OHIO STATE

Record Last Season: 29-8-3

Returners to Watch: Joy Dunne, Jocelyn Amos, Emma Peschel, Hailey MacLeod

Ohio State had a bit of an up and down season in 2024-25 after winning the national title in 2024. Despite recording eight losses, the squad pieced things together at just the right time and made it all the way to the national championship match in 2025. This will be another interesting season for the Buckeyes as they do lose a chunk of key athletes to graduation but they also have a handful of intriguing new prospects.

“18.9 seconds. If anybody knows what I’m talking about, it’s the fact that we lost the gold and only got a silver with 18.9 seconds left, so there’s a vendetta for that, so the girls took that to heart and came in really strong for the season,” said Head Coach Nadine Muzerall after rival Wisconsin scored a penalty shot late in the third period of the national championship game in 2025 to tie things up and send the match to overtime. The team is hungry to get back on the ice and avenge that loss this winter.

The squad returns its top two scorers in Joy Dunne and Jocelyn Amos but loses key offensive pieces like Jenna Buglioni, Makenna Webster, Kiara Zanon and Maddi Wheeler, so there will be some roles to be filled. The newcomers to the team will have to adapt quickly to help replace the offense that has been lost this offseason. Starting netminder Amanda Thiele is also gone but Hailey MacLeod got plenty of ice time last season so that shouldn’t impact the squad too much and the defensive core looks primed to be led by Minnesotan Emma Peschel.

“I expect them (the freshmen) to do the three pillars of how our program has been established over the 10 years that I have been here and that is they’re gonna be fit, they’ll be very physical, relentless, and they’ll be fast, and I’ve already seen that in our preseason training here. Our numbers are the best they’ve ever been and the best with the incoming freshman that I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” added Muzerall.

MINNESOtA

Record Last Season: 29-12-1

Returners to Watch: Abbey Murphy, Chloe Primerano, Hannah Clark, Josefin Bouveng

Minnesota, similiarly to Ohio State, lost a chunk of very talented players this offseason. In fact, the Gophers actually lost the most athletes to graduation/transfers/etc. out of any other team in the WCHA this summer but Minnesota fans don’t need to fret because the squad made some very good additions through the transfer portal and is bringing in some eye-popping freshmen as well.

“Sarah Paul from Princeton, she scored 28 goals last year and was really successful, Molly Jordan was one of the most offensive D out east at Boston College and Jamie Nelson is just that seasoned veteran who’s just done a great job at Mankato … I expect them to make an immediate jump,” said Head Coach Brad Frost, who is excited about the three transfers this fall.

In addition to those transfers, keep in mind that Abbey Murphy is back for another season along with young star defender Chloe Primerano and netminder Hannah Clark, so there is still plenty of talent to make this a dangerous team in the WCHA in 2025-26.

“Every year is different but our returners continually look to the past and say ‘okay what happened and how can we be better’. We are a group that is expected to be in the Frozen Four and we’re expected to win national championships and we haven’t done that in a while,” added Frost. “As far as a national championship, that’s something that we continue to strive for … we need to do more. What we’ve been doing has been good but it hasn’t been good enough to put us over the hump and so we need to do more and we’re excited to just continue to focus on the process and do things the right way and we’re hopeful that the outcomes will take care of themselves.” 

MINNESOTA DULUTH

Record Last Season: 22-15-2

Returners to Watch: Caitlin Kraemer, MK O’Brien, Eve Gascon, Tova Henderson

Four of UMD’s top-six scorers from 2024-25 are out of eligibility so the squad will definitely have some holes to fill this season. The good thing though is that you can’t really go wrong when you have Eve Gascon in net, who is back for her junior year after posting over a .940 save percentage through her first two seasons in the NCAA.

