2026 Off-season

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I'm beginning to wonder if we will have the Buckeyes on the schedule again this year. Would hate for that series to end.

[pdt1081]

I'm beginning to wonder if we will have the Buckeyes on the schedule again this year. Would hate for that series to end.

It won't "end." May take a year hiatus, which is OK if we're seeing new, top teams coming here.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I'm beginning to wonder if we will have the Buckeyes on the schedule again this year. Would hate for that series to end.

It won't "end." May take a year hiatus, which is OK if we're seeing new, top teams coming here.

We still have the return trip to Princeton out there as well.

[pdt1081]

I'm beginning to wonder if we will have the Buckeyes on the schedule again this year. Would hate for that series to end.

It won't "end." May take a year hiatus, which is OK if we're seeing new, top teams coming here.

We still have the return trip to Princeton out there as well.

Correct. Has the CCHA announced the number of league games with the Rico's leaving?

[jpfalcon09]

Did the Frack money go to the hockey program? Three home games vs. Michigan and Denver is simply unreal for this program. Hopefully a special season coming.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I'm beginning to wonder if we will have the Buckeyes on the schedule again this year. Would hate for that series to end.

It won't "end." May take a year hiatus, which is OK if we're seeing new, top teams coming here.

We still have the return trip to Princeton out there as well.

Correct. Has the CCHA announced the number of league games with the Rico's leaving?

The number of league games is still 26 which hasn’t changed from previous years. I think it breaks down where we play one team twice and everyone else 4 times. Reminder that the Ice Breaker is exempt so we get two extra games this year.

[pdt1081]

The number of league games is still 26 which hasn’t changed from previous years. I think it breaks down where we play one team twice and everyone else 4 times. Reminder that the Ice Breaker is exempt so we get two extra games this year.

So that gives 10 non-conference games.

2-UM
2-DU
2- Princeton

4 more to fill.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

The number of league games is still 26 which hasn’t changed from previous years. I think it breaks down where we play one team twice and everyone else 4 times. Reminder that the Ice Breaker is exempt so we get two extra games this year.

So that gives 10 non-conference games.

2-UM
2-DU
2- Princeton

4 more to fill.

Would it just be two to fill knowing we have two games in the Ice Breaker

[mbenecke]

The number of league games is still 26 which hasn’t changed from previous years. I think it breaks down where we play one team twice and everyone else 4 times. Reminder that the Ice Breaker is exempt so we get two extra games this year.

So that gives 10 non-conference games.

2-UM
2-DU
2- Princeton

4 more to fill.

Would it just be two to fill knowing we have two games in the Ice Breaker

That event is exempt, so it doesn’t count against our total. Because we’re participating, we can schedule 2 extra games. I don’t think we automatically will, but we could if we wanted to.

[pdt1081]

Would it just be two to fill knowing we have two games in the Ice Breaker

You're allowed 34 regular season games, set by the NCAA. The Ice Breaker is one of the exemptions from that total. Other exemptions are games played in another country, and games played in Alaska. The seasons BG went to Alaska for 4, they played 38 total games.

That event is exempt, so it doesn’t count against our total. Because we’re participating, we can schedule 2 extra games. I don’t think we automatically will, but we could if we wanted to.

You better believe Willy is going to do whatever it takes to fill those 2 games, as well as schedule at least 2 exhibition games (always thought the limit was 2, but played 3 last season). Willy loves games. Had said many times he doesn't see why games can't also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays throughout the season to get more in.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Gotcha, my thought was since it's exempt, we still get eight non-conference games that we scheduled ourselves, like we had last year, to get to our 34, plus the two at the ice breaker that don't count against the number of games played.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

I think everyone is saying the same thing:

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26 CCHA games
 2 Michigan
 1 Sacred Heart (Ice Breaker, exempt)
 1 UConn (Ice Breaker, exempt)
 2 Denver
----------------------
32 confirmed games
 2 possibly against Princeton, we don't officially know yet, we owe them a trip either this year or in the future
 1 possibly against the Domers, that's the rumor anyway, but that seems weird to me (whatever)
----------------------
35 confirmed plus suspected and/or rumored
 1 game left against someone, Buckeyes perhaps?
----------------------
36 total games for 2026-27

[mbenecke]

I'm curious about the single game on the road against ND, but perhaps that is a midweek game. Maybe it was a condition of getting them in a home and home last year, was a 2 for 1 with one of them coming THIS season.

I'm really wondering if they will do a 60th anniversary of the ice arena type of celebration this year. The 50th was a single Saturday night game against Mercyhurst. Obviously 60 isn't one of the "big" anniversaries but I could see it. Maybe that's how we get Miami back on the schedule. Or hell, maybe we could get Quinnipiac to pay us back for going to their building 5 years ago during COVID. I'm sure there was no contractual agreement for that, and there's obviously a different staff in charge, but that would be noteworthy as another NCAA tournament team from this past season.

