Harvard Hockey 2025-'26: Crimson Ascending

[ROMD]

Not so sure on Donato.

Harvard will be better next year. This senior class - especially on defense - has been totally disappointing. The D will be better once Langenbrunner & Healey leave. As sad as that is to say, it is the truth. Harvard has 2 very good defneemen coming in (especially Alex Huang who is a 3rd round draft pick) so I hope the returning D see that as a wake up call.

The last two years have been really rough notwithstanding a few bright spots. Maybe next year is better since it can't get much worse. Still, without a constructive approach to NIL and the portal, the long term prospects are not good. When Teddy retires (which should be 100% his choice on timing but is overdue for some of the reasons stated on this board), maybe give the next coach a few years to figure it out and then, if it is not possible, Harvard should switch to D3 for most if not all sports. Maybe you can't be selective in which case the situation is tougher since Harvard and the other non-scholarship schools will always have the potential to be competitive in some D1 sports (think Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Cornell in lax or Yale in golf with their newly renovated golf course) but not in the revenue sports. Creating an FBS/FCS split for basketball and hockey might be a solution if selective moves to D3 are not possible.

 

[CornellFan13]

The last two years have been really rough notwithstanding a few bright spots. Maybe next year is better since it can't get much worse. Still, without a constructive approach to NIL and the portal, the long term prospects are not good. When Teddy retires (which should be 100% his choice on timing but is overdue for some of the reasons stated on this board), maybe give the next coach a few years to figure it out and then, if it is not possible, Harvard should switch to D3 for most if not all sports. Maybe you can't be selective in which case the situation is tougher since Harvard and the other non-scholarship schools will always have the potential to be competitive in some D1 sports (think Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Cornell in lax or Yale in golf with their newly renovated golf course) but not in the revenue sports. Creating an FBS/FCS split for basketball and hockey might be a solution if selective moves to D3 are not possible.

The Ivy is currently having its best year in hockey in quite some time. I also wouldn't lump hockey in with "revenue sports."

 

[ROMD]

The Ivy is currently having its best year in hockey in quite some time. I also wouldn't lump hockey in with "revenue sports."

Yes . . . this year the talent and coaching are there. The trend, however, is not good. Your point is well taken that hockey is not men's basketball or football but unlike cross country, wrestling, golf, tennis, lax etc., women's basketball and men's hockey are marginal revenue producers at some schools (e.g., North Dakota and Minnesota for men's hockey) so the combination of NIL, portal, and Major Junior transfers makes things very tricky if you don't play along. I'm not saying Harvard should move to NESCAC next year by the way but you never know in 10 years.