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ECAC 2025-26

B

BowWowWow

Active member
The ECAC conference schedule is out (composite schedule, with some non-conference games).

No coaches' poll yet for the "projected" standings, but the hockey is around the next corner (or two).

Who is looking like they will be good? Last season was a bit of a surprise I think regarding Cornell, not for them to do well but for them to come in 1st. Some teams also graduated several stars together, like Colgate - as evidenced by the PWHL draft, Kaltounková going first overall, Hannah Murphy drafted, and Clarkson having two top defenders drafted early (Haley Winn and Nicole Gosling). St. Lawrence continues to contend in the top 4 or so in the conference.
 
Coaches' Poll is out on the ECAC site for the upcoming season:
(1st-place votes in parentheses)
1. Cornell - 129 points - (8)
2. Colgate - 119 points - (2)
3. Clarkson - 117 points - (2)
T4. St. Lawrence - 88 points
T4. Quinnipiac - 88 points
6. Princeton - 87 points
7. Yale - 75 points
8. Brown - 59 points
9. Union - 56 points
10. Harvard - 42 points
11. Dartmouth - 31 points
12. RPI - 29 points

This looks pretty similar to the past season's final standings, with Clarkson and SLU switched, along with Yale and Princeton switched, and the same for Harvard and RPI. Quinnipiac tying with SLU in the vote shows some belief in Quinnipiac being on an upswing, though they're a frequent contender in around that place regardless. And the standings show some prediction of improvement for both Clarkson (which would be getting back toward a more perennial place toward the top of the ECAC) and Harvard (who have been in their rebuild), for what it's worth.
 
Any insight on Dartmouth with Crowell there? I was thinking with her history she'd be able to recruit higher caliber players. It looks like they are pretty cemented in the basement projection-wise. How do their facilities match up with the top teams in their league.
 
Good question about Dartmouth... They finished pretty low in the standings, but they had a much better stretch mid last season (at least, going "undefeated" with wins and ties for a while - then back to almost all losses). I think that it is too early to say in terms of Crowell's recruiting, since she only arrived last summer. A couple of their best players last year were seniors, but their two goaltenders were really solid (it looks like Hesová played almost all of the games) and are both only sophomores now.

The facilities are a bit less fancy than at some schools in the ECAC, though I haven't been to their rink in person. It looks somewhat dark on the streams. (Their tv commentators are great in my view incidentally.) Their rink is undergoing major renovations, including added locker room space, to be done by the 2026-27 season.

I think that they are in somewhat the same boat as Harvard in terms of trying to rebuild and not having the benefits of the portal. At Ivy schools it is very difficult to transfer in - they accept few transfers overall, and the academic qualifications need to be in order etc. I notice on Nicole Haase's uscho article of late that neither Harvard nor Dartmouth have any transfers in or out this year. But I think the preseason rankings may be underselling Dartmouth a bit (and overselling the Harvard Crimson? I'm not sure.). It is also odd, yet not so impossible, that most of the teams in the preseason rankings are ranked next to their travel partners. (These travel partners are pairs of teams that travel together and switch off in who they are playing against, with another pair of travel partners: Cornell and Colgate; Clarkson and St. Lawrence; Quinnipiac and Princeton; Yale and Brown; Harvard and Dartmouth; and Union and RPI.) At one point this past season, all teams were in the standings next to their travel partner. Maybe there is something to benefitting from playing the same opponents on the same weekend - and being a tough pair of teams to play against.
 
I've heard a lot of really positive things about Crowell so am interested to see if Dartmouth can return to competitiveness (by which I mean actual wins, vs. the moral victories they had last year with some 1-goal losses, some in OT, to some of the stronger teams in the conference). But I might assume that a rebuild at Harvard will be easier to pull off; I presume they chase a lot of the same student-athletes, and Harvard (as well as Yale and Princeton) can dangle global prestige and brand value that no other school really can. For the girls with the grades and test scores to get into these programs, seems like the "marquis" names have a leg up, and Dartmouth seems to be maybe a half-step behind in that regard.
 
Dartmouth has a great coach who knows how to recruit. Look at all the UMD players in the PWHL. Harvard is still overcoming the stigma of its past coach with a home grown coach. With the best high school players wanting to win now and get drafted, my money is on Ms Crowley becoming a contender before the Cantabs. The days of impact players picking their colleges for their prestige and not their program and coaches are long gone. Harvard was successful when its program could recruit players like Dominique Petrie and Angela Rugerio. Now it can't and they're relying too heavily on NE prep schools which have only so much talent. The mid-west, Canada and eastern/northern Europe need to be in consideration too, but to get the best you have to be a winner. My guess is It will take Harvard a while but they'll get there if they can convince 3 of more players from some of the better Canadian and US hockey schools to come all at once.
 
