While March Madness is ongoing in basketball, hockey’s version is also set to get underway later this month. Today, the NCAA announced its 16-team field for the Division I men’s championship tournament which begins on Friday and will end with the Frozen Four next month. The field is as follows:
Fargo Regional
1) North Dakota
2) Minnesota-Duluth
3) Michigan
4) American Int’l
Bridgeport Regional
1) Wisconsin
2) Massachusetts
3) Lake Superior State
4) Bemidji State
Loveland Regional
1) Minnesota
2) Minnesota State
3) Quinnipiac*
4) Omaha
*- Replaces Saint Lawrence after they were forced to withdraw due to NCAA Health and Safety protocols.
Albany Regional
1) Boston College
2) St. Cloud State
3) Boston U.
4) Notre Dame
The Frozen Four will take place in Pittsburgh on April 8th and 10th featuring the winners from each region. The full bracket can be found here.
The field features the top five scorers from the regular season including a pair of undrafted players in Quinnipiac senior Odeen Tufto and North Dakota senior Jordan Kawaguchi who had considerable NHL interest last season before deciding to play out his eligibility. NHL teams will have to wait a little longer to try to sign those players but now with the tournament field set, there should be an uptick in signings over the next few days both on the undrafted free agent market and those that were previously drafted but are ready to turn pro.
In terms of the free agent class, our Zach Leach took a look at many of the notable names earlier this month. Notre Dame forward Alex Steeves is one player that is known to have plenty of NHL interest already but with them getting the final seed in the Albany region, he won’t be signing just yet.