The 2005 birth year in New England is top heavy with three stars from USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program leading the way before the group slims out quickly.
Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.), Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) and Will Vote (Arlington, Mass.) are the top three forwards and are all committed to Boston College. It’s not as if there aren’t good players in the birth year after them, but it’s certainly not as deep as many others in recent years, particularly the '01s and '04s.
An '05 could still be four years away from entering college if he uses up all his junior hockey eligibility. As we’ve seen with other birth years, there is plenty of time for players to develop or regress until the 2026-27 season. Especially with the COVID backlog, most '05s, outside of the NTDP trio and two-to-three other select players, shouldn’t expect to be heading to college hockey until the 2025-26 season at the earliest.
