Wisconsin needs more from their returners if they’re to turn the page this season.
With the NHL and PWHL drafts this week, what better time to start thinking about what the Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey team will look like in 2025-26? Badger players don’t figure to make a ton of noise when the NHL draft begins on Friday, though rising sophomore defenseman Logan Hensler projects to be a first-round pick.
As for what the Badgers will put on the ice this upcoming season, you can expect to see plenty of new contributors. Wisconsin is losing some experience with players like Ryland Mosley, Owen Lindmark, and starting goaltender Tommy Scarfone graduating or otherwise moving on.
The transfer portal was generally quiet, although Owen Mehlenbacher and Sawyer Scholl will both be wearing new sweaters this season. The Badgers also lost backup goaltender William Gramme and freshman Luke Buss to the portal.
I wrote about it earlier in the offseason, but the big news for Wisconsin is the return of rising junior Quinn Finley, who showed last year that he is a force to be reckoned with on the offensive end. He’s joined by rising seniors Simon Tassy and Christian Fitzgerald, as well as rising sophomore Gavin Morrissey, looking to build on a very bright freshman campaign.
If Wisconsin wants to get back to the NCAA Tournament and show that Mike Hastings’ first losing season as a head coach was just a blip on the radar, those returning players will need to set the tone offensively. Outside of Finley, the Badgers simply struggled to find consistent scoring last season—a big reason they lost 10 games by one goal (and three more sealed by empty netters).
Wisconsin relied heavily on its top line, and when they weren’t producing, it often got ugly. Coach Hastings and his staff have done their job, bringing in some reinforcements, at least on paper. The incoming class features some big, physical forwards with a knack for filling up the stat sheet, headlined by Croatian sharpshooter Bruno Idžan.
Idžan joined the USHL’s Lincoln Stars about halfway through the season and immediately put the league on notice with 44 points in 36 games. As far as big bodies go, Wisconsin also adds Blake Montgomery, a 6’4” winger, and Grady Deering, a 6’2” center—both of whom have shown a knack for finding the back of the net. They also add an elite set-up man in Oliver Tulk, a small-but-shifty center who tallied 100 points in 65 games with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen last season.
Filling out the forwards in the incoming class are Vasily Zelenov, a seventh-round pick by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2024 NHL draft, and Finn Brink, who played just up the road as a captain for the USHL’s Madison Capitols.
In addition to finding more offense, Wisconsin will need more consistent goaltending if it wants to return to postseason play. It seemed the Badgers found a suitable replacement for Kyle McClellan last year when they brought in Tommy Scarfone, but he never really lived up to the hype after being one of the nation’s best goaltenders at RIT. With Scarfone exhausting his eligibility and William Gramme leaving through the portal, we will be seeing a completely new rotation this year.
Hastings did well to address this issue, bringing in Daniel Hauser, the WHL’s all-time leader in goalie wins. Hauser was second in the WHL last year with a 2.55 goals against average and third with a .913 save percentage.
He’ll be flanked by sophomore Eli Pulver, a portal addition from Minnesota State, and returning sophomore Anton Castro. While the group lacks big-time NCAA experience, Hauser has logged plenty of competitive minutes and will have every opportunity to make a splash in Madison.
As for the defense, the Badgers will feature a couple of very strong defensemen in Hensler and rising senior Ben Dexheimer. They also bring in a skilled two-way defenseman with the addition of Luke Osburn, a 2024 fourth-round pick by the Buffalo Sabres.
It’s difficult to forecast what the 2025-26 Badgers will look like just yet, but a significant improvement on their 13-21-3 record from last year should be expected. They return some firepower on offense, and the incoming class is encouraging.
It’s tough to see them returning to 2023-24 form, when they took the league by storm and ascended to the top of the polls in Hastings’ first year, especially in a league as tough as the Big Ten, but stranger things have happened.
I think it’s fair to give Mike Hastings the benefit of the doubt, considering his track record over nearly 30 years as a head coach, and this upcoming iteration of the Badgers will feature some really interesting pieces.
There will be concerns about how the newcomers adapt to the college game, but it’s not like they’re bringing in a bunch of 18-year-olds. The incoming class is loaded with 20-year-olds who’ve gained some valuable experience playing in established leagues and on the national circuit.
If the Badgers want to be successful this year, they’ll have to get comfortable playing a physical brand of hockey and utilize some of these big bodies to impose their will. All signs point to them having a healthy blend of size and skill, things that will pay dividends throughout a grueling conference schedule.
The roster is set, and the newcomers are all settled on campus. Now we just have to wait for October and see how it all comes together.