The 2026 Beanpot Tournament gets underway Monday, Feb. 2 at TD Garden, bringing together Boston’s four premier teams in the hunt for a shining trophy and bragging rights as the top college hockey program in the area. Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard have all had their fair share of big wins this season, but the Beanpot brings higher stakes on a larger stage than these teams have seen all year long, and it can be a make or break for many teams’ seasons.
Boston College
No. 13 Boston College seems to be the favorite to win this year’s Beanpot, checking in as the only ranked team in the competition pool and carrying a recent 4-1 win over reigning champion and Comm. Ave. rival BU to boot. The Eagles are known for top-tier recruiting, attracting and churning out professional athletes like a machine, and this year is no exception. While alumni Matt Boldy and Noah Hanifin represent BC at the Olympics, their former team will be looking to bring home a trophy of their own on local ice.
Among the cream of the crop on this season’s roster is a pair of Bruins prospects who were recently named to the Hobey Baker Award watchlist. Dean Letourneau has taken a huge jump in his sophomore campaign. After a measly three assists last season, the highly-touted Ontario native has propelled his way to the top of the Eagles’ line sheet with a team-leading 14 goals and 25 points. Right beside him in scoring is James Hagens, who went seventh overall in 2025, and boasts 25 points himself on top of a two-goal, five-assist performance across five games in this year’s World Junior Championship.
Additionally, in a heated local contest where tensions can flare, especially against their biggest rival, special teams can make a big impact on the game. The Eagles lead their Beanpot competitors with a power play at 23.7%, and an overall goals per game up at 3.39. Their penalty kill isn’t too shabby either, nationally slotted at 17, but trails the Beanpot field at 83.8%
Despite gaining numerous national accolades in recent years, including a National Championship appearance in 2024, the Eagles have fallen short in local competition. BC hasn’t hoisted the Beanpot trophy for a decade and have only had two championship bids in that timeframe. Plus, on their last visit to TD Garden, they were stunned by a Hockey East quarterfinal loss to an underdog Northeastern team.
Boston University
Speaking of big names and NHL prospects, the reigning Beanpot champions of BU return much of last year’s star-studded roster, including all four goal-scorers from the championship game: Brandon Svoboda, Cole Hutson, Cole Eiserman, and Gavin McCarthy. The two Coles have been on a tear this season, with 23 (Hutson) and 16 (Eiserman) points to lead BU. Hutson in particular, the 2025 Hockey East Rookie of the Year, is handy in big moments, with four game winners this season, good for a tie for fifth in the NCAA.
But outside of those four names and a few others, this is a young Terriers team. After losing 16 players at the end of last season to a combination of graduates, transfers, and pro signings, BU looked toward the future, taking on 12 rookies and immediately testing them with top minutes in big situations.
Although BU also returns 2025 Eberly Award winner Mikhail Yegorov, who was hustled across international lines midway through last season to bolster the Terriers to a National Championship appearance, the Russia native has struggled this season. In last year’s Beanpot title game, Yegorov posted a whopping 43 saves against Boston College and only one goal allowed, but he’s struggled when facing the same shot volumes this season. In fact, when met with 30 or more shots, Yegorov has let up two or more goals every single time, and the only time he’s stopped 43, he also let in six. Yegorov currently sits with a 2.84 GAA and .900 save percentage, both near the bottom of Hockey East.
BU currently holds a 12-13-1 record and is earning some votes towards the national rankings, but they’re nowhere near the caliber of last year’s squad. The Terriers have plenty of raw talent on the bench, but the question is, will it be enough to push them ahead of the competition and keep the trophy at Agannis another year?
Harvard
The Crimson have had an up and down season, but have plenty of quality experience coming into the Beanpot. They have one of the better records coming into the tournament at 12-8-1, including wins in five of their last six games, but they’ve struggled when faced with higher-caliber opponents. Harvard is 0-7-1 against top-20 opponents this season, and that will be a challenge for them with the barrier to the championship game being No. 11 BC.
BC is the one Beanpot team that Harvard hasn’t faced yet this season. The Crimson took down Northeastern 4-2 in an exhibition game to start their season, but were bested by then-No. 19 BU 4-1 just a few weeks ago.
The Crimson post 3.10 goals per game — led by sophomore Mick Thompson (7 goals, 16 assists) — but those numbers are heavily skewed by blowouts against much lowlier opponents, like a 6-2 joust against Stonehill and a 7-3 trouncing of Brown. Against ranked teams, Harvard has only once managed to notch more than one goal.
Despite the fluctuations, Harvard does have one big advantage: its discipline. The Crimson is one of the least penalized teams in the country, with just 6.5 minutes per game, and even when they’re down a skater, it’s not too much of a worry with the nation’s second-leading penalty kill at 90.2%. As the outsider looking in on three Hockey East rivals, this can benefit Harvard even further.
Northeastern
The Huskies burst out of the woodwork to start the season, picking up ranked wins in sequence over No. 11 UMass, No. 7 Denver, and two against Beanpot rival No. 10/11 Boston College, and peaking at No. 11 themselves. But they’ve been on a downslide since Dec. 7, going 2-8 in their last ten games and dropping to No. 27 in the NPI.
They’ve also already faced all three of their Beanpot competitors this season, but five of those six games were in the better half of Northeastern’s season and they still went 3-3, including the loss in the exhibition game against Harvard.
Just like their rival BU, Northeastern was a team that had to bring in a lot of new talent this season, but they’ve found significant success in the transfer portal in recent years and leaned on that as their weapon of choice. The Huskies brought in five transfers this season, the most notable being goaltender Lawton Zacher (Brown University), who was a much-needed addition after losing starter Cameron Whitehead to the Vegas Golden Knights. But while Whitehead had been spotty at times with Northeastern, Zacher quickly climbed toward the national standings and is currently seventh in the NCAA in save percentage (.928).
Another leader in his field, the Huskies have a standout shooter in forward Dylan Hryckowian. The junior came in firing as a freshman, with 34 points, and has only upped the ante since. Hryckowian is on a run, with 12 points since the New Year. He currently leads Hockey East in points per game with 1.29 and is ninth in the country in that column.
However, after Hryckowian, it’s a big jump to the rest of the team’s production. Nobody else has double-digit goals and freshman Jacob Mathieu is the only other Husky above 20 points. Across the Beanpot spread, Northeastern has the lowest production, averaging just 2.75 goals per game, but they can also limit scoring, with just 2.46 goals against.
Furthermore, the Huskies face BU first, who they own a 1-2 split against this season. With the lowest ranking of any Beanpot team, the Huskies will have an uphill battle if they want to reclaim their spot as top dogs in Boston.
The 73rd Beanpot Tournament Monday night with Boston College and Harvard at 5:00 p.m. WRBB will have live coverage of Game 2 between Boston University and Northeastern at 8:00 p.m. with Amelia Ballingall, Luke Graham, and Zeno Minotti on the call.
Amelia Ballingall is the Editor-in-Chief for WRBB Sports. She has been a writer and broadcaster with the organization since 2022, and is a color analyst for UConn women’s hockey on ESPN+. You can read more of her work here.