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Harvard Crimson 2026-'27: The Rassey Era Begins
- Thread starter Skate79
- Start date
On the incoming class, it seems like there is some confusion over how many are coming to Cambridge this fall. For instance, College Hockey News has the following recruits listed for 2027 but does not specify which ones are matriculating this fall:
www.collegehockeynews.com
On GoCrimson.com, only six incoming frosh are listed and several are missing from other lists that I have seen for this fall. As an example, Luca Graziano is listed as an incoming player yet he's not on the GoCrimson list. I suppose GoCrimson is the definitive source although I'm wondering if some backchanneling is being done by Rassey to perhaps get one or two more to commit to this fall.
gocrimson.com
Recruiting All NCAA Teams
List of recruits for a given team -- or all NCAA teams -- sortable by last team, hometown, position, and so on. from College Hockey News.
On GoCrimson.com, only six incoming frosh are listed and several are missing from other lists that I have seen for this fall. As an example, Luca Graziano is listed as an incoming player yet he's not on the GoCrimson list. I suppose GoCrimson is the definitive source although I'm wondering if some backchanneling is being done by Rassey to perhaps get one or two more to commit to this fall.
Men's Hockey Announces Class of 2030 - Harvard University
The incoming class features four forwards, one defensemen and one goaltender, and brings an impressive mix of junior hockey success, championship experience and
gocrimson.com
I hope everyone is a having a good summer. Interesting that Donato joined the Devils as an Assistant Coach. Best of luck to him in this new endeavor.
I assume the Class we have coming in is final given that there was a delay between Rassey hiring announcement and the class announcement which would have given Rassey some time to discuss things with recruits. The only surprises for me was Salandra coming this year and Brosnan coming next year. Losing Ryder Cali to Providence late hurts as he was an impact recruit who would have brought size & grit to Harvard as well.
Below is what Harvard could look like last year. Green means the player is a Senior and the Red means the player is a freshman. Harvard has 10 kids slated to come in next year and with 7 departing, I would expect there to be some turnover in the recruiting ranks. I also wonder if Rassey will bring any Michigan guys with him eventually.
I do think that frosh goalie Guimond will push Charette which is good and will not leave Charette as exhasted as he has been towards the back end of the season.
I assume the Class we have coming in is final given that there was a delay between Rassey hiring announcement and the class announcement which would have given Rassey some time to discuss things with recruits. The only surprises for me was Salandra coming this year and Brosnan coming next year. Losing Ryder Cali to Providence late hurts as he was an impact recruit who would have brought size & grit to Harvard as well.
Below is what Harvard could look like last year. Green means the player is a Senior and the Red means the player is a freshman. Harvard has 10 kids slated to come in next year and with 7 departing, I would expect there to be some turnover in the recruiting ranks. I also wonder if Rassey will bring any Michigan guys with him eventually.
I do think that frosh goalie Guimond will push Charette which is good and will not leave Charette as exhasted as he has been towards the back end of the season.
| Bench | ||||
| 1st Line | Mick Thompson | Heikki Ruohonen | Richard Gallant | Cam Johnson (F) |
| 2nd Line | Justin Graf | Chase Stefanek | Aidan Lane | Will McDonough (F) |
| 3rd Line | Ben MacDonald | Niles Benson | Mike Callow | Joe Salandra (F) |
| 4th Line | Ryan Fine | Will Hughes | Justin Solovey | Sal Guzzo (F) |
| 1st D | Matt Morden | Ryan St Louis | Eli Heinze (F) | |
| 2nd D | Drake Murray | Sean Keohane | Matt Biotti (D) | |
| 3rd D | Donny Bracco | Alex Huang | James Mackey (D) | |
| Goalie | Ben Charette | David Hedjuk (D) | ||
| Rudy Giomond (G) | ||||
| Evan Zhang (G) | ||||
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Unfortunately, I didn't see the schedule when it was up. Perhaps Rassey wants to reschedule some teams.
As much as I like Ryan St. Louis as a player, I think Brown would object to having him skate with the Crimson. Especially since he's a forward. Couldn't resist.
