Going back to my preseason rankings, many of you asked whether I’d share my player rankings.
I’m not going to publish a full list of 1,000-plus players, but I did put together my preseason top 25 forwards, top 15 defensemen and top 15 goaltenders.
Consider it a short list of potential Hobey Baker and Mike Richter award candidates.
Also in today’s issue:
Details on the severance package former Arizona State coach Greg Powers received.
Vermont is moving ahead with renovations to Gutterson Fieldhouse.
Who are the top returning players in the nation this season?
The formula I use to rank returning NCAA players is different from the one I use for incoming freshmen, because we have more data on players who’ve already played college hockey. That’s why no freshmen appear on these lists. I’ll publish my top freshmen in an upcoming newsletter.
The model is based on a modified version of Dom Luszczyszyn’s Game Score, from The Athletic. Because the NCAA doesn’t track every data point available at the NHL level, I’ve adjusted the formula to fit the data available through InStat. InStat provides an outstanding dataset, probably 90% of what I’d ideally want, but there are still a few gaps.
