Freshmen Lead the Way in Early College Hockey Stock Report: Puck Drop

Two weekends of college hockey are in the books, and there's plenty to take away from the opening slate of games. It's an extremely long season, but if there's anything the NCAA Percentage Index (NPI) showcased in its first year, it has no sympathy for bad early-season losses.

Here's the second edition of the stock report, looking at who's trending up and who's heading in the wrong direction.

Stock Up: Freshmen phenoms

A new year brings a new flock of freshman hopefuls. Not all of the top draft picks and highly-touted prospects are going to light the NCAA up straight out of the gates, but some of them are. It’s a strong year for freshmen defensemen, and that pack is led by Michigan’s Landon DuPont.

DuPont is now the unanimous best prospect in all of college hockey and will almost certainly be the top pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. He’s already racked up five assists, which is no surprise after being integrated into such a high-octane offense. 

Denver’s Daxton Rudolph is another incredible freshman defenseman entering the fold, and he already has a goal and four assists after being selected No. 4 by the Buffalo Sabres in the recent draft. Jordan Tourigny registered a goal with two assists for Northeastern in his collegiate debut on the blue line.

Providence has a promising first-year forward duo in Blake Zielinski and Ryder Cali. The pair each scored twice during the opening weekend to tie for the early team-lead in scoring. Center Cooper Foster arrived at Lake Superior State following a monster year for the Ottawa 67’s of the OHL, and he has already amassed four assists in the opening two contests.

Stock Up: Stonehill Skyhawks

Last season, Stonehill ranked No. 57 out of 63 Division 1 teams in the NPI, the new system used to determine postseason seedings. The Skyhawks went 10-22-3, which wasn’t so bad compared to their 2-34-0 record in 2023-24, during their initial D-1 campaign.

Two games into the fresh season, things are on a much better track. Stonehill hosted Colgate at Warrior Ice Arena and came out of the weekend series with a pair of wins. Colgate is a competitive team in the ECAC, making a sweep a very promising start.

Senior forward JJ Grainda led the scoring with two goals and freshman defenseman Luke Lepper registered three assists in the series as the Skyhawks won 2-1 and 4-2 in the back-to-back matchups.

While it was just an exhibition, it’s also notable that Stonehill played to a 3-3 tie in regulation against Hockey East-leading Providence last weekend. There could be something brewing here. 

Stock Down: Penn State’s early season outlook

It was never going to be easy to adjust to life without the best player in college hockey, but Penn State took the loss of Gavin McKenna even harder than expected in the first weekend. At the Ice Breaker Tournament, the Nittany Lions fell flat on their face in matchups against Connecticut-based opponents, UConn and Sacred Heart.

Of the 56 teams who have played so far, the numbers place Penn State in the second-to-last spot in the country. It’s only one weekend on the road, but the early signs are undoubtedly concerning.

The Nittany Lions did not hold a lead in either contest, but they did mount a three-goal comeback against Sacred Heart before leaking three goals right back to lose 6-3. Kale Dach scored the lone goal in the 3-1 loss to UConn, then added another against SHU. On the bright side, marquee Maine transfer Justin Poirier produced a trio of assists on the weekend.

Stock Up: Michigan’s offensive firepower

Michigan’s offensive attack was already at the pinnacle of college hockey, so the fact that its stock can even go up further is telling. After dropping 11 goals on Bowling Green across two games on opening weekend, the Wolverines upped their series tally to 17 goals with 10-1 and 7-2 wins over Alaska Anchorage.

Scoring 28 goals in four hockey games is impressive at any level, let alone in Division I. They’re averaging seven goals per game, which puts them on pace to lead the country in scoring for the second straight season, by a long shot.

It was the Jayden Perron show against Alaska Anchorage. The senior finished the series with four goals, three of which came in hat-trick fashion in the second matchup. He’s up to seven goals and six assists in four games. He leads the nation in goals and sits second in assists, behind only his teammate Michael Hage (9).

Stock Down: UConn’s special teams

Special teams were very much a net neutral in UConn’s 3-1 victory over Penn State on Friday. That changed in a 5-2 loss to Bowling Green on Saturday, when the Huskies racked up 21 penalty minutes and handed out five power plays.

The Falcons cashed in on two of those opportunities, putting the Huskies at a measly 60 percent penalty kill percentage for the game. On the other end, they’ve failed to convert on any of their five power play attempts to open up the season. Ironically, the lone positive play on special teams thus far was a shorthanded goal from Carter Sproule in the Bowling Green loss. 

Stock Up: Goaltending

It’s not easy to stand in the way of flying rubber discs, but a whole bunch of goaltenders did it at a supremely high level last weekend. The headliner was Jacob Steinman, who brushed off the Michigan series and made a whopping 39 saves for Bowling Green to earn the win over UConn.

After joining Miami (OH) mid-season and starting just one game in 2025-26, Mathis Langevin transferred to Augustana for his sophomore year. He stopped 34 out of 35 shots to earn a tie against Minnesota Duluth and made 25 saves to backstop the Vikings to a season-opening win the night prior.

Jack Parsons completed a 25-save shutout for Providence against Clarkson and Quinnipiac’s Christian Kirsch denied 33 shots in a 2-1 victory over Maine. Despite the losing efforts, RIT’s Collin Mackenzie made 41 saves versus UMass and Raythan Robbins turned away 40 shots in a tight loss to No. 4 North Dakota.

Oh, and Denver's Johnny Hicks? Still hasn't lost. The Pioneers hist Michigan this weekend in a No. 1 vs. 2 matchup.

Puck Drop: Wednesday, October 14, 2026

• Penn State forward Keaton Peters announced that for the second straight year he's suffered a season-ending knee injury. Peters said that he re-tore his ACL and also tore his MCL, plus the medial and lateral meniscus. The injury occurred during his first shift of the season in the Ice Breaker opener against UConn on Friday night. Last year's injury occurred before the season started.

•  Not only did Brady Tkachuk (Boston University) score his first three goals of the season with a natural hat trick in the second period, but it was the first natural hat trick in NHL history in which a brother assisted on all three goals. Matthew Tkachuk finished with five assists for the Florida Panthers in a 7-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

• Evan Rodrigues (Boston University) got his first goal with the New Jersey Devils, in the kickoff game of the NHL's Frozen Frenzy with every team playing Tuesday evening. The 16-game slate ended after midnight in most of the country with Boston at San Jose. Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy (Boston University) had a goal in his first game off a six-game suspension. Macklin Celebrini (also BU) had a goal and an assist, but Boston won 6-3.

• Roger McQueen (Providence) made his NHL debut for the Anaheim Ducks in their matchup against the Calgary Flames. The 20-year-old was selected No. 10 overall in the 2025 NHL Draft.

• UMD hgas called for a "Maroon Out" for Friday's game against Minnesota.

• The latest on Dave Hakstol and Arizona State is that there's no update. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar even said so during his pregame press session:

Hockey Quote of the Day

[On giving up Wayne Gretzky’s first NHL goal on this date in 1979] “I created a monster.”

Glen Hanlon

We'll Leave You With This ...

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