Q: Which player position was most commonly seen in the portal this offseason? How about year in school? Were there more sophomores? Juniors? Seniors? Etc.

A: As expected, the majority of portal entrants are forwards (67 total, or 55%), then defenders (34 total, or 28%), and goaltenders (20 total, or 17%). As for year in school, the highest percent of entrants were sophomores (37%), followed by freshmen (26%), juniors (23%), graduate students (8%) and seniors (5%). (see charts below)

Q: How about portal entrants by conference? Were there any patterns to be seen with players leaving one conference more than another?

A: The conference with the most players that entered the portal was a tie between Hockey East and the ECAC but if you look at the average losses per team by conference, there really wasn’t anything surprising there. I took the total amount of entrants per conference and divided it by the number of schools in that conference to get these numbers. There really isn’t too much variation here for the most part.

AHA: 17 / 7 = 2.4 avg. portal entrants per school

ECAC: 28 / 12 = 2.3 avg. portal entrants per school

Hockey East: 28 / 10 = 2.8 avg. portal entrants per school

NEWHA: 25 / 8 = 3.1 avg. portal entrants per school

WCHA: 23 / 8 = 2.9 avg. portal entrants per school

Q: To ask the complete opposite of the previous question, which conferences had the most portal additions to their teams, on average? (I calculated this by taking the total number of additions to the rosters for each team in a conference combined and divided by the total number of teams in each conference)

A: The WCHA and AHA had a slightly higher number, but not by that much. Another not so surprising number you see here is that the ECAC did not bring in many athletes, which makes sense considering that it is extremely difficult to try and transfer into those schools, particularly the Ivy League programs. The NEWHA also tended to have a low number of additions per team this season. Some teams may have simply preferred to bring in more freshmen instead of loading up on transfers, it really depends on the coaching staff and the needs of each program.

AHA: 17 / 7 = 2.4 avg. additions per school

ECAC: 15 / 12 = 1.25 avg. additions per school

Hockey East: 23 / 10 = 2.3 avg. additions per school

NEWHA: 11 / 8 = 1.4 avg. additions per school

WCHA: 19 / 8 = 2.4 avg. additions per school

Q: Which schools had the most players enter the portal?

A: This year, Merrimack was far and away the program that had the most athletes enter the portal with 11. Behind them, Minnesota and St. Michael’s College each had 7, while Clarkson and Lindenwood had 6 a piece (this is including athletes who later withdrew their names from the portal).

Q: Which schools had the least players enter the portal?

A: There were a handful of schools that had no transfer portal entrants in 2025. This includes Syracuse, Dartmouth, Harvard, and the reigning national champions at Wisconsin.

Q: Which schools added the most players out of the transfer portal?

A: Since Merrimack lost the most to the portal, they also added the most from the portal as well with 10 transfer additions to the roster.

Q: Which schools did not add any athletes from the transfer portal?

A: There were 13 schools that did not add anyone from the portal. 6 of these schools were Ivy League programs - not surprising - but the others are not. Wisconsin, Stonehill, Syracuse, RIT, Franklin Pierce, Maine, Northeastern, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale all did not have any Division I portal additions to their 2025-26 rosters.

This also means that there were a few teams that had NO portal entrants and NO portal additions from this past year. This is Syracuse, Wisconsin, Dartmouth and Harvard. You can call them portal neutral if you so choose.

Q: Where are these transfer portal entrants from? Well, they come from all over, including a span of 19 different U.S. states, 8 different Canadian provinces, and five other countries. Skaters from Minnesota made up the largest portion of entrants with 19% while those from Ontario weren’t far behind at 17%. Below is a list of all the states/provinces and countries represented this year. Numbers next to the state denote how many are from that place. No number next to the abbreviation means there is just one that was in the portal in 2025.

States: AZ, CO (2), CT (3), FL, ID, IL (2), IN, KS, MD, MA (12), MI (5), MN (23), NH (2), NM, NY (5), PA (5), UT (2), VT (2), WI (4)

Provinces: AB (5), BC (2), MB (2), NB, NS (2), ON (21), QC (3), SK (5)

Other Countries: Sweden (2), Poland, Finland, Denmark, Czechia

Q: How many athletes in the portal this season ended up not playing anywhere in 2025-26?

A: Only 10. That means 8% of entrants are currently not playing anywhere this season. They may have simply just put their names in the portal to see what options were out there and didn’t find a perfect fit, which happens. 5 of the 10 athletes came from the NEWHA conference. These 10 athletes are listed below.

-Delaney Williams, Assumption, So.,F

-Emma Gurnell, Assumption, Jr., F, (also played at Maine)

-Carson Zanella, Boston College, Gr., F

-Annie Abrahamson, Long Island, So., G, (was listed as the student manager in 2024-25)

-Skylar Vetter, Minnesota, Sr., G

-Lauren Barbro, Penn State, Jr., G

-Lucia DiGirolamo, Princeton, Fr., D

-Sydney Antonakis, Sacred Heart, Sr., F

-Calla Frank, Minnesota State, Gr., G, (entered PWHL draft)

-Vanessa Sampl, St. Michael’s College, Fr., F

Q: How many athletes withdrew their names from the portal and wound up back at the same Division I program in 2025-26?

