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Harvard Crimson 2026-'27: The Rassey Era Begins

Skate79

Registered User
Since we have a new head coach and our incoming class was just announced, I thought it might be time to start a new thread.
 
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:


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.

 
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.



Bench
1st LineMick ThompsonHeikki RuohonenRichard GallantCam Johnson (F)
2nd LineJustin GrafChase StefanekAidan LaneWill McDonough (F)
3rd LineBen MacDonaldNiles BensonMike CallowJoe Salandra (F)
4th LineRyan FineWill HughesJustin SoloveySal Guzzo (F)
1st DMatt MordenRyan St LouisEli Heinze (F)
2nd DDrake MurraySean KeohaneMatt Biotti (D)
3rd DDonny BraccoAlex HuangJames Mackey (D)
GoalieBen CharetteDavid Hedjuk (D)
Rudy Giomond (G)
Evan Zhang (G)
 
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Hello Harvard folks, did anyone catch the schedule before it was taken off the website?

 
Hello Harvard folks, did anyone catch the schedule before it was taken off the website?

Unfortunately, I didn't see the schedule when it was up. Perhaps Rassey wants to reschedule some teams.
 
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.



Bench
1st LineMick ThompsonHeikki RuohonenRichard GallantCam Johnson (F)
2nd LineJustin GrafChase StefanekAidan LaneWill McDonough (F)
3rd LineBen MacDonaldNiles BensonMike CallowJoe Salandra (F)
4th LineRyan FineWill HughesJustin SoloveySal Guzzo (F)
1st DMatt MordenRyan St LouisEli Heinze (F)
2nd DDrake MurraySean KeohaneMatt Biotti (D)
3rd DDonny BraccoAlex HuangJames Mackey (D)
GoalieBen CharetteDavid Hedjuk (D)
Rudy Giomond (G)
Evan Zhang (G)
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. :p
 
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.

 
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.



Bench
1st LineMick ThompsonHeikki RuohonenRichard GallantCam Johnson (F)
2nd LineJustin GrafChase StefanekAidan LaneWill McDonough (F)
3rd LineBen MacDonaldNiles BensonMike CallowJoe Salandra (F)
4th LineRyan FineWill HughesJustin SoloveySal Guzzo (F)
1st DMatt MordenRyan St LouisEli Heinze (F)
2nd DDrake MurraySean KeohaneMatt Biotti (D)
3rd DDonny BraccoAlex HuangJames Mackey (D)
GoalieBen CharetteDavid Hedjuk (D)
Rudy Giomond (G)
Evan Zhang (G)
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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.
 
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.
 
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.
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

 
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