Money: Cornellians lost to (and gained from) the portal

[BearLover]

Much has been written about the effects of the transfer portal on midmajors. I agree with the general premise that the portal is horrible for midmajors at large, but this does not seem to be the case for the Ivies in hockey. Now that the 2026 men's hockey portal has closed, I looked at the portal the past 3 seasons and tallied all non-graduating seniors who transferred out of the Ivies (meaning they did not transfer to a different Ivy).

2024: 1 total

• Ryan Bottrill, Brown-->Clarkson

2025: 3 total

• Max Scott, Brown-->Maine
• Lawton Zacher, Brown-->Northeastern
• Ben Robertson, Cornell-->Michigan

2026: 2 total

• Alexis Cournoyer, Cornell-->Wisconsin
• Alex Pineau, Brown-->Northeastern

Note: I'm not sure if Pineau is graduating in three years or is going to Northeastern for his senior year.[/list]


In total, six players transferred out of the Ivies in the past three seasons: four from Brown, two from Cornell. Zero players transferred out of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Dartmouth.

Notably, in these last three seasons, four Ivies have undergone a coaching change: Brown, Yale, Cornell, and Princeton. Six total players leaving is a remarkable lack of turnover given the coaching changes and the fact many of these programs have badly struggled.

Also notable is that the six players who left were all very strong players with big minutes who jumped to a "better" program. Not a single weaker player left an Ivy searching for more playing time. While it is true that these six players jumped to a better program, overall these players make up a tiny fraction of the good players in the Ivies. Consider that none of Dartmouth's star players transferred out, and none of Harvard twenty or so draft picks the past three seasons transferred out.

On the whole, I do not view losing players to the portal as a big issue for the Ivies. Cornell can and should retain virtually all their players, given HYPD lost zero across three seasons despite having some very good players.

The flipside is the fact teams like Wisconsin, Northeastern, et al can bring in more players than the Ivies. This does indirectly disadvantage the Ivies, but these bigger programs also tend to lose good players more often than do the Ivies.

On net, it is true that the bigger conference schools on average benefit more from the portal than do the Ivies, but the Ivies are barely hurt at all. And Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown have brought in some pretty good transfers themselves (whereas HYP cannot bring in transfers).

Thus, while much has been written about the current climate of college sports making it more difficult for the midmajors, if you zero in on Ivy League hockey* with respect to the transfer portal, things have not changed very much.

*I only looked at men's hockey, but from what I can tell women's hockey is the same.

[stereax]

Thus, while much has been written about the current climate of college sports making it more difficult for the midmajors, if you zero in on Ivy League hockey* with respect to the transfer portal, things have not changed very much.

Could we thus reasonably conclude that Ivy players, with a few exceptions, tend to value the benefits of being at an Ivy program (academic rigor, degree value, post-hockey career connections, etcetera) more than the drawbacks of Ivy hockey (reduced schedule, limited/no scholarship)? And thus we see very few transfers out of the Ivies? (In many cases - such as Zadvernyuk - intra-Ivy transfer is still a thing, though. Curious to see Ivy-to-Ivy transfer stats, as well as nonIvy-to-Ivy.)

[adamw]

I've said all along the Ivies would be more insulated from this - but not totally immune either. I've said this only in response to any implication that Cornell was somehow screwing up by players leaving.  It's more transient everywhere. Even if less so in the Ivies, we can expect it to be relatively more open to coming/going than the past, and is not indicative of anyone doing anything wrong.

The bigger issue is, as you said, that the rich are getting richer in other ways - feeding off the small.

The smaller schools/Ivies keep losing whatever edge they may have.  Older players?  Being great diminished now with new rules. 5th year players?  Ivies can't do it.  Blue chippers coming and going more quickly?  Looks like more of them are sticking around now because of Rev Share/NIL.  A trend that's still developing but it's obvious in basketball, and anecdotally starting to become a thing in hockey.

