NCAA Undergraduates Jumping to NHL

A number of NCAA hockey underclassmen, with their team's 2024-25 seasons having recently coming to an end, have signed professional contracts with NHL organizations. Some of the more notable recent signings, as listed by player's last name:

Player, Class, Position (School)           NHL Team

Damien Carfagna, Jr., D, (Ohio State) #    Edmonton

Trevor Connelly, Fr., F (Providence)       Vegas

Karsen Dorwart, Jr., F (Michigan State) #  Philadelphia

Connor Kurth, Jr., F (Minnesota)           Tampa Bay

Joey Larson, Jr., F (Michigan State) #     NY Islanders

Ryan Leonard, So., F (Boston College) *    Washington

Dans Locmelis, So., F (Massachusetts)      Boston

Gabe Perreault, So., F (Boston College)    NY Rangers

Chase Pietila, So., D (Michigan Tech) #    Pittsburgh

Isak Posch, So., G (St. Cloud State) #     Colorado

Jimmy Snuggerud, Jr., F (Minnesota) *      St. Louis

Trey Taylor, Jr., F (Clarkson) #           Dallas

Callum Tung, Fr., G (Connecticut) #        NY Rangers

Matthew Wood, Jr. F (Minnesota)            Nashville

More signings can be found here. 

# Signed as free agent

* 2025 Hobey Baker Award top 10 finalist

Tim Taylor 1942-2013

Longtime Yale University men’s hockey head coach Tim Taylor has passed.

Taylor, who had been fighting cancer and was gravely ill, died on Saturday at the age of 71, two weeks to the day that the Bulldogs won their first NCAA men’s hockey title with a 4-0 win over Quinnipiac in Pittsburgh.

A Boston native and a 1963 Harvard graduate, Taylor was head coach at Yale from 1976 to 2006. He bypassed the 1983-84 and 1993-94 seasons while participating with the U.S Olympic Team, including the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway where he served as head coach and led the Americans to an eighth-place finish.

As a player, Taylor skated for the Waterloo Black Hawks of the old semi-pro United States Hockey League. He also played for the Manchester Black Hawks and Framingham Pics, and was a member of the 1964 U.S, National Team, according to hockeydb.com. At Harvard, he won the Donald Angier Hockey Trophy in 1961-62 as the Crimson’s most improved player, and served as captain the following season as the Crimson finished 21-3-2.

He posted 10 winning seasons at Yale, while fashioning a 342-433-55 overall record. His 1997-98 squad was the first Yale team to earn an NCAA tournament berth since 1952, and he is also the school’s all-time leader in victories.

A three-time ECAC Coach of the Year, Taylor also won the Spencer Penrose Award as college hockey’s top Division I coach in 1998. He also mentored the U.S. during the 1991 Canada Cup, leading the Americans to a best-ever second-place finish.

Following his three-decade tenure in New Haven, Taylor served as an amateur scout with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils. He then worked with the U.S. National Team Development Program from 2007 until his passing.