How One year of CHL Involvement Brought Major Change to NCAA Hockey Rosters

It was only one full season ago that the passing of Name, Image and Likeness legislation allowed for Canadian Hockey League athletes to join NCAA programs, but they’ve already made a sizable impact on both the makeup and outcome of college hockey programs.

According to numbers compiled through SportsNet and other sources including the NCAA and team sites, 143 CHL athletes entered Division I college hockey at the beginning of the 2025-26 season, and an additional 164 are set to start as freshmen this year. With the vast majority (131) of the 2025-26 entrants remaining within D-I, that makes for a cumulative 296 former CHL athletes, accounting for nearly 20 percent of all college hockey players.

Even though neither played in the Frozen Four, Gavin McKenna (Penn State) and Porter Martone (Michigan State) are among of the most visible examples of players jumping across the border to prepare and springboard into the National Hockey League. McKenna was the first-overall selection in the draft, while Martone signed with Philadelphia and quickly endeared himself to Flyers fans, especially during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Both were bound for major league hockey no matter which way you sliced it, but chose to give their prospect stock a boost with a year of NCAA development, and rocketed to the top of their already deep rosters to propel those teams through strong seasons. Michigan State was atop the college polls for much of the 2025-26, while Penn State peaked at No. 5 and hovered around that mark for a long while befroe securing a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

However, their success points to a larger story: the amount of drafted athletes eligible to play at the collegiate level has jumped and teams have gotten stronger as a result. Heading into 2025-26, 32 already-drafted CHL players entered the Division I ranks, and this year, an additional 49 are following. That’s not counting the McKennas of the world, either — who donned a Nittany Lions jersey at 17 and despite his young age was a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's most outstanding player.

CHL Hockey Players in the NCAA, Division I | Amelia Ballingall

The talent pool has broadened, the level of compete is up, and the stakes are higher than ever.

Over the past 25 years, 15 No. 1 overall draft picks headed into the NHL straight from Canadian junior hockey, including Connor Bedard (2023), Connor McDavid (2015), and Sidney Crosby (2005). But now college hockey as a whole has stepped up and offers true advantages for players, including the recent promise of NIL deals, but also prime NHL development. Consequently, those No. 1 slots have followed, with Owen Power in 2021 and Macklin Celebrini in 2024.

After McKenna in 2026, Landon DuPont is widely projected as the heavy favorite to be selected No. 1 in 2027. The defenseman will play this season at Michigan. The early favorites for 2028 include Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue and both are expected to play at the collegiate level, but are still only 16 years old. Forward Joey Cullen is also getting some strong hype in Minnesota and is already committed to play for the Gophers.

Overall, approximately 30 percent of the players on NHL Opening Day rosters last year were former NCAA athletes.

2025-26 Recruitment of CFL Players by NCAA Division I Progams — 2025-26 Recruitment of CFL Players by NCAA Division I Programs | Amelia Ballingall

2026-27 Recruitment of CFL Players by NCAA Division I Programs | Amelia Ballingall

Some college teams have jumped into this opportunity more than others, with Bowling Green set to field 18 former CHL athletes this season and Penn State 14. On the other end, Stonehill is left in the dust as the one eligible* program to not pick up a former Canadian hockey player (Note: *Air Force and Army West Point do not have former CHL athletes due to U.S. military regulations).

Although the Big Ten as so far made the biggest splash in terms of adding big names, Hockey East has the highest volume. With 62 CHL players across 11 teams, it's rostered more than a fifth of collegiate Canadians.

This could be due to the fact that, as a whole, they recruited heavily across all three CHL conferences. for example, Boston College recently added its first Western Hockey League commitment, Matias Vanhanen. The Finnish forward was selected in the second round of the 2026 NHL Draft by the New Jersey Devils at No. 37 overall.

CFL conferences represented in NCAA, Division I | Amelia Ballingall

The WHL was by far the most popular recruiting hub for the 2024-25 season, with 68 turned college players, compared to 50 from the OHL and just 25 from the QMJHL. This was mostly distributed by region, with the NCHC taking on a third of all WHL selections while the Big Ten dominated OHL picks. Hockey East took advantage of its close proximity to Quebec by leading the charge in the QMJHL, but didn’t let that count it out from competing for players in the other two leagues.

