When Caeden Herrington scored the first goal of Vermont’s season 52 seconds into the third period of its opener, it did more than break a 0-0 tie and lead to an eventual 2-1 win for the Catamounts over St. Lawrence.
For Herrington, it was the exclamation point on a homecoming, and for UVM, a moment of school and state pride. The freshman from Manchester Center, Vt., grew up watching Vermont hockey and was now leading his home state’s flagship university to a win before family, friends, and a Gutterson Fieldhouse full of proud Vermonters.
“It means the world, getting a chance to play for your home-state school,” Herrington said. “You grow up watching, and it’s a big deal. We love Vermont and we love the school. It just means a little bit more coming from Vermont. I always knew, growing up, that this is where I wanted to be.”
Herrington and freshman defenseman PJ Forgione are the only two players with Vermont hometowns listed on the Catamounts’ roster and two of just a handful of athletes at Hockey East’s six state-sponsored universities native to the state of the school they attend.
“We want to make sure the good guys stay home,” Vermont coach Steve Wiedler said. “When Herrington scored that goal, it’s hard to put into words if you’re not from the state — it was insane. It was hysteria. There was a lot of media outreach, and that’s really important.”
Forgione grew up just miles from “The Gut” in South Burlington, and rooted for UVM not just because it was figuratively right down the street, but also because his brother Tom was a Catamount from 2013-17, playing in 73 games.
“It was really cool to have that level of hockey around,” Forgione said. “It’s just a great environment to be in. I know when it’s a filled Gut, it’s absolutely the best building to play in.”
The number of native players listed on Hockey East state-school rosters is relatively small — in addition to UVM’s two, New Hampshire has four, Maine one, Massachusetts four, UMass Lowell two and Connecticut three. That’s fewer, combined, than one school in the midwest — Minnesota, which lists 20 players from the North Star State. (For good measure, Minnesota Duluth lists 13 Minnesotans and while St. Cloud State has 13).
The smattering of state natives at Hockey East’s public schools, while small in number, are having a big impact. At UNH, Ryan Philbrick (Concord) and Cy Leclerc (Brentwood) are among the Wildcats’ scoring leaders, while Kyle Chauvette (Goffstown) has played every minute at goaltender. At UConn, senior Jake Percival (Avon) is coming off a 2024-25 season in which he played in all 39 games and was Hockey East Player of the Month for October. At UMass, freshman forward Jack Galanek (Hopkinton) is fifth among Minutemen in scoring.
But let’s be frank — Hockey East’s public schools cannot build rosters entirely from the local ranks. That’s not a knock on the depth of hockey talent in the northeast, it’s just reality. There’s also the cultural element — players from Minnesota, by and large, dream of playing for the Golden Gophers in larger numbers than, say, the average hockey player from Gilmanton Iron Works, N.H., might dream of donning a UNH jersey.
Plus, Hockey East, and the northeast in general, is chock-full of prestigious private schools that play hockey. Can’t blame a kid from Boston for dreaming of playing for Harvard, Northeastern, Boston College or Boston University, can you?
But that doesn’t mean the passion to play for one’s home-state university is nonexistent. Take UConn’s Percival (Avon), who was not heavily recruited out of Millbrook School (N.Y.) and went to play for Cedar Rapids of the USHL before joining the Huskies after one year.
“I was just waiting on someone to give me an offer, and it didn’t happen,” Percival said. “Once UConn brought me back to tour, I said, ‘Yeah, this is where I want to be. I’m close to all my friends and family, and I just felt it was good to be home.'”
With New England states (in general) featuring a small geographical footprint, playing in front of friends and family on a regular basis is a definite selling point for native players.
“It gives your parents an opportunity to drive a half-hour up the road to watch you play most of your games,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said.
Obviously a coach builds a roster based on who can help the team the best, regardless of the player’s municipality of origin. But with the large number of players from outside New England and the United States making up Hockey East rosters, a local player’s contributions can sometimes go beyond just what they bring to the ice.
“We don’t discriminate on where the kids are from, but we always like to have a local guy or two,” UMass Lowell coach Norm Bazin said. “It’s always nice because they have a flavor for New England. They can pass that along to their teammates, and I think that’s important for a culture at a state school.
“New England’s an incredible place to live, and it’s always nice to have that flavor within the team,” Bazin continued.