Post #81 – 1/5/23 – 2nd Half Underway, Weekly Schedules & Where Is The Top 15, Recruiting Update, ICYMI
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2nd Half Underway
Schedules + Where’s The Top 15
Recruiting Update
ICYMI
2nd Half Underway
Happy 2023!
I hope you had a great holiday and start to the new year. The college hockey holiday break usually means the D-I season is at or a little more than half-way complete. D-III teams a little less so since their season starts a bit later. But for some D-I teams (which is hard to fathom) are inching their way to 70 % of the regular season being complete.
D-I teams can play a regular season max of 34 games (29 for the Ivies & 25 for D-III) and Penn State leads the country in games played to date with 24. Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale have played the least, with 14. Usually teams schedule a non-conference opponent to start the 2nd half, and there have been plenty.
In fact every D-I game played since the holiday break has been non-conference as well as many D-III games.
Friday Dec. 30
D-I
- Dartmouth 3 @ Stonehill 2
- Long Island Univ. 3 @ #12 Penn State 4
- #1 Ohio State 9 @ Lindenwood 1
Saturday Dec. 31
D-I
- Long Island Univ. 1 @ #12 Penn State 4
- #14 UCONN 3 @ Brown 0
- Wisconsin 3 @ Quinnipiac 0
- #1 Ohio State 6 @ Lindenwood 0
- Merrimack 4 @ St. Anselms 2
D-III
- Hamilton 6 @ Elmira 3
- UMASS-Boston 1 @ Amherst 6
D-I
Sunday Jan. 1
- Wisconsin 0 @ Quinnipiac 3
Monday Jan. 2
D-I
- St. Mike’s 2 @ Union 6
- Mercyhurst 1 @ #3 Yale 3
- St. Anselm 2 @ UNH 4
D-III
- Alvernia 2 @ SUNY-Morrisville
- Manhattanville 0 @ Williams 5
- CONN-College 1 @ Wesleyan 2
- Johnson & Wales Univ. 2 @ Bowdoin 5
Tuesday Jan. 3
D-I
- Sacred Heart 4 @ St. Mike’s
- Mercyhurst 0 @ #3 Yale 5
Wednesday Jan. 4
D-III
Lake Forest @ Middlebury
Thursday Jan. 5
D-III
Manhattanville @ Alvernia (PA)
Schedules + The Top 15
Upon their return to campus, teams usually have the luxury of a little more of a relaxed game schedule vs. trying to pack games in. Classes usually don’t pick back up until the 2nd or 3rd week of Jan. for most schools – and that extra time means a lot of practice and potentially, a lot of games can be played. To give you an example, here is how heavy a schedule some teams are playing within each conference as they return from the holiday break. Keep in mind the normal number of games played in a week is 2, with 4 practice days. Anyone not on the list below has a more ‘normal’ schedule of games to practices leading into the 3rd week of Jan.
College Hockey America
- Mercyhurst: 6 games in 12 days
ECAC
- Colgate – 5 games in 9 days
- Cornell – 5 games in 12 days
- Harvard – 5 games in 9 days
- Quinnipiac – 6 games in 13 days
- St. Lawrence – 6 games in 12 days
- Yale – 7 games in 13 days
Hockey East
- Providence – 5 games in 11 days
NEWHA
- Post – 6 games in 10 days
- St. Anselm – 5 games in 11 days
- St. Mike’s – 5 games in 10 days
WCHA
- Wisconsin – 6 games in 15 days
Jan. 6, 7, & 8 – Click Below for Schedules:
- D-I Friday Jan. 6
- D-III Friday Jan. 6
- D-I Saturday Jan. 7
- D-III Saturday Jan. 7
- D-I Sunday Jan. 8
- D-III Sunday Jan. 8
Where is the USCHO.com Top 15 this week?
D-I
- #1 Ohio State is OFF
- #2 Wisconsin is home to #8 MN-Duluth
- #3 Yale is @ Clarkson/St. Lawrence
- #4 Quinnipiac is outdoors @ Fenway Park vs. Harvard and then home to Dartmouth
- #5 Minnesota is home to Merrimack/New Hampshire
- #6 Colgate is home to RPI/Union
- #7 Northeastern is home to BU/BC
- #8 MN-Duluth is @ Wisconsin
- #9 Providence is @ #13 Vermont
- #10 Cornell is home to Union/RPI
- #11 Clarkson is home to #3 Yale/Brown
- #12 Penn State is OFF
- #13 Vermont is home to #9 Providence
- #14 UCONN is OFF
- #15 St. Cloud is home to New Hampshire @ Minnesota
D-III
- #1 Gustavus is home and home with Saint Bens.