“I think we have a really good mix of veteran players and newcomers, a majority of our returners all played in significant roles for us last year so it’s great to have that continuity and that familiarity in terms of our system play and how we wanted to play as Bulldogs,” says Head Coach Laura Schuler. “Four of the five individuals that we brought in this year (from the portal) all have international playing experience. Of those four, I’d say that just speaks to their level of talent and the maturity that they’re able to bring to our team this upcoming year.”  

One of the veteran athletes that fans will be able to look towards this season is captain MK O’Brien, who is likely primed to have her best year yet after netting 25 points through 39 games in 2024-25.

“I’ve been able to play with and learn from so many great leaders during my time here,” said O’Brien to the media. “To be able to take pieces from the great leaders in my life and to be able to kind of touch my teammates in that way and bringing my own flair to it has been a great opportunity. I’m just so grateful and so excited to be here and to be in a leadership position for this great program, it’s an honor.” 

ST. CLOUD STATE

Record Last Season: 15-15-6

Returners to Watch: JoJo Chobak, Emilia Kyrkko, Alice Sauriol, Sofianna Sundelin

There will be a lot of new faces for the Huskies this fall as the squad welcomes 13 new athletes to the roster in 2025-26 along with a brand new head coach in Mira Jalosuo as Brian Idalski has been hired as the inaugural head coach of PWHL Vancouver. Jalosuo brings Walter Cup championship winning pedigree to the Huskies after her time with the Minnesota Frost of the PWHL and she even previously worked at St. Cloud in the past as an assistant coach (‘22-23), so she has plenty of familiarity with the campus and the culture already.

“I started by getting to know everybody, so my first thing was I gave a phone call to every single player who was on the roster and obviously the recruiting class, so that’s how I started was creating those personal connections with the players and now we have been on the ice for a couple of weeks already and we have been working very hard on small, tiny little details and habits so that was the focus for the first two weeks and now we’re getting into the systems,” said Jalosuo about what her first steps were after getting hired as the new head coach of the team this past June.

“When I was a little bit younger, I was very impulsive and I overreacted on a lot of things and now that I’m a little bit older I also have a toddler so I learned a lot to have much more patience than I used to have and I think that’s a great thing for the program that I’m much more calmer than I used to be,” she joked.

Despite the departure of goaltender Sanni Ahola to the PWHL, St. Cloud will be very strong in net again this year, likely bringing in a tandem of JoJo Chobak and Emilia Kyrkko to the table as starters. The Huskies will have to find answers early on in the season though as to who can step up and bring some offense to the team (leading goal-scorer Emma Gentry is gone) along with who can lead the D-core since there was quite a bit of turnover on the blueline as well.

MINNESOTA STATE

Record Last Season: 14-21-2

Returners to Watch: Taylor Otremba, Hailey Hansen, Whitney Tuttle, Kianna Roeske

Despite a very talented incoming freshman class, the Mavericks will have some work to do in 2025-26. Minnesota State lost seven of its top 10 scorers from last season, either to graduation/eligibility or to transferring, so the squad will definitely need its new skaters to step up to the plate early on and create some offense.

“We gonna work hard and we’re gonna be hard to play against and hopefully we’re gonna score some goals,” said Associate Head Coach Jeff Giesen. “We’re going to try to play an up-tempo, offensive game and we’ve been calling it ‘training the puppies’ right now and they want to run, so we’re going to hopefully play that up-tempo, exciting game.”

The Mavericks have a promising freshmen class that includes many Minnesotans, including the reigning Ms. Hockey winner in Mercury Bischoff of Grand Rapids-Greenway, and the staff seems excited to try and make a push for home-ice in the WCHA playoffs this season.

“We’re trying to move into that top four, we’ve hovered around it, that five/six (spot in the conference), we’ve had opportunities kind of wasted to move up in the standings, so that’s kind of where we’re shooting for,” added Giesen. “Our league, it’s not easy, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing. The preseason poll is the preseason poll but I just chuckle because it doesn’t matter who you’re going to play in that group of eight (in the WCHA), you’re going to have a battle.”

You can read our recent feature on Maverick captain and former APX Athlete Taylor Otremba here.

