC Championship final since Princeton defeated Clarkson in 2018 while concurrently earning the lowest-seeded spot in Lake Placid since No. 8 Brown advanced to the semifinals in 2019.

Last place Rensselaer won its first-round game and notably became the first No. 12 seed to gain a berth in the quarterfinals since Colgate’s infamous run in 2011.

Oh, and Cornell won the Whitelaw Cup for the first time since 2005, which meant the ninth consecutive postseason ended without a repeat champion.

“After 2010, we had quite the drought,” said Cornell coach Mike Schafer. “It wasn’t because we weren’t there, but I was able to talk to a lot of our alumni who were part of those teams between 2011 and 2023, and they were really excited. They knew they had the opportunities, and that was probably more where the emotion was. I was just grateful that we were able to get back [to Lake Placid] and get the job done.”

That doesn’t even touch the changes occurring after the season ended. Princeton replaced Ron Fogarty as head coach by hiring Cornell assistant coach Ben Syer, and Cornell responded two months later by hiring Clarkson head coach Casey Jones as part of a transition strategy for Schafer, who announced his retirement at the end of the season. The Golden Knights then hired Jean-Francois Houle, the three-year head coach of Montreal’s AHL affiliate in Laval, Quebec.

“There were a lot of factors that went into it,” said Schafer. “My family has been doing this thing for 39 years, and I love to coach. I’m going to miss it a tremendous amount, the day-to-day of sitting with the players and really enjoying that. To just sit down, day-to-day, and just coach, I wish I would have somehow tried to do that 20 years ago, but I don’t think you can function in today’s game by being that. I knew it was time [because] I didn’t have the energy to go on the road and be a big part of our recruiting. I was just blessed to have [assistants] last year and the years before who could carry that load for our program.”

Five of the league’s head coaches are within five years of their initial hire, and St. Lawrence’s Brent Brekke is entering his sixth year with Jones due to take over Cornell next season. Just three coaches, including Schafer, hold 20-plus years at their current job, and the combined years of Houle, Mike Harder (Colgate), Reid Cashman (Dartmouth), Syer, Brekke, and Josh Hauge (Union) would still barely scratch Brendan Whittet’s 16 years at Brown or Keith Allain’s 18 years at Yale.

“I had been in the pros for 12 years,” explained Houle, “and this was a way to have a different experience. I haven’t been a head coach at this level, and for my alma mater, it’s important. I care about it, and I want to make sure that I can help with everything that I could do to help the program. My family situation is good for me here in Potsdam. My kids grew up here. I have a son that goes to school here, so this works very well for the family side of [life].”

All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go. -John Denver

Nearly 350 players jumped into the portal after last season, but the fact just over six percent of those players came from ECAC is a sign that the league is relatively impervious to departing players. Even with coaching changes, the majority of players are investing in their respective programs and aren’t departing for greener pastures, which itself is a switch from the rising tide in college sports.

Conversations about college sports require a transfer portal and NIL talk, but player movement within ECAC is nothing compared to other leagues. Less than two dozen players with undergraduate eligibility transferred away from ECAC schools after last season, and only three schools acquired three or more players from the portal. Owing to their restrictions and regulations meant five of the Ivy League schools didn’t bring a portal player onto their respective teams, but Harvard, Princeton and Yale didn’t lose a single player with undergraduate eligibility.

“We had a very good, young freshman group last year,” said Brown head coach Brendan Whittet. “Ryan St. Louis was a transfer that was a sophomore, but that class is now sophomores with St. Louis playing as a junior. In conjunction with that, we were able to string together another really good recruiting class and from my perspective, it looks like we’re going to have a little higher level skill than we’ve maybe had in the past…they still have the prerequisites that I require in people that play for Brown, in terms of having grit and intensity and a little bit of physicality and nastiness. It’ll gel pretty well as a team, and I’m very excited.”

