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ECAC '24-25: Who rebuilds? Who reloads?

BowWowWow said:
The hockey season is getting a bit closer. These rosters for 2024-25 are available:
Brown - includes 7 first-years; 15 F, 7 D, and 3 G
Cornell - includes 3 first-years and 1 transfer; 14 F, 9 D, and 4 G
Princeton - includes 6 first-years; 15 F, 7 D, and 3 G
Quinnipiac - includes 10 first-years and 6 transfers; 13 F, 9 D, and 3 G

As a sophomore Delaney Fleming has joined Cornell from Ohio State. Her sister Sawyer Fleming is a Princeton 2025 recruit (originally an OSU commit).

Quinnipiac has the most incoming transfers in the ECAC (while several student-athletes transferred out), followed by Clarkson so far. Quinnipiac's transfers in are Kaley Doyle from Brown, Jenna Donohue from Dartmouth, Laurence Frenette from Clarkson, Tessa Holk from Colgate, Meg Rittenhouse from Colby, and Kathryn Stockdale from UConn. These players are a mix of grad transfers and current undergraduates.

Clarkson is "reloading" too with transfers Sydney Fess and Caroline Goffredo, both from Boston College, and Madison Chantler from Quinnipiac.
Click to expand...

Harvard doesn't do grad transfers and has put the kibosh on coaches using the transfer portal to beef up their rosters. This leaves both the men's and women's programs at a distinct disadvantage especially when you consider Quinnipiac is starting to act like an SEC school. With everything the Crimson women have been through with the Katey Stone debacle, it may take years before we're competitive assuming we can even compete using only normal recruiting channels. It wouldn't surprise me if, at some point, Harvard decides to leave the ECAC if these trends continue.
 
The preseason coaches' poll is out!
Results for the predicted standings are:
1 Clarkson
2 Colgate
3 Cornell
4 St Lawrence
5 Quinnipiac
6 Yale
7 Princeton
8 Brown
9 RPI
10 Harvard
11 Dartmouth
12 Union

Also from the preseason article-
"Women's Preseason All-League Team Roster:
Goaltender - Hannah Murphy - Colgate
Defender- Haley Winn - Clarkson (unanimous)
Defender - Nicole Gosling - Clarkson
Forward - Anne Cherkowski - Clarkson
Forward - Abby Hustler - St. Lawrence
Forward - Lily Delianedis - Cornell
*Unanimous selection requires 11 votes as coaches cannot vote for their own team or players."
 
BowWowWow said:
The preseason coaches' poll is out!
Results for the predicted standings are:
1 Clarkson
2 Colgate
3 Cornell
4 St Lawrence
5 Quinnipiac
6 Yale
7 Princeton
8 Brown
9 RPI
10 Harvard
11 Dartmouth
12 Union
Click to expand...
Looking down the list, it wouldn't surprise me to see Dartmouth finish better than 11th. I know next to nothing about the Big Green's roster, but Crowell's teams have a pattern of faring better than expected. That was true when she acted as HC when Stone was coaching the 2014 USA Olympic team and for a number of her years at UMD.
 
ARM said:
Looking down the list, it wouldn't surprise me to see Dartmouth finish better than 11th.
Click to expand...

In addition to Crowell, they also have two promising entering goaltenders in Zhan and Hesova. Crowell's attention to structure and better goaltending should elevate a nation-worst save percentage from last year of .860 (!). They probably need to score more than 2.2 goals / game to move up more than a spot or two, though. But those numbers had them finish 10th in the ECAC last year - tough that the coaches see them being worse this year.
 
PuckLover said:
In addition to Crowell, they also have two promising entering goaltenders in Zhan and Hesova. Crowell's attention to structure and better goaltending should elevate a nation-worst save percentage from last year of .860 (!). They probably need to score more than 2.2 goals / game to move up more than a spot or two, though. But those numbers had them finish 10th in the ECAC last year - tough that the coaches see them being worse this year.
Click to expand...