Here is the link to the schedule for the upcoming season. Heavy on HE as expected with no tournaments outside of the Beanpot.
gocrimson.com
2026-27 Men's Ice Hockey Schedule - Harvard University
The official 2026-27 Men's Ice Hockey schedule for the Harvard University
gocrimson.com
As expected, Rassey bringing in his own guys to complete the staff. Interesting that both are from the ECAC. He must feel he needs the intel on the conference as he gets adjusted to being a head coach.
gocrimson.com
Ronan and Davis Join Men's Hockey Staff - Harvard University
Both Ronan and Davis will serve as assistant coaches as Rassey rounds out his coaching staff ahead of the upcoming season. Both coaches come to Harvard from ECAC
gocrimson.com
williamcorlin
New member
Good points. I agree that the incoming class is probably settled at this point, especially given the timing of Rassey’s hire and the announcement. Losing Cali to Providence definitely stings, though.
I’m also curious about the Michigan connection. If Rassey has relationships with some of those players, it wouldn’t surprise me if we eventually see a recruit or two follow him to Cambridge. The goalie competition should be interesting too—having Guimond push Charette can only be a good thing if it keeps both guys fresh.
It could be Rassey focuses on national recruiting with Michigan recruits being the obvious targets while his assistants use the connections they made while at Union and Princeton to find future players.
Nothig material to update. Definitely some interesting things on the recruiting front. Harvard has missed on a bunch of potential recruits that I thought they would be in the mix for. More specifically - Ethan Sung (Wisconsin), Cam Minella (Northeastern), Jack Queally (BC). I also thought Anthony Bongo might consider Harvard (de-committed from Michigan), but he opted for Union. Be interesting to see how recruits view Harvard in the post Donato era.
Jesse Orlowsky opened up his recruitment. I don't see this as a big loss for Harvard and based on USHL production, he has flatlined a bit. Also interesting that JT Rothstein (Harvard recruit) younger brother Dylan committed to Yale. He is at Taft.
On that note, Yale has turbo-charged its recruiting, but it looks like the strategy is to sign a lot of mid-tier guys early. Will see if that strategy pays off or if guys move up the food chain, they head elsewhere. Be interesting to follow the trend.
Jesse Orlowsky opened up his recruitment. I don't see this as a big loss for Harvard and based on USHL production, he has flatlined a bit. Also interesting that JT Rothstein (Harvard recruit) younger brother Dylan committed to Yale. He is at Taft.
On that note, Yale has turbo-charged its recruiting, but it looks like the strategy is to sign a lot of mid-tier guys early. Will see if that strategy pays off or if guys move up the food chain, they head elsewhere. Be interesting to follow the trend.
I expect some recruits who originally committed when Donato was the coach will have second thoughts. That can be counterbalanced by Rassey going after recruits he was pipelining for Michigan. Also, the two new assistant coaches must have ties to recruiting sources they were using for Union and Princeton so we'll see what happens there.
I've got Harvard finishing somewhere 4th to 6th. Plenty of talent as always but there are obviously question marks on how it'll develop and gel with a new coaching staff. Here's the full ECAC preview for those of you interested
www.rpifieldhouse.com
ECAC Preview 2026-27
A strong group at the top, some programs on the rise, and a few starting rebuilds should make for an exciting year
www.rpifieldhouse.com
So I'm going to take issue with your ranking Harvard at #6. First off, Union isn't nearly as good as your model says they are. They've got major problems scoring goals and it will be worse this year. Second, your eval of our D was somewhat off the mark. Sean Keohane is better than you think and both Bracco and Murray had trouble adjusting to the pace of play in the ECAC. They should be better this year. As you correctly point out, Guimond is better than Charette and he should win the starting job. Ben played heroically last year given that we didn't have a backup goalie (okay, we did but Evan Zhang isn't a D-1 goalie). He wore down in February and that translated into our finish in the standings.I've got Harvard finishing somewhere 4th to 6th. Plenty of talent as always but there are obviously question marks on how it'll develop and gel with a new coaching staff. Here's the full ECAC preview for those of you interested
ECAC Preview 2026-27
A strong group at the top, some programs on the rise, and a few starting rebuilds should make for an exciting year
I think early on, the team will probably struggle a bit getting used to a new system, but will have a much better second half of the season and snag the #4 seed. Teddy had checked out the last few years when he saw the landscape of college hockey changing, especially inside the ECAC. Harvard does not do transfers or NIL so we are at a disadvantage when it comes to building a roster. The Harvard brand no longer carries as much weight as it used to so there are no clear recruiting advantages there. Reid Cashman turned around the Dartmouth program and I'm hoping Rassey will do the same.