Ranking the top 10 transfer portal hauls for the 2026-27 NCAA men's season

It came to college hockey slowly, then suddenly, and now the transfer portal is nearly every bit as important as one's work on the recruiting trail.

Seems hard to believe given where we're at now, but the transfer portal opened almost a decade ago, back in 2018. At the time, players could enter the portal once, and they had to sit a season out for the privilege. Then, in 2021, the NCAA adopted a new rule which allowed players to bypass the lost season. Only a few years later, in 2024, the NCAA lifted the one-transfer limit on players, allowing them to transfer as often as they wanted over the course of their college career.

Then the introduction of name, image, and likeness deals, along with the slew of commitments from CHL players that followed, made the portal a veritable free-for-all. Wha