Since the NCAA DI women’s hockey season ended for each team, individual players have been adding their name to the transfer portal seeking a new school to play for next season. 139 players entered the portal since it reopened last summer. 40 out 44 schools have at least one player in the portal.
Why Players Enter the Transfer Portal
There are many reasons a student-athlete would choose to go into the transfer portal. Here are the most common:
- They have a 5th year of eligibility due to Covid
- Grad student (graduated) with remaining years of eligibility
- Player wants more playing time (most common with goalies)
- Player wants to play for a better team; upgrade team ranking
- Issue with the coach /coaching change – one or both sides feel that there is no longer a fit for team / player
- Off-ice concerns – school (academic or culture) is not a fit for the student-athlete
- Financial reasons / NIL (Name-Image-Likeness) opportunities
Transfer Portal Player by Years of Eligibility
Analyzing the actual the list of 139 players, here is how they breakout by remaining years of eligibility. It is no surprise that most only have one year left:
NCAA Women’s Ice Hockey Transfer Portal
Impact on Prospective Recruits
Depending on how many years of eligibility a transfer player has, it will either impact the number of recruits for 2026 or it may impact the slot where incoming 2024/2025 recruits fit in the lineup.
For example over the last few days, Ohio State added a F from Clarkson, a D from Boston University and a G from Minnesota Duluth, all with two years of eligibility left. Thus current and future OSU commits may be impacted by these signings for the 2024/25 and the 2025/26 seasons.
On the flip side, this creates an opening in 2024 or 2025 at Clarkson, BU and UMD, depending on how many existing recruits there are for these schools.
For 2026 recruits, if a player with 3 or 4 years of eligibility transfers to a school your were interested in and plays your position, there may be one less spot available on that team on June 15th.
While at USA Hockey Nationals last week, I spoke with a couple of coaches who mentioned they are hosting transfer portal students this month for visits. So I would suspect that we will see many more announcement of players changing schools over the coming weeks.
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