NCAA season preview: Key storylines for the 2025-26 season

Many of the biggest storylines in the college hockey landscape this year revolve around who gets to play in the NCAA (CHL players!) and how they can get paid to do so (NIL and House money!).

Those are certainly seismic changes in the way teams do business, and many programs are still adjusting to these realities even as the new season approaches.

But even beyond those changes — which would have been entirely unforeseeable just a few years ago — things are changing dramatically in NCAA hockey. The speed of coaching changes is rising rapidly; there were 11 changes behind the bench nationwide this past offseason, following six in each of the previous four summers. Do the math: That adds up to 35 coaching changes in five years, for just 63 Div. 1 programs. In fact, just 15 coaches across the cou