Boston College Men's Hockey 2026-27 Preview: Letourneau Takes Center Stage as Young Eagles Look to Rebound

When he looks back at the way last season ended for the Boston College men’s hockey program, Greg Brown sees a whirlwind of missed opportunities.

“Yeah, you just have to learn from it,” said the head coach in his preseason press conference on Monday. “I mean, again, if you look at some of those games down the stretch, like those should have been wins, and we didn’t score enough. The analytics would say you played well. … They might help you sleep at night, [but] ultimately, you have to get the wins, and we weren’t able to get as many as we needed.”

After back-to-back seasons of making the NCAA tournament, the Eagles failed to cement a third trip in a row after suffering a semifinal knockout in the Hockey East Tournament to UConn, including taking four losses in their last five games of the regular season.

It was a major blow for a team that carried high preseason expectations and captured the school’s first Beanpot title in over a decade earlier in the season, downing rival Boston University in the championship 6-2.

So that’s also something Brown is keeping in mind heading into his fifth campaign as skipper.

“We have to remember that we don’t need a complete overhaul,” Brown said. “There was a lot of good hockey there, so I guess you just pay even more attention to the detail of it. You try and grab enough wins early on so that that doesn’t become a factor.”

Brown also acknowledged that early-season injuries could have played a role in BC’s regression, but it didn’t necessarily do so, as the Eagles managed to hold their own and then some until right before the postseason.

“We ultimately weren’t able to cash in at the end, so I think it’s such a key to have a good start in the non-conference games, and then you just have to be able to execute down the stretch,” Brown said. “I think we played well in a lot of those games, not all of them, but a lot of them, and we have to make sure that we’re ready to go every night.”

The key for this upcoming season will be how fast BC’s rookie class of 11 can adjust to the pace of Hockey East competition.

Without the likes of James Hagens, the reigning Hockey East Player of the Year who led the Eagles with 47 points last season, controlling the puck on the power play and making dazzling moves around defenders to consistently generate quality offensive chances, it will be essential for some of this freshman class to find its footing early — especially if Brown wants BC to get into a groove before its slate appears.

While the Eagles have fielded relatively top-heavy lineups over the past few years, particularly offensively, this year’s squad has the guts of a much deeper, all-hands-on-deck group that must have contributions from all walks of the depth chart.

Of course, it still has a star-level player in Dean Letourneau, who is unquestionably a Hobey Baker Award contender after a breakout sophomore campaign in which he tallied 39 points with 22 goals and 17 assists after recording just three as a freshman.

And without so much pressure on him after finally "living up" to those first-round draft pick expectations that were cast on him right from the jump of his collegiate career, he might take an even bigger step toward putting his name on a legendary pedestal within the program record books.

“You just have a really positive feeling about how he was able to use what happened his freshman year as fuel and turn it into a great season as a sophomore,” Brown said of Letourneau. “So now he kind of will be the guy that everyone is looking to to contribute and be the offensive leader of this team, and I do think he’s ready for that role. Not only physically, you know he worked again, had another great summer, but also I think mentally he’s in a good spot where he’s excited to lead the offensive charge for this team.”

One of the less certain areas of this roster is its goaltender situation, as the Eagles have returned Louka Cloutier — who started in 33 games for BC as a freshman last season, in which he generated a goals against average of 2.34 and a .910 save percentage — but also brought in Boston Bruins’ 2026 sixth-rounder Leo Henriquez as the sole netminder of the ‘26-27 freshman class.

Henriquez played all of last year in the USHL, where Cloutier also came from (Chicago Steel), for the Green Bay Gamblers, churning out a 2.22 GAA and a save percentage of .921.

It is almost a certainty that Cloutier will get the nod to start in net at the beginning of the season as the experienced returner, but Brown and co. will have to see how things shake out as the season progresses, because this was an area that BC definitely struggled with in its worst moments last year.

“It’s early to tell,” Brown said of how the goalie room is shaping up. “All I’ll say is both guys have been very competitive. They both work extremely hard in practice. They both want to show their best attributes every day. So the competitiveness and the compete level of both guys has been excellent, and we’re going to have to wait and see after a few games how it starts to play out. But right now we’re very happy.”

Meanwhile, there are players like sophomore forward Oscar Hemming — who joined BC over Christmas break last season and was drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft — who are expected to make a big leap in year two and provide offensive output on a far more consistent basis.

“Yeah, it was incredible how he was able to contribute last year, making that jump as a 17 year old,” Brown said. “And now you look at him as a sophomore veteran, and he just turned 18 in August, so it’s kind of crazy, but he’s familiar with everyone, with everything, and you can see more things on the ice. So we’ve only had a couple weeks of practice, but he’s going to be a key player for us this year.”

Ryan Conmy, Teddy Stiga, Will Vote, Jake Sondreal and Will Moore are some additional offensive pieces that return for the Eagles need to play a major role this year, while senior Nolan Joyce and sophomores Luka Radivojevic and Kristian Kostadinski must be ready to fill into leadership roles for a defensive unit that consists almost entirely of underclassmen.

“This freshman group has come in the defense and It’s always an adjustment, but you can see them starting to really get comfortable at that pace now,” Brown said.

BC will play a pair of exhibition matchups in Michigan against Michigan State and the United States National Team Development Program (USNTDP) before opening up regular-season action in Conte Forum against Alaska on Oct. 9, just two weeks from this upcoming Friday.

“It’s very beneficial, especially in a year like this when we have so many new players,” Brown said of playing exhibition games. “I think sometimes jumping right into the season, if you have an experienced team, is not such a bad thing. But this year, especially, it’s really important, and we’re glad we have those.”

Boston College Men's Hockey Season Preview: Additional Notes

Sophomore forward Will Moore is still healing from shoulder surgery and has been limited to no-contact drills in practice thus far.

Will have more content up soon from this morning's preseason chat with @BC_MHockey coach Greg Brown, but one small nugget of importance is that forward Will Moore (#nhlbruins) had surgery on his shoulder this offseason and hasn't been involved much in contact drills, per Brown. pic.twitter.com/gVFqBEaRWl
— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) September 21, 2026

BC will enter the season ranked No. 12 in the country.

The first USCHO Division 1 men’s hockey poll is out, and @BC_MHockey enters the season ranked No. 12.

The full preseason ranking: pic.twitter.com/E7jrjlAZ2f
— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) September 21, 2026

Captains for this season have been selected but have not yet been announced. They are expected to come out sometime in the next few days.

Additionally, Greg Brown said that @BC_MHockey's 2026-27 captains have been selected and will be announced in the coming days.
— Graham Dietz (@graham_dietz) September 21, 2026

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