Oldtimer said:
Dartmouth has a great coach who knows how to recruit. Look at all the UMD players in the PWHL. Harvard is still overcoming the stigma of its past coach with a home grown coach. With the best high school players wanting to win now and get drafted, my money is on Ms Crowley becoming a contender before the Cantabs. The days of impact players picking their colleges for their prestige and not their program and coaches are long gone. Harvard was successful when its program could recruit players like Dominique Petrie and Angela Rugerio. Now it can't and they're relying too heavily on NE prep schools which have only so much talent. The mid-west, Canada and eastern/northern Europe need to be in consideration too, but to get the best you have to be a winner. My guess is It will take Harvard a while but they'll get there if they can convince 3 of more players from some of the better Canadian and US hockey schools to come all at once.
Click to expand...

Yes, but both Ms Crowley and Ms Crowell before Bellamy? Probably, lol, but it’s just a matter of time before all colleges become sports academies. AI can’t replace slap shots, spikes and spirals.
 
Timothy A said:
Any insight on Dartmouth with Crowell there? I was thinking with her history she'd be able to recruit higher caliber players. It looks like they are pretty cemented in the basement projection-wise. How do their facilities match up with the top teams in their league.
Click to expand...
A good friend of mine who works for Dartmouth and attended the school says that the renovations to Thompson are underway, with an emphasis on making the rink more attractive to female players. Thompson is still one of the premier facilities in the conference. Some of the best ice you'll ever skate on.
 
Oldtimer said:
Dartmouth has a great coach who knows how to recruit. Look at all the UMD players in the PWHL. Harvard is still overcoming the stigma of its past coach with a home grown coach. With the best high school players wanting to win now and get drafted, my money is on Ms Crowley becoming a contender before the Cantabs. The days of impact players picking their colleges for their prestige and not their program and coaches are long gone. Harvard was successful when its program could recruit players like Dominique Petrie and Angela Rugerio. Now it can't and they're relying too heavily on NE prep schools which have only so much talent. The mid-west, Canada and eastern/northern Europe need to be in consideration too, but to get the best you have to be a winner. My guess is It will take Harvard a while but they'll get there if they can convince 3 of more players from some of the better Canadian and US hockey schools to come all at once.
Click to expand...
Harvard has two issues at the moment: the ongoing battle with Trump and the leftover mess from the Stone debacle. Neither is going away anytime soon, although it will eventually be easier to put the Stone situation in the rear view mirror.

Regarding recruiting, you are correct that the best players want to win now and that won't happen at Harvard for several years. They need a couple of incoming classes, much like what Colgate was able to do in 2015. Those classes changed everything for the Raiders, along with their new rink.
 
It is very early, but ECAC teams aren't doing so well in non-conference games so far. The ECAC teams' record is 5-7-0. This seems par for the course, currently, for every conference except WCHA -- where the teams are 14-1-0 (the one loss being UConn narrowly beating St. Cloud State).

In NEWHA, LIU picked up a couple wins when playing the first-time team Delaware -- not surprising, though. RPI appears to have struggled against Holy Cross, and Quinnipiac had some close games against recently back-of-the-pack Maine.

I am not sure what to make of these few results. Overall, Wisconsin and Minnesota are of course way on top, and Ohio State hasn't played yet but probably will be too.

Concerning competition in the ECAC, I think this year may continue to have some solid parity.
 
Some intriguing match-ups in non-conference games for ECAC teams - all games are Fri-Sat series:
- Quinnipiac at Providence - first non-exhibition game this season for Providence, while Quinnipiac played Maine last weekend
- Sacred Heart at RPI - Sacred Heart's first non-exhibition game, while RPI will try to rebound from losses to Holy Cross this past weekend
- Merrimack at Union - Merrimack coming off a split with Clarkson; Union has 2 shutouts vs Franklin Pierce under its belt
- Ohio State at Colgate - will be the first time we see both teams in non-exhibition play this season; they seem to like starting with a bang by playing each other
- UConn at Clarkson - UConn coming off a split with St. Cloud State; Clarkson coming off a split with Merrimack
The last two matchups here look especially attention-grabbing. They could all be close, though RPI looks like the favorite over Sacred Heart on paper. Though UConn would often be the underdog against Clarkson, it's unclear so far for this season who is favored. Colgate is somewhat an underdog vs Ohio State based on those programs' results/last season.
 
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