Maryville University earned its first-ever victory over an NCAA Division I opponent on Friday, when the Saints topped host St. Lawrence, 3-2.
Maryville is in its first season as an NCAA Division I independent, after previously competing in the ACHA. More can be found here.
Another Serratore brother will be hanging up his whistle at the end of the 2026-27 NCAA campaign.
Frank Serratore (Bemidji State), who has guided the Air Force Academy for the past 29 years and led the Falcons to seven NCAA tournament berths, has announced he will retire at the end of the current season. His younger brother, Tom Serratore, just announced his season-end retirement at Bemidji State last month.
Frank Serratore has led Air Force to a 490-473-106 overall mark in his tenure in Colorado Springs, including tonight's 4-1 defeat against Omaha. His accolades with the Falcons included seven 20-win seasons, seven Atlantic Hockey playoff titles/seven automatic NCAA tournament berths ,and two Atlantic Hockey regular-season championships since taking over in 1997-98. Factoring in his four years at the helm of the University of Denver from 1990 to 1994, Serratore's overall collegiate head coaching record stands at 539-565-115.
A native of Coleraine, Minn., Serratore, 69, played two years and 46 games as a goaltender at Western Michigan before transferring home to Bemidji State for two NCAA Division III seasons. Prior to taking the head coaching reins at DU, he served as a GM/coach in the USHL with Austin, Rochester, and Omaha, and two years as an assistant at the University of North Dakota. After leaving Denver, he spent three seasons in pro coaching/hockey operations with the IHL's Minnesota/Manitoba Moose before moving on to Air Force, where his 2008-09 team came within a double overtime goal of advancing to the NCAA Division I Frozen Four.
Matt Nieto has called it a career. The Long Beach, Cal. native has formally retired from the NHL after 12 seasons, after not playing last year due to injury.
Nieto, 33, was drafted 47th overall by the San Jose Sharks in 2011 following his freshman season at BU, the first Californian ever to be selected by the Sharks. A product of the U.S. National Team Development Program in Michigan, he went on to skate in 705 career NHL regular-season outings at forward from 2013 to 2025 with San Jose, Colorado, and Pittsburgh, including two separate stints each with the Penguins and Avalanche. He collected 87 goals and 119 assists for 206 points in that span, and also posted eight goals and 21 points in 62 Stanley Cup Playoff contests. He also recorded 18 points in 28 career AHL appearances.
Nieto played at BU from 2010 to 2013, registering 44-58—102 points in 115 career games with the Terriers. He also helped them 2012 NCAA tournament and the 2013 Hockey East championship game, the latter the final game coached by legendary BU mentor Jack Parker. He also won gold twice with the U.S. at the IIHF World U-18 Championship (2009, 2010).
Several Arizona State hockey players recently sent a letter to their university president, requesting that the Sun Devils' coaching staff put on administrative leave following the August incident with sophomore defenseman Matthew Mayich that has left him in a coma.
Mayich, 21, a Toronto native and a 2023 St. Louis Blues draft choice who played last year for Clarkson University, collapsed following an outdoor workout in Tempe, Ariz. on Aug. 20 that was led by a former military officer, with members of the ASU coaching staff supposedly present. A former four-year major junior player with Ottawa (OHL), he remains in a neurological unit in a coma, with his attorney having noted that Mayich is not expected to recover in any meaningful fashion. ASU police have been conducting their own investigation into the matter, but no findings have yet been released.
ASU head coach Greg Powers, who has led the program since its ACHA club days and its elevation to the NCAA Division I level in 2015, declined to answer questions regarding the incident or the training session at last week's National Collegiate Hockey Conference media day. The Sun Devils, who joined the NCHC in 2024, are slated to open their 2025-26 season this weekend with two games at NCAA Division I independent Lindenwood.
The 2027 NCAA Men's Hockey Bridgeport (Conn.) Regional is moving to Hartford.
Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, formerly known as Webster Bank Arena, is undergoing renovations and will not be available for the regional next March. It will instead be transferred to the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, home of the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack and the sometimes home of UConn men's hockey. Sacred Heart University will still serve as the regional host.
Total Mortgage Arena lost its sole hockey tenant earlier this year when the AHL's Bridgeport Islanders moved to Ontario to become the Hamilton Hammers.
Kevin Hayes (Boston College) has called it a career.
The Dorchester, Mass. native has retired as an active player after going scoreless in five games this fall with Kazan Ak-Bars (KHL) in Kazan, Russia.
Originally drafted 24th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, Hayes went on to play in 805 career NHL regular-season games with the New York Rangers, Winnipeg Jets, Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins. A 6-foot-5 center/left wing, he tallied 185 goals and 260 assists for 445 points in all, while also collecting 8-18—26 points over 56 Stanley Cup Playoff contests.
Hayes, 34, skated in prep school with Noble and Greenough in his native Massachusetts and then played four years at Boston College, registering 44-88—132 points in 142 outings with the Eagles. As a senior, he recorded career highs of 27-38—65 points in 40 appearances while playing on a line with Bill Arnold and the late Johnny Gaudreau, guiding BC to the 2014 NCAA Frozen Four just two years after helping the Eagles to a national championship.
The younger brother of the late Jimmy Hayes, who also played for Nobles and BC and in the NHL, Hayes put up his top-scoring NHL campaign in 2022-23 with Philadelphia, notching 18-36—54 points in 81 contests. He scored a career-high 25 goals with the Rangers in 2017-18, one of two 20-goal seasons in his NHL tenure, and also appeared in three IIHF World Championships for the United States (2014, 2017, 2024).
Tom Serratore (Bemidji State) will step down as head coach of his alma mater following the 2026-27 season, when he will retire after more than 40 years of coaching, all in his home state.
Serratore has guided Bemidji to a 416-397-108 record over 25 seasons. all at the NCAA Division I level. In that span he has recorded eight campaigns of 20 or more wins, along with seven regular-season championships and three league tournament titles split amongst BSU's time in the CHA, WCHA and CCHA. He has also led the Beavers to five NCAA tournament appearances, including the 2009 Frozen Four.
A native of Coleraine, Minn., Serratore played two years at center at Division II Mankato State before transferring to BSU, where he played two more years at the Division III level with the Beavers and finished his college career with a combined 63 goals and 78 assists for 141 points. Following graduation, he began his coaching career as an assistant at Brainerd High School, before becoming head coach at Henry Sibley High School for two seasons.
Serratore moved on to the college ranks in 1993-94 as an assistant at St. Cloud State, where he spent six seasons before returning to BSU as an assistant in 1999-00 as the Beavers moved to the Division I level. He then took the reins as head coach in 2001-02, where he has remained ever since.
Twenty years since Sept. 11 has become twenty-five. Recirculating this piece I wrote years ago in remembrance of my friend, Mark Bavis, a former Boston University forward, NAHL assistant coach and NHL scout whom I only knew for much too short a time. Two years ago I got to visit the Mark Bavis Arena in Rockland, Mass. that was named after him, just over 20 miles from his hometown of Roslindale. He would be 56 now. Rest in peace, Mark.
Jamie Russell (Michigan Tech) has joined Princeton as an assistant men's hockey coach.
The head coach at his alma mater from 2003 to 2011, Russell, 60, had also served as an assistant at Ferris State, Cornell and Providence in a coaching career that stretches back to 1984-85. He also worked as a head coach in the ECHL with Elmira and Worcester from 2014 to 2020, before spending the next four years with the South Kent School and the Selects Academy AAA program in Connecticut. He guided Ritten Sport in Italy to a 27-22-0-3 mark in 2024-25, before a brief stint as GM/head coach with the Fife Flyers (EIHL) last season.
