Michigan Hockey head coach Brandon Naurato is playing with fire

Michigan hockey appears to be in turmoil amidst a mass roster exodus, with head coach Brandon Naurato tearing it down to rebuild with elite talent. Will high-risk moves and top prospects save the program—or leave it in ashes?

Welcome to Michigan Musings! Every Monday – at least until the start of football season – this will serve as your prime source for all things Michigan Wolverines ; a weekly digest featuring thoughts and commentary on (mostly) the top stories from the week that was. Similar to a newsletter (Brewsletter?), this will feature an assortment of stories and opinions from football to basketball to hockey to pop culture and everything in between.

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Brandon Naurato is playing with fire

What the hell is going on with Michigan hockey? Following a disappointing season in which the Wolverines missed the postseason for the first time since 2019, the program is now on fire. Currently, there are 4,756 Wolverines escaping the flames in the transfer portal and zero on the roster. At least, it feels that way.

The Wolverines have lost 11 of 21 dressed players, 12 if you include injured forward Evan Werner, from their season-ending series against Penn State. This includes Michigan’s entire fourth line, Philippe Lapointe (eligibility), Mark Estapa (turned pro), William Whitelaw (transfer portal), both starting blue-liners, Jacob Truscott (eligibility), Ethan Edwards (turned pro), two second-line forwards, Werner (transfer portal), Jackson Hallum (turned pro), utility defenseman Will Felicio, depth-providing forward Thomas Daskas, and all three rostered goalies – Cameron Korpi (transfer portal), Logan Stein (eligibility) and Andrew Albano (eligibility).

Of far less significance, freshman Miles Gust also entered the portal, but he never stepped on the ice. In total, the Wolverines will turn over a minimum of 14 players from their 2024 opening-day roster (Tim Lovell and Christian Humphreys left the university midseason).

This feels like an overreaction for a season which included never being ranked lower than 15th and owning a 6-4 record against three of the teams in the Frozen Four . But not to fire-starter head coach Brandon Naurato, who spotted a disheartening trend with his teams.

In Naurato’s first year behind the bench, the Wolverines finished 26-12-3 with Hobey Baker winner Adam Fantilli and lost to eventual national champions Quinnipiac in the Frozen Four. The following season, the team posted a 23-15-3 record and lost to eventual national runner-up Boston College in the Frozen Four. This past season, Michigan finished 18-15-3 and as the first team out of the NCAA Tournament.

It doesn’t take Will Hunting to do the math here. The Wolverines have been getting worse. Even in Naurato’s first season, they declined from the team prior (albeit, understandable when you lose three top-five NHL Draft picks and a handful of others). For four years, the Wolverines have been sliding. Sliding as the Big Ten around them has improved.

Michigan State has now won back-to-back regular season and tournament championships under head coach Adam Nightingale. Wisconsin has become the most physical team in the Big Ten under Mike Hastings. Ohio State unexpectedly surged back into the NCAA Tournament this season. Minnesota remains a perennial threat to win a national championship, and Penn State (!) of all teams is currently in the Frozen Four.

At a crossroads, Naurato made a decision early this offseason — he was going to burn the program down and build it back up his way with high-end players. “Reports” have begun to circulate that a few Michigan players left the team on their own volition, while others left because they were told there was no room for them on next year’s roster.

Correspondingly, Michigan’s projected six-man freshman class is strong. The Wolverines are bringing in a pair of forwards (Cole McKinney, Aidan Park), three defensemen (Asher Barnett, Drew Shock IV, Gennadi Chaly), and one goaltender (Stephen Peck). However, this class doesn’t fill half the holes created by the departures, nor does it pack the overall star power to propel this team back into the Frozen Four.

The Wolverines have looked to supplement via the transfer portal and added former North Dakota forward Jayden Perron last week. But beyond him, Michigan has been relatively quiet on the portal front, and for good reason.

Two words: Major Junior.

This is the first season in which Major Junior Canadian players will be eligible to compete at the collegiate level. My teammate Sam Bernardi summarized the impact perfectly when the rule passed in December.

“The CHL comprises three major junior Canadian hockey leagues: the Ontario Hockey League, the Western Hockey League, and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. It is the top level of amateur hockey in the sport’s most dominant country.

“This is massive news for all NCAA programs, but particularly notable for a school like Michigan that will have little difficulty attracting coveted recruits.

“With its already impressive relationship with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, the Wolverines can expand their recruiting to Canadian hotbeds.”

Hot beds that feature some of the brightest stars in all of amateur hockey across the world. Namely, Gavin McKenna. For those not in the know, McKenna is a prospect surging to hype heights that rival the elevation of Connor Bedard from a few years ago.

As a 15-year-old forward, McKenna was a point-per-game player in the WHL. The following year, he matched passing his driving test with 97 points in 61 games. However, detractors pointed to his -4 and were projecting him as a “good stats, bad team guy” for a while. But similar to Jordan in The Last Dance, McKenna took that personally and posted an absurd 129 points in 56 games with a +60 this past season. For context, Sidney Crosby is the only CHL player in the last 40 years with more points in a season than McKenna.

The 17-year-old is the overwhelming favorite to be the top pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and has been rumored to head to Michigan for several months. Now, this is just speculation to this point, but it is safe to assume as soon as eligibility was granted to Major Junior players, Naurato immediately picked up the phone to call McKenna.

Once that conversation ended, the second call was likely to OHL forward Parker Martone. Another player with speculative ties to Michigan, Martone is a consensus top-five prospect in the 2025 NHL Draft and is coming off a record-breaking season (98 points in 57 games) with the Brampton Steelheads.

It sounds harsh, but you absolutely, 100 percent, without a single doubt, every day of the week and twice on Sunday, trade every player Michigan has lost this offseason for Martone and McKenna. Without knowing any other roster moves and all things being equal, the duo of Martone and McKenna immediately make Michigan, at worst, a top-three favorite for the NCAA title next season.

Michigan will still need to address its blue line and goaltender depth concerns, but the types of players needed to fill these holes are far more readily available via the transfer portal than a pair of transcendent play-making superstars.

However, if this pyro-inspired rebuild doesn’t land either McKenna or Martone, or lead to an NCAA Tournament-contending team next season, no one will be left as badly burnt as Naurato. And Michigan could look for someone else to lead this program from the ashes in 2026.