Can Northeastern Overcome No Home-Team Advantage Over A Whole Campaign? Season Preview

What happens when you leave home? What happens when you have to exit the heartlands of Boston sports in which you called home? The answer? Never good things.

After a sizzling 10-6 first half to the 2025-26 season, Northeastern was confident and ready for a playoff push, until the inevitable occurred. Matthews Arena, the home of the Huskies, closed down after 115 glorious years of history, and it seemed at times like the Jerry Keefe-led Huskies were MIA as well, going 7-12-1 in the final 20 games of the campaign.

Now comes 2026-27; a year the Huskies have to fully operate without any home-team advantage or the aura of their old venue. Luckily, the disadvantages of the experience didn’t lure away a majority of Keefe’s offensive talent.

Out of the top seven point scorers from the past season, the Huskies return five, most importantly Jacob Mathieu. The sophomore finished with 30 points as a freshman including 20 assists.

Amine Hajibi and Giacomo Martino also join Mathieu as returning sophomores who tallied 20-or-more points last season. It’s likely the first and second forward lines for Northeastern will include Mathieu, Hajibi and Martino in a multitude of different combinations. The three sophomores will also be joined by Tyler Fukakusa and Joe Connor, two upperclassmen who were major contributors to the scoring in 2025-26.

Despite all the returning offensive prowess, the Huskies lost the main star of the show. Dylan Hryckowian tallied 37 points last year with 15 goals and 22 assists. He finished fourth in Hockey East in points, and led Northeastern in the statistical category. The Canadian left for the National Hockey League to compete for the Dallas Stars organization.

His departure was a major loss for Keefe and his coaching staff, the Huskies do have numerous candidates to help fill Hryckowian's scoring and leadership voids, including Miguel Marques. The transfer from Maine notched 23 points last season, making him one of the steals of the offseason.

The Huskies also added defenseman Joel Kjellberg out of Arizona State, forward Charlie Pardue from Notre Dame, and defenseman Alex Pineau via Brown.

Speaking of Brown, Northeastern was able to keep its impressive goaltender who began his collegiate career at the Ivy League school, Lawton Zacher. In his junior year, the New York product flew up to third in the conference’s save-percentage leaderboard at .930, and allowed 2.20 goals per game. Zacher helped the Huskies finish fourth in the conference in goals allowed and first on the penalty kill.

The three senior defenseman Zacher had last season were a major help, but the trio of Austen May, Vinny Borgesi and Dylan Finlay all graduated. Northeastern also lost freshman Dylan Compton and sophomore Jack Henry after they both entered the transfer portal. The Huskies escaped the offseason with just one of their defenseman that started the Hockey East quarterfinal against UMass (a season-ending 4-1 loss).

Keefe and his staff subsequently focused heavily on the position in freshman recruitment. He brought in eight total prospects, including five defenseman. Among them, four are out of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, one of three that make up the Canadian Hockey League.

Marcus Kearsey is arriving with the most accolades of the new defensemen. The Newfoundland prospect earned QMJHL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2023 and served as the captain of the Charlottetown Islanders from 2024-26, helping his squad to four consecutive playoff appearances.

The other three QMJHL defenseman the Huskies brought in include Owen Keefe, a 34-point scorer from Saugus, Mass., Noah Laberge, a 56-point scorer who ranked fourth among all QMJHL defensemen in scoring and Jordan Tourigny, a defenseman for the Memorial Cup-winning Chicoutimi Saguenéens.

The Huskies took a major hit defensively, but the hope for Keefe is that the haul of transfers and freshman will be more than enough to supplement the above average-forwards and netminder the team already has. However, without the stability of a home locker room, it’s hard to expect much more than a middle-of-the-pack finish for Northeastern in 2026-27.

We know you've been waiting for this one 👀

Our 2026-27 schedule is here: https://t.co/ogkWrzVd7h pic.twitter.com/drcIejcDGi
— Northeastern Men’s Hockey (@GoNUmhockey) August 21, 2026

The School
Location: Boston, MA
Founded: 1898
Enrollment: 17,432
Nickname: Huskies
Colors: Red, Black
Arena: N/A

The Team
Coach: Jerry Keefe, 6th season (90-80-13)
2025-26 record: 17-18-1 (11-13-0 Hockey East)
Last NCAA Tournament appearance: 2022
Last Frozen Four: 1982
Last national championship: N/A
Last conference titles: 2022 regular season; 2019 tournament
Key departures: F Dylan Hryckowian, D Vinny Vorgesi, D Dylan Compton
Key returning players: F Jacob Mathieu, F Joe Connor, GK Lawton Zacher

This is the sixth story in a series of season and conference previews for the upcoming 2026-27 season. Check out the previous story on UMass Lowell

Add us as a preferred source on Google