The men’s college hockey season is a little more than a quarter of the way done, which gives us enough data to assess where things stand for both the teams and the individual players. The Hobey Baker race this season looks fairly open at this point with a lot of candidates putting together performances worthy of consideration.

The Minnesota State Mavericks played a gripping home-and-home test with the vaunted Golden Gophers, a stirring in St. Paul sends tremors through the CCHA and Northern Michigan embraces the road life.

Each season, NHL teams send pro scouts to college arenas across the country to see if they can find an undrafted player that will help their team. The pursuit of these free agents has only intensified over the last several years, with some teams dedicating scouts specifically to the evaluation and recruitment of these undrafted players. It shows how far teams are willing to go for just the smallest edge because most of these players are not going to be much more than depth and others may never play in the NHL at all. Sometimes, however, teams will land an impact player that significantly helps their team at a fairly low cost.

Men's college hockey has always been a haven for high-level NHL prospects. In recent years, that's only become more true as more and more high draft picks have chosen college hockey as their preferred route to the big leagues.

Summer is nice, but if you’re a hockey fan it doesn’t get much better when the calendar flips to October. This year, the Oct. 1 will also bring the first official action of the men’s college hockey season with a series of exhibitions, but also a pretty large slate of non-conference games and even a couple of full-on conference showdowns.

This week in RinkRap, a New England Ivy Leaguer makes his name in the U.P., Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings is called in by the U.S. Olympic team and other CCHA happenings.

The unofficial start to the second half of the CCHA season resumes this weekend with seven teams engaged in four series: the undisputed No. 1 Mavericks look to avoid another upset by Ferris; Grant Potulny’s Wildcats host Colgate in non-conference play, and Bowling Green tries to claw back home-ice in the CCHA postseason picture.

This week the CCHA on FloHockey features a contest between Minnesota State and Northern Michigan. The rematch will surely live in the shadow of the shellacking Northern handed the Mavericks last spring. Also, Bowling Green takes on Bemidji and St. Lawrence meets Lake Superior State.

The 2021-22 NCAA hockey season is here and the Ice Breaker Tournament is returning after the 2020-21 hiatus.

Coast to Coast is FloHockey’s bi-monthly, cohesive news on North American hockey and live-streaming partnerships.

Rising cases of COVID-19 have left the prospect of hockey in North America in flux, but as various leagues remain dedicated to a 2020-21 season, uncertainty remains regarding format and probability.