Daily Skate: A review of the opening of the transfer portal

Apr. 2—GRAND FORKS — Until Easter Sunday,

the NCAA transfer portal

was only open for men's hockey players who had graduated, had a head-coaching change or had their aid reduced by their team.

On Sunday, it swung wide open for everyone to enter.

Nearly 100 players jumped in over the first 48 hours, including several prominent ones.

UConn's Matthew Wood, a first-round pick of the Nashville Predators, led the way.

Other NHL picks included UConn forward Samu Salminen (third round, New Jersey), UConn goalie Arsenii Sergeev (seventh round, Calgary, headed to Penn State), New Hampshire forward Stiven Sardarian (third round, Buffalo), Vermont forward Andrei Buyalsky (third round, Colorado), Michigan State defenseman Vikor Hurtig (sixth round, New Jersey), Wisconsin defenseman Brady Cleveland (second round, Detroit), Merrimack forward Matt Copponi (seventh round, Edmonton), Northeastern defenseman Braden Doyle (sixth round, Los Angeles) and UND forward Michael Emerson (sixth round, Carolina), who left the team midseason to go back to the United States Hockey League.

Of course, there are a lot of great college hockey players who are undrafted as well.

Here are some notable entries by position.

Forwards: Army's Max Itagaki (an undersized setup man), Colgate center Ryan McGuire (a faceoff wizard), Michigan Tech's Ryland Mosley (who had back-to-back 30-point seasons), RIT's Carter Wilkie (the highest-scoring player in the portal) and Alaska's Brady Risk (Nanooks' leading scorer).

Defensemen: Army's John Driscoll (who averaged more than 25 minutes a night), Alaska's Caleb MacDonald (who had a terrific performance in The Ralph in January), Arizona State's Tim Lovell (a small, shifty player who averaged more than a point per game this season), Colorado College's Antonio Fernandez (who was a big point producer in USHL but couldn't crack the Tigers' lineup), Colorado College's Nicklas Andrews (a nominee for NCHC defensive defenseman of the year), Colorado College's Chase Foley and Northern Michigan's Josh Zinger (all-CCHA).

Goaltenders: Alaska Anchorage's Jared Whale, Arizona State's T.J. Semptimphelter, American International's Nils Wallstrom, RIT's Tommy Scarfone, Mercyhurst's Owen Say, Merrimack's Zachary Borgiel and Lindenwood's Trent Burnham.

There will be far more entering this week.

At the end of Monday, 104 Division-I men's players had entered the portal.

Last year, a record 291 entered.

This year will likely pass that. Why? It's a unique set of circumstances.

This is the final year of players who can take advantage of the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season and use a fifth year of eligibility. Also, because of a pending court case dealing with multi-time transfers, the NCAA has said for this window, multi-time transfers will be eligible immediately without a waiver.

UND will

not be as active in the portal

this summer, but it will look to bolster a team that is setting up to be pretty good.

Miami made its new head coach official Monday, hiring Anthony Noreen of the Tri-City Storm in the United States Hockey League.

Noreen, 41, has been in Kearney, Neb., since 2017 with the Storm. He led Tri-City to two Anderson Cups as the USHL's best regular-season team.

One interesting note is that Noreen will coach Tri-City through the regular season and playoffs.

The regular season runs through April 13, and the Storm have already clinched a playoff spot, so he will be in Kearney longer than that.

Noreen will have to try to get a staff in place and begin recruiting, because this is a critical period for adding players from the transfer portal.

What makes Noreen's hire unique is that he has not spent time at the Division-I level. The vast majority of Division-I head coaches were assistants in D-I before becoming head coaches, including the other seven NCHC head coaches.

Noreen has spent three years as a Division-III assistant (Wisconsin-Stevens Point), one years as a USHL assistant (Youngstown), two years as an ECHL head coach (Orlando) and 11 years as a USHL head coach (Youngstown for four, Tri-City for seven).

Another Division-I head coaching spot was filled Monday with Stonehill hiring David Berard, who will have a lot of work to do.

Stonehill was one of the worst Division-I teams of all-time this season, going 2-34. One of its two wins came against a Division-III team (it also lost two Division-III games).

Stonehill was routinely destroyed, even by college hockey's newcomers. Its losses included 10-0 to Long Island, 10-1 to Lindenwood and 12-2 to Alaska Anchorage.

It is impressive that Stonehill was able to attract a coach as accomplished as Berard, who has spent nearly 30 years at the Division-I level, including a stint as the head coach at Holy Cross.

Berard also worked as an assistant with Providence, Lake Superior State and UConn.

Stonehill does not play in a conference.

Omaha figures to have considerable turnover on its team.

Two prominent players have already signed NHL deals.

Forward Ty Mueller signed with the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday and defenseman Victor Mancini signed with the New York Rangers on Tuesday.

Mueller finished third in scoring on the Mavericks with 11 goals and 26 points. Mancini was a nominee for defensive defenseman of the year. He had four goals and 10 points.

Omaha finished fifth in the NCHC before reaching the league title game and the NCAA tournament.

* Former Moorhead High star Carter Randklev committed to Bemidji State after spending four years at Niagara.

* Former Moorhead High defenseman Carson Kosobud entered the transfer portal after stints at Arizona State and Alaska Anchorage.

* West Fargo's Kade Peterson also entered the transfer portal after a year at Long Island.