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CHL to NCAA Recruiting Megathread

WJSS in Minnesota starts today, there's two teams each for USA (White and Blue) and Canada (White and Red), plus Finland and Sweden. Canada hasn't released the split rosters yet, just one big one.

CHL-NCAA players (bolded are returning players):

Canada:
Gavin McKenna, Penn State
Porter Martone, Michigan State
Jack Ivankovic, Michigan
Cayden Lindstrom, Michigan State
Malcolm Spence, Michigan
Ryder Ritchie, BU
Cole Reschny, NoDak
Henry Mews, Michigan

USA Blue:
Kristian Epperson, DU
Aidan Park, Michigan 2026, Calgary Hitmen
USA White:
Jacob Kvasnicka, Minnesota 2026, Penticton Vees
Patrick Quinlan, Notre Dame 2026, Sarnia Sting

Doesn't look like Finland or Sweden have anyone, but there's a Benjamin Pietilä on Team Finland, which I think guarantees him auto admission/commitment to Michigan Tech, right?

Here's a link with all the various info. It lasts a whole week.
 
TalonsUpPuckDown said:
Update? Timeframe? I'm very curious to see how you assess the CHL talent coming in, especially for the CCHA. We are all crossing our fingers that these CHL guys will materially raise the overall talent level of the league.

I respect this isn't your day job and obviously no pressure, but I've been sitting on pins and needles waiting for this. It's the offseason!
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I'm not as far along as I would like unfortunately... Obviously work is one thing, but two weeks ago we lost our dog and I spent a week before that taking care of him on my own while he was very sick. My mental energy has been elsewhere for a few weeks as a result.

I will be echoing some of the info I have posted here if I have gone into detail about a specific player (with some additions) so some of them are already pretty close to ready. a few schools haven't released their 25-26 roster, including some schools where it isn't clear who is enrolling this year vs next. Still attempting to puzzle some of those out. I was planning to start with the Independents and those are already almost done because 2 of 5 have no CHL commits afaict. I can prioritize CCHA and Hockey East since I know those have the most interest. NCHC could take a while, almost exclusively because Omaha has 8 USports transfers, who I usually don't know as much about.
 
Sparkee said:
Has there been any reasoning behind this? Most wouldn’t turn down a spot this year at Yale for another year of juniors.
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From The Oakland Press-

Guimond could have parlayed his junior success into an opportunity to play college hockey at Yale. But last month, Guimond made the decision to decommit from Yale and stay and continue his junior career in Moncton.

There were definitive, valid reasons on why returning to Moncton was a good choice. The Wildcats are returning a competitive roster, coach Gardiner MacDougall has all levels of hockey noticing his enthusiastic style in running a winning program, and the opportunity to play more games than in college all contributed to Guimond’s decision.

“There were other reasons as well, kind of a financial issue,” Guimond said. “I wasn’t able to afford what they (Yale) were offering me. But we also saw it as a great opportunity to play a lot of games (in Moncton) and get a lot of reps.”
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Detroit dev staff also liked what they saw with the Wildcats setup, and seems Guimond connected well with the Moncton goalie coach. If he wasn't with such a solid franchise, he might have tried to make Yale work or tried to flip to a school for this season. The money appears to be a big factor as well. I won't pretend to know the details on financial capabilities for the Ivy schools, but evidently he received an offer from Harvard that eased the considerable cost.

The goalie position can take so long to fully realize- some only hit their peak when they're nearly 30- so pushing back his arrival to college isn't as big a deal imo.
 
cinnamoroll said:
From The Oakland Press-



Detroit dev staff also liked what they saw with the Wildcats setup, and seems Guimond connected well with the Moncton goalie coach. If he wasn't with such a solid franchise, he might have tried to make Yale work or tried to flip to a school for this season. The money appears to be a big factor as well. I won't pretend to know the details on financial capabilities for the Ivy schools, but evidently he received an offer from Harvard that eased the considerable cost.

The goalie position can take so long to fully realize- some only hit their peak when they're nearly 30- so pushing back his arrival to college isn't as big a deal imo.
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Ok, the money thing makes more sense of it.
 
Happy New Recruiting Cycle Beginning Day to everyone!

At least one new commit who has already signed with a CHL team:

08 D George Komadoski, Notre Dame, Flint Firebirds

This recruiting cycle's golden goose a la Gavin McKenna is Everett Silvertips D Landon Dupont, projected 1st overall in 2024. He was also given exceptional status for this season, winning CHL Rookie of the Year and putting up 17g and 43a at age 15, first U17 to pass the 50 point mark since Scott Niedermayer in 1989-90.