I think that you are right, Dartmouth will finish higher than eleventh. Pre-season polls tend to be heavily skewed towards previous season results. Dartmouth will be strong this year.
 
Agree with all about Crowell. She’s not coming back east to dwell in the cellar. The bottom six are going to be a very competitive league of their own.

As standard and harmless as the team predictions are, I can do without the all-league selections. Hype and pressure don’t serve the players well and just add fodder to the Vegasification of all things athletic. Let them play the game and then we’ll see who’s worthy of what.
 
thirdtime's . . . said:
I can do without the all-league selections.
Click to expand...
In terms of merit, I can agree with you. On the other hand, women's college hockey is still largely starved for media attention, so I can get behind any attempt to give positive attention to individual players while their careers are still ongoing.
 
In the coming week, non-conference play continues.

Then conference games start on Fri Oct 25:
Dartmouth @ RPI; Harvard @ Union
Princeton @ Yale; Quinnipiac @ Brown

Sat Oct 26:
Quinnipiac @ Yale; Princeton @ Brown
Harvard @ RPI; Dartmouth @ Union

So far Clarkson has the best (non-conference) record at 6-0. Clarkson has a great 41-3 goal differential through 6 games, "padded" partly by a high-scoring series with St. Michael's. The team voted second-place in the preseason ECAC coaches' poll, Colgate, is 3-3, through the first few weeks of non-conference. We haven't seen the team voted third, Cornell, play any games yet.

Seven ECAC teams are ranked on this week's USCHO poll. WCHA teams currently have a much stronger inter-conference record.

Excited for the season to start!
 
Brown, Union, RPI, all win their opening matches. Could be an interesting ECAC season :). Brown over QU was the only big surprise. The Bears look better each season.
 
All ECAC teams are playing in ECAC play tomorrow (Fri Nov 1).
3pm games:
RPI at Colgate
Brown at Dartmouth
Union at Cornell
Yale at Harvard

6pm games:
Clarkson at Quinnipiac
St. Lawrence at Princeton

May the best teams win!
 
It's still early and a lot can change, but at this point, the gap between the best team in the ECAC and the bottom team looks to be as small as it has been in a long time. Nobody looks dominant, and nobody looks dreadful.
 
ARM said:
It's still early and a lot can change, but at this point, the gap between the best team in the ECAC and the bottom team looks to be as small as it has been in a long time. Nobody looks dominant, and nobody looks dreadful.
Click to expand...

Agree. The final standings will not be as topsy turvy as they are now, but it is a year where there will not be a lot of easy wins for anyone.
 
Standings, I think, going into this weekend (via USCHO.com and https://www.collegehockeynews.com/women/standings.php): [TABLE="border: 1, cellpadding: 1, width: 500"]
[TR]
[TD]team[/TD]
[TD]pts[/TD]
[TD]GP[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1. Brown[/TD]
[TD]11[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2. Union[/TD]
[TD]9[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3. Quinnipiac[/TD]
[TD]8.5[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4. Yale[/TD]
[TD]7.5[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5 (T). Colgate[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5 (T). RPI[/TD]
[TD]6[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7 (T). Cornell[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7 (T). St. Lawrence[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7 (T). Clarkson[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]2[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7 (T). Harvard[/TD]
[TD]3[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]11 (T). Dartmouth[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]11 (T). Princeton[/TD]
[TD]0[/TD]
[TD]4[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

(regulation win: 3 points; overtime win: 2 points; shootout/i.e. tie: 1.5 points for each team; overtime loss: 1 point; regulation loss: no points)

T = tied for a particular spot. Teams are ordered here by points, then head-to-head, then goal differential. This evening I tried to remind myself what the real tiebreaker procedures are and have not found helpful info. The ECAC site has been unreliable overall - partly because it doesn't show the points for ties/shootouts and partly because the results themselves are occasionally mistaken as put into the standings.

Observations: This season, Colgate's the only team that so far has taken all the points (6) in the ECAC games it has played. Further observations: Other favorites of the season, Cornell, St. Lawrence, and Clarkson, have all also only played 2 games each. Brown is doing much better than the preseason poll would suggest, dropping only one point so far (in an OT win over Quinnipiac).
 
