It’s been a whirlwind offseason, with tons of transfers, CHL commitments, and NHL signings. Thankfully, the teams have to start playing hockey this week, so we shift from just guessing to really seeing what’s gonna happen.

I don’t have any super insightful charts or game snippets to help us out for this first game, but here are some match-ups I’m watching this weekend, and why.

#13 Quinnipiac kicks off with a trip to #6 Boston College

My first in-person game of the season will be this Friday, as the Boston College Eagles look to start a season where just maybe, they’ll get over the hump and win it all.

It’s hard to look at their roster and not notice the obvious: they lost 4 of the top players in the country this offseason.

There are no easy ways to replace Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault, Eamon Powell, and Jacob Fowler, but they are better equipped than many other teams to handle this kind of challenge.

First, there are logical internal replacements: Bruins blue-chip prospect James Hagens and World Junior hero Teddy Stiga are slated to have even bigger roles, Oskar Jellvik is back from injury, Jan Korec looks like he’s at least an above-average goalie, and the defense is still full of high-grade talent.

While they’re one of the few blue bloods without a big-name CHL player coming in this year, Greg Brown went big game hunting in the portal and landed Ryan Conmy out of New Hampshire.

Visiting Quinnipiac also comes in ranked, and boasts an impressive forward group built from a mix of returning talent, CHL age-outs, and drafted recruits.

Jeremy Wilmer and Mason Marcellus are back to lead the offense, and they’ll be receiving reinforcements in the form of QMJHL 100-point scorer Antonin Verreault, and Flames draft pick Ethan Wyttenbach.

On defense, things look slightly less sunny, with the team’s top 3 ice time earners moving on after graduating, however, the Bobcats consitency as a school over Rand Pecknold’s tenure gives little reason for concern. They are still a good ECAC team, but there may be some growing pains getting systems in place for a group that has only 2 upperclassmen.

What I’m watching for this game:

• How do the CHL freshmen look?

• What kind of step forward does James Hagens take in the Eagles new look offense, where Ryan Leonard is no longer his line’s principal puck carrier?

• How serious is Quinnipiac outside the ECAC?

Match-Up of The Week: #5 Penn State goes to #14 Arizona State

Apologies in advance – this section is mostly projecting what we might see from Gavin McKenna this year. It’s just so interesting.

The biggest game of the weekend, even if these teams were projected for #39 and #50 in the pairwise, is Gavin McKenna’s NCAA debut.

I will have more to say about this in a separate piece, but adding the projected #1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft is a serious coup for the Nittany Lions and the sport as a whole.

Penn State already returned much of a roster that was just at the Frozen Four 6 months ago, and now tap into a tier of player that just a few years ago would almost certainly have ended up on Comm Ave or in the Mitten State.

We’ll find out the lines closer to game time, but coach Guy Gadowsky will have the option of skating the reigning CHL Player of the Year with Aidan Fink – a returning 50+ point scorer – on the opposite wing, and unleashing hell on opposing defenses.

With this strong base and a dynamic offensive player at his side, the pieces are in place for both McKenna and Penn State to have monster seasons, so where do things look like they’ll end up come next April?

It’s harder to say for Penn State, but for McKenna, only 4 players have ever played college hockey in their draft year en route to a 1st Overall Selection:

• Joe Murphy (Michigan State, 1986)

• Rick DiPietro (BU, 2000)

• Owen Power (Michigan, 2021)

• Macklin Celebrini (BU, 2024)

For projecting the level of production McKenna might be able to reach, Celebrini is the most appropriate comparison in terms of era and position. There are differences between the two players, as McKenna is a natural winger and has a more offensive but less well rounded game, but it still serves as a good benchmark.

In his NCAA debut, Macklin Celebrini had 2 points and assisted the OT winner in a 3-2 BU win over Bentley. This kicked off a season where he won the Hobey Baker, finishing with 32 goals and 64 points.

My take: Gavin McKenna will beat this point total, but maybe comes in at a lower SPAM percentile given their different roles.

Whether or not he’s a higher-caliber player is to-be-determined, but:

• McKenna is considerably older than Celebrini was. McKenna turns 18 in December, Celebrini didn’t turn 18 until 2 months after the season ended. These extra 6.5 months matter a lot for player development.

• As a winger and more offensive player, he will be able to focus more on scoring and creating than Celebrini was able to.

• In my opinion, Penn State’s schedule this year projects as slightly easier than BU’s schedule in 2023-24. One monster game vs LIU or Stonehill, and he could be on a blistering pace before Halloween.

Who I’d rather build an NHL team around is a different story (give me mini Crosby, every time), but for now, this is what I see happening.

Another strange freshman situation: Jack Beck is playing for Arizona State after playing 36 games in the ECHL, at a point-per-game pace last year. I am not an expert on NCAA rulings like this… but College Hockey News covered this in detail here.

One has to think Beck will be an immediate impact on a Sun Devils team that lost 4 of its Top 5 point scorers from last year, giving then experience and scoring punch they simply could not find recruiting a freshman — or even most transfer portal players.

What I’ll be watching for this game:

• I’ve seen McKenna play a full game only a handful of times, including live at the WJC. In that environment, he was obviously skilled but the older players just had an edge in strength/size. I’m excited to see how his game evolved in the last year.

• If the party is spoiled and ASU takes care of business and wins one (or both) this weekend, it’d be a great feather in their cap for their at-large chances come tournament time. These games count the same as all the others in the NPI, especially when you can get a quality non-conference win.

Other Match-Ups Worth Eyeing

• #10 UConn is going out west to play Colorado College in a big non-conference game. It felt like CC was on the cusp of being a serious contender last year… but things didn’t work out. The x-factor as I see it: if Kaiden Mbereko returns to the form he had before last season, they could do some damage.

• Merrimack & UMass - Lowell throw the gauntlet for the first game of their rivalry series this year. UML comes in receiving USCHO votes. The Riverhawks’ most interesting player: Austin Elliott, who went 32-1 with a .924 in the OHL Regular Season last year en route to a Memorial Cup.

• I’ll be at Northeastern vs Holy Cross on Saturday, the last ever men’s home opener at Matthews Arena. No big national tournament implications or anything like that, but certainly will be a fun night.

Thanks for reading this week’s preview!

It’s a bit shorter this week, but there’ll be plenty more to come as we start to get to know the teams and players in this new world of college hockey.

Have a great weekend and see you very soon.

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