- #2 UW-River Falls is @ Concordia MN
- #3 Plattsburgh is OFF
- #4 Adrian is home to Suffolk
- #5 Amherst is home to Trinity
- #6 Colby is @ Hamilton
- #7 Norwich is @ Elmira/William Smith
- #8 Middlebury is home to Lake Forest / @ Endicott
- #9 Eau-Claire is @ St. Norbert
- #10 Elmira is home to #7 Norwich / New England College
- #11 Aurora is home to Northland
- #12 Nazareth is home to Stevenson
- #13 Hamilton is home to #6 Colby
- #14 Utica is @ Worcester State
- #15 Oswego is home to Potsdam/Canton
Recruiting Update
Since we’re going to be talking numbers and recruiting… Here’s my disclaimer… when speaking of a teams’ roster size, or a total number of recruits in a given class, or numbers of transfers – these are all best guesses – but educated guesses nonetheless. There is always room for error + or – and unfortunately, there is no website that is the absolute truth in keeping all the commitments… say for the college rosters themselves when they posted after a particular season begins. So, please keep in mind the below are educated best guesses. That said… here we go.
The recruiting process for the 2023 class is largely in its final stages. However, for the 2024 class – those who are now in grade 11 – there is still a ways to go.
With two new D-I teams set to begin next season, you can probably expect roster sizes of each in the low 20’s. Having built a program from the ground up myself, I know what the challenge is like and how difficult a task it is. Not only are you tasked with finding players to fill out a team for your first year, but you have to keep recruiting players to improve your program.
Not all players heading to a first-year program will be freshman. The NCAA transfer portal could certainly be a factor for both programs. As we’ve said an average incoming class is in the 250-260.
2023 Class
Based some of the websites that list commitments, we find about 160 D-I commits. Of course there are some errors in those numbers with de-commits, wrong info etc. and a host of commits that have not been announced yet but that’s a pretty realistic number when you do the math. When you add 160 commits, plus a possible grad transfers # of 95 (using this years number) and an additional 30+ commits left to be announced to fill out 2 entirely new rosters… you get a number around 300 or so. And of those, 200 are going to be first year players strait from the amateur ranks – not transfers.
Interestingly, based on the info we can find, around 80 of the commitments made for the class were announced in the 2022 calendar year. Now that doesn’t mean commitments didn’t happen earlier, it just means when they were announced. Of the announcements made, 5 came in the calendar year 2018, 11 in 2019, one in 2020 (covid), and 58 in 2021. What we don’t have data on is how of these commits took a gap or PG year.
2024 Class
So far we can tell there have been about 60 announced commitments – with 75% of those coming before Nov. 1 in this calendar year 2022. The total number of commits should drop because there are not 2 new teams that need to be recruited for. When accounting for say – 95 grad transfers in the class, there should be a total freshman/first year class commitment number around 170… given 60 announced commitments, there should be another 100 or so left in the class. Said another way, the 2024 class is roughly 35-45% committed.
In our next recruiting update, we’ll take a look at the available space in 2023 & 2024 and see how the numbers might play out.
ICYMI… Post #80
We’re starting a new section to our blog called… In Case You Missed It or ICYMI. If you didn’t get the chance to read out last post, now you can. Will will begin putting out previous Pipeline posts at the bottom of our current one. Check it out below.
Polls & Scheds
Conference Standings
National Stat Leaders
Sifters
Polls & Scheds
DCU/USCHO Division I Poll – December 12, 2022
- Ohio State (13)
- Wisconsin (6)
- Yale (1)
- Quinnipiac
- Minnesota
- Colgate
- Northeastern
- Minnesota-Duluth
- Providence
- Cornell
- Clarkson
- Penn State
- Vermont
- Connecticut
- St. Cloud State
Others receiving votes: Princeton 16, Boston College 7, Maine 4
USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women’s College Hockey Poll
December 13, 2022
- Ohio State University (9)
- University of Wisconsin (8)
- Quinnipiac University
- Yale University (1)
- University of Minnesota
- Colgate University
- Northeastern University
- Univ. of MN-Duluth
- Providence College
- Cornell University
- Clarkson University
- Penn State University
- University of Vermont
- University of Connecticut
- St. Cloud State University
Others receiving votes: Princeton University 12, Boston College 9, University of Maine 6, Long Island University 2, Minnesota State University 1.