So - I'm a doomer and gloomer - I just don't blame anyone. Except lawyers not named Beeeej 

[stereax]

I just don't blame anyone. Except lawyers not named Beeeej 

Dammit.

[BearLover]

I've said all along the Ivies would be more insulated from this - but not totally immune either. I've said this only in response to any implication that Cornell was somehow screwing up by players leaving.  It's more transient everywhere. Even if less so in the Ivies, we can expect it to be relatively more open to coming/going than the past, and is not indicative of anyone doing anything wrong.

The bigger issue is, as you said, that the rich are getting richer in other ways - feeding off the small.

The smaller schools/Ivies keep losing whatever edge they may have.  Older players?  Being great diminished now with new rules. 5th year players?  Ivies can't do it.  Blue chippers coming and going more quickly?  Looks like more of them are sticking around now because of Rev Share/NIL.  A trend that's still developing but it's obvious in basketball, and anecdotally starting to become a thing in hockey.

So - I'm a doomer and gloomer - I just don't blame anyone. Except lawyers not named Beeeej 

Well, overall it appears there are more players leaving early than in past years, so I'm not sure we can say more of them are sticking around or ascribe any cause to that. As for the rest of that stuff, I don't think Cornell will have much trouble adjusting to the maximum age being 23. We've been pretty young lately. The 5-year thing is a big problem, as I've highlighted on ELynah many times. The Ivies are going to have to let graduate students play sports or it will become impossible to compete nationally.

[fastforward]

Much has been written about the effects of the transfer portal on midmajors. I agree with the general premise that the portal is horrible for midmajors at large, but this does not seem to be the case for the Ivies in hockey. Now that the 2026 men's hockey portal has closed, I looked at the portal the past 3 seasons and tallied all non-graduating seniors who transferred out of the Ivies (meaning they did not transfer to a different Ivy).

2024: 1 total

• Ryan Bottrill, Brown-->Clarkson

2025: 3 total

• Max Scott, Brown-->Maine
• Lawton Zacher, Brown-->Northeastern
• Ben Robertson, Cornell-->Michigan

2026: 2 total

• Alexis Cournoyer, Cornell-->Wisconsin
• Alex Pineau, Brown-->Northeastern

Note: I'm not sure if Pineau is graduating in three years or is going to Northeastern for his senior year.[/list]


In total, six players transferred out of the Ivies in the past three seasons: four from Brown, two from Cornell. Zero players transferred out of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, or Dartmouth.

Notably, in these last three seasons, four Ivies have undergone a coaching change: Brown, Yale, Cornell, and Princeton. Six total players leaving is a remarkable lack of turnover given the coaching changes and the fact many of these programs have badly struggled.

Also notable is that the six players who left were all very strong players with big minutes who jumped to a "better" program. Not a single weaker player left an Ivy searching for more playing time. While it is true that these six players jumped to a better program, overall these players make up a tiny fraction of the good players in the Ivies. Consider that none of Dartmouth's star players transferred out, and none of Harvard twenty or so draft picks the past three seasons transferred out.

On the whole, I do not view losing players to the portal as a big issue for the Ivies. Cornell can and should retain virtually all their players, given HYPD lost zero across three seasons despite having some very good players.

The flipside is the fact teams like Wisconsin, Northeastern, et al can bring in more players than the Ivies. This does indirectly disadvantage the Ivies, but these bigger programs also tend to lose good players more often than do the Ivies.

On net, it is true that the bigger conference schools on average benefit more from the portal than do the Ivies, but the Ivies are barely hurt at all. And Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown have brought in some pretty good transfers themselves (whereas HYP cannot bring in transfers).

Thus, while much has been written about the current climate of college sports making it more difficult for the midmajors, if you zero in on Ivy League hockey* with respect to the transfer portal, things have not changed very much.

*I only looked at men's hockey, but from what I can tell women's hockey is the same.

Great summary and detail!
Thanks for the info