Welcome to Middleton’s Musings, a new weekly sports column on all things Miami sports from Assistant Sports Editor Jeff Middleton. We’ll talk about all the current goings-on within the Miami sports universe, and we (may) have some disagreements along the way, both in print and online!
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Last year’s Miami University hockey team was another in a long line of disappointments, especially considering the new face behind the bench in head coach Anthony Noreen. His first press conference in the Club Lounge of Goggin Ice Center provided promising statements of what he wanted the team to look like and, more importantly, where he wanted the team to be.
But, as the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
A 3-28-3 record with no conference wins meant significant changes were abound, and thanks to the transfer portal, the Miami coaching staff was able to bring in more than a handful of new faces.
But, while that was happening, the teams around the RedHawks in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) also utilized the portal and recruitment to bolster their teams, making next season all the more interesting.
While the official roster isn’t finalized yet, there are more than 20 new names gracing the Miami athletics hockey roster subpage. The player turnover from last season is an exciting start to a new era of Miami hockey, but the upgrades have been matched by those who are already powerhouses in arguably the best conference in all of college hockey.
The 2025 national champion Western Michigan University Broncos went right back to work following their champagne-filled offseason, acquiring 2023 Columbus Blue Jackets third-round pick William Whitelaw from the University of Michigan, who scored 18 points in 35 games last season. They also brought in sophomore forward Zaccharaya Wisdom from Colorado College and sophomore forward Theo Wallberg from Ohio State University.
Arizona State University, Miami’s matchup on Halloween weekend, added a familiar face in its transfer class of four. Former Miami forward John Waldron headed to Tempe in favor of the Sun Devils, along with first-year forwards Logan Morrell and Noah Powell from Michigan Tech University and Ohio State University, respectively.
Arizona State also received the commitment of Connor Hasley, who may become the best goalie in the NCHC after posting the best numbers in all of college hockey last season with Bentley University. Of course, he has stiff competition, but it's entirely possible.
Instead of making moves in the portal, the Denver University Pioneers added 10 freshmen to their 2025-26 roster, eight of whom are from north of the border and five of whom are NHL draft picks. The University of Nebraska-Omaha based most of its offseason in Canada, adding 15 new players, none from NCAA programs, and all as either freshmen or from different programs in Canada.
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The University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks had a down year in 2024-25, and after firing head coach Brad Berry in late March following their loss in the NCHC semi-finals to the Broncos, the program looked for a new direction.
New head coach Dane Jackson joined the roster alongside Bryn Chyzyk as general manager. With a new front office, North Dakota added five high-profile players in the transfer portal. Those names include University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD) sophomore forward Anthony Menghini and two new goaltenders: sophomore Gibson Homer from Arizona State and UMD junior Zach Sandy.
However, the biggest name to join the Fighting Hawks from the portal is Ellis Rickwood, a junior forward from Clarkson University, who scored 35 points in 39 games on a strong Golden Knights team.
The Fighting Hawks’ portal class would have been better as they initially received a transfer commitment from sophomore Michigan Tech forward Isaac Gordon, but he made the decision to stay with the Huskies just two weeks into new head coach Bill Muckalt’s tenure.
North Dakota did lose Chicago Blackhawks 18th overall pick Sacha Boisvert to Boston University in the portal, but these additions are helping them to sweat a little less. And, some might even argue that they got better outside of the portal than they did within it.
Chyzyk added two of the biggest names in Canadian junior hockey over the offseason: Cole Reschny and Keaton Verhoeff.
Reschny was the 18th overall selection of the Calgary Flames in the 2025 NHL Draft after posting 92 points in 62 games with the Victoria Royals in the Western Hockey League, and Verhoeff is the projected second overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft behind only Pennsylvania State University’s Gavin McKenna. The latter, a 17-year-old, 6-foot-4 defenseman, scored 21 goals and 45 points in 63 games for the Royals and scored a point per game in both international competitions he participated in with Team Canada.
North Dakota was not satisfied with its fifth-place finish last season and had not just the best offseason of any program in the NCHC, but one of the best in all of college hockey.
The three schools between North Dakota and Miami in last year's standings – Colorado College, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State University – added 10 players from the portal in total, only three more than the RedHawks. The Tigers added 12 freshmen to their roster, with the Bulldogs at seven and the Huskies with six.
Now that I’ve dumped all of this transfer portal information on you, you might be asking yourself: where does Miami stand relative to all of these programs? Why do any of these names matter?
Well, first, knowing how already-stacked the NCHC was before, it’s safe to say the likelihood of it only getting better with the influx of talent is pretty high. But, from a Miami standpoint, it means that the RedHawks weren’t the only ones seeing tons of turnaround, regardless of record.
Miami was at a point heading into the offseason where the roster was at a crossroads, and upgrades were not only desired but necessary. And while the RedHawks were building the necessary foundation, the teams around it, for the most part, already had that and were busy building skyward.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Miami can’t be competitive with these programs. It just means the RedHawks are still at a point where they’re playing catch up.
The NCHC is still going to be a talented bloodbath, as it is every year. The RedHawks earned themselves some high profile transfers and recruits for the upcoming season because of the vision being pushed by the coaching staff. But don’t let the number of names or NHL team logos next to them keep the big picture away.
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