DCU/USCHO Division III Women’s Poll – December 12, 2022
(Link to USCHO.com D-III Poll)
- Gustavus (13)
- UW-River Falls (7)
- Plattsburgh
- Adrian
- Amherst
- Colby
- Norwich
- Middlebury
- UW-Eau Claire
- Elmira
- Aurora
- Nazareth
- Hamilton
- Utica
- Oswego
Others receiving votes: Connecticut College 11, Augsburg 8, Williams 8, Cortland 7, Wesleyan 7, St. Norbert 6, Endicott 4, Bowdoin 2, Suffolk 2
D-I & D-III Weekly Schedules
As you will see, it’s an extremely light week of games. Most programs are done for the semester as exams are now the priority for players. There is one Top-15 match-up as #1 Ohio State travels to take on #10 Cornell in Ithaca, NY Saturday and Sunday.
D-I
Friday – 12/16
Saturday – 12/17
Sunday – 12/18
D-III
Wednesday – 12/13
Friday – 12/16
Saturday – 12/17
D-I Conference Standings
D-I teams are more or less at the mid-way point of the year in terms of # of conference games played. Northeastern, Quinnipiac, Long Island Univ., Penn State, and Minnesota are atop their respective conferences as we head into the holiday break.
The 2nd half of the year is more of a full on sprint as teams jockey for playoff positioning. Rarely if ever does a team have a weekend off and just about every game in a conference game with plenty of meaning. It can be a grind, but it truly is the best part of the season.
NCAA D-I National Stats
*From the Official NCAA Stats site as of 12-15-22. Top 54 players appear w/ ave of 1.00 pts per game.
In our last post, we had a section on Freshman production, and how hard it is to produce points on a consistent basis. This year seems to be proving no different. There are a total of just 6 Freshman in the top 54 of point producers thus far and only 1 in the top 25. See the full list of point producers this year with a minimum average of 1.00 points per game.
WCH-NCAA-PTS-Leaders-12-15-22Download
Sifters
New NCAA Leadership… The NCAA has its new leader. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker will take over as President of the NCAA in March of 2023. A former college basketball player at Harvard himself, Governor Baker has both public and private sector leadership experience. He comes in a time where the NCAA needs a rudder more than ever to help navigate through unchartered waters. You can read the full story HERE.
Worlds Coming Back to North America… The IIHF announced yesterday that the World Championships are headed to Brampton, Ontario Canada April 5-16, 2023. It’s the first time the Greater Toronto area has had the games since 2000.
World University Schedule & Roster Set… The World University Games schedule and roster is set. Team USA, lead by Brendon Knight will take on Japan Thursday Jan. 12 at 1pm. You can get the full Team USA roster and schedule HERE. Knight’s team will be comprised of NCAA D-I and D-III players who are currently playing college hockey this season and who have their undergrad degree and are enrolled in grad school.
Patty Kaz Watch… NCAA.com came out with their Patty Kaz Watch List of players to keep eyes on. Of the top 10, 5 comes from the WCHA, 3 from Hockey East, and 2 from the ECAC.
-Streams for games in the ECAC can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in the WCHA can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams in Hockey East this year can be found HERE. Hockey East once again is streaming all game live and for FREE.
-Streams for CHA games with the exception of Penn St. can be found HERE. Subscriptions will be necessary to watch games.
-Streams for NEWHA games can be found at each teams’ website. Subscriptions may be necessary to watch games.
NCAA Coaching Changes… Keep up with all the coaching changes across D-I and D-III HERE.
Recruiting Events/League Online Directory… Find all the recruiting events on WCH.org right HERE. Want to add your event? Click HERE to fill out our WCH.org event form.
Grant Kimball is founder and contributing writer at Women’s College Hockey.org and beginning his 4th season as an Assistant Coach with the Yale University women’s hockey program. Grant has developed an experienced perspective in the world of women’s ice hockey, having coached and recruited players from across the globe during his 25+ year amateur and NCAA coaching career. He has coached at 6 NCAA DIII and DI programs in the NCHA (D3), the CHA, WCHA, Hockey East, ECAC, and the Ivy League (DI). Beyond coaching, Grant served as a site representative for the 2019 NCAA quarterfinal of the D-I NCAA Tournament. He also currently serves as an Officer with the American Hockey Coaches Association as Vice President of Membership and sits on the AHCA’s Women’s Hockey Executive Committee.
