Four NCAA Freshmen Who Could Define The College Hockey Season

NCAA hockey is becoming a young man's game, and even the schools that have traditionally relied on 23- and 24-year-olds are putting more pressure on their rookies to make an impact. Here are some who could define the entire college season.Ever since the NCAA granted former CHL players eligibility to play college hockey, the focus on freshmen coming into the new top tier of the development pyramid has been increasingly significant.Back in June, 19 of the 32 first-round picks at the NHL Draft were either active college players, or had made commitments to play there at a later date. Many of those players are already on campus, and prepared to hit the ice once the college season starts on the first weekend of October.So which freshmen are most likely to have a big role on their teams and in the national picture, when the puck drops? Here are just a few:1. Landon DuPont, Defenseman, MichiganThe presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2027 NHL Draft, DuPont comes to Ann Arbor after posting 18 goals and 73 points in 63 games with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL as a 16-year-old defenseman.The general consensus is that he is a superstar talent, but not all 17-year-olds with superstar talent hit the ground running. Keaton Verhoeff at North Dakota got some No. 1 pick buzz before last season and he ended up 'only' going ninth overall because it's really hard to be a top defenseman in college hockey. Likewise, Gavin McKenna went first overall but didn't enjoy the same level of dominance as the previous top pick out of college hockey, Macklin Celebrini.Michigan has almost all of its best players back from last season, so they're going to be fine whether DuPont looks like freshman-year Cale Makar (very good for a rookie D) or sophomore-year Cale Makar (the best season by a defenseman I've ever seen in college hockey). If he's the latter, they might have enough talent to lose just two or three games all year. At most.2. Daxon Rudolph, Defenseman, DenverOver the last several seasons, Denver has routinely had one or two of the very best defensemen in the country: Eric Pohlkamp, Zeev Buium, Sean Behrens, Mike Benning, etc.This season, they'll have four rookie blueliners, including 2026 first-round picks Daxon Rudolph (No. 4 to the Buffalo Sabres) and Ryan Lin (No. 21 to the San Jose Sharks), along with second-round picks Blake Fiddler (No. 36 to the Seattle Kraken) and Ben MacBeath (No. 64 to the New York Rangers).Rudolph's listing here could just as easily be Lin, Fiddler, or MacBeath, but he's the fourth-overall pick, so we'll go with him for now.They're all stepping into the roster of the reigning national champion that just went through less turnover than you might expect — the Pioneers return over a dozen players from last season, including goalie Johnny Hicks, who went 16-0-1 after taking over the starting job midway through last season.The Denver system puts basically all its players in a position to succeed, so while DuPont will understandably get a lot of the headlines among freshman defensemen, there's just as good a chance one of these four guys has the most success this season. 3. Caleb Malhotra, Center, Boston UniversityThe Terriers were weirdly bad last season, and there were several reasons that was the case. Not least among them was a lack of center depth, but between a pair of high first-round picks with Malhotra and Tynan Lawrence (the latter of whom joined Boston University midway through the season) stepping into bigger roles, that shouldn't be the case this season.They just didn't have a guy like that last year, and you could really tell, especially late in games. As a matchup guy, Malhotra's going to have a lot on his plate in Hockey East, but if he plays in college like he did in the back half of the WHL season, he's going to be a huge problem for opponents.4. Joshua Ravensbergen, Goaltender, Michigan StateThe Michigan State Spartans had four players drafted in the first round, plus three other drafted players. Among those top guys are defensemen Chase Reid (No. 7 to Seattle) and Tommy Bleyl (No. 31 to Nashville Predators), as well as winger Ethan Belchetz (No. 15 to Utah Mammoth) and center Jack Hextall (No. 30 to Calgary Flames). They also join a pair of 2025 first-round picks: Ravensbergen (No. 30 to San Jose) and center Mason West (No. 29 to Chicago Blackhawks) as part of a nine-man freshman class. Only two of those guys aren't drafted, and only one drafted player wasn't a first-round pick.Freshman goalies are always something of a mixed bag, because for as many Jack Ivankovic or Johnny Hicks-type outcomes you get, there are usually more who are middling or worse. Augustine had one of the better NCAA careers in recent memory, even if he was never the actual best goalie in the country, and Ravensbergen will get a big chance to prove himself.The good news is that they multiple forwards who could step up to replace major scorers like Porter Martone and Charlie Stramel, among others. But you only have one goalie out there in any given game.The pedigree is here, and even if these freshmen bring, say, 90 percent of what the big dogs did last season, the Spartans will be fine. It's a lot to put on a huge class of freshmen, but they've got a great system in place.For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free.