I think that the ECAC site is now accurately reporting standings! Colgate in 1st. From looking at box scores, it seems Clarkson doesn't have as good goaltending as last season (when they had Pasiechnyk). Brown, Quinnipiac, and Union are doing better than predicted.
 
Last edited:
BowWowWow said:
I think that the ECAC site is now accurately reporting standings! Colgate in 1st. From looking at box scores, it seems Clarkson doesn't have as good goaltending as last season (when they had Pasiechnyk). Brown, Quinnipiac, and Union are doing better than predicted.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately as of the night of 11/16, the ECAC site is misleading again, in different ways than it was before. Yale is being given an additional 3 points for a game they haven't played, and Brown given an additional loss. (Yale and Brown will play again tomorrow, and maybe this will sort itself out.) Yale won 4-1 this afternoon vs Brown.

Colgate and Cornell seemed to cruise against the road travel pair Dartmouth and Harvard, judging by the scores.

In non-conference play, Clarkson won today vs St. Lawrence, after a tie and shootout win at St. Lawrence in their school-day game this week.
 
ECAC conference play is slightly more than halfway done. St. Lawrence leads in the standings with 28.5 points, after 12 games played. The other three teams that made the conference tournament semifinals last season, Cornell, Colgate, and Clarkson, are close behind. (ECAC standings page; CHN with stats; USCHO's page currently does not agree with them and has some inaccuracies, as noted by QuasiCosmos.)

This year so far there is a large middle of the pack. Quinnipiac, Princeton, Yale, Union, and RPI are pretty close to each other in points, with a battle shaping up for home ice for the start of the playoffs toward the bottom of this group at 8th. Then Brown is currently in 10th (recently in a funk after a great run in Oct-Nov), and Harvard and Dartmouth have similar records to each other at 11th and 12th.

Interestingly Harvard recently took BU to overtime in the first round of the Beanpot, though losing in OT. The only non-conference games remaining are next week for Harvard, in the Beanpot 3rd-place game, and next weekend (1/25) between Union and RPI outside league play.

This weekend (travel partners with "/"):
Brown/Yale at Clarkson/St. Lawrence
Princeton/Quinnipiac at Cornell/Colgate
RPI/Union at Harvard/Dartmouth
 
I was in attendance at the Harvard women's game against RPI on Friday. Even though RPI won 3-1 (RPI had 2 PP goals), it unsurprisingly could've gone either way. Harvard has some big, skilled players. Their record doesn't reflect how good the team is IMHO. It's terrible what happened to their program, but with some consistent, good coaching (which they have in place), they're only going to get better from here.
 
AlwaysCold2 said:
I was in attendance at the Harvard women's game against RPI on Friday. Even though RPI won 3-1 (RPI had 2 PP goals), it unsurprisingly could've gone either way. Harvard has some big, skilled players. Their record doesn't reflect how good the team is IMHO. It's terrible what happened to their program, but with some consistent, good coaching (which they have in place), they're only going to get better from here.
Click to expand...

A famous coach once said, "You are what your record says you are". And for Harvard, that means they are the worst team in D-1 women's college hockey (go look it up if you don't believe me). Harvard has two distinct problems. 1. a talent deficit when compared to the rest of the league. They simply cannot skate with the better teams. They are routinely outshot by wide margins and if not for their goalies, would get blown out of most games. (Exhibit A: yesterday's game against Cornell. Outshot 30-8) 2. They have a loser's mentality. By that, I mean that losing has become a way of life inside the program for the past two years. The team expects bad things to happen and it usually does. To wit, the recent games against BU and Colgate. Those were very winnable games even with the talent gap.

Maura Crowell is going through the same thing at Dartmouth. If she can recruit better players, the program will see better days. Hopefully the same is true for Harvard. I'm not convinced that Bellamy is the right coach for the job but time will tell. No question that the fallout from the Stone debacle has affected the program and it may take years for them to recover.
 
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