Hockey East 2021 preseason rankings

After a bizarre, COVID-disrupted, conference-only season in 2020-21, college hockey will return to a more normal year this fall. For Hockey East, that means a full schedule that’s decided months in advance — not just announced at the start of each week — where every team plays each other at least twice. The standings will (hopefully) be decided by total points, not some secret formula.

This year, there’s no clear favorite to win Hockey East, though the teams can be split into distinct tiers. Five teams are clearly ahead of the rest and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see any of them take home the regular season title, since each squad returns a significant number of contributors and has a strong recruiting class coming in.

After that, three teams should be competitive but not quite good enough to match the top five and behind them, there are two squads with below-average rosters and no clear means of improvement. The last-place team will just try to put its skates on correctly.

1. Boston University TerriersEven with a second-place finish last season, BU had a large core of freshmen and sophomores that accounted for seven of its top 10 scorers and a pair of freshmen goaltenders. Though the Terriers will lose David Farrance and Logan Cockerill, their young players should only improve — especially with a strong freshman class that features two players from the US National U18 team.BU has the best combination of previous success, returning production and incoming talent in the conference, which puts it at No. 1.

2. Boston College EaglesBoston College is one of the most different teams to figure out this season. While the Eagles finished first in 2021, much of that was thanks to now-departed goaltender Spencer Knight — Mike Cavanaugh, among others, felt BU and UMass had better overall squads.Though BC lost Matt Boldy, Mike Hardman and Alex Newhook, it returns Nikita Nesterenko, Colby Ambrosio and Drew Helleson, to name a few. The Eagles also raided Bowling Green’s roster, bringing in Eric Dop to compete with impressive freshman Henry Wilder in net, forward and First Team All-WCHA selection Brandon Kruse and defenseman Justin Wells, who owned the second-highest +/- among defenseman nationally.The big questions: How much, if at all, did Knight cover up any cracks last year and will they be exposed without him in net? It’s possible, but we won’t bet against Jerry York.

3. UConn HuskiesLast season, UConn finished fourth thanks to a dominant win at home in the final game of the regular season. The Huskies return all but a handful of contributors, brought in a strong recruiting class with three plug-and-play transfers and a couple talented freshmen and have said they’ll be motivated by their disappointing playoff performance against Providence.For UConn to improve its place in the standings, it needs to avoid the bad losses while also winning a few more games against the other teams in the top five after going 3-7-2 against BU, BC, UMass and Providence last season. If the Huskies can go .500 against that group, a third-place finish seems more than reasonable.

4. Providence FriarsAlthough Providence lost offensive engine/certified UConn killer Tyce Thompson to the pros, he’s really the only major departure. Like the rest of the top five, the Friars have a big freshman class coming in and added a trio of grad transfers to bolster their ranks. Providence is in a similar spot as the Huskies and the two teams will likely be battling each other into the final weekend, just like last year. But the loss of Thompson can’t be overlooked, which is why the Friars come in at No. 4.

5. UMass MinutemenThe defending Hockey East and national champions, UMass will look to run it back this season after bringing back leading scorer Bobby Trivigno, three other 20-point scorers and goaltender Matt Murray. But even though the Minutemen added a big freshman class and a handful of transfers, it’s difficult to repeat. UMass needs to prove it’s the exception, not the rule.

6. Northeastern HuskiesDepending on how much stock you put into Neutral Zone’s recruiting rankings (I’m not a huge fan since they seem to reward volume over quality), Northeastern has the best recruiting class in Hockey East and the eighth-best in the nation.At the same time, the Huskies have a new head coach after Jim Madigan became the school’s athletic director and also lost top scorer Zach Solow. With that much turnover, Northeastern is a prime candidate to get off to a slow start before finding its groove late in the season. The Huskies could be a dangerous team by the postseason regardless of where they sit in the standings.

7. UMass LowellUMass Lowell has one of the highest floors in Hockey East each year simply because of how difficult Norm Bazin’s teams are to play. Case in point, the Riverhawks were a mediocre squad for most of last season before making a run to the Hockey East finals. Still, they lost more production than the top six and their incoming class isn’t strong enough on paper to vault them past anyone above them.

8. Merrimack WarriorsAmong the teams that finished in the bottom four last season, Merrimack has the best chance to turn itself around. The Warriors relied heavily on freshmen and sophomores last season and finished the season with three wins in their last five games. With some internal development — along with the addition of a few transfers — Merrimack is primed for improvement. It’s probably just not enough to overtake Northeastern or UMass Lowell.

9. Maine Black BearsLike Northeastern, Maine will also be in its first year under a new head coach after the unexpected death of Red Gendron this past offseason. But unlike the Huskies, the Black Bears went with an outside hire in UMass assistant Ben Barr, which will make the transition a little more rough. Maine won just three games last year and nothing about its roster suggests this season will go much better.

10. University of New Hampshire WildcatsIn each of Mike Souza’s three seasons as the head coach at UNH, the Wildcats have finished one spot lower in the standings than a year prior: Eighth, ninth and 10th. While they could buck that trend and finish above Maine for ninth place, it would take a pretty stunning turnaround for Souza’s squad climb much higher. UNH has a below-average roster and an underwhelming freshman class — not exactly a great recipe for success.

11. University of Vermont CatamountsIf you search “Vermont men’s hockey” on Google, the first question that comes up is “Does UVM have a men’s hockey team?” At the moment, it’s not really clear if the answer is yes.Last season, the Catamounts’ top point-getter was a defenseman — a defenseman who has since graduated. They return just three players who totaled three points or more and haven’t announced their incoming class yet, so the roster currently features just 16 players. It’s difficult to figure out exactly how they plan on improving after a 1-10-2 record last season.Vermont also just announced its schedule on Monday, less than two weeks before its regular season opener against Mercyhurst. The Catamounts make UConn football looks like a competent, well-run program.So to answer the question: Does UVM have a men’s hockey team? Maybe. And even if they do, it won’t be a particularly good one.