Hockey, Men's Sports

Denver Hockey Set to Welcome Historic Incoming Class this Fall

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For 11-time (and defending) national champion Denver Hockey, the phrase “the rich get richer” has never rung more true than it has already this offseason. Fresh off their somewhat improbable run to David Carle’s third NCAA title in the last five years, the Pioneers are gradually announcing (read: publicly acknowledging what has effectively been known for weeks) and welcoming what may be the best incoming freshman class in program history…at least on paper.

Denver has already lost three defensemen to early NHL contracts, including the likes of Hobey Baker Hat Trick finalist Eric Pohlkamp (San Jose Sharks), Boston Buckberger (Columbus Blue Jackets), and Garrett Brown (Winnipeg Jets). Denver also loses Frozen Four semifinal game-winning goal scorer and team captain defensemen Kent Anderson to graduation (and the AHL), and also loses senior forwards Rieger Lorenz – a goal-scorer in two different national title games to an NHL contract (Minnesota Wild), – and fellow senior Samu Salminen to graduation (and a potential NHL contract to the New Jersey Devils, holders of his NHL draft rights, or perhaps another NHL team if Salminen elects to sign as a free agent after August 15th).

DU also lost two players to the transfer portal – sophomore forward Hagen Burrows (Notre Dame) and freshman goalie Quentin Miller (Western Michigan), so this historic incoming class’s arrival could not have been timed any better.

In addition to the incoming freshman class, the Pioneers have added sophomore goaltender Tyler Krivtsov via the transfer portal from Alaska Anchorage. He is expected to be 2026’s Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player Johnny Hicks’ primary backup.

Every member of the eight-player incoming freshman class was either selected in the NHL Draft over the past couple of years or is expected to be selected in the 2026 edition, which will be held in Buffalo next weekend (June 26 & 27).

The incoming class profiles below are sorted first by the commitments that have been announced by the program, followed by those that have committed, but DU has not yet made official (expect official announcements via social media in the coming days for those below who haven’t yet been announced). For those who have not been drafted, their positioning in the final NHL Central Scouting (NHLCS) ranking is shown instead. Each undrafted player’s ranking in The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler’s final draft ranking is included as well.

D Ryan Lin (Richmond, B.C.) – Vancouver Giants (WHL)
#16 NHLCS NA Skaters | #10 The Athletic

Before Daxon Rudolph committed to the Pioneers a couple of weeks ago, Lin was set to headline this freshman class. Heck, Lin still might end up being the best of this class anyway. At 5’11”, 180 lbs, Lin may be “undersized” by outdated evaluation metrics, but scouts around the league and NHL media, including Wheeler, rave about Lin’s game. The counting stats – 14-43-57 in 53 games last season and 5-48-53 in 60 games the year before – speak for themselves in a league like the WHL. But beyond those numbers, what stands out to many evaluators is Lin’s hockey IQ and the way he drives play when he’s on the ice.

Lin is cut from the prototypical elite DU defenseman cloth – what he may lack in size, he more than makes up for in every other part of his game. Wheeler probably said it best in his ranking blurb: “Lin isn’t a big, strong, powerful D, but he’s just an excellent all-around modern defenseman who gets it.”

While he is not the only defenseman who projects to be an elite force along the blue line in this class, you can pencil Lin in as a top-four, if not top-pairing defenseman as soon as he arrives on campus later this Summer. He led the Giants in ice time two years ago with 25 minutes per game and increased that to 26 last year as the team captain. The WHL is not the NCAA, let alone the NCHC, but Lin will be a candidate to help eat the minutes that Pohlkamp and Buckberger played last year.  Lin is projected to be a mid-to-late first-round NHL draft pick by most scouting services in the upcoming draft. Even so, it is understood that Lin plans to stay at DU for at least two seasons before making the jump to the NHL.

F Mikey Berchild (Excelsior, Minn.) – USA Hockey NTDP
#77 NHLCS NA Skaters | #58 The Athletic

Berchild was one of the early commitments for this class, announcing his verbal decision in mid-September of 2024. The plan for him was always to join the Pioneers for the 2026-27 season, more than two years after his commitment, after spending two seasons with the USNTDP. Like Lin above, Berchild is a bit undersized at 5’10”, 181 lbs, but that didn’t stop him from putting up nearly a point per game with the US development program over the past two seasons, coming out of DU’s longstanding talent pipeline in Minnesota.

