DULUTH — While it received votes, Minnesota Duluth failed to crack the top 20 of USCHO.com’s 2025-26 Division I
men’s preseason poll last fall.
What a difference a year makes.
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With Hobey Baker Memorial Award winner Max Plante and fellow All-American Ty Hanson both back for their junior seasons wearing a “C” on their chest, the Bulldogs are not unranked to start this season. They are No. 5 in the 2026-27 edition of
USCHO’s Division I men’s preseason poll,
which was released Monday.
UMD last appeared in USCHO’s preseason poll at the start of the 2024-25 season, coming in at No. 18. The Bulldogs — who did receive votes in the 2025-26 preseason poll — finished last season ranked No. 7 after quickly climbing as high as No. 3 seven weeks into the season.
1. Denver (35 first-place votes)
2. Michigan (6)
3. Michigan State (7)
4. North Dakota (2)
5. Minnesota Duluth
6. Wisconsin
7. Quinnipiac
8. Western Michigan
9. Providence
10. Massachusetts
11. Dartmouth
12. Boston College
13. Cornell
14. Minnesota
15. Connecticut
16. Boston University
17. Penn State
18. Minnesota State
19. Michigan Tech
20. Merrimack
Others receiving votes: Augustana 70, Ohio State 59, St. Thomas 50, Miami...