SIOUX FALLS — Garrett Raboin certainly has some old-soul tendencies.
The 40-year-old coach of the Augustana hockey team has been lauded by his players for his youthful exuberance, and his approach to teaching the game of hockey is ever-evolving.
Raboin’s connection with his players has been widely reported. In the past, he has talked extensively about the importance of putting himself in uncomfortable scenarios, which is something he has also taught his players to embrace as they continue to carry the torch into the program’s third year of existence.
On Tuesday, the college hockey transfer portal officially closed for players to enter this offseason. Augustana is one of only five Division I teams in the country that didn’t lose a single player to the portal. The other four schools in the nation with zero portal entrants are Boston College, Dartmouth, Minnesota and Notre Dame.
College hockey isn’t unlike other collegiate sports in that the last several years of portal season have been fraught with uncertainty for many of its most passionate fans. But at Augustana, that simply hasn’t been the case.
Augustana’s Brett Meerman bumps fists with teammate Owen Baumgartner during warmups prior to the start of a game against Michigan Tech on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, at Midco Arena in Sioux Falls.
Peyton Bartsch Photography
This offseason, the Vikings are the only team in the CCHA without a portal entrant, and in two years of dealing with the transfer portal, AU hasn’t lost a single point to the portal from the season prior.
The Vikings’ ability to avoid turnover in the portal can be attributed to a number of factors, but at the top, there’s a sagacious coach who is unafraid of the moment and whose message of loyalty in the locker room hearkens back to a not-so-distant bygone era in college athletics.
“The college experience I knew and that so many before me experienced, it’s changed,” Raboin said, “but the hope and the dream for me when I look at our players is that they get to experience some of the things that I know come with time. And they don’t know yet.
“It’s coming back to an alumni golf tournament. These guys aren’t just their teammates. Over time, they become true family. That’s what made my college experience so special. Now, with college athletics, a lot of it has changed, but I still have hope that some kids — and I hope all of them — get to experience some of those things that I carry with me still to this day.”
The reality, though, is that a coaching staff can only do so much when it comes to roster retention.
For the most part, the culture is what takes care of the heavy-lifting.
“I think it’s the players who recruit and maintain their teammates. I think that’s the biggest thing,” Raboin said. “The university is delivering on a promise and an experience, and I think the guys are here for each other. And they believe in the vision forward for this program.”
For the Vikings, there were certainly some names to watch when the portal first opened on Sunday, March 30.
Goalie Josh Kotai was coming off a 2024-25 season in which he was named a semifinalist for the prestigious Mike Richter Award. The native of Abbotsford, British Columbia, finished the season with the eighth-best goals-against average in the country (1.92) and was top-five nationally in save percentage (.936).
Augustana goalie Josh Kotai is introduced prior to the state of a CCHA quarterfinal game against Bemidji State on Sunday, March 9, 2025, at Midco Arena in Sioux Falls.
Travis Gallipo / Augustana Athletics
Bigger schools with more money were certainly expressing interest, but in the end, Kotai opted to return to AU for another season and build on his stellar sophomore campaign.
There were others on the roster whose performance in the Vikings’ 18-13-4 campaign last season garnered some NIL interest, but Raboin and his staff were never worried, remaining confident in the players they had recruited.
“For the staff, there wasn’t a ton of anxiety because the guys that are the right ones for your program are the ones that are excited to continue forward,” Raboin said. “The conversations we had were, ‘Yes, coach, there’s interest from some others, but I’m really excited about what we can do next year together.’
“I think, too, from a staff point of view, like any team at the end of the year, there’s tough conversations to be had, and you’re trying to motivate and encourage guys to explore new layers to their game. But there’s a loyalty to the guys who showed up here to begin this program. They’ve been doing nothing but impressing and elevating the bar, and this group has earned the right to continue to fight forward together.”
The Vikings will have to replace just six graduates from last season and will welcome in a forward with two years of eligibility remaining in Ferris State transfer Cole Burtch, who had 26 points on seven goals and 19 assists in 2024-25.
And as far as portal additions are concerned, AU might not be done. There is still a need for experience on the blue line, specifically at right defense, and Raboin could look to fill that hole through the portal.
It’s remarkable, though, how the dynamic has shifted at Augustana in such a short amount of time. This is a program that finished second in the conference standings a year ago, and in 2025-26, the Vikings will play their first full CCHA schedule with more returning players than any other team in the league.
That’s a formula with a proven track record, too.
In 2022-23, Quinnipiac made a run to its first-ever national championship with a roster that included seven graduate students and four seniors. Eight of those players started their college careers at Quinnipiac and saw it through.
It was a Bobcats team that lacked NHL talent but dominated its way to a 34-4-3 record based primarily on its experience and team cohesion, finishing the season with an 86.7% success rate on the penalty kill (third in the country) and a 22.6% conversion rate on the power play (15th in the country).
A total of 306 players entered the transfer portal this offseason. The CCHA had the second-highest entry rate among the six leagues, averaging 5.4 portal entrants per team. Yet, the Vikings were immune to that high turnover rate.
Roster retention is something Raboin hopes to use in order to emulate the same kind of consistency the Bobcats attained in 2023. However, the larger objective at hand spills well beyond the walls of Midco Arena.
“We’re talking about graduating kids that have started their journey at Augustana University — people who will forever be a part of our program and a culture and establishing a foundation,” Raboin said. “All those things need to have continuity.
“We’re really excited that this group has chosen to stay the path and believe we’re the right place for them to continue to build. I understand the hockey side of it, and yes, that’s my job. But there’s so much more that goes into it.”