Like current DU forward Sam Harris – who is also considered undersized – Berchild has a nose for getting to the netfront and working his way out of trouble, which are nice complements to his high-level stick skills. He scored many highlight-reel goals for the USNTDP thanks to his strong skating and dangerous shot. Truthfully, the only reason why he isn’t ranked higher by NHLCS and other scouts, according to Wheeler (and others), is his size. As Wheeler noted, “If he were a couple of inches taller, he’d be a second-round talent.”

When he arrives this Fall, Berchild will likely fit into a middle-six role with PP2 and (possibly) some PK duties, depending on how things shake out with the returning forwards. By the time his DU tenure is over in two or three years, it would not be at all surprising to see him anchor the top line and even be named to the leadership group, like he was with the USNTDP (he wore an “A” and at times, even wore the “C”).  As a projected middle-round NHL draft pick,  DU should probably retain him for at least a couple of seasons, if not longer, as there is less pressure on NHL clubs to sign mid-round draft picks,

F Jack Pridham (Stouffville, Ont.) – Kitchener Rangers (OHL)
Draft: 2024 Round 3, #92 overall – CHI (rights now owned by the Tampa Bay Lightning)

There was a bit of drama surrounding Pridham, a 2026 OHL and Memorial Cup champion with Kitchener, in the days and weeks leading up to his commitment to the Pioneers. Because he had not yet signed with the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that drafted him in the third round in 2024, he was eligible to re-enter the draft if he had not committed to a college by the end of the day on Monday, June 1. Instead, around the same time that the trade – his signing rights to the Lightning from the Blackhawks in exchange for a 3rd round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft – was announced, Pridham, who hails from the talent-rich Toronto area, recorded 46 goals and 44 assists in 65 games for the Rangers, committed to Denver, with the assumed developmental blessing of the Tampa Bay NHL braintrust.

At 20 years old (he will turn 21 just after the 2026-27 season begins), Pridham will be among the more experienced incoming freshmen in the country. College hockey has long prided itself on being the home for late bloomers (i.e., Tyler Bozak), and even though the NCAA has now passed the CHL as the premier development league for 18- and 19-year-olds (and no, this is not up for debate anymore), these late bloomers can still find a home in the NCAA. Though looking at his counting stats, Pridham hardly qualifies as a late-bloomer in any category aside from his age and unsigned status coming out of the CHL. In addition to his 90-point, championship-winning effort for Kitchener last year, he put up 27 goals and 27 assists for 54 points in his partial, 48-game season with Kitchener in 2024-25.

With his experience, size, and offensive upside, Pridham will almost immediately slot in the top six for the Pioneers this Fall and likely challenge for a top-line spot by season’s end, if not sooner. Certain among the LetsGoDU readership have long lamented DU’s lack of high-end, big forwards (even despite the three titles in five years), and Pridham will help fill that perceived void for the Pioneers this season and (hopefully) beyond. If Pridham can continue producing at the same rate that he did in Kitchener, we may be looking at a Hobey Baker dark horse by the time his tenure at Denver ends.

D Daxon Rudolph (Lacombe, AB) – Prince Albert Raiders (WHL)
#5 NHLCS NA Skaters | #9 The Athletic

Rudolph is the prize of this incoming class, ranked one spot behind Keaton Verhoeff, North Dakota’s standout defenseman, by both NHL Central Scouting and Wheeler, as a first-round draft pick lock for comparison purposes. The 6’3″, 205 lbs, 18-year-old Rudolph joins the Pioneers after ending one of the great recruiting sagas that Denver was a part of, as many top NCAA programs sought Rudolph’s commitment.

Ahead of the Frozen Four, it was reported that presumptive 2027 top overall NHL draft pick Landon DuPont  (Everett Grizzlies – WHL) was considering committing to Denver or Michigan for the 2026-27 season. It has since been revealed that DuPont was considering Michigan State as well. By the time Rudolph committed to DU a couple of weeks ago, it was clear that for the Pioneers, it was going to be Rudolph or DuPont, both equally desirable, and it ended up being Rudolph who committed first. DuPont, for his part, seems to be favoring the Wolverines over the Spartans according to the latest reporting, but as we all know, college commitment season can be notoriously fickle, so it’s anyone’s guess what his final decision will be. We just know Denver is likely no longer in the running for DuPont.