BROWN

HEAD COACH: Brendan Whittet, entering his 16th season at Brown

LAST SEASON: 8-19-3 overall (6-14-2, 22 points, 11th in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Ryan St. Louis (13g-11a-24pts); F Max Scott (7g-11a-18pts); F Tyler Kopff (6g-12a-18pts); D Alex Pineau (7g-8a-15pts); D Ethan Mistry (0g-11a-11pts); G Lawton Zacher (6-14-3, 2.91 GAA, .909 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: F Ryan Bottrill (3g-16a-19pts); F Jordan Tonnelli (3g-4a-7pts)

KEY ADDITIONS: F Charlie Gollob (Victoria Grizzlies, BCHL); F Ivan Zadvernyuk (Lone Star Brahmas, NAHL); F Brian Nicholas (Sioux City Musketeers, USHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: I never stopped believing in Brown’s development last season. The Bears were the lowest-scoring offense and ninth in scoring defense ahead of an 11th place finish, but I truly felt like they were onto something when they rose to second place in mid-January. It was unsustainable for a young roster still maturing and developing, but the fact that Bruno competed at a high level ahead of a brutal stretch that included a Cornell-Colgate road trip, a Friday game against Quinnipiac and a return road match against a red-hot Dartmouth team is an indicator of the team’s overall ceiling.

Adding key components to the team’s thump should help, but bringing big players like Zadvernyuk – who scored 75 points during the regular season and playoffs of Lone Star’s NAHL championship – should augment a system that returned nearly every key part. Bottrill’s departure hurts the top of the depth chart, but St. Louis, Scott and Kopff are all front line scorers. Combine that with legitimate defenders and a possible step forward for an underrated goaltending unit, and all of a sudden, Brown’s able to make up the one-weekend swing to gain home ice in the playoffs. Even if it falls short, pity the team drawing Bruno in the single game first round.

PREDICTED FINISH: Ninth

CLARKSON

HEAD COACH: JF Houle, entering his first season at Clarkson

LAST SEASON: 18-16-1 (12-9-1, 36 points, 5th in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Ayrton Martino (9g-18a-27pts); F Ryan Richardson (7g-15a-22pts); D Trey Taylor (4g-14a-18pts); F Ryan Taylor (10g-6a-16pts)

KEY LOSSES: F Mathieu Gosselin (11g-17a-28pts); F Anthony Romano (10g-15a-25pts); F Cody Monds (7g-8a-15pts); D Noah Beck (3g-6a-9pts); G Austin Roden (12-11-1, 2.47 GAA, .902 SV%)

KEY ADDITIONS: F Ryan Bottrill (Tr., Brown, ECAC); D Garrett Dahm (Tr., Lake Superior State, CCHA); F Ray Fust (Tr., Omaha, NCHC); G Ethan Langenegger (Tr., Lake Superior State, CCHA); F Luke Pakulak (Vernon Vipers, BCHL); F Luka Sukovic (Bonnyville Pontiacs, AJHL); D Ty Brassington (Surrey Eagles, BCHL); D Jack Sparks (Chilliwack Chiefs, BCHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: Coaching changes always install a layer of difficulty for a program because of their transitory nature. No team, regardless of its position, wants to abruptly end its continuity unless it’s absolutely necessary, but the way Clarkson handled Casey Jones’ decision to move to his alma mater at Cornell was a master class in grace and unity. Jones leaving for Cornell is a great fit, and new coach Jean-Francois Houle possesses the knowledge and background to keep Clarkson near or at the top of the conference.

The timing feels perfect for the Golden Knights to reboot their program after the departure of recruits who arrived in the wake of the 2019 conference championship. Roster construction is a little different from a team that spent much of last season as one of the league’s better defensive units, and even a marginal improvement would help move the team back to the top four.

If Dartmouth or Colgate regress even a little bit, the run to the top four is wide open. Clarkson is a logical fit, but we can’t accurately predict how the Golden Knights will be until its first month of non-conference games are complete.

PREDICTED FINISH: Seventh

COLGATE

HEAD COACH: Mike Harder, entering his second year at Colgate

LAST SEASON: 16-16-4 (13-7-2, 43 points, 3rd in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Daniel Panetta (13g-16a-29pts); F Brett Chorske (7g-20a-27pts); F Simon Labelle (7g-20a-27pts); D Tommy Bergsland (5g-21a-26pts); F Alex DiPaolo (12g-11a-23pts)

KEY LOSSES: F Ross Mitton (11g-19a-30pts); F Ryan McGuire (14g-12a-26pts); D Nick Anderson (2g-19a-21pts), G Carter Gylander (14-14-4, 2.93 GAA, .901 SV%)

KEY ADDITIONS: F Jack Brandt (Madison Capitols, USHL); F Antonio Fernandez (Tr., Colorado College, NCHC); D Michael Neumeier (Fargo Force, USHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: My annual foot-in-mouth occurred last year when I slotted Colgate into seventh place after the Raiders completed a Cinderella run to the Whitelaw Cup. Instead of dropping off, they averaged the second-most goals in conference play with the second-best power play in ECAC games. They took the fourth-least amount of penalties and scored the most goals based on their shot numbers.

