By: Daniel Rebain | West Point, NY | September 16, 2026 |
The Atlantic Hockey America (AHA) released its men’s head coaches preseason poll Wednesday afternoon, narrowly slotting Sacred Heart over defending champions Bentley entering the 2026-27 season. The Pioneers edged out the Falcons in the voting 59 to 58. Despite the overall point totals, Bentley actually secured more first-place votes, five to three. Coaches could not vote for their own teams.
For a third consecutive season, the Sacred Heart Pioneers came out atop the conference’s Preseason Poll. Here is how every team placed in the full coaches’ poll.
Sacred Heart and Bentley headline the poll, fresh off their clash in the 2026 AHA Championship Game this past March. RIT slots into third—securing the only remaining first-place vote—with Holy Cross trailing in fourth. The back half of the rankings features Air Force at number five, Robert Morris at six, and Army at seven, while Canisius and Niagara finish in a tie for eighth.
Army, despite being projected seventh in the coaches’ poll, is set up for success in 2026-2027. The Black Knights return their top-seven leading scorers from last season, including their three top juniors in attack, Nils Forselius (5 Goals & 21 Assists), Ben Ivey (13 Goals & 11 Assists), and Jack Ivey (14 Goals & 14 Assists). Not only them, but also junior goaltender JJ Cataldo, the reigning Atlantic Hockey America Goaltender of the Year, returns to the net for head coach Zach McKelvie, who is entering his second year.
A major boost to the core of this team was that all but one junior returned to campus this summer and took their “Oath of Affirmation”, committing the next seven years of their lives to the US Army. Rising junior defenseman Sam Groebner was the only casualty of the 2026 transfer portal, transferring back home and playing at St. Thomas this season.
For Army, the season hinges on one looming question: can a young defensive corps adapt to the speed of college hockey in time? Returning just three starting blueliners, the Black Knights will not only need sophomores Liam Chapman and Lukas McCloskey to take massive steps forward, but they’ll also rely heavily on the five freshmen battling for the remaining three spots in the lineup. If the team is solid in front of star goaltender Cataldo, this could be a massive season for Zach McKelvie and his staff behind the bench.
While this roster looks much stronger on paper than its preseason coaches’ poll ranking suggests, escaping the basement of Atlantic Hockey America falls squarely on the veterans. It is up to senior captain Barron Woodring and alternate captains Nik Hong and Easton Zueger to elevate the play of everyone around them—especially when the conference schedule heats up.
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