In addition to his strong December-based meme-worthy name, Rudolph may end up going down as one of the best defensemen in Denver history, as judged by NHL success. He has prototypical pro defenseman size, elite offensive tools, and a strong defensive game. In 68 games for Prince Albert last year, Rudolph tallied 28 goals and 50 assists before recording 27 points in the WHL playoffs. If there’s a minor knock on him, it’s his unorthodox skating, but that hasn’t hampered his game in the slightest.

It’s a foregone conclusion that Rudolph will be a top-four defenseman from the jump this fall with the Pioneers, and if he doesn’t start the season there, he will almost certainly work his way up to top-pairing minutes, possibly paired with Lin at times. It also wouldn’t be surprising to see him open the season quarterbacking PP1 in the role that Pohlkamp and Zeev Buium manned for the last two years, respectively.

F Max Heise (Calgary, Alberta) – Prince Albert Raiders (WHL)
Draft: 2025 Round 5, #150 overall – San Jose Sharks

Heise (no relation to PWHL standout Taylor), one of Rudolph’s teammates at Prince Albert, joins Pridham as a 20-year-old freshman this fall after changing his commitment from Michigan State to Denver in late May. According to Todd Marchant, the Sharks’ director of player development, on the San Jose Hockey Now podcast, the change in commitment was because “Michigan State was bringing in a lot of players and he didn’t feel like he was still a fit for [the Spartans].”

Michigan State’s loss is most definitely Denver’s gain. At 6’3″, 172 lbs., Heise also joins Pridham in filling that perceived size void up front. After spending two seasons with the Penticton Vees in the BCHL, Heise joined Prince Albert for the 2025-26 season and wore an “A” for the Raiders in the WHL. His two seasons with Penticton were a bit pedestrian, posting 19 points in his first year before breaking out a bit for 40 points in 50 games. He found his stride, though, in the tougher WHL last year, posting a point per game with 63 (29 goals) in 63 games.

Where Heise differs from Pridham is his projected role with the Pioneers. Pridham adds high offensive upside, while Heise likely projects more as a bottom-six, defensive forward for the Pioneers. At a point per game in the WHL, it’s not like Heise can’t score, but with other higher-end offensive forwards, he likely won’t need to be depended on for his offense. Even still, if he can chip in some timely scoring from the bottom of the lineup, he’ll only add to the elite depth that has been David Carle’s offensive calling card for the better part of the last decade.

D Ben Macbeath (Calgary, AB) – Calgary Hitmen (WHL)
#22 NHLCS NA Skaters | #44 The Athletic

Ben Macbeath is another longtime Denver commit, announcing his decision a couple of weeks before Berchild announced his. He planned to go the more traditional BCHL-to-NCAA route, playing for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks in 2024-25 before the CHL-to-NCAA rule changed. Once the CHL-to-NCAA avenue opened back up, Macbeath’s CHL rights were traded from Kelowna to his hometown Calgary Hitmen, where he played last season. In 61 games with the Hitmen, Macbeath scored seven goals and added 44 assists, which led the way among Calgary defensemen.

While Macbeath doesn’t yet feature the high-end offensive skill of a Lin or Rudolph, or is known for his defensive shutdown capability, his strong skating makes up for what he lacks elsewhere. He likely won’t put up any eye-popping statistics for the Pioneers like some of his soon-to-be teammates, but his value is going to lie in his quiet, consistent game in all zones. Many NHL scouting services project him somewhere between the late first and a third round pick in the upcoming NHL draft.

Macbeath likely projects as a bottom-pairing defenseman for Denver when he arrives this fall, with some ability to move up to the middle pairing as needed. He did play on the PP and PK for Calgary, but his special teams duties will likely be mostly limited to penalty-killing for the Pioneers unless his offensive upside and play-driving skills take leaps forward under Carle’s tutelage.

