NCAA Hockey Season Preview: Ranking the nation's top 20 freshmen classes

The puck drops on the 2023-24 men's college hockey season on Saturday, and with the new year comes a whole host of new faces. Such is the nature of college hockey. The four-year cap on a player's career coupled with NHL signings means that there's constant turnover.

It's the teams who fare best on the recruiting trail who do the most damage in a given season. For some, that means pursuing players with pedigree, many of whom are destined to hear their name called in the first three rounds of the NHL Draft; for others, attracting older players who are further along in their development and better equipped to play rigid, system hockey.

The NCAA Tournament reminds us annually that there's more than one way to build a contending roster.

Today, we're ranking the 20 best recruiting classes in the country, with a focus on who's done the most to build a championship calibre roster with freshmen set to start their college careers in the 2023-24 season. Let's go.