WOMEN’S PORTAL ANALYSIS
It seems like everyone has strong feelings about the transfer portal. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s certainly a hot topic in Women’s NCAA Division I hockey.
This story will guide you through the data that I have come up with from the 2024 transfer portal including how many players entered their names onto the list, which conferences gained and lost the most athletes, and which schools utilized the portal the most.
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DATA ON THE 2024 WOMEN’S TRANSFER PORTAL
(first off, here is a link to the portal from this past offseason, or you can view below)
Q: How many players entered the portal this past season?
A: 159* (*number includes players that made the jump up from DIII to DI)
Q: Where were these players coming from, conference wise?
A: The largest portion of players came from Hockey East (40), with the rest of the conferences not too far behind ECAC (33), WCHA (33), NEWHA (27) and AHA (21).
Q: What position and year are these players?
A: Unsurprisingly, the largest portion of athletes in the portal were forwards (81), with 49 defenders and 28 goaltenders (one sole player was also listed as both a forward and a defender). Again, unsurprisingly, the largest grade year of athletes in the portal were seniors (68) with sophomores in second place (44), then freshmen (30) and juniors (16) and one sole player listed as a graduate student.
Q: Of the players in the portal, how many of them were from a certain state/country?
A: There were only eight athletes that were not from the U.S. or Canada. The U.S. had the highest number of players in the portal with 98 while Canada had 53. Of the Americans, Minnesota had the most portal players with 35, which isn’t surprising considering the large amount of skaters from the state that go into DI hockey every year. New York and Massachusetts were the only other states with more than 10 each, but 22 different states were represented in total. For Canada, there were skaters from eight different provinces. Ontario had the most portal players by far with 30.
Q: Where did these players end up?
A: Numbers were very close between Hockey East, WCHA, ECAC, DIII programs and athletes that aren’t currently playing anywhere this season. Other less common destinations include the AHA and NEWHA, while a handful of players went to ACHA teams, back to U22 competition, to USports schools, or made the jump to professional hockey (1 PWHL, 1 SDHL).
*Blue is the number of athletes who entered the portal from a specific conference. Red is the number that that conference gained from the portal in the end. (*I only included DIII players who transferred up to DI, not all of the players who transferred DIII to DIII, which is a much larger number). So, by reading this graph, essentially every conference lost more players to the portal than it gained in the end since many wound up in DIII or hanging up the skates altogether.
Q: Was there a pattern with players leaving from one conference and going to another?
A: There are some patterns to be found there, yes. Athletes from the AHA mostly went into DIII teams or hung up the skaters. ECAC athletes mostly transferred into another ECAC school but they had a much wider range of destinations. Hockey East skaters typically stayed in Hockey East, or went to the ECAC or AHA. NEWHA athletes mostly went Division III or gave up playing competitively. WCHA skaters tended to stay in the WCHA, with the second highest amount transferring to Hockey East.
Q: Which schools lost the most and least amount of athletes to the portal?*
A: Quinnipiac and Boston University both lost seven players to the portal. Lindenwood, Mercyhurst and Maine each lost six, while Clarkson, Union, Merrimack and Franklin Pierce each dropped five. On the flip side, Harvard, Princeton, RPI, Yale and St. Michael’s College each did not lose a player to the portal that I know of.
(*NOT including athletes who entered the portal but decided to return to their original program)
Q: Which schools used the portal the most (and least) this offseason?
A: Syracuse and Quinnipiac both added six players each. Syracuse added two athletes from Division III teams (one midseason last year that I included in my statistics). Ohio State and Vermont both committed five players each out of the portal while Robert Morris, Union, Sacred Heart, Minnesota, Minnesota Duluth and St. Cloud State each added four a piece. Schools that did not add anyone from the portal include RIT, Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Boston College, St. Michael’s and Post. It’s unsurprising that the Ivies didn’t add or lose many athletes, since you likely wouldn’t want to give up an Ivy League degree and you also cannot easily transfer into these schools either.
(*NOT including athletes who entered the portal but decided to return to their original program)
Q: Overall, were there many impact players in the portal?
A: Honestly, not really. If you calculate the amount of forwards with a significant amount of points, top defenders on a certain team, or talented starting netminders, it’s about a quarter or less of the players who entered the portal. It seems to remain the same every year that a majority of athletes in the portal are players who did not have earth-shattering seasons and are looking for a fresh start somewhere new.
Q: What are some examples of schools who made good additions through the portal?
A: I’ll give three examples, but there are PLENTY more that could be discussed. there are multiple schools who hit a ‘jackpot’ with one player, but it’s hard to find programs who brought in multiple solid pieces this offseason. I’ll discuss Minnesota, Syracuse and Vermont in particular.
Minnesota brought in Natalie Mlynkova, Sydney Morrow, Krista Parkkonen and recently Olivia King (halfway thru the season). Mlynkova (as of early January) has the second-most points on the team at the moment, while Morrow is the top-scoring defender, Parkkonen has been a regular defender in the lineup and King was recently added back into the fold to add goaltending depth to the roster.
Syracuse added Division III netminder Maika Paquin halfway through the season last year to add goaltending depth, but they also added DIII defender Klara Jandusikova who has been a regular on the D-Core this season. Transfer Bryn Saarela was added from Holy Cross and currently leads the team in scoring, while Jackson Kinsler is second overall in points. Charlie Kettyle is the top point-scoring defender and Sami Gendron has added a few points as well. Overall, the team rounded out it’s defensive core and added to players who have led the team in scoring, so obviously the Orange did well in acquiring good fits for the program.
And last but certainly not least, Vermont added talented netminder Jane Gervais who was very good at national champion Wisconsin in years prior. They also added Ashley Kokavec who is the top-scoring defender at the moment and three others who have rounded out the roster.
A few notable portal all-stars this season you could say are Abbie Thompson (BSU to LIU), Jorden Mattison (Maine to Mercyhurst) and Kaley Doyle (Brown to Quinnipiac) who have all been quite good in goal this year. Olivia Mobley of Minnesota Duluth was a great add as well as she is the top goal-scorer for the Bulldogs right now (formerly Quinnipiac and Ohio State) and Veronica Bac (formerly Quinnipiac) leads Robert Morris in goal-scoring.
Q: Were there any two-time transfers?
A: Yes, but a very small number. It was only Sydney Morrow (Ohio State -> Colgate -> Minnesota), Kasundra Betinol (Minnesota Duluth -> Colgate -> U of British Columbia) and Brieja Parent (Minnesota Duluth -> St. Thomas -> St. Cloud State). Chloe McNeil of Providence and RPI would’ve been on the list as well if she would’ve landed somewhere from the portal.
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