A native of Kamloops, B.C., Russell skated on defense at Michigan Tech from 1987 to 1989, notching eight goals and 22 assists for 30 points and 134 penalty minutes over 78 NCAA appearances with the Huskies. He then played professionally for two seasons in the AHL and ECHL. His son, Ben, served as director of hockey operations at Cornell for two years, while his younger son, Charlie, is entering his third campaign as a forward at Maine.
The NCAA has made changes in the women's Division I Frozen Four schedule for 2027, which will be contested in Duluth, Minn. Instead of the previous Friday-Sunday schedule, the national semifinals will be now contested on Sunday, March 21, with the championship game following on Tuesday, March 23, all at AMSOIL Arena.
"Committee members’ rationale for making the change is to have all three games of the Women’s Frozen Four televised on ESPN’s linear channels," as stated at ncaa.com.
Wisconsin is the two-time defending women's Division I champion, having defeated WCHA rival Ohio State in each of the past two years.
Cale Makar (UMass) is the NHL's first $20 million man.
The 27-year-old defenseman from Calgary recently signed a new eight-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche that will pay him an average of $20.4 million per season, to the 2034-35 campaign, making him the NHL's highest-paid player.
Drafted fourth overall by Colorado in 2017 out of Brooks (AJHL) in junior hockey, Makar has spent his entire NHL career with the Avalanche, tallying 136 goals and 371 assists for 507 points in 470 regular-season games over his first seven full professional seasons. He has also recorded 26-64—90 points in 90 Stanley Cup Playoff outings, and led Colorado to the Cup in 2022 while also winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL's postseason MVP that spring.
Makar helped Canada to the title at the 2025 Four Nations Faceoff, and then a silver medal at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games. He played two seasons at UMass, totaling 21 goals and 70 points in 75 appearances, and won the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the NCAA's top player as a sophomore just before turning pro for the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He claimed the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top rookie in 2019-20, and is a two-time winner of the Norris Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman.
NCAA Division I men's hockey newest program will play a hybrid/transition schedule in 2026-27 as it begins its varsity history as an independent.
Maryville University will skate in 16 games against NCAA Division I schools this upcoming season, all on the road, including single contests at St. Lawrence, Yale, Princeton, Ferris State, Lindenwood, Quinnipiac and Holy Cross. The Saints will also play two-game sets at Lake Superior State, Bowling Green, Lindenwood and Alaska (Fairbanks). The home slate at the Maryville University Ice Hockey Center in St. Louis will include two games against NCAA Division III opponent Trine, plus two-game series against ACHA Division I club foes Midland, Liberty and UNLV.
Maryville will close out its inaugural varsity campaign with two games against the USHL's USA National Development Team in Plymouth, Mich. in late February.
Jaxon Ezman (Princeton) will begin his professional career overseas, after recently signing with the Coventry Blaze of the Elite Ice Hockey League in Great Britain for the 2026-27 season.
Ezman, 23, a forward from Middleton, Wisc., spent the last four seasons at Princeton, tallying 22 goals and 28 assists for 50 points to go with 100 penalty minutes in 101 appearances. His best campaign came last year as a senior, when he collected career highs of 11-15—26 points in 34 outings as the Tigers finished fourth in ECAC Hockey, and came within an overtime goal of qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2018.
Coventry went 25-22-0-7 in 2025-26, finishing seventh in the EIHL.
John Marino (Harvard) will continue playing for the Utah Mammoth, after he recently signed an eight-year, $54 million extension with the NHL club he has skated for the last two seasons.
Marino, 29, a 6-foot-1, 200 lb. defenseman from North Easton, Mass., had his best NHL campaign to date in 2025-26 when he tallied four goals and 32 assists for 36 points for the Mammoth, before adding his first career league postseason goal in six Stanley Cup Playoff contests. In 443 career NHL regular-season outings over seven years with Pittsburgh, Utah and New Jersey, he has collected 23-134—157 points to go with 1-6—7 points in 35 playoff appearances.