Having Carter Gylander helped square that way in goal, but Colgate should hold enough offense to buoy and anchor a defensive unit that lost Nick Anderson’s puck distribution in front of Gylander. Adding Antonio Fernandez, a former 40-point scorer for the Lincoln Stars, should add to those numbers while simultaneously adding the thump associated with 130 penalty minutes in 120 games in the USHL, and there’s always a freshman worth watching on this team.

I also love the eight game swing to start the season because road trips to UConn and RIT offer very different opponent looks. A two-game trip to UMass-Lowell is a good team-building trip, and a manageable start to the ECAC season should let Colgate get into a driver’s seat before the year warms up.

PREDICTED FINISH: Fourth

CORNELL

HEAD COACH: Mike Schafer, entering his 30th season at Cornell

LAST SEASON: 22-7-6 overall (12-6-4, 44 points, 2nd in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Dalton Bancroft (12g-19a-31pts); F Kyle Penney (10g-18a-28pts); F Jonathan Castagna (11g-14a-25pts); D Ben Robertson (5g-18a-23pts); F Ryan Walsh (12g-10a-22pts); F Ondrej Psenicka (9g-12a-21pts); G Ian Shane (22-5-6, 1.69 GAA, .923 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: F Gabriel Seger (14g-30a-44pts)

KEY ADDITIONS: G Justin Katz (Powell River Kings, BCHL); F Charlie Major (Chicago Steel, USHL); F Parker Murray (Chilliwack Chiefs, BCHL); D Nicholas Wolfenberg (Okotoks Oilers, BCHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: Hey, remember that personal rule to never pick against Quinnipiac until someone takes the Cleary Cup away from the Bobcat trophy case? Yeah, well, I don’t know what to tell you.

I’ll start with the obvious: losing Seger removes one of the nation’s best forwards, and any team that loses a player like him likely drops a reasonable bit of offensive production in a spillover effect to the rest of players who benefitted playing with him.

Yet Cornell has a roster capable of competing at the highest levels and the systems reload talent before they ever rebuild. Castagna returned after winning the ECAC tournament most outstanding player award during the Big Red’s run to the Whitelaw Cup, and Bancroft, Penney, Robertson and Psenicka all scored 20 points on a team with a half-dozen less games than everyone else. Given the need to rebuild a roster at Quinnipiac, I don’t know if anyone can catch Cornell this year ahead of Mike Schafer’s well-earned and well-deserved retirement.

PREDICTED FINISH: First

DARTMOUTH

HEAD COACH: Reid Cashman, entering his fourth season at Dartmouth

LAST SEASON: 13-10-9 overall (9-6-7, fourth in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Luke Haymes (18g-18a-36pts); F Cooper Flinton (15g-10a-25pts); D CJ Foley (5g-15a-20pts); F Nikita Nikora (3g-17a-20pts); G Roan Clarke (0-2-1, 3.93 GAA, .860 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: G Cooper Black (13-8-8, 2.58 GAA, .910 SV%)

KEY ADDITIONS: F Hank Cleaves (Vernon Vipers, BCHL); G Emmett Croteau (Tr., Clarkson, ECAC); D Colin Grable (Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, USHL); F Austin Salani (Austin Bruins, NAHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: No team finished last season with a better reputation for not losing hockey games than a nine-tie Dartmouth squad. Excluding the two non-conference draws, the Big Green earned their way into fourth place by gaining an extra three points in shootout wins while avoiding dropping four points in shootout losses. Adding another overtime win with an overtime loss awarded three additional points towards league standings, which essentially means it got to 37 points by avoiding situations that would have sent it on the road in the first round of the playoffs.

Understanding how that mechanism exploited mathematics doesn’t mean nine wins will be good enough to once again finish in the top four, but Dartmouth should improve by adding to its aggregate returning production. The fact that Haymes returned after scoring 36 points gives the Big Green a full-fledged superstar on a top line that’s every bit the part of an elite team.

