Much Ado About College Hockey

As we turn the page on summer, only a few things are certain: winter is coming, and with that our Michigan Tech Huskies’ hit the ice once more for another hockey season. As is par the course in recent years, I’ll be doing a recap of the off season and then a set of previews looking at the team and its upcoming schedule. 

With that intro out of the way, let’s jump into what happened this off season around the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey community.

Rules

Over the summer all 60+ head coaches attend a convention in Naples, Florida, to discuss major talking points of college hockey. Then the rules oversight panel takes their recommendations when making changes for upcoming seasons. 

For the 2024-2025 season we see the following rule changes:

Contact to the head & hitting from behind now has the option to be a two minute minor. 

This change is to give referees the ability to assess the right punishment for the action. A player who is called with such a penalty will now have four pathways the penalty can take:

1. Two minute minor penalty assessed  
2. Five minute major penalty assessed w/o game misconduct/disqualification 
3. Five minute major penalty w/ game misconduct assessed
4. Five minute major penalty w/ disqualification assessed

The difference between a game misconduct and a disqualification is that the latter includes an additional automatic one game suspension issued to the player.

High sticking is now above a player’s shoulder. 

This is a welcome change in the world of hockey. It takes what was a universal 4 feet (height of the net) and now makes it dependent on the player. Additionally, it helps with reviews, as refs will no longer have to estimate if a puck was touched above an imaginary 4 foot line as they can now just reference the player’s shoulder. 

Shootouts are here to stay. 

All games (regular season games & tournaments) ending regulation with the game tied will now have five minutes of 3 v 3 overtime, and if a tie still exists a shootout will then be used to determine the winner. However, the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee has stated that it will continue to not use the shootout result in its selection criteria for choosing which teams will receive the at-large bids to the postseason NCAA Tournament. 

Finally, we have a lightning round of smaller changes, copied verbatim from the linked NCAA media release:

• When using video replay, officials will have the ability to review a major penalty and downgrade it to a minor penalty or no penalty. Officials can add to a major penalty during the review (game misconduct or disqualification).
• As part of the supplementary discipline process, a conference can appeal a disqualification penalty to the secretary-rules editor and national coordinator of officials. No other penalties can be appealed or reduced.
• “Deliberately directed” was removed from the hand-pass rule to more closely align it with the National Hockey League rule.
• In postseason games that use a video replay official, it is optional to clear game-winning goals in overtime. If a review is needed, the on-ice officials will make the final determination.
• A rule proposal dealing with continuous play was also approved. When referees signal a stoppage of play because they have lost sight of the puck but, in the immediate and continuous action, the puck enters the goal, officials will be allowed to award a goal. Previously, blowing the whistle took away this option.
• A rule dealing with the scoring of a goal during a delayed penalty was removed. Previously, if a goal was scored during a delayed penalty call, the penalty was enforced, and the nonoffending team received a power play. Removing this rule will result in the penalty being nullified.
• In women’s ice hockey, the panel approved additional language identifying unintentional collisions and plays where the pursuit of a loose puck creates contact.

If I were asked what is the biggest change out of this list it would have to be the change to delayed penalties as they now act the NHL. Otherwise it seems like all changes are good more or less on paper but as all fans know, it will take games being played to see if these changes result in a real world difference too. 

For more information about what other proposals that were at least discussed in Naples check out College Hockey News’ article here. 

Out with old in with the New

This offseason saw a myriad of changes both in terms of coaches and even in terms of rinks. 

First we’ll recap the latter, as news broke that the historic Matthews Arena, home of the Northeastern University Huskies, is finally going to be replaced after the university filed a letter of intent with the City of Boston Planning and Development Agency. Matthews Arena is the second oldest hockey arena, originally built in 1910 and then rebuilt in 1921 after burning down. The oldest standing hockey arena title belongs to the Calumet Colosseum (or The Armory before being renamed), right here in the Keweenaw. 

Moving on to coaching announcements and changes, we saw announcements from Notre Dame, Cornell, and Army’s head coaches Jeff Jackson,  Mike Schafer, and Brian Riley that they will all be retiring after this season. Next, Clarkson has seen a number of changes with head coach Casey Jones moving to take up an associate role at Cornell to replace Schafer in 2025-26. Clarkson have hired Laval Rocket Head Coach Jean-Francois Houle to lead the the Golden Knights this season. Former MTU Assistant Coach Chris Brooks, on Clarkson’s staff since 2022, has also been promoted from Assistant Coach to Associate Head Coach.

Finally, we of course need to address the elephant-sized Wildcat in the room. NMU’s Grant Potulny has resigned to move up to the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. Taking his place is Wildcat alum David Shyiak, most recently Associate Head Coach of the St. Cloud State Huskies. As a result of this change a large portion of players recruited under Potulny entered the transfer portal and have moved to new teams. The biggest loss is probably goaltender Hampton Slukynsky leaving for Western Michigan. To fill the gaps, the Wildcats began a recruiting frenzy that could only be described as finding any player with a pulse. As the season dawns, the Wildcats will have 15 freshmen of various skill and their future looks rough for at least the next few years.

The Winds of Change

The college hockey world is slowly letting the genie out of the bottle regarding who is and isn’t a paid professional. NCAA student-athletes must be “amateurs,” that is, cannot have been paid to play their sport. The NCAA has long considered players from the Canadian Major-Juniors system as “professionals” based on stipends given to players in those leagues. These rules are now being challenged, however. First is a class action lawsuit filed by Canadian junior hockey player Rylan Masterson, who alleges that the NCAA and its associated universities broke antitrust laws when said universities turned him away for having played in Major-Juniors. On the flip side, a Major-Juniors player, Braxton Whitehead of the WHL, has verbally committed to Arizona State to play DI hockey, which could force the NCAA to step in and enforce their rules or face additional legal action. This issue came forward a couple years ago, when Austen Swankler made the change to collegiate hockey after two seasons in the OHL and the NCAA granted him eligibility, apparently by mistake. Facing these pending cases, NCAA is likely about to change in a big way with in how it classifies players from other leagues and whether or not it will embrace those other leagues willingly, or be brought into the 21st century kicking and screaming.

In Memoriam

Death is a part of this world we live in sadly. This offseason the hockey world saw the loss of three prominent individuals. First was forming UMD and MTU Head Coach Mike Sertich at the age of 77. Over his 21-year college hockey coaching career he won WCHA coach of the year four times and the Spencer Penrose Award in 1984. Coach Sertich made an everlasting impact on those he mentored. 

Then came the tragic loss of the Gaudreau Brothers. Johnny and his younger brother Matthew were both killed when riding bicycles after being hit by a drunk driver. Both had college hockey careers at Boston College, with Johnny winning the Hobey Baker Award in 2014 after an 80 point junior year. Words can not describe the loss their family is experiencing at this time, nor can they do them justice for their impact on the hockey world.

Cover photo courtesy Michigan Tech Athletics.