[pdt1081]

I'm curious about the single game on the road against ND, but perhaps that is a midweek game. Maybe it was a condition of getting them in a home and home last year, was a 2 for 1 with one of them coming THIS season.

I'm really wondering if they will do a 60th anniversary of the ice arena type of celebration this year. The 50th was a single Saturday night game against Mercyhurst. Obviously 60 isn't one of the "big" anniversaries but I could see it. Maybe that's how we get Miami back on the schedule. Or hell, maybe we could get Quinnipiac to pay us back for going to their building 5 years ago during COVID. I'm sure there was no contractual agreement for that, and there's obviously a different staff in charge, but that would be noteworthy as another NCAA tournament team from this past season.

If it hasn't happened yet, it's not going to happen as part of that deal. Under Paluch or early Berge years, BG played 2 at Duluth with no return. Think it was the first meeting since 84. Only that one game in the NCAA since.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Here's some stats you never knew you needed (and after reading probably still think you don't need). Ryan Sikes did an analysis of all first year CHL players that played NCAA hockey this year and calculated for each of the CHL leagues how many of their junior league points were retained at the NCAA level. The chart for our CHL guys is below. For example, Rymon played in the WHL and scored over a point per game which put him in the Elite category. The math across all WHL Elite players who played in the NCAA says they retain 37% of their junior scoring. In his last year with Everett, Rymon scored 66 points in 65 games for 1.02 points per game. This year he scored 22 points in 36 games for an NCAA points per game of .61. So instead of retaining 37% of his scoring from juniors, Rymon retained 60% which is a lot better than the average. Wow!

In summary, Rymon, Crampton, Higgins, and Morneau were at or above the average expected PPG for players from their CHL leagues playing in their first year of college hockey.

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                                                                        Projected PPG   Actual PPG   PPG Retention
Player          Pos  Gm   Pts   PPG  League    Gm   Pts   PPG   Rating*   Retention*     Retention     Variance
Dominik Rymon    F   36    22   0.61   WHL     65    66   1.02   Elite       0.37           0.60         0.23
Brayden Crampton D   35    18   0.51   WHL     67    71   1.06   Elite       0.37           0.49         0.12
Ty Higgins       D   20    11   0.55  QMJHL    63    67   1.06   Elite       0.49           0.52         0.03
Noah Morneau     F   30    15   0.50   OHL     68    73   1.07   Elite       0.54           0.47        -0.07
Jake Sloan       F   32     7   0.22   WHL     62    73   1.18   Elite       0.37           0.19        -0.18
Jérémie Minvilel F   33    10   0.30  QMJHL    63    66   1.05   Elite       0.49           0.29        -0.20
Connor Levis     F   31     5   0.16   WHL     64    56   0.88   Secondary   0.44           0.18        -0.26
Brandon Whynott  F   27     4   0.15   WHL     67    60   0.90   Secondary   0.44           0.17        -0.27

*Taken from "How CHL Scoring Rates Translated To NCAA During 2025-26 Season" by RMS Hockey

https://rmshockey.substack.com/p/how-ch ... translated

I tried using these formulas to get a sense as to what we could expect from this year's incoming freshmen. Not sure this is close to accurate but here's what the model kicked out. As an example, Tomas Verdon has 1.48 PPG in the Q this year, per the article you'd expect him to retain 49% of that scoring pace or .73 PPG. If he plays in 32 games one would expect him to post 23 points on the year (not too shabby).

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                                                         Projected PPG  Estimated PPG  Estimated Pts
Player         Pos  League  Gm   Pts   PPG       Rating*   Retention*     Retention     (32 games)
Thomas Verdon   F    QMJHL  64    95   1.48       Elite       0.49           0.73           23
Chase Coughlan  F     OHL   59    33   0.56       Depth       0.73           0.41           13
Matthew Soto    F     OHL   68    51   0.75     Secondary     0.52           0.39           12
Mazden Leslie   D     WHL   67    68   1.01       Elite       0.37           0.38           12
Sam McCue       F     OHL   53    32   0.60     Secondary     0.52           0.31           10
Luke Pfoh       F     BCHL  48    42   0.88     Secondary     0.34           0.30           10
Peteris Bulans  D    QMJHL  62    40   0.65     Secondary     0.31           0.20            6
Cooper Wilson   D     BCHL  47    21   0.45       Depth       0.37           0.17            5

There are lots of holes that can be poked in this analysis but I was bored today and thought I'd run the numbers. About all one can say is that it's better than nothing.