ST. THOMAS

Record Last Season: 6-21-1

Returners to Watch: Madison Brown, Chloe Boreen, Rylee Bartz, Ella Boerger

The Tommies are primed to have their best season yet of the the Division I era. The squad does lose a chunk of its defensive core this offseason but after bringing in a strong freshmen class and a handful of transfers, the team should only improve on its results from last year.

“We’re really hopeful to have a jump year for St. Thomas. We get our first fully recruited group with freshman up to senior class of recruited Division I athletes,” said Bethany Brausen, who will be in her first full season as head coach this winter. “Our full staff is really looking forward to this year as a brand new opportunity to step into this space and kind of reset things from a cultural perspective, from an on-ice perspective, and really have a fresh start.”

The Tommies will open up their brand new ice arena in just a few weeks and although the team is hesitant to say any concrete wins/losses goals for the season they are absolutely hoping to take a big step forward in 2025-26 and to become one of the most competitive programs in the country all while establishing a culture of resilience, integrity, gratitude and trustworthiness.

bEMIDJI STATE

Record Last Season: 6-30-1

Returners to Watch: Morgan Smith, Hailey Armstrong, Isa Goettl, Kaitlin Groess

The Beavers have finished at the bottom of the WCHA standings for the past couple of years now but the players and coaches seem optimistic that this season will be different. They say that they’ve had a great preseason so far and that the team has a lot of energy already and everyone already feels like a family, despite the addition of 11 new faces to the roster.

“It feels like we’ve been together longer than a few weeks, they came together in a quick way and there’s a lot of energy. They’re always with each other. They’re doing a lot of team activities. We've done a lot of community volunteering recently which has been great for team bonding opportunities, we hosted our first camp, so our players had an opportunity to be together for that as well,” said Head Coach Amber Fryklund. “I think they’re really committed to elevating our standards and elevating our program. There’s a lot of energy and commitment to putting in the work to continue to grow our program right now.”

Fryklund talked on WCHA Media Day about how Bemidji State had already made improvements last season, which was her first as Head Coach of the Beavers, in regards to goals scored for the team, goals against, and on special teams as well. The hope is to keep on improving in those areas and to continue to win more and more games and hopefully move up the standings in the WCHA. To do that, the squad is relying on a positive, good culture throughout the team and coaching staff.

You can read our recent feature on incoming transfer Ava Hills and the current goaltending situation for the Beavers here.

PRESEASON POLLS

WCHA PRESEASON COACHES POLL

1. Wisconsin

T-2. Ohio State and Minnesota

4. Minnesota Duluth

5. St. Cloud State

6. St. Thomas

7. Minnesota State

8. Bemidji State

USCHO PRESEASON NATIONAL POLL

1 Wisconsin

2 Ohio State

3 Minnesota

6 Minnesota Duluth

13 St. Cloud State

NEW HIGH-sTICKING RULE TAKES PLACE

One of the big things that fans may notice this season in 2025-26 is that the conference has voted to allow unlimited high-sticking when attempting to play the puck and score a goal. This will only be allowed in WCHA conference games. High-sticking, as usual, will still not be allowed in penalty shots or shootouts though.

“The coaches voted on it and we got the approval from the NCAA to do unlimited high sticking. That means no matter how high the puck is, to score a goal or to knock it down anywhere on the ice, there will not be a whistle in WCHA games only,” said WCHA Director of Officiating Greg Shepard.

The league will be keeping data on this experimental rule change and will assess things after the season to see if there were more/less goals scored with this rule, if there was any increase in penalties/injuries, etc.

Most WCHA teams will start their seasons this weekend as St. Cloud State, St. Thomas, Minnesota Duluth and Lindenwood all will participate in a nonconference series while Ohio State, Minnesota and Bemidji State all have exhibition games on the roster for mid-September. The very first conference matchup will be Wisconsin heading to Bemidji State on Sept. 26 and 27.