With ten graduating seniors, most of them regulars on men’s hockey’s roster, the 2025-2026 season was already set to be one permeated with question marks.
On Thursday, things got a whole lot more complicated.
Junior forward Dalton Bancroft has signed a one-year entry-level contract with the Boston Bruins, meaning he will forgo his senior season to kick start his professional career. Bancroft will spend the rest of the 2024-2025 season with the Providence Bruins — Boston’s American Hockey League affiliate — on an amateur tryout agreement, a contract designed for college/junior hockey players making the jump to the pros.
Bancroft made his professional debut on Friday evening.
It’s the first time Cornell has had a player leave early to turn professional since Morgan Barron ’21 — a Hobey Baker Award top-10 finalist and current forward for the Winnipeg Jets — left the Hill in pursuit of an NHL contract in the 2020 offseason.
Bancroft has made an impact since stepping foot on campus, having been a regular member of the Cornell power play. He appeared on the Red’s top line this season, posting 27 points while playing on the right wing with sophomore forward Ryan Walsh and senior forward Sullivan Mack.
In 103 games across three seasons, Bancroft posted 36 goals and 43 assists for 79 points. This past season saw him eclipse a career-high 15 goals.
The Bruins outbid “several teams” interested in Bancroft. An earlier report by RG on March 26 indicated that the Bruins were one of five teams pursuing Bancroft once he hit the free agent market, those teams being the Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets.
Bancroft attended Boston’s development camp last summer. Though he was never drafted by the Bruins or any other NHL team, Bancroft received an invitation from the organization to attend after his standout 31-point sophomore season.
Bancroft attended that 2024 development camp alongside Walsh, who is a 2023 sixth-round pick by the Bruins. According to a March 30 RG report, the Bruins — who had two members of their hockey operations staff at Cornell’s NCAA Tournament games in Toledo, Ohio — were interested in signing Walsh as soon as this summer. However, in a post on X that same day, New England Hockey Journal & NHL.com contributor Mark Divver said he was “not expecting” Walsh to sign this offseason.
Bancroft appears to be Cornell’s only early departure. Aside from Walsh, sophomore forwards Jonathan Castagna and Luke Devlin and defensemen Hoyt Stanley and George Fegaras are all NHL draft picks, but are projected to return for their junior seasons.
Cornell has seen a handful of its departing seniors ink professional contracts. You can read more about that here.
For the latest offseason updates on the men’s hockey team, follow senior editor and men’s hockey beat reporter Jane McNally @janemcnally_.
Jane McNally is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and was the sports editor on the 142nd editorial board. She is a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. You can follow her on X @JaneMcNally_ and reach her at jmcnally@cornellsun.com.