Losing Cooper Black is a concern, but adding Croteau to a roster that’ll require more minutes from other goalies should form a new nucleus in back. If Dartmouth turns those ties into wins, look out.

PREDICTED FINISH: Third

HARVARD

HEAD COACH: Ted Donato, entering his 20th season at Harvard

LAST SEASON: 7-19-6 overall (6-10-6, 28 points, eighth in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Joe Miller (13g-14a-27pts); D Ryan Healey (9g-13a-22pts); F Ben MacDonald (5g-10a-15pts); G Aku Koskenvuo (5-6-4, 2.95 GAA, .910 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: G Derek Mullahy (2-13-2, 3.14 GAA, .897 SV%)

KEY ADDITIONS: G Ben Charette (Whitecourt Wolverines, AJHL); F Justin Solovey (Muskegon Lumberjacks, USHL); D Lucas St. Louis (Dubuque Fighting Saints, USHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: Winter finally came for House Harvard after the Crimson exited the COVID-19 pandemic by winning the 2022 conference tournament and producing back-to-back second place finishes. The seven-win season was the worst of Donato’s 20 years at his alma mater, and the six league wins matched the two-year stretch that produced his two worst finishes in Cambridge.

Harvard isn’t a program that’ll stay down forever, and I honestly don’t think it’ll last much longer than one year if its development takes a step forward. Miller, Healey and MacDonald are a good nucleus, and Koskenvuo turned into the next Crimson goalie by shutting out Princeton in the first round of the ECAC playoffs after earlier stopping 43 shots in a non-league game against UMass.

PREDICTED FINISH: Fifth

PRINCETON

HEAD COACH: Ben Syer, entering his first season at Princeton

LAST SEASON: 10-16-4 overall (8-11-3, 25 points, T-9th in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Brendan Gorman (5g-15a-20pts); F Jack Cronin (12g-6a-18pts); D Noah de la Durantaye (4g-13a-17pts); G Ethan Pearson (11-9-0, 2.71 GAA, .903 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: F Ian Murphy (15g-15a-30pts); F Liam Gorman (12g-10a-22pts); F Pito Walton (7g-14a-21pts)

KEY ADDITIONS: F Drew Garzone (Coquitlam Express, BCHL); D Kai Greaves (Prince George Spruce Kings, BCHL); F Jake Manfre (Coquitlam Express, BCHL); F Luc Pelletier (Victoria Grizzlies, BCHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: Arguably the most underrated “big news” of the offseason came when Princeton announced head coach Ron Fogarty wouldn’t return to the bench at Hobey Baker Rink, but all credit due to the Tigers for making a difficult decision came when they hired Ben Syer away from the Cornell staff. In one move, the team went from a coach who won a Whitelaw Cup to a coach who spent a decade scouting the league while recruiting Ivy League-caliber players to the Cornell program. That’s pretty good.

Princeton returns enough pieces to make an interesting run at dark horse contender status, but I also think this league is competitive enough to force this team to finish in its bottom half. Like Brown, I’m interested to see how the team gels and develops around its new pieces, but unlike Brown, Princeton lost a 30-point scorer. Considering the concurrent departures of Gorman and Walton makes it tough to envision home ice in the first round relative to the teams picked sixth, seventh or eighth, but I’m keeping a side eye to watch how Syer develops this program in his own image.

PREDICTED FINISH: 11th

QUINNIPIAC

HEAD COACH: Rand Pecknold, entering his 31st season at Quinnipiac

LAST SEASON: 27-10-2 overall (17-4-1, 54 points, first in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Mason Marcellus (14g-22a-36pts); F Andon Cerbone (12g-14a-26pts); F Travis Treloar (12g-12a-24pts); G Matej Marinov (6-3-0, 1.86 GAA, .913 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: F Collin Graf (22g-27a-49pts); F Jacob Quillan (17g-29a-46pts); F Sam Lipkin (15g-20a-35pts); F Christophe Tellier (7g-19a-26pts); D Jayden Lee (3g-23a-26pts); F Christophe Fillion (12g-7a-19pts); G Vinny Duplessis (21-7-2, 2.02 GAA, .914 SV%)

