PHOENIX – The transfer portal is reshaping college hockey rosters overnight. For Arizona State, which is coming off a last-place finish in the NCHC, the most recent change was both surprising and unwelcome.
Cullen Potter, the team’s top player and a 2025 first-round NHL draft pick of the Calgary Flames, is entering the portal with Michigan State as his most likely destination, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler reported.
The transfer portal officially opened Monday and already includes more than 250 players. That cast included a number of Sun Devils, including defenseman Joel Kjellberg, defenseman Sam Court and forward Ty Nash.
But none of the departures figures to be more impactful than Potter’s.
“We wish Cullen – and any player that is looking for other opportunities – all the best,” ASU coach Greg Powers said. “The landscape is the landscape, and wow, we are disappointed to lose a player of his caliber, but he has every right to go look for whatever it is he wants.
“We are very excited about all the prospects that we are adding that want to be a part of our program here at ASU and look forward to letting everyone know what next year’s roster looks like. We are hard at work to fill the holes that we believe we had and are confident that we will do so.”
Landing Potter was a major coup for ASU. The United States National Team Development Program (USNTDP) initially hoped to bring him back for another year prior to his freshman season, and his original college commitment, Michigan State, also remained an option.
Ultimately, roster limitations with Michigan State left no available spots, leading Potter to commit to ASU, where he became a key contributor and totalled 25 goals and 48 points over two seasons in Tempe.
When the 2025-26 season ended, all signs were pointing to Potter returning for his junior season. While Potter’s entry to the transfer portal comes as a shock, FloHockey NHL draft and prospect analyst Chris Peters said it should not.
“I think that that’s the nature of the beast,” Peters said. “There’s still, I think, questions from NHL teams about Arizona State’s ability to develop pro players. I think sometimes players that maybe don’t feel like they took a big enough step are going to see if somebody else can bring that out of them. I think that’s probably more to do with the situation (with Potter).”
As for other reasons behind the move, there are several possibilities, including the chance to play alongside higher-end talent. ASU also lost forwards Bennett Schimek and Cruz Lucius to graduation.
“It could be the situation with the environment around them, in terms of, ‘Who am I playing with? Who could I play with? Where might I get an opportunity to showcase the full complement of my skills?’” Peters said.
“At Arizona State, Cullen was able to kind of be more like a focal point of the offense. I think in a lot of other places where he’s going to go, he’s going to be a piece.”
Another factor could be money. In the ever-changing landscape of college athletics, especially college hockey, well-funded programs now have the resources to aggressively target and land the players they want.
“Definitely in cases where maybe it’s a player that says, you know, it is an NIL situation where you get a larger sum of money,” Peters said. “I think in most cases in hockey, the money isn’t big enough to make a significant difference. It definitely helps, but it doesn’t make a significant difference in terms of where a player is going to go.”
It is also important to note the decision was not, or at least does not appear to have been, influenced by the Flames, the team that made Potter the highest-drafted Sun Devil in program history during the 2025 NHL Draft.
“There’s nothing negative at all about ASU and how he has been treated there,” Flames president of hockey operations Don Maloney said on Jan. 26. “He has really been well-handled. It has been a really good place and a good situation for him.”
Potter’s departure is one of many reasons the Sun Devils roster will look drastically different next season. Among the many areas the team is looking at, the blue line remains top of mind for the coaching staff. ASU allowed 35.2 shots on goal per game, the fifth worst mark in the NCAA Division I last season.
But Potter’s departure, more than the others, leaves more questions than answers and raises concerns about timing, intent and the realities of the modern transfer portal.
Was Arizona State simply a stepping stone for him to access resources before moving on? Or did financial factors ultimately drive the decision, with compensation becoming the deciding line?
Those are the kinds of questions that will continue to surround the program during the 15-day transfer window. How it all unfolds will go a long way in shaping not just ASU’s immediate future, but also the perception of how roster building works in this new era of college hockey.
Maloney seemed to hint at this when asked about Potter’s future with ASU.
“It’s really up to him, his family and his advisor,” Maloney said.
This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Feature photo by Danielle Cortez for PHNX Sports
