Plenty happened in the six weeks since Minnesota Duluth became the first school in 14 years to repeat as men's hockey national champions and two months since Wisconsin defeated Minnesota to win the 2018-19 women's hockey national championship. Even though it's the offseason.
So with it being the end of May, here's a look at what's trending up and what's trending down in college hockey nationally since mid-April in Buffalo.
Up: Cale Makar
Makar's past few months have seen him reaching a level of must-watch spectacle no one in college hockey achieved since Jack Eichel's year at BU. (Fittingly, Dartmouth Hockey, the gold standard of college hockey Twitter accounts, rebooted an ongoing bit from #EichelUpdate to #MakarUpdate.) Every game he was in seemed to have a play or two where the UMass sophomore defenseman was otherworldly. Besides putting Massachusetts on the map, Makar helped lead a Minutemen team that won five games the year before he came on campus come within sixty minutes of a national championship.
His stock continues to go up as the larger hockey world gets to know Cale Makar. After Buffalo, Makar stepped right into a Colorado playoff locker room and did not miss a beat, scoring in his first NHL game. Sleeper stock no more.
Down: Cale Makar in college
Not that anyone expected anything different. When your head coach spends the Frozen Four not even doing the dance most coaches and players do pretending the Hobey Baker Award winner will return for his junior season, the only suspense left is which flight out of Buffalo will Makar take to join the Avalanche.
Down: The days of 13 and 14 year-olds making verbal commitments
After being a rapidly rising stock in April, young commitments crashed for good. New NCAA rules limit the age coaches can converse with recruits and make verbal offers. On the men's side, recruits cannot be in contact until January 1st of their sophomore year. On the women's side, that date is June 15th after their sophomore year.
April had multiple 13 year-old boys and girls thanking everyone who helped them along the way before the new rules went into effect May 1st. If anything, seeing it happen in real time was a reminder of why the rules needed to be put in place.
Up: NCHC getting things done nationally
It's nearly impossible to get all of college hockey to agree. Every two years like clockwork, possible rules changes, without fail, get reversed.
No one was happy with a system where it's far more likely to see a 15-year-old and 20 year-old commit to a college program than a 17-year-old and yet it stood. Any changes one way or another were seen as an affront. (Right now the Big Ten could announce it will be giving every team a hug and it would be considered an attack on the game or something like that.) So the fact that the NCHC was able to spearhead a proposal and get college hockey board is something trending upward. There might be hope for future changes.
Another thing nationally the NCHC has gotten done? A fourth straight national championship.
No one was happy with a system where it's far more likely to see a 15-year-old and 20 year-old commit to a college program than a 17-year-old and yet it stood. Any changes one way or another were seen as an affront. (Right now the Big Ten could announce it will be giving every team a hug and it would be considered an attack on the game or something like that.) So the fact that the NCHC was able to spearhead a proposal and get college hockey board is something trending upward. There might be hope for future changes.
Another thing nationally the NCHC has gotten done? A fourth straight national championship.
At this point, I wouldn't be shocked to see Pankowski needing to declare it as a dependent for next year's taxes alongside scoring goals and earning an insane number of honors.
What's better than graduating?🎓— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerWHockey) May 11, 2019
Graduating with the natty! 🏆
The champs are in the house for #UWGrad. Congrats to all the graduates today @UWMadison!#OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/tUaIgzxM3n
Up: Use of the term Transfer Portal
Every time it comes up, my head goes to this image:
Down: Boston College keeping its stars
Unfortunately for Katie King Crowley, a pair of Eagles stars reportedly have gone down the portal. Caitrin Lonergan and 2018 Patty Kazmaier Award winner Daryl Watts both reportedly are looking to transfer from BC elsewhere. (This doesn't include Oliver Wahlstrom's long-awaited college career coming to an end one season in by turning pro despite struggling for Jerry York's team.)
To say both will be a major loss for Boston College would be nice. 2018-19 didn't go the way expected for much of the season, but BC turned things around to make the NCAA Tournament. Losing Lonergan and Watts on top of graduating Megan Keller and Makenna Newkirk hurts a team with annual national championship aspirations. Without those four - the top four scorers last season - Boston College's highest returning scorer is former Minnesota forward Lindsay Agnew, who herself transferred last season to BC.
Down: First round picks staying for a junior season
Ottawa signed Michigan sophomore forward Josh Norris earlier this week, leaving college hockey without an upperclassman NHL first-round pick next season.
There were four (BU's Jake Oettinger and Dante Fabbro, UMD's Riley Tufte and SCSU's Ryan Poehling) last season. All four turned pro as did sophomores Makar, the first top-10 draft pick to play a second college season after his draft since James VanRiemsdyk, BU's Shane Bowers and Norris' Wolverines teammate Quinn Hughes.
That's not to say this is a trend or players were rushed. Several names above made a flawless transition to the NHL. In the end, the 2019-20 trend is one where a player like Norris, who shined for Michigan before getting hurt at the World Juniors, is leaving rather than getting that extra year several others did this past season.