Drafted 154th overall by the Edmonton Oilers after his second season of junior hockey with South Shore (USPHL), Marino joined Harvard in 2016 after winning a Clark Cup with Tri-City (USHL). In three collegiate seasons with the Crimson in Cambridge, he registered 7-35—42 points in 101 games, while helping Harvard to two ECAC Hockey titles and an NCAA Frozen Four berth as a freshman.
Tennessee State University will not be playing NCAA Division I men's hockey in 2026-27. The university announced that the Tigers, who were originally scheduled to begin play in 2024-25, will be sidelined for yet another season, with the university still facing significant financial challenges. Tennessee State also opted out of the 2025-26 campaign.
TSU, which had originally announced in 2023 that it was adding the sport, would have been the first HBCU to feature a hockey program. Denver goaltender Johnny Hicks, a former TSU commit, led the Pioneers to a national title this spring, earning Most Outstanding Player honors of the NCAA Frozen Four in the process.
Trades of former NCAA players with National Hockey League franchises up to this, the first day of NHL free agency, since the NHL trade deadline back on March 6.
Player, Position (School) New Team Old Team
Dalton Bancroft, F (Cornell) Nashville Boston
Brett Berard, F (Providence) Montreal NY Rangers
Bobby Brink, F (Denver) Minnesota Philadelphia
W. Bongiovanni, F (Quinnipiac) Washington Ottawa
Magnus Chrona, G (Denver) Colorado Nashville
Ross Colton, F (Vermont) Nashville Colorado
Angus Crookshank, F (New Hampshire) Florida New Jersey
Andre Gasseau, F (Boston College) San Jose Boston
Jack Drury, F (Harvard) Nashville Colorado
Justin Faulk, D (Minnesota-Duluth) Detroit St. Louis
Jordan Greenway, F (Boston U.) Chicago Buffalo
A.J. Greer, F (Boston U.) Anaheim Florida
Garnet Hathaway, F (Brown) Florida Philadelphia
Michael Kesselring, D (Northeastern) San Jose Buffalo
Devon Levi, G (Northeastern) Edmonton Buffalo
Bobby McMann, F (Colgate) Seattle Toronto
Ian Mitchell, D (Denver) Tampa Bay Detroit
Isak Posch, G (St. Cloud State) Nashville Colorado
Massimo Rizzo, F (Denver) NY Rangers Nashville
Evan Rodrigues, F (Boston U.) New Jersey Florida
Jack St. Ivany D (Boston College) Winnipeg Pittsburgh
Mackie Samoskevich (Michigan) Seattle Florida
Hunter Shepard, G (Minn-Duluth) Montreal Ottawa
Ben Steeves, F (Minnesota-Duluth) New Jersey Florida
Brandon Svoboda, F (Boston U.) Ottawa San Jose
Aidan Thompson, F (Denver) NY Rangers Chicago
Alex Tuch, F (Boston College) Washington Buffalo
Joseph Woll, G (Boston College) Philadelphia Toronto
Players listed alphabetically by last name. Does not include incoming NCAA players.
As expected, left wing Gavin McKenna (Penn State) was the first overall pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs at this year's NHL Draft in Buffalo tonight.
Several other current NCAA players were selected in the first round on Friday night at KeyBank Arena. Keaton Verhoeff (North Dakota), a defenseman, was chosen ninth overall by the San Jose Sharks, while center Tyan Lawrence (Boston University) went 11th to the St. Louis Blues, and left wing Oscar Hemming (Boston College) went 14th to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Buffalo Sabres tabbed center Ilia Morozov (Miami) 20th overall.