F Ryan Miller (Medicine Hat, Alberta) – Portland Winterhawks (WHL)
Draft: 2025 Round 5, #130 overall – Pittsburgh Penguins

Miller, like Berchild, is a longtime Denver commit, verbally committing in February 2025. There was some question as to whether he would join the Pioneers for the 2025-26 season, but with a couple of down seasons with the Winterhawks in 2023-24  (6-9-15 in 44 games) and 2024-25 (16-15-31 in 50 games), he returned to Portland and wore the “C” in his breakout season, tallying 30 goals and 45 assists for 75 points in 65 games. Miller was teammates with rising sophomore Kyle Chyzowski – better known as the 2026 national-title-winning goal scorer – in Portland for the 2024-25 season.

After his strong 2025-26 season with the Winterhawks, Miller signed an Amateur Tryout (ATO) agreement with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins, which drafted him in 2025, and played in two “professional” AHL games.  This technically makes Miller the first former AHL player to play for the Pioneers, which, of course, pales in comparison to the likes of Arizona State and others, which have now rostered multiple college players with full seasons of ECHL and AHL experience, due to NCAA rule changes. (The NCAA now sees minor league hockey stints that pay players at rates below the value of an NCAA scholarships to be acceptable for future NCAA play, assuming the players still pass the NCAA academic and player age regulations).

Projecting Miller’s fit with the Pioneers is a bit tougher than the other forward commitments, due in part to his one breakout offensive season after two down years in comparison. He is likely a safe bet to open the season as a bottom-six forward with the eventual ability to work his way up to the top six. The second line is likely his eventual ceiling at DU, especially if Carle continues bringing in star-studded freshman classes like this one. But clearly the Penguins saw enough from Miller to take him 20 spots ahead of Heise, so while the betting odds are that he tops out on the second line, nothing is set in stone, especially if he can continue his meteoric rise that he produced last year.

D Blake Fiddler (Nashville, Tenn.) – Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL)
Draft: 2025 Round 2, #36 Overall – Seattle Kraken

As a 6’5″, 212 lbs defenseman, it’s fairly clear what Fiddler, who committed to Denver at the end of April, excels at. Hint: it’s the first two syllables of his position. Fiddler’s commitment, which came just a few weeks after Lin’s, continued a strong stretch of recruiting for Carle and his staff after bringing home the program’s 11th title. He joins Clarke Caswell as one of the two Kraken prospects on the 2026-27 roster, and as an early second-round draft selection last year with a pro body, he will have huge (pardon the pun) expectations when he arrives in Denver.

Where other similarly large defensemen have failed to harness their size into an imposing presence along the blue line, Fiddler has done the opposite, learning to use his positioning and off-puck decision-making and IQ to become a strong shutdown defenseman. Like Macbeath, Fiddler won’t blow anyone away on the stat sheet with goals and assists, but his presence is going to be felt, quite literally, by the opposition as they attempt to transition and get set up in the offensive zone. Even though he profiles as a shutdown, defensive defenseman, it would not be wise to sleep on his offensive upside. In 2024-25 and 2025-26, Fiddler scored 10 and 11 goals, respectively, while chipping in 23 and 25 assists, respectively, in 127 games. He isn’t in danger of driving the play offensively, but he has the ability to jump into the play when needed and produce, which will be a major asset for the Pioneers when he’s on the ice.

Fiddler’s size and style profile as a bottom-pairing defenseman, but if recent history has shown us anything, it’s that Carle is not afraid of pairing a large, shutdown defenseman with an elite offensive defenseman, as he did with his Eric Pohlkamp/Eric Jamieson and Boston Buckberger/Kent Anderson pairings for much of the 2025-26 campaign. And all that did was result in Anderson’s game-winning goal against Michigan in the second overtime of this year’s Frozen Four semifinal. So, while it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Fiddler as a bottom-pairing d-man to start the season, don’t be surprised to see him rise to the top of the line chart and paired with Lin or Rudolph by January or February.

This is, on paper, unquestionably the best incoming class of the David Carle era and possibly in the history of Denver Hockey. Every single member of this class is (or will be) drafted by an NHL team, and four, maybe even five of them will be first- or second-rounders. Lin and Rudolph are both effective locks to be drafted in the first round, while some services project MacBeath to be a late first or second round selection, and Fiddler is already a second-round pick.

