Ferris State’s Caidan Gault skates through the neutral zone during a game against Lake Superior State at the Bulldogs’ arena in Big Rapids on Feb. 14, 2025. Gault has announced that he will be transferring to Northern Michigan University after he scored 15 goals and 10 assists for 25 points last season at FSU. (Abe Kraus photo courtesy Ferris State)

By STEVE BROWNLEE

Journal Sports Editor

MARQUETTE — The NCAA transfer portal in college hockey, at least according to one source, has settled down considerably for the Northern Michigan University hockey team.

No new players in addition to the 13 who had been reported before have entered the portal as of this past weekend, according to an analysis and records kept by Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald’s Brad Elliot Schlossman, who according to his online profile has covered college hockey for the past 20 years at his newspaper.

His website can be accessed at https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-hockey/the-2025-mens-college-hockey-transfer-portal-tracker.

Even better for the Wildcats, one more player from another school is reported to be coming to Northern.

The new NMU player will be junior forward Caidan Gault of fellow CCHA member Ferris State. And he’s not just some average player on another struggling league team — Gault scored 15 goals and added 10 assists for 25 points last season.

The Oakbank, Manitoba, native was the Bulldogs’ No. 2 scorer last season, one point behind Cole Burtch, and his goal total was five more than any other FSU player. He led Ferris in power player goals with four and game-winning goals with five.

By the way, Burtch has also entered the transfer portal following the retirement of longtime Ferris coach Bob Daniels, and like Gault, has settled on a new school — Augustana.

But new Bulldogs’ coach Brett Riley got four of his former players from Long Island University to sign on at Ferris, along with a Colgate player for five total.

Among the 102 players on Schlossman’s lists who have confirmed moving to a new school, Gault’s point total is 13th highest from the 2024-25 season, and his goal total is tied for sixth most of that group.

He balances out the three players coming to Northern through the portal — a forward, a defenseman and a goalie.

The defenseman is sophomore Warren Clark of St. Cloud State, who is a sixth-round NHL draft pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning and had a goal and three assists last season.

The goalie is sophomore William Gramme of Wisconsin, who compiled a 3.23 goals-against average to go with a 2-4 record and .878 saves percentage.

The one 2024-25 NMU player who is reported to have agreed to a new school actually didn’t even play for the Wildcats last season. Michael Mesic was on the 2023-24 Northern team in Grant Potulny’s final season, but didn’t appear on Dave Shyiak’s 2024-25 team.

Regardless, he’s agreed to go to Atlantic Hockey League team Bentley after playing at Youngstown of the U.S. Hockey League a year ago.

Actually among the players who were on last season’s Wildcats team, there are five forwards, five defensemen and two goaltenders listed in the portal.

A further look at Schlossman’s lists shows that in addition to 102 players who have chosen a new school, there are another 182 players — 103 forwards, 51 defensemen and 28 goaltenders — listed as uncommitted, meaning Schlossman has a total of 284 players listed in the portal.

With 64 schools playing NCAA Division I hockey, that works out to an average of just under 4 1/2 players per school moving on through the portal.

Here is the list of last year’s NMU players in the portal, with last season’s year of eligibility, along with goals, assists and points for skaters, and record, goals-against and saves percentage for goalies:

Forwards

Michael Mesic, freshman (2023-24), 4-5–9 (committed to Bentley)

Ryan Duguay, freshman, 6-2–8

Matthew Romer, sophomore, 5-3–8

Billy Renfrew, freshman, 1-2–3

Brendan Poshak, sophomore, 1-1–2

Colby Browne, freshman, 0-1–1

Defensemen

Jakob Peterson, junior, 2-4–6

Rasmus Larsson, freshman, 3-0–3 (N.Y. Rangers 5th-round draft choice)

Will Diamond, freshman, 1-0–1

Trevor Mitchell, freshman, 0-1–1

Wolfgang Govedaris, freshman, 0-0–0

Goaltenders

Ethan Barwick, freshman, 0-2, 4.33, .869

Julian Molinaro, freshman, 0-0, 1.81, .957

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.