KEY ADDITIONS: D Charlie Leddy (Tr., Boston College, Hockey East); F Chris Pelosi (Sioux Falls Stampede, USHL); F Aaron Schwartz (Surrey Eagles, BCHL); F Jack Ricketts (Tr., Holy Cross, Atlantic Hockey America); F Michael Salandra (West Kelowna Warriors, BCHL); F Jeremy Wilmer (Tr., Boston Univ., Hockey East)

2024-25 PREDICTION: Two years ago, my prediction for a fourth-place finish in ECAC ended with Quinnipiac hoisting a national championship trophy. Seeking to avoid that mistake, I predicted a repeat performance as regular season league champion because I figured no team could lose a championship in a preseason prediction. In all honesty, I was really just bailing out and overcompensating for thinking a national champion would lose its hold on the conference.

Quinnipiac unquestionably has the talent to win a ninth Cleary Cup since it joined ECAC in 2005, but I think the first of the year is a difference maker for a team rebuilt around a dozen new players. That need for turnover, coupled with two games against Cornell in eight days in November (though one is technically a non-conference game), adds enough mileage to pick against the Bobcats winning a fifth straight regular season championship. I know that’s a simplistic, boiled-down and watered-down analysis of a team that averaged double the number of goals scored than goals allowed last year, but I reserve the right to change this opinion by mid-November.

PREDICTED FINISH: Second

RENSSELAER

HEAD COACH: Dave Smith, entering his eighth season at RPI

LAST SEASON: 10-23-4 overall (6-13-3, 21 points, 12th in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Sutter Muzzatti (10g-15a-25pts); F Tyler Hotson (13g-9a-22pts); F Dovar Tinling (5g-12a-17pts); F Jake Gagnon (5g-12a-17pts); G Jack Watson (8-12-3, 3.60 GAA, .894 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: F Austin Heidemann (11g-16a-27pts); F Ryan Brushett (6g-15a-21pts)

KEY ADDITIONS: D Arvils Bergmanis (Tr., Alaska, D-I Independent); F Felix Caron (West Kelowna Warriors, BCHL); D Wil Gilson (Tr., Alaska-Anchorage, D-I Independent); G Noah Giesbrecht (Tr., Ferris State, CCHA); D Gustav Ozolins (Minnesota Wilderness, NAHL); F Rainers Rullers (Madison Capitols, USHL); F Jordan Tonelli (Tr., Brown, ECAC)

2024-25 PREDICTION: RPI felt like a team capable of finishing significantly better than 12th place last year, but the wrong combination of results against the wrong teams conspired to hold the Engineers into last place for the first time since the pre-Hockey East split held multiple divisions. That they finished last season with as many overall wins as Princeton and Yale or more wins than both Brown and Harvard ultimately didn’t matter because the mathematical rules placed them one point under the 11th-place Bears.

That didn’t stop the preseason poll from slotting RPI into 11th to start this season, but warning signs exist for a league that clearly underrated the Engineers. For starters, the team won seven of its 10 games away from Houston Field House, and it’s hard to imagine a team replicating those struggles on home ice. The fact that a good amount of returning firepower is also on the roster makes it easy to envision a step ahead, but the core is simultaneously being augmented by one of the few transfer-heavy portal classes in the league. Playing four league games before the new year should gel that roster through its inherent growth period.

That I don’t envision home ice in the first round is more testimonial for the league’s inherent toughness at the top, but duplicating last year’s win in the first round isn’t out of the question.

PREDICTED FINISH: 10th

ST. LAWRENCE

HEAD COACH: Brent Brekke, entering his sixth season at St. Lawrence

LAST SEASON: 14-19-6 overall (8-10-4, 29 points, 7th in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F Felikss Gavars (13g-12a-25pts); D Drake Burgin (7g-13a-20pts); F Tomas Mazura (6g-14a-20pts); D Mason Waite (4g-16a-20pts)

KEY LOSSES: F Justin Paul (7g-12a-19pts); G Ben Kraws (14-17-6, 2.49 GAA, .919 SV%)

