TRANSFER PORTAL QUICK FACTS

Q: How many entrants are currently in the portal?

A: As of Sunday, May 31st, there were 124 entrants in our Women’s Transfer Portal Tracker. If you are curious about the number of portal entrants from men’s college hockey vs. women’s college hockey, there were over 325 total men’s Division I portal entrants this year, but that’s not very surprising to have that many more in the men’s portal, all things considered. The total number of women’s portal entrants is about the same as last year’s (121), and both 2026 and 2025 are down from years prior, since there was a surge for a while in athletes using Covid-19 pandemic eligibility (there were over 150 entrants in 2024).

Q: How many of the athletes who entered the portal are decent, middle-six to ‘star’ quality players?

A: Well, there’s not really a perfect formula to calculate this, but if you take all of the starting goaltenders in the portal along with all of the skaters that made somewhat of an impact on their teams in 2025-26, you get about 24% of the total player pool. A large majority of athletes entering the portal had seasons with limited points and playing time or were backup netminders that didn’t see much action out on the ice.

Q: What is the breakdown of portal entrants by position and by year in school?

A: The highest number of transfer portal entrants is from those listed as freshmen (~39%) and as sophomores (~33%). Behind those two groups were juniors (~22%), and the final six or so percent were seniors (most of whom are goalies who didn’t play much and still retain some eligibility). As for position, we saw the usual in 2026 with forwards being the most common type of skater in the portal, followed by defenders, and then goalies.

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

A: This season, the school with the most entrants by far (barring any further late additions) is Saint Anselm College. There is a reason for this, though, as the school recently announced its intentions to move all sports down to the Division III level for the 2027-28 season, including women’s hockey, so it’s understandable that there were many late additions to the portal from the school that is located in Manchester, New Hampshire. It sounds like the women’s Division I team may remain intact for the 2026-27 season, but then it would transition down to Division III in the season to follow. There are currently 18 athletes in the portal for the Hawks, which makes sense considering many skaters and netminders likely want to try to play a full Division I career elsewhere, or to play for a higher, more well-established Division III program if they can’t find a landing spot in Division I. The other schools with a high amount of portal entrants include St. Cloud State (9), St. Lawrence (8), Lindenwood (6) and Mercyhurst (6).

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

A: Programs with no portal entrants this season include Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Cornell, Assumption and Stonehill. It’s not surprising to see those Ivy League teams listed, since many athletes don’t want to give up a degree from those schools, but Assumption and Stonehill are interesting to see on the list this offseason. There were many programs with only one entrant this year - Delaware, Holy Cross, Minnesota, Minnesota State, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Ohio State, Penn State, RPI, UConn, Union, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Yale.

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

A: It’s a bit hard to get a clear picture at the moment as over 30% over athletes in the portal are still waiting to announce their new home/destination, but as of now, St. Thomas has utilized the portal the most, with five strong additions to the roster for this fall (three defenders, a forward, and a goalie). Other programs that have been using the portal quite a bit include Long Island and Robert Morris, each with four new additions, and Clarkson, Lindenwood, Ohio State, and Quinnipiac, all with three new additions apiece.

Q: Where are these transfer portal entrants from?

A: Almost 64% of the entire entrant pool are from the United States, representing 22 different states! Minnesota is the most common home state (~14/15% of the total pool), while Massachusetts had the second-highest amount, and both Illinois and Michigan were tied for third. Approximately 31% of the player pool list their hometown as in Canada, representing six different provinces. Ontario was by far the most popular. There were barely any international skaters in the portal this year (meaning those who are from neither the U.S. or Canada) - with only six total. Three from Finland and one each from Denmark, Russia and South Korea. Interesting to see no one from Sweden or from countries like Czechia, Germany, Slovakia, etc.

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

A: About 7% of the total pool of entrants have already committed to play at the Division III level, while about 9% are headed to USports. Canadians seem to gravitate towards USports, while Americans typically lean towards Division III, unsurprisingly. You can expect both of those percentages to go up by a few more points as more athletes announce their intentions on where they’ll play over summer weeks and months to come.

Q: How many athletes have found a new home in Division I so far?

A: Almost 47% of the total player pool have found a new home in Division I, but it is still early in the offseason so I would expect that percentage could increase a couple of points up to 50% likely by the end of the summer.

Q: Did a lot of skaters transfer to a school within the same conference? Or did many leave their conferences? How about portal entrants by conference? Were there any patterns to be seen with players leaving one conference more than another?

