Team of the Week: Quinnipiac - College Hockey News

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February 11, 2026
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by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@chn-adam-wodon)
• 2025-10-14 – Michigan
• 2025-10-21 – Michigan State
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• 2025-11-11 – Denver
• 2025-11-18 – Union
• 2025-11-25 – Wisconsin
• 2025-12-02 – Dartmouth
• 2025-12-09 – North Dakota
• 2026-01-06 – Cornell
• 2026-01-13 – Western Michigan
• 2026-01-19 – Providence
• 2026-01-27 – St. Thomas
• 2026-02-03 – Miami
• 2026-02-11 – Quinnipiac
Maybe you haven't noticed, but Quinnipiac is churning along, already surpassing 20 wins for the seventh straight season (not including the COVID-shortened year). That also means it's on its way to a seventh straight trip to the NCAA Tournament. Two of those seasons had 30 wins, and one of them included a national championship.
This model of consistency continues to be led by Rand Pecknold, who is now ninth on the all-time coaching wins list, and first among active coaches.
This is also happening amid a sea change in college sports, with unlimted transfers, revenue share/NIL money to players, and the doors opened to Major Junior players.
Quinnipiac once tapped into the British Columbia junior league with wild abandon. But now the Major Junior Western League is the highest level of hockey in Western Canada, and its players have flooded into the NCAA this year. Quinnipiac's Major Junior imports, however, have mainly been from Quebec.
"You try to cover as much as you can. You also have to understand where your recruiting niche is going to be. And that's hard to figure out right now because everything's changed," Pecknold said. "We killed it in the BCHL for years. There was a 15-year period where we took more players out of that league than anyone. Now things have changed and we don't have those kinds of connections in the Western Hockey League. But a lot of those BC and Alberta kids fit our culture well. But we'll go where we need to go.
"You just have to adapt and things are going to play out. And the advisors play such a huge role in this. And a lot of advisors didn't have connections to the college guys, and you have to develop that rapport with them and that trust. And the NHL teams — because if they don't think you're good at developing players, they're not going to send you anybody."
For much more with Rand Pecknold, check out our podcast.
Quinnipiac may not have played the toughest schedule this past weekend, but the way it ripped through Brown and Yale, by a combined score of 17-1, is emblematic of all the Bobcats are doing this season.
They are 8-1-1 in the last 10 ECAC games. They have outscored their 10 opponents in that span, 61-15.
Friday's game against Brown featured eight different goal scorers. Only Antonin Verreault, one of those Major Junior imports, a 21-year old, 5-foot-9 freshman from Quebec, scored twice. QU had nine goals before the second period was over. All were at even strength.
Saturday was a measure of revenge against in-state rival Yale, which handed the Bobcats one of their two ECAC losses, back in November. This time, QU rolled to an 8-0 win.
Another freshman, but of a totally different ilk, shined this time. Ethan Wyttenbach, a "true" freshman who just turned 19 (and who we just profiled recently), from Long Island, picked up a hat trick, and is now up to 19 goals on the season — which is fifth in the nation — and 47 points, which is No. 1 nationally.
"He was going to go back to Sioux Falls for another year. I knew he could play for us, but I (figured) we'd let him get a little bigger, stronger and round out his game a bit and have him come in and be a high-impact kid," Pecknold said. "And then Calgary had taken him (in the NHL Draft) and they reached out and said, 'Hey, we really don't want him to play juniors.' We had been trying to get a kid that we struck out on, and we had a scholarship. So we said, 'Yeah, we can do it.' And I knew he'd be good for us, but I'm not gonna lie and say I knew he'd be leading the nation in scoring.
"But I give him credit. He really had to buy in to get better. He had to adapt and change the way he played. … Defending, faceoff intensity, details — he was just so much better (in the USHL than anyone else) that he could get away with stuff. … And he's gotta get stronger and things, but he's done a great job buying in, and we did a good job protecting him early as he made mistakes and gave him good matchups. And now with all our injuries, we can't hide him anymore. … And now his defense has really improved, faceoff intensity, details are better. And now we can put him out there against anyone."
The players at the top of Quinnipiac's scoring list come from all different backgrounds, shapes and sizes. That ability to develop and blend, and adapt, are hallmarks of Quinnipiac's success.
After Wyttenbach and Verreault, there's Chris Pelosi, a 6-foot-2 sophomore and third-round pick of Boston, who has blossemed into a 16-goal scorer.
"He will play in the NHL (one day)," Pecknold said. "He does everything well. He's got the size, he can skate, and he's completely bought in to everything we teach and preach here.
Markus Vidicek is in the Verreault mold, out of the QMJHL, and he has 17 goals. Both Vidicek and Verreault had aged out of juniors; Quinnipiac is not getting first rounders like Roger McQueen and Porter Martone sent to them by NHL teams right after the draft. But Pecknold expects that to pick up steam in the future.
"I think you'll see more and more CHL kids say, 'Hey, I don't have to age out here anymore, I can go (to the NCAA) a little earlier," Pecknold said.
"I'm thrilled with where college hockey is going. I know there's a lot of complaints about NIL and I get that, but we have access to way more talent than we have in the past. … College hockey is better at the top, the middle and the bottom."
Meanwhile, Mason Marcellus is out of the USHL, in his third year now and putting up career-best numbers. Andon Cerbone is another 5-foot-9 junior who has 9 goals and plays the most minutes per game of any forward.
A forward that's missing from the list is Jeremy Wilmer. He'd be at the top of the Bobcats' scorers were it not for a season-ending injury suffered in November.
"When he got hurt, he was one of the best players in our league, he was dominating games, he had the puck all the times," Pecknold said. "We had a lot of depth this year, and we were able to absorb that. But now we've got other guys out, and we're scrapping right now. But nobody cares that we're missing five players."
Among the 'D' only Elliot Groenwold and Charlie Leddy are drafted, both in the fourth round.
"Sometimes you don't want 15, 18, 20 draft picks on your team. There's only one puck in the game, and it's a struggle to keep your players happy," Pecknold said.
The bulk of the goaltending so far this season has gone to junior Matej Marinov. Last season, he and then-freshman Dylan Silverstein split time for the most part, though Marinov had better numbers and started in the postseason. This season, the numbers have flipped, with Silverstein playing his best hockey after the holidays. At the moment, the duo will split time again.
"Matej was playing better the first half of the year and Dylan had a couple tough starts. So we went with Matei for a while. And after Christmas, I just made the decision to say let's split them the first couple weekends," Pecknold said. "And since then, the platoon has been really good. Dylan's been really, really good. And we'll stick with the platoon for a while. But come players, we'll go with one."
Up next for Quinnipiac is a home-and-home with Princeton, which is led by former long-time Bobcats assistant Ben Syer. Among Princeton assistants are Connor Jones and Dan Henningson, two former Quinnipiac captains.
"They play hard, they've got a lot of really good juniors and seniors, it's an older team," Pecknold said. "They come hard and heavy. It's going to be a lot for us. I'm excited to play them. I love playing Benny."
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