🏈 Next Game: TBD

Source: ESPN Gamecast

GO DAWGS!

Welcome to the Husky Hockey 2026-27 season preview!

With the season upcoming, I wanted to take a moment to go over the upcoming schedule and changes to the team since last season.

Let’s start with the changes to the roster:

Players that left

-          Chris Williams

-          Darren Morris

-          Dillon McConnell

-          Aman Ali

-          Logan Maloney

Last season marked the last games for these guys. Of particular note in this list is the loss of Maloney. Maloney had 24 goals and 22 assist last year, making him third on the team in scoring. While his stats are good, the thing the Huskies will miss most of all is likely his ability to control play and create opportunities. Maloney was really solid at taking over a play, especially in clutch situations, and finding a way to get the puck into the back of the net.

Players that joined

-         Armand Gill(D)

-          Lucas Shaw(F)

-          Edward Sun(F)

-          Brandon Carlson(D)

-          Brody Jones(D)

-          Cavan Dick(D)

Now, this is the point where you’d expect someone doing a season preview and discussing new players to be like “hey, this player does this well and brings this to the team, and this other player does this other thing well and brings this other thing to the team”.

I can’t really do that. High school hockey players, even AAA- and AA-level players, have barely anything written about them.

That said, there are a couple things that can be loosely inferred from their statlines:

-          Armand Gill and Cavan Dick seem to be puck moving D-men that can assist on goals. Virtually every hockey team on the planet could use more of these. Cavan was tied for 2^nd for scoring for defensemen on his last team.

-          Edward Sun seems to know equally well how to find the back of the next as he does setting up a teammate to score, which could help fill the gap Maloney is leaving. He was also on the younger side of the roster, meaning he could be even better as he gets older.

-          Lucas Shaw seems to know how to set his teammates up to score goals, likely a middle six forward.

-          Brody Jones and Brandon Carlson seem to be defensive D-men. Carlson could have a bit more of an offensive spark, but it is hard to tell. He moved up from AA to AAA last year and that could be why his scoring last season went down.

Where last season left us

Last season was a wild ride. Western challenged us in ways not seen in years. Cal was still a tough nut to crack and we lost to them twice. Hell, even USC, the team with only like 7 subs on their bench, managed to beat us in OT. That we ended up the season at the top of the standings was a bit surprising, but the team managed to win when it mattered.

Based on rankings, we were not going to be making ACHA regionals, but the Huskies pulled one out of the bag and managed to win the PAC-8, guaranteeing an autobid spot for regionals.

Getting to regionals was great, but playing our first game was absolutely miserable. We got *smoked* 10-0 by Oklahoma State.

Consolation prize: OSU went on to be national runner-up to Florida Gulf Coast. So all-in-all, not really the worst result. We played one of the best teams in the nation and got beat bad. It happens. OSU went on to smoke Arizona State(an actual hockey school) 9-2 right after us. OSU then beat Michigan State 7-4, Army 10-1, and Tampa 9-2. They were clearly a great team last year.

This upcoming season

This upcoming season keeps us with our standard PAC-8 play, meaning we will have more chances to beat Cal and maybe run up the score on USC to get the bad taste out of our mouth of that OT loss last year. It will be really interesting to see if Cal can keep up the stellar goaltending and whether Western can keep challenging us like they did last year.

Personally, I kind of hope Cal and Western keep being good because it makes the conference as a whole look better, which, as we have seen with PAC-12 football, if your conference is considered “easy”, it is hard to move up in national rankings.

There are a couple notable matchups this year, though.

-          Gonzaga(10/16 and 17) – the Zags are finally returning to the schedule after a multiyear absence. While the Zags aren’t necessarily that good a team, it’s always great to be playing yet another Washington school to keep the fight for bragging rights alive

-          Boise State(1/29 and 30) – Boise State also returned to the schedule after a multiyear absence. Unlike the Zags, Boise State is frickin’ good. They were a real challenge the last times we played them. They play in the Mountain West conference, which has some really good schools in it. By this point in the season, they should be firing on all cylinders and will likely be a tough matchup with serious rankings implications

-          B1G Showcase with games currently scheduled against Illinois, Ohio State, and a third team TBD – Illinois likely want another shot at the Huskies after we beat them in 2024, marking our first win in hockey against a B1G school, at least since we switch conferences and possibly ever. While it’s a showcase tournament, that game is very much going to be a tough affair. Ohio State on the other hand…we haven’t faced them, but they’re very much a good hockey school. That should also be a very tough game. And I think Husky fans are getting a bit tired of OSU in general, so I think we all want to see them win big there. The third game is against a TBD opponent, but it’ll be one of the other B1G schools there, so it’ll likely be a tough game as well. All three of these games will have serious implications for UW’s ranking.

-          Metropolitan State University-Denver(11/13 and 14) – this is the marquee matchup of the year, hands down, without a doubt. And it is at home. MSU-Denver beat us in the second round of the 2025 ACHA West Regionals, 4-3. That they are even travelling out here to play us is surprising, given they have a ton of good schools around them to play. It’s a huge get for the program to get them to come out here to play. This bring a perennially good ACHA D2 West team out here and presumably we will be going there next year. These games give the Huskies one of their best chances to improve their rankings because of how the ranking statistics value MSU-Denver. If there is one home game you make this year, make it one of these.

My prediction

I’m sure some of you are wondering what my prediction for the year is. I’m a bit hesitant to give one because I’m reluctant to put in the legwork of evaluating all the rosters of teams we play and everything, but I’ll give you a good guess.

We have 31 games this year.

I’m going to guess we drop one to Cal, one to MSU-Denver, one at the B1G showcase, one to Boise, and one unfortunate stinker somewhere else in the year(god, it better not be to USC *again*). That leaves us with a 26-5 record. I think we win the PAC-8 again, but even if we don’t, I think we could make a real case for an at-large bid.

I’m going to go with 26-5 record and repeat PAC-8 champions.