by Anna Miller March 9, 2025
This was an unprecedented season for the No. 11 Michigan hockey team for more reasons than one.
Unlike anytime in recent history, the Wolverines are unsure of their NCAA Tournament status. In getting swept by No. 15 Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament, Michigan is on the bubble, anxiously waiting for the selection show in two weeks to tell the players if their season is over or if it’ll continue. This is a unique feeling for Wolverines coach Brandon Naurato, as Michigan has made three Big Ten Championships and three Frozen Fours with him on staff — two of each with him as head coach.
But this unprecedented feeling of whether the Wolverines will make the tournament or not has been a cloud over Michigan for nearly this entire season. From late NHL commitments to scoring droughts to an abundance of overtime wins, nothing about the Wolverines’ season has been consistent, and nothing has been easy.
That being said, Michigan could squeeze into the NCAA Tournament and survive another day, and it wouldn’t be a full-blown shock. On the flip side, the season may have just ended in a loss to the Nittany Lions, and that wouldn’t be surprising, either.
From the get-go, the Wolverines weren’t set up for success, and they faced uncommon obstacles that threw a wrench in their systems. With unprecedented circumstances looming all season, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that the end of the season is also unprecedented.
“We’ll see what our fate is the next two weeks,” Naurato said. “Michigan will never be in this spot again, ever, ever, ever, ever, as long as I’m here.”
As the Wolverines wait to find out their fate, it’s hard not to think about everything that led to this point. A true domino effect of events transpired to put Michigan in this unique position, but those dominos were placed before the season even started.
At the end of the 2023-24 season, Naurato was confident his top players would be returning. The sophomore class from last year was a powerhouse class. And after Michigan lost to Boston College in the Frozen Four, there was an expectation most of them would come back.
However, every single one of them left for their pro contracts. While some were quick to make their announcements, Seamus Casey took until May to announce his departure, and Rutger McGroarty waited until a few weeks before the season started.
With players waiting that long to make their decisions, it made the coaching staff’s recruiting decisions more difficult. So with the roster looking very different at the start of this season compared to Naurato’s previous expectations, the Wolverines had to scramble to figure out their identity. Freshman forward Michael Hage is the only first-round NHL Draft pick on the roster, and junior forward T.J. Hughes was the only high-producing forward who returned. Without a lot of star power, the expectations weren’t super high for Michigan.
Despite that, November was a remarkable month for the Wolverines, going 7-1 and sweeping teams like Boston University. But at the end of the month, another obstacle was put in Michigan’s path when former Wolverine defenseman Tim Lovell departed both the university and the hockey program. Lovell wasn’t a key producer or a reliable presence by any means, but a mid-season removal isn’t common, and his departure altered Michigan’s blue line.
To add insult to injury, the Wolverines then went over 200 minutes of playing time in December without scoring a goal. Michigan’s scoring drought was both unexpected and unusual. While their departures aren’t entirely to blame for the Wolverines’ lack of scoring, they were part of the cause nonetheless, as depth scoring has been an issue all season. So heading into winter break, Naurato ensured that scoring wouldn’t be an issue come January. To make sure of that, he added a forward from the U.S. National Team Development Program, Will Horcoff, to the lineup.
Naurato was right; scoring wasn’t an issue come January. However, new issues arose in its place. Former freshman forward Christian Humphreys signed with the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL in early January. Again, Humphreys wasn’t a top producer, with only one point on the season, but it’s not just about on-ice production. When players leave unexpectedly, it throws off the dynamics and chemistry of a roster, and the players who remain are forced to adapt quickly.
In terms of the standings all season, nothing was ever guaranteed. But one overtime after another brought down the Wolverines in the Big Ten and Pairwise standings. While it was winning in overtime, those wins don’t count for as much, and can become the determining factor of whether Michigan is in or out of the tournament.
Every team has its ups and downs — the Wolverines are not unique in experiencing adversity throughout the season. But it’s the specific things that Michigan had to deal with, and the way they were set up to deal with them, that made the highs very high and the lows very low. Had the star players returned, or the roster hadn’t been everchanging, the season could have looked very different.
With an unusual season came an unusual postseason, or potentially lack thereof, and it’s something the Wolverines haven’t experienced in recent history. But it shouldn’t come as a complete shock — because Michigan’s unusual offseason, which laid a shaky foundation for a troublesome regular season, led the Wolverines to eventually crumble. And now, all they can do is wait.