A: Just 4 total. Ellie Muscedere of Lindenwood, Shae Carroll of Sacred Heart, Anna Jerylo of St. Michael’s College and Emma-Sofie Nordstrom of St. Lawrence.

Q: How many athletes went from Division I to Division III?

A: 10 total athletes, or 8%. 7 of the athletes who dropped down to Division III came from the NEWHA conference, two from AHA and one from the WCHA. These 10 athletes transferred to the following schools: Hamline (3), Norwich (2), Castleton, Nazareth, Elmira, St. Mary’s, and Morrisville.

Q: How many athletes went from Division I to USports?

A: Quite a few. 16 total, or 13%. Each of the skaters who decided to move to USports were Canadian, which makes sense. It seems like Americans tend to drop to DIII while Canadians instead are more likely to turn to USports. Athletes who shifted to USports came from Hockey East (5), AHA (4), the ECAC (4), the WCHA (2) and the NEWHA. USports colleges chosen included Ottawa (3), Waterloo (3), New Brunswick, McGill, Concordia, Regina, St. Francis Xavier, Toronto, MacEwan, Manitoba, Toronto Metro, and Windsor.

Q: What is the overall breakdown of where athletes went?

A: 13% went to USports, 8% went to Division III, 8% are currently not playing in 2025-26, and 71% stayed in Division I hockey.

Q: Did a lot of skaters transfer to a school within the same conference? Or did many leave their conferences?

A: It’s a mixed bag, really. Since there weren’t many portal entrants this year it’s hard to make an overall generalization but here are some of the most common destinations per conference. The most popular landing spots for athletes in the AHA include Hockey East, USports, or going back into the AHA. For ECAC skaters, they tended to stay within the ECAC or many went into the AHA. Athletes in Hockey East mostly stayed in Hockey East although the ECAC and USports were popular destinations too. The NEWHA mainly had skaters stay in the NEWHA or they had a large portion that dropped down to Division III. And last but certainly not least, the WCHA tended to stay within the WCHA by a fairly large margin - but it’s not surprising that most want to stay in the best conference in college hockey.

Q: How many athletes are double-dippers? (AKA people who are now on their third school / second transfer)

A: There were 7 total (~6%). If you counted the athletes who entered the portal but didn’t find a home in DI/DIII/USports though then that number would actually rise to 11 (9%).

-Lauren Barbro: Minn State -> Penn State -> Not playing in ‘25-26

-Jessica Ciarocchi: Penn State -> Brown -> Mercyhurst

-Ellie Marcovsky: Robert Morris -> Princeton -> Robert Morris

-Maddie Crowley-Cahill: Boston College -> New Hampshire -> Merrimack

-Madison Michals: Boston Univ. -> Holy Cross -> Merrimack

-Ava Hills: New Hampshire -> St. Anselm -> Bemidji State

-Hali Lawrence: Minot State (ACHA) -> Post -> St. Cloud State

-Emma Gurnell: Maine -> Assumption -> Not playing in ‘25-26

-Sydney Antonakis: RIT -> Sacred Heart -> Not playing in ‘25-26

-Calla Frank: Minnesota State -> St. Thomas -> Not playing in ‘25-26

-Krista Parkkonen: Vermont -> Minnesota -> Minnesota Duluth

Q: Who were some of the biggest names in the portal this year?

A: There really weren’t too many big names in the portal this year, but here are some of the biggest pick-ups from the year.

-Minnesota picked up Sarah Paul, Molly Jordan and Jamie Nelson from the portal. Paul was one of the top goal-scorers in the nation last year (28G) and has a point-per game for the Gophers in 2025-26 but has only seen the ice for 8 games so far this winter (assuming due to injury). Nelson was the leading scorer for Minnesota State in 2024-25 and is currently at about a point-per game pace for Minnesota this season. Jordan is a talented blueliner and former two-time member of the U18 Women’s Worlds squad who now rounds out a deep defensive core for the Gophers in 2025-26.

-Minnesota Duluth also had a handful of very solid pickups this offseason, including current leading scorer Thea Johansson from Mercyhurst. They also rounded out their defensive core with Krista Parkkonen and Kate Kosobud - both from Minnesota - and Ashley Messier from Cornell. Josie St. Martin of Ohio State was also a good grab for the Bulldogs.

-Other leading scorers picked up from the portal or transfer goaltenders with solid stats so far:

• Kaitlin Finnegan (Lindenwood -> Delaware)

• Emma Hoen (Lindenwood -> Post)

• Jessica MacKinnon (Clarkson -> Robert Morris)

• Stella Retrum (Penn State -> Vermont)

• Julia Minotti (Clarkson -> St. Thomas)

• Lexington Secreto (Ohio State -> Lindenwood)

• Ava Hills (St. Anselm -> Bemidji State)

• Adreanna Doucette (Clarkson -> Merrimack)

So what will happen to the portal in 2026? Well, we will just have to wait and see what happens and who decides to enter their name into the infamous transfer portal this spring. We’ll have full coverage, including Sydney’s transfer portal spreadsheet, once names start popping up usually in February/March. For now, make sure to stay tuned to APX Hockey for our men’s portal analysis coming out next week.

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