Also two commits from current CHLers from a few days ago:

05 Logan Wormald from Lethbridge Hurricanes commits to Omaha for 2026-27 after his OA season

06 F Brogan McNeil from Shawinigan Cataractes commits to Alaska Fairbanks, probably for 2026
 
cinnamoroll said:
05 F Justin Larose commits to Michigan after 4 seasons between Victoriaville and Drummondville.
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Circling back on this- after Newfoundland traded for Larose's rights, he is reportedly pushing back his arrival to 2026 and will play his OA year with the Regiment. I'm guessing he wasn't enthusiastic about Drummondville's chances next year, but Newfoundland has a situation he would take a chance on. Newfoundland would not have traded for him without conditions on those picks if they didn't already know he was interested.

For those who are newer to this thread and the goings-on of the CHL, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan were bought mid-season by an ownership group planning to relocate the franchise to St John's, Newfoundland (not to be confused with Saint John, New Brunswick, home of the Sea Dogs) and will be rebranded as the Newfoundland Regiment. Newfoundland hockey has a passionate fanbase but the travel logistics makes sustaining a hockey team there difficult, most recently losing the Growlers, Toronto's ECHL affiliate. This is not the first attempt to have a QMJHL team there, but there seems to be optimism about this ownership group's abilities. Junior teams relocating often will try to put together a competitive roster in order to start with a strong fan base.

So far, my favorite fact about the Regiment is that their first play by play announcer is still in high school, thus is likely to be in classes with some of the Regiment players. He's at least 3 years younger than Justin Larose. He's been announcing since he was 12 and it's kinda badass that he gets this chance.

committed players projected to play in Newfoundland this season include:
06 F Dominic Pilote, UMass
06 G Mikus Vecvanags, Maine
05 F Justin Larose, Michigan
 
Team USA and Team Canada have finalized their Hlinka Gretzky rosters. The invites for Canada notably contain more commits which is less obvious to visualize, but the USA roster difference is immediately evident.

For reference, last year there were a total of 2 players on that team playing CHL hockey. This seasons roster has 5 players who spent 24-25 on a CHL team plus 7 who are already signed to play CHL in 25-26 (5 have committed to college). That's just what we know so far.

As for Canada, last years' roster was entirely CHL, which is pretty usual. Now we know 4 players on that roster are enrolling into college this year (Ivankovic, Smith, Reschny, McKenna) and 1 has committed for 2026 (Huang). The most recent college commit on a Hlinka Gretzky roster for Canada was Matthew Wood in 2022 as an incoming freshman.

This year's roster includes 3 commits going USHL->CHL, 2 CHL players who have committed, a current USHL player Tynan Lawrence (who confirmed he will not go to Chicoutimi), and an incoming NCAA freshman in Keaton Verhoeff.

All these numbers will likely change as we hear more commits and kids find their landing spots for next season.
 
Sparkee said:
Is there a way to access the tryout camp rosters for CHL teams?
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OHL and WHL teams won't release them until near the start of camps.

QMJHL teams already have most of them on the official site. It usually does list the invites. You can often tell based on the "draft" column showing a year and team, but no number for round/pick.

Just note being on the pre-season roster does not guarantee they'll come to camp. Basically it contains every draft pick or players on the roster last season who they still have their rights, even though we know some are going to be playing elsewhere already (ie Tynan Lawrence listed on Chicoutimi when he's indicated he will stay in Muskegon, Rimouski still lists Blais and Coughlin who are starting NCAA this fall, goofiest of all is Cole Eiserman still on Moncton's roster).
 
cinnamoroll said:
OHL and WHL teams won't release them until near the start of camps.

QMJHL teams already have most of them on the official site. It usually does list the invites. You can often tell based on the "draft" column showing a year and team, but no number for round/pick.

Just note being on the pre-season roster does not guarantee they'll come to camp. Basically it contains every draft pick or players on the roster last season who they still have their rights, even though we know some are going to be playing elsewhere already (ie Tynan Lawrence listed on Chicoutimi when he's indicated he will stay in Muskegon, Rimouski still lists Blais and Coughlin who are starting NCAA this fall, goofiest of all is Cole Eiserman still on Moncton's roster).
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Yeah I saw Eiserman on their roster. I also saw a Maine recruit, Kuzma Voronin, listed on there since he was drafted in the important draft. So I was trying to see if he actually is entertaining a jump to QMJHL, or staying in USHL. It would be neat to post links here for each camp roster in actual attendance we can find online. I will also when I see them published.
 
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