KEY ADDITIONS: G Dominik Basse (Tr., St. Cloud State, CCHA); F Spencer Bell (Humboldt Broncos, SJHL); F Nicholas Beneteau (Alberni Valley Bulldogs, BCHL); F Jacob Bernadet (Maine Nordiques, NAHL); D Evan Orloff (Maine Nordiques, NAHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: I absolutely despise my predicted spot for St. Lawrence because nearly everything points to the potential for a very good season. One of the better recruiting classes in the league contains an 88-point scorer in Bell, a 63-point scorer in Beneteau (who scored 119 points over a two-season stretch), and a 54-point scorer in Bernadet with a defender in Orloff that posted a plus-32 rating over two years with the Maine Nordiques. Adding Basse’s 43 wins over four years at Colorado College and St. Cloud to replace Kraws shores up a back end for a forward line that didn’t lose much beyond Paul’s 19 points.

So why so low? Honestly, I don’t know. A season that opens with six straight home games before a trip to Penn State brings longer road trips to the North Country in February – well after the Saints have to travel to eastern New England.

Let’s just assume I’m wrong here and move on.

PREDICTED FINISH: Eighth

UNION

HEAD COACH: Josh Hauge, entering his third season at Union

LAST SEASON: 16-18-3 overall (9-10-3, 32 points, 6th in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: D John Prokop (8g-27a-35pts); F Caden Villegas (12g-18a-30pts); F Josh Nixon (9g-18a-27pts); F Nate Hanley (4g-22a-26pts); F Brandon Buhr (11g-13a-24pts); G Kyle Chauvette (15-16-3, 3.05 GAA, .893 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: F Ville Immonen (8g-16a-24pts); F Chaz Smedsrud (14g-7a-21pts);

KEY ADDITIONS: F Lucas Buzziol (Alberni Valley Bulldogs, BCHL); F Ben Muthersbaugh (Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, USHL); F Drew Sutton (Oklahoma Warriors, NAHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: Union generated a tectonic shift in college hockey last February when the college announced a new $50 million arena at Mohawk Harbor. A 100,000-square foot building that included a 2,200-seat ice rink, the new home would replace the 50-year old Messa Rink and bring the newly-christened Garnet Chargers to a new home for the first time since the program reclassified to Division I in the early 1990s.

For any team, navigating the final year in a building is usually rife with emotion, but Union is singularly equipped to give its home a loud and boisterous last hurrah. A team that truly set the bar by finishing in ECAC’s middle pack returns its best scoring options, its best puck distributors, its best defender, and its top goalie while losing minimal production from its stat sheet. Combining that group with older recruits who spent multiple years in junior hockey, including Sutton, who scored 119 points in two years in the NAHL, gives this team a chance to really throw one heck of a going away party.

PREDICTED FINISH: Sixth

YALE

HEAD COACH: Keith Allain, entering his 18th season at Yale

LAST SEASON: 10-18-2 overall (7-13-2, 25 points, 9th in ECAC)

KEY RETURNING PLAYERS: F David Chen (9g-9a-18pts); F Briggs Gammill (8g-7a-15pts); F David Andreychuk (3g-9a-12pts); G Jack Stark (8-10-2, 2.22 GAA, .919 SV%)

KEY LOSSES: F Ian Carpentier (8g-6a-14pts); D Ryan Conroy (2g-11a-13pts); F Niklas Allain (6g-6a-12pts)

KEY ADDITIONS: F Micah Berger (Surrey Eagles, BCHL); D Joe Blackley (Cranbrook Bucks, BCHL); D Hughie Hooker (Brooks Bandits, BCHL); F Zach Wagnon (Surrey Eagles, BCHL)

2024-25 PREDICTION: I think Jack Stark is an incredible goalie who deserved All-ECAC recognition after leading Yale’s back line during last season. I think he’s good enough to give the Bulldogs a chance to win any game, and as long as he’s in net, I’ll never truly pick against them to lose.

The bigger question for Yale is how the team replaces top scoring options from a team that averaged 2.1 goals per game with 24.5 shots per game for a season that begins with home games against Denver before the Cornell-Colgate and Princeton-Quinnipiac weekends. There is no real forgiveness in that schedule, and the fact that it continues with a trip to the North Country ahead of road games at Long Island University means the Bulldogs are running a gauntlet until after Thanksgiving.

I don’t like picking anyone to finish last, but someone inevitably has to occupy that spot. Unfortunately, this year it means Yale.

PREDICTED FINISH: 12th