Now, the ECAC looks to do the same, taking the biggest recruitment jump by going from 14 to 33 CHL entrants. Notably, Ivy League programs (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale) are all accepting their first CHL players after separating themselves from NIL dealings in 2025.

CFL Hockey Players in NCAA by Conference: Cumulative 2025-26; 2026-27 | Amelia Ballingall

The benefits of having these new recruitment pipelines is tangible. In 2025-26, 8 percent of all college hockey players hailed from the CHL, but according to the Hockey Think Tank this accounted for about 34 percent of Division I freshmen. Moreover, the talent level was shown in the likes of all-rookie teams across conferences, where former CHL athletes took up 42 percent of honoree slots.

This skill was visible throughout the NCAA Tournament as well, with each Frozen Four team (Denver, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Dakota) boasting at least three former CHL athletes, above the national average of 2.2 per team.

They were key contributors as well. For example, a pair of star starting goaltenders in Michigan’s Jack Ivankovic (.921 save percentage, 2.15 goals against average) and Wisconsin’s Daniel Hauser (.900 SVP, 2.49 GAA), and a pair of team-leading playmakers in North Dakota’s Cole Reschny (four goals, 22 assists) and Denver’s Clarke Caswell (seven goals, 24 assists). All of them were tasked with big minutes in high-stakes games, and all of them will be back for this season.

Who knows how many more will follow.

CHL Players to Division I Hockey by School

School	2025-26 Entrants	2026-27 Entrants	Departures	Transfer Additions	Current Number
Alaska Anchorage	2	2	-0	+0	4
Alaska Fairbanks	3	7	-0	+0	10
Arizona State	4	3	-4	+3	6
Augustana	0	2	N/A	+0	2
Bemidji State	3	4	-0	+0	7
Bentley	1	1	-0	+0	2
Boston College	0	3	N.A	+0	3
Boston University	1	3	-0	+0	4
Bowling Green	9	10	-1	+0	18
Brown	0	1	-0	+0	1
Canisius	1	1	-0	+1	3
Clarkson	5	5	-1	+0	9
Colorado College	3	0	-0	+0	3
Cornell	5	2	-1	+0	6
Dartmouth	0	1	N/A	+0	1
Denver	4	2	-0	+0	6
Ferris State	0	5	N/A	+2	7
Harvard	0	2	N/A	+0	2
Holy Cross	2	1	-0	+1	4
Lake Superior	2	3	-0	+0	5
Lindenwood	2	0	-2	+1	1
Long Island	0	1	N/A	+0	1
Lowell	6	6	-2	+0	10
Maine	7	1	-4	+1	5
Merrimack	3	3	-0	+0	5
Miami	4	0	-0	+0	3
Michigan	4	3	-1	+0	7
Michigan State	3	3	-1	+0	5
Michigan Tech	8	2	-3	+1	8
Minnesota	0	2	N/A	+0	2
Minnesota Duluth	1	0	-0	+0	1
Nebraska Omaha	4	3	-0	+0	7
Niagara	3	2	-0	+1	6
NorthDakota	3	2	-0	+0	5
Northeastern	1	4	-0	+1	6
Northern Michigan	1	1	-0	+1	6
Notre Dame	3	1	-1	+0	3
Ohio State	3	4	-1	+0	6
Penn State	7	7	-1	+1	14
Princeton	0	3	N/A	+0	3
Providence	6	2	-1	+0	7
Quinnipiac	4	3	-2	+0	5
RIT	3	4	-0	+2	9
Roobert Morris	3	2	-0	+0	5
RPI	1	9	-0	+0	10
Sacred Heart	2	5	-1	+1	7
St. Cloud State	0	5	N/A	+0	5
St. Lawrence	1	4	-0	+0	5
Stonehill	0	0	N.A	+0	0
St. Thomas	1	2	-0	+1	4
UConn	3	4	-0	+0	7
UMass	0	3	N.A	+0	3
UNH	4	3	-1	+0	6
Union	0	1	N/A	+0	1
Vermont	5	1	-0	+0	6
Western Michigan	1	4	-0	+0	5
Wisconsin	3	0	-1	+0	2
Yale	0	2	N/A	+0	2
Total	143	163			296

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