Way Down: First round picks staying in general
Wisconsin's K'Andre Miller and North Dakota's Jacob Bernard-Docker are currently the only first-round picks staying with their college team next season.
Hold: First round picks transferring
While several freshmen signed early, Providence's Jay O'Brien left the Friars after an injury-plagued season for the BCHL. He's in the transfer portal.
I don't know what to make of this decision. There are moving parts that need to settle. However, it says a lot about where college hockey has grown over the past decade where O'Brien would rather sit out a season and return to college rather than play in the CHL. We're not too far removed from the days of CHL teams regularly poaching NHL first-round picks with college ties and/or threatening to sue Jeff Jackson for libel.
Up: AIC as a destination
Joining Yellow Jacket sweaters in being on the upswing after being the latest school to upset St. Cloud State is American International College being a destination. Imagining anyone turning down St. Lawrence to stay at AIC would have been laughable up until a couple seasons ago, which speaks to the job Eric Lang has done with the program. Currently this month it was a move that made sense.
There were a lot of program highs for AIC this season. Long the Atlantic Hockey basement dweller, it wouldn't be surprising to see the success continue under Lang.
Up: Phil counting Cole Caufield goals
If it's anything like this...
Cole Caufield U18WC goal count: 14 (tied with Alex Ovechkin for single-tournament record). Cole Caufield season goal count: 72. Cole Caufield USA career goal count: 126 (122 GP).— Chris Peters (@chrismpeters) April 27, 2019
Cole Caufield goal count = 72.— Corey Pronman (@coreypronman) April 27, 2019
Down: Alaska-Anchorage building capacity
The Seawolves return to campus and will play in a 750 seat rink. While there are plans to expand the building capacity, it will not happen in 2019-20.
Up: North Dakota's giant scoreboard
Literally.
Up: Cliffy Hockey/Stanley Cup playoff goals by Quinnipiac alums
An easy bet to win before April would be whether or not a Quinnipiac alum has scored a playoff goal. It's one of those things where, based on how well the Bobcats have played recently, you'd expect someone had. It sounded right.
Regardless, the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs have been a good one of Bobcat alums. Not only did Devon Toews (New York Islanders) breakthrough with the first QU playoff goal, but Connor Clifton (Boston Bruins) quickly became the second Quinnipiac alum. Clifton AKA Cliffy Hockey continues on, helping the Bruins and looking to be the first QU player to win a Stanley Cup as one.
Down: Johnny Hockey
If the NHL was the WWE, Johnny Gaudreau's music would be hitting at some point to take back his gimmick. Is adding a "y" and "hockey" the default hockey nickname? Yes. Is it still something - in the town where the Johnny Hockey name was born nonetheless - to get up in arms about? You better believe that's a yes.
Up: Scotts returning to UMD
One of the stories coming out of the Frozen Four was Minnesota Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin being someone an NHL team could look at for a coaching vacancy. As of the end of May, that hasn't happened. Sandelin remains in Duluth, as does fellow Scott namesake Perunovich.
The 2018 National Rookie of the Year returns for his junior season with the Bulldogs, who also get back Dylan Samberg and Hunter Shepard. While there were expected losses (see below), the back-to-back champs would be happy to have one of those three returning next season, let alone all three.
Down: Andersons returning to UMD
Another year, another national championship, another Anderson departing for the pros.
Up: Gopher hockey alums becoming HS hockey coaches
This winter will be difficult to go in a Twin Cities rink without finding a Minnesota alum coaching a girl's high school team. Four recent Gophers will be first-time head coaches, including a pair of just graduated seniors. Olympian Mira Jalosuo takes over Stillwater, Paige Haley will be Northfield's head coach, Taylor Williamson will be co-head coach (with father Dean, a former Gopher himself) at Wayzata and Jackie Pieper will be coaching Chaska. Seeing the coaching pipeline continue to grow has been fascinating.
Hold: St. Cloud State women's head coach
After St. Lawrence took nearly two months to announce its men's hockey head coach, the Huskies women's hockey job is the only open D1 job remaining. Curious to see who ends up applying and getting the job vacated by Eric Rud leaving to join Chris Bergeron's Miami staff.
Down: Adam Fox's Hobey Baker hopes
Throughout much of April, Adam Fox taking the Veseyian path returning to Harvard for his senior season rather than sign with Carolina put the Crimson defenseman in the front seat for next season's Hobey Baker Award. It worked for a less-transparent Vesey when he came back after being a Hobey Hat Trick finalist. It's hard to not make Fox the favorite before 2019-20 kicks off after a year which most years would be an award-winning year.
I was higher on them before Fox's rights were traded to the Rangers and inevitably signing with the team earlier this month. Now it's not even a penny stock.
Up: New York Rangers' Harvard pipeline
60% of the time it works every time.
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