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UNH Hockey Off Season Thread 2026

Potluck said:
Does anyone know why Niko Tournas went back to juniors this year instead of attending UNH? He's apparently committed to come in 2027-28. He's a 20 year old goal scorer, at least he was in the Q, and UNH needs scoring more than any other team in Hockey East. Seems odd that he went back.
Click to expand...
Rumours are that he is looking for offers from a better hockey school


WhiteTyAffair
All-Star
Post by WhiteTyAffair on Jul 19, 2026 at 8:07am​

Jul 18, 2026 at 11:01pm WHEELsnipePARTY said:
UNH appears to have updated their roster and tournas isn’t listed
unhwildcats.com/sports/mens-ice-hockey/roster

I’ve been told that Tournas is 100% coming back. He’s hoping to get an offer from a bigger school.
 
Shocking (not) ... just the last in a growing line of B level prospects using the current UNH program as a placeholder while awaiting better options to develop.

I know it was a somewhat different world back then ... but UNH rarely encountered these situations over the first 20+ years of Coach Umile's tenure. Likely because, as a baseline issue, kids who were recruited to come here had reason to believe the UNH coaching staff would prepare them for the pros. No more.

IIRC Tournas was messaging would-be suitors in last June's NHL Draft that he was willing to play ball with a drafting org's preferred '26/'27 destination, including a return to his team in the Q. All mooted when he was bypassed by all 32 teams over the 7 rounds of the draft (with 224 players in total selected). In retrospect, it looks like UNH was just a Plan B for a kid who really never wanted to come here, but was covering his bases just in case a drafting team preferred him in a D-1 setting vs. a re-do in the Q, or a direct ticket to the minors somewhere complete with a 70 game grind. Easy come, easy go I suppose ...
 
times totally different now- players wanted to be able to play 4 years- only 2-3 at most would have pro careers
now with canadian juniors a majority hope to go pro
 
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