Previewing ECAC Hockey and big national topics for the 2025-26 NCAA women's hockey season

On the first episode of the PodKaz for the 2025-26 season, Nicole Haase and Todd Milewski from USCHO.com discuss how preparations for the Olympics could impact the NCAA hockey landscape. It's a season unlike any others before because of the lack of centralization for the U.S. and Canadian national teams.Changes to the NCAA tournament selection process and an experimental rule also are new this season, and we touch on those.Then we start our previews of the five NCAA conferences with ECAC Hockey. Cornell won both the regular-season and playoff championships last season and made it to the Frozen Four. Do the Big Red have enough for another run? We discuss the contenders and a dark horse before debating whether the conference will have equal, exceed or fall short of the four NCAA tournament spots it earned in 2025.Previews of Hockey East, Atlantic Hockey, the WCHA and the NEWHA are coming on future episodes.The PodKaz is a production of USCHO.com. Have a question for us? Reach out to Nicole (@NicoleHaase) or Todd (@ToddMilewski) on social media or email [email protected].