For context, it is important to note that Denver has had just five first-round picks in its entire history as a program, and never in history has Denver enjoyed two first-round picks playing for the DU team at the same time. Here are DU’s five first-round picks in program history:

NHL Draft Year Player Position Overall Pick NHL Team
2024 Zeev Buium Defenseman No. 12 Minnesota Wild
2016 Henrik Borgström Forward No. 23 Florida Panthers
2010 Beau Bennett Forward No. 20 Pittsburgh Penguins
2008 Joe Colborne Forward No. 16 Boston Bruins
1984 Craig Redmond Defenseman No. 6 Los Angeles Kings

In other words, DU’s incoming class is as elite an incoming class as you’re going to see just about anywhere in the country, Big 10 included. But the big caveat here is that this incoming class’s talent remains, so far, only on paper. The big question remains – can this high-end talent be molded into not just a national title-contending team but a national title-winning team?

While this is the strongest on-paper incoming class at DU in recent memory, it is hardly the strongest on-paper incoming class in college hockey history. There have been plenty of other headline-grabbing classes that failed to make any noise when the calendar flips to March and April (2025-26 Penn State and Gavin McKenna, anyone?). Heck, remember the Michigan team that Denver beat in 2022 to win the DU program’s 9th title? The Wolverines had a record SEVEN first-rounders on the roster, including four of the first five selected in the 2021 draft:

Player Position Draft Year Overall Pick NHL Team
Owen Power Defenseman 2021 No. 1 Buffalo Sabres
Matty Beniers Forward 2021 No. 2 Seattle Kraken
Luke Hughes Defenseman 2021 No. 4 New Jersey Devils
Kent Johnson Forward 2021 No. 5 Columbus Blue Jackets
Mackie Samoskevich Forward 2021 No. 24 Florida Panthers
Brendan Brisson Forward 2020 No. 29 Vegas Golden Knights
Johnny Beecher Forward 2019 No. 30 Boston Bruins

And even though Michigan made a run to the Frozen Four with those seven first-rounders, they obviously still couldn’t get the job done against the Pioneers when it mattered most.

So, as exciting as this recruiting class is – and yes, you should be excited…this is a big deal – none of it will matter if DU can’t get the job done in Washington, D.C. next April and/or Chicago in 2028.

It remains to be seen if this elite group of freshmen and returning players can be molded into another championship-winning team, unlike the elite classes that came before it at other programs, but under David Carle’s tutelage and the weight of the Denver Hockey culture, they have as good a chance, maybe even a better chance than the others, to get it done.

The only downside here? It’s only June, and we still have three and a half months until the puck drops on DU’s 2026-27 season in Anchorage. Wake me up when September ends!

Top photo credit: Michael Ciaglo – Clarkson Creative Photography (Courtesy of Denver Pioneers)

4 thoughts on “Denver Hockey Set to Welcome Historic Incoming Class this Fall”

  1. For many years, Denver was rarely the preferred destination for most of the top NHL draft picks, leaving the Pioneers to win titles by developing the mostly mid-round draftees who did choose Denver.

    Now, we’re seeing the fruits of winning three NCAA titles in the last five years – DU is now a serious destination for top level talent, and giving Carle and Co. the keys to some of these Ferraris is a very exciting developmental evolution for the DU program.

    Of course, more top talent comes with more strings – NHL pressure, financial pressure, agent and family pressure and shorter timelines to get this talent to perform at a higher level at earlier ages and of course, to gel with the rest of the team. Culture is huge for the Pioneer program and we’re looking to see how well these players can come together for a run at title #12!

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  2. On the flip side how long are these top tier players intending to stay at our beloved school . If only a year or two I would prefer they went to one those one year teams like Michigan

    WE are the UNIVERSITY of Denver and not a gun for hire school.

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  3. I think the DU coaches are smart enough to build their roster each year to compete for NCAA titles, no matter who stays long and who doesn’t stay. Adding high-end CHL talent to the DU lineup really reduces the learning curve for top-end freshmen in the NCHC. It’s almost plug-and-play now…The Pios will be fine. 75 years of recruiting Western Canada as DU has is now really paying off on roster construction…

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  4. Next year’s team could contend again if Carle and Co. can plug and play these guys. Remember, we had some good freshmen forwards last year who will be taking a step up, plus Harris is coming back. Looking beyond, if all but one of these new recruits come back for their sophomore year, DU could be dominant 2 seasons from now. (I get the feeling Pridham may be one and done ) Hopefully the NHL teams want Lin and Rudolph to develop at the college level for 2 years.

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