As for incoming and future collegiate skaters, the Vancouver Canucks chose center Caleb Malhotra (Boston University) third overall, while defenseman Daxon Rudolph (Denver) was taken one spot later by host Buffalo. Carson Carels (North Dakota), another defenseman, went sixth to the Calgary Flames, while Chase Reid (Michigan State) went seventh to the Seattle Kraken. Left wing Wyatt Cullen (Minnesota) was tabbed 10th by the Nashville Predators, followed by right wing Nikita Klepov (Michigan State) at 15th to the Anaheim Ducks and left wing Ethan Belchetz (Michigan State) at 17th to the Utah Mammoth.
San Jose chose defenseman Ryan Lin (Denver) 21st overall, while right wing Liam Ruck (North Dakota) went to the Pittsburgh Penguins with the very next selection and left wing JP Hurlbert (Michigan) went 23rd to the Detroit Red Wings. The Philadelphia Flyers chose defenseman Maksim Sokolovskii (Maine) 27th overall, with center Jack Hextall (Michigan State) going three selections later to Calgary and defenseman Thomas Bleyl (Michigan State) right after to the Nashville Predators. The final pick of the first round was right wing Jaxon Cover (Penn State), who went 32nd overall to the Ottawa Senators.
The 2026 draft concludes Saturday with Rounds 2-7 (11 a.m. ET, NHL Network). The full list of college-related selections can be found here.
Several former NCAA skaters were recently named to the 2025-26 NHL All-Star Teams:
First All‑Star Team
D – Cale Makar, Colorado Avalanche (Massachusetts)
D – Zach Werenski, Columbus Blue Jackets (Michigan)
Werenski also claimed the Norris Trophy as the top defenseman in the NHL last season.
Second All‑Star Team
LW – Cole Caufield, Montreal Canadiens (Wisconsin)
Caufield also claimed the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly play.
All-Rookie Team
G - Jakub Dobes, Montreal Canadiens (Ohio State)
F - Jimmy Snuggerud, St. Louis Blues (Minnesota)
Dobes led the Canadiens to the 2026 Eastern Conference final, while Snuggerud tied for second on his team with 51 points.
Former Harvard assistant coach Rob Rassey (Northeastern) is returning to Cambridge, this time as the 12th head coach in Crimson men's hockey history. He succeeds Harvard alumnus Ted Donato, who stepped down earlier this year after 21 years at the helm.
Rassey, 41, from Shelby Township, Mich., spent the last four years as an assistant/associate coach at Michigan, where he helped the Wolverines to a Big Ten title and NCAA Frozen Four berth last season. Prior to that, he served as an assistant at Harvard from 2013 to 2019 after beginning his coaching career with two years at Youngstown (USHL), where he played in juniors when the franchise was in the NAHL.
Rassey played four years as a forward at Northeastern (2005-2009), where he tallied 13 goals and 17 assists for 30 points in 123 career games while helping the Huskies to the NCAA tournament as a senior, their first national berth in 15 seasons.
Brady Tkachuk (Boston University) is joining brother Matthew in the Sunshine State.
Tkachuk, 26, who has skated with the Ottawa Senators since turning pro in 2018-19, was traded Sunday to the Florida Panthers, where he will wear No. 8, for four draft choices. In 572 NHL regular-season games, the 6-foot-4, 212-pound left wing has tallied 213 goals and 250 assists for 463 points to go along with 821 penalty minutes. In 10 Stanley Cup Playoff contests, he has recorded 4-3—7 points and 19 PIM, and led Ottawa back to the postseason in 2025 after a seven-year drought. A four-time NHL All-Star Game selection, he captained the Senators the past five years.
A product of the St. Louis Blues AAA franchise and later the U.S. National Team Development Program, where he won a gold medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship, Tkachuk played one year at BU, notching 8-23—31 points and 61 PIM in 40 outings with the Terriers while helping them to a Hockey East tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth. After being drafted fourth overall by the Senators that summer, he turned pro, and has been in the NHL ever since. He was also a member of the gold-medal winning American squad at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games earlier this year in Italy.
Tkachuk is the younger son of former NHL and BU forward Keith Tkachuk, who was named to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday.