A: It’s hard to definitively say there is a pattern among any of this data since the sample size is so small, but here are a few things that I’ve seen so far. Lots of NEWHA skaters headed down to Division III or stayed within the NEWHA, a chunk of WCHA skaters stay within the conference or are headed to Hockey East or the ECAC, and those who are headed into the AHA tend to come from Hockey East or the ECAC. NEWHA has by far the most portal entrants, but you should take that statistic with a grain of salt considering all of the entrants from Saint Anselm. If you took all those skaters from Saint Anselm out of it, then the WCHA would actually have the most entrants. The ECAC had the fewest entrants, which isn’t surprising considering the high level of academics at those schools and skaters who are not likely to want to give up an Ivy League degree or a degree from the other highly-regarded academic institutions in that conference.

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

A: There are currently six that have officially announced their new home, and another handful of athletes who are waiting to announce their new destination. There is even one possible triple-transfer in the bunch as well (listed below)…

• Lexington Secreto (Ohio State → Lindenwood → Mercyhurst)

• Ashley Kokavec (Maine → Vermont → Penn State)

• Sidney Jackel (Lindenwood → St. Cloud State → St. Thomas)

• Ella Belfry (Colgate → Boston University → Minnesota Duluth)

• Taylor Porthan (UConn → Providence → St. Thomas)

• Isa Goettl (Minnesota → Bemidji State → Clarkson)

• Reese Logan (Minnesota Duluth → Clarkson → TBD)

• Brynn Levinson (Robert Morris → Franklin Pierce → TBD)

• Emma Hoen (Lindenwood → Post → TBD)

• Caitlin Pierce (Connecticut College → Sacred Heart → TBD)

• Eden Granley (Holy Cross → Saint Anselm → TBD)

• Hali Lawrence (Minot State → Post → St. Cloud State → TBD)

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

A: You could say multiple athletes to answer this question, but here were my top athletes in the portal by position (not in order)…

TOP DEFENDERS IN PORTAL:

• Ellah Hause (St. Thomas → Ohio State), Jr., D, 5G-11A in 36GP

• Sydney Lamb (St. Cloud State → Clarkson), Fr., D, 6G-9A in 34GP

• Lauren Goldsworthy (Minnesota State → Minnesota), So., D, 7G, 5A in 38GP

• Ashley Kokavec (Vermont → Penn State), 3G-14A in 38GP

TOP FORWARDS IN PORTAL:

• Rylee Bartz (St. Thomas → Ohio State), Jr., F, 17G-13A in 36GP, St. Thomas leading scorer

• Julia Schalin (Mercyhurst → Minnesota), So., F, 9G-22A in 32GP and a Finnish Olympian

• Jessie Pellerin (Providence → Clarkson), So., F, 11G-10A in 35GP

• Ashley Allard (UConn → Minnesota), 10G-18A in 38GP

TOP GOALTENDERS IN PORTAL:

• Abby Hornung (Holy Cross → TBD), Sr., G, .933 SV % in 24GP, 1.88 GAA

• Lexington Secreto (Lindenwood → Mercyhurst), Sr., G, .919 SV % in 25 GP, 2.77 GAA

• Jillian Petruno (Sacred Heart → St. Thomas), Sr., G, .943 SV % in 29 GP, 2.43 GAA

• Kayla Czukoski (Saint Anselm → Long Island), Fr., G, .936 SV % in 36 GP, 2.61 GAA

FORMER MINNESOTA HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY PLAYERS IN PORTAL

A: About 15% of the total player pool played MN HS Hockey.

• Academy of Holy Angels (1): Zoe Rimstad (Lindenwood → TBD)

• Andover (2): Hanna Olson (St. Lawrence → Providence), Isa Goettl (Minnesota → Bemidji State → Clarkson)

• Benilde-St. Margaret’s (2): Ella Pasqua (Quinnipiac → St. Thomas), Emma Hoen (Lindenwood → Post → TBD)

• Duluth Marshall (1): Ilsa Lindaman (St. Thomas → Quinnipiac)

• Edina (1): Taylor Porthan (UConn → Providence → St. Thomas)

• Gentry Academy (1): Campbell Heger (Sacred Heart → Arcadia)

• Hill-Murray (1): Ellah Hause (St. Thomas → Ohio State)

• Minneapolis (1): Ana Davis (Bemidji State → TBD)

• Minnetonka (5): Ruby Rauk (Quinnipiac → Bemidji State), Sophia Johnson (Minnesota → TBD), Grace Sadura (Minnesota Duluth → Northeastern), Ellie Zakrajsheck (Minnesota Duluth → Dartmouth), Lauren Goldsworthy (Minnesota State → Minnesota)

• Northfield (1): Grace McCoshen (Ohio State → St. Thomas)

• Orono (1): Grace Bickett (Wisconsin → Boston College)

• Roseau (1): Lily Erickson (St. Cloud State → Franklin Pierce)

• Warroad (1): Rylee Bartz (St. Thomas → Ohio State)

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