Sure, the No. 2-ranked Michigan Wolverines are coming to town in two weeks, but those dishes aren’t going to wash themselves.
There can’t be many apartments in North America that currently houses three of the first 64 players selected in the 2026 NHL draft, but one of them is not far from Magness Arena. Daxon Rudolph, Ryan Lin and Ben MacBeath were all selected in the first two rounds in June.
They all look like future NHL players. In the present, they are three of the four freshmen who are going to revamp the University of Denver’s defense corps this season. The Pioneers, defending national champions and winners of three titles in the past five years, open the 2026-27 season Friday night at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.
The past few weeks have been a crash course on NCAA hockey, and living on their own.
“It’s pretty awesome. I grew up playing with Dax a lot, and he lives at my house in the summer so we’re pretty close friends,” MacBeath said. “It’s been more about getting to know Ryan more. It’s a lot of fun. They’re great players. There’s tons for me to learn from them. It’s been a great experience.
“Right now, we’re just doing everything. We’ve got a three-man job cooking the meals, doing the dishes all together. It’s probably not the best systematic thing, but that’s what we’re doing.”
The Pios have several key players to replace this season, and entire right side of a defense corps to reconstruct. Eric Pohlkamp, a Hobey Baker Award finalist, Boston Buckberger and Garrett Brown all signed NHL contracts and left school early, while senior captain Kent Anderson also joined them in the pros.
How DU and coach David Carle are going to replace them is a window into a new era of Pios hockey … but with the same championship or bust expectations. Brown was the No. 99 pick in his NHL draft class. Pohlkamp was No. 132, but also transferred in from Bemidji State for two very successful and productive years with the Pios. Anderson and Buckberger were never drafted.
The quartet expected to replace them are all high draft picks and big-time NHL prospects.
“We’ve had young d-corps in the past and done just fine,” Carle said. “One thing we’ve heard from our older guys is there’s no ego with this freshmen class. I think perceptually they maybe thought there could be. That might be because of some of the teams we’ve played that this many picks and first rounders, but our leaders have been really happy to see they’re normal dudes just like them. A lot of that credit goes to (general manager/assistant coach) Tavis (MacMillan). He’s finding the right people that will fit within the program really well.”
Rudolph was the fourth selection in the 2026 draft by the Buffalo Sabres. Lin went at No. 21 to the San Jose Sharks. They are the first pair of first-round picks to be on the DU roster at the same time in program history, let alone be part of an incoming freshmen class together.
Both are right-handed shots, so they may not see a lot of time on the ice together. They will be competing with each other, and there’s no guarantee they’ll instantly get all of the plum assignments. Six of the top seven defensemen on this team are NHL draft picks, and the seventh is senior assistant captain Cale Ashcroft.
“Being able to play alongside (Lin) and that friendly competition is only going to make us better,” Rudolph said. “I think it really excites both of us. We’re not like scared of each other or anything like that. We’re really happy to play with each other and learn from each other and compete for those roles.”
MacBeath was the No. 64 pick in the draft by the New York Rangers. He and Rudolph grew up a little less than two hours apart in Alberta, but they’ve played on youth teams together for years. The most famous one was Alberta’s entry in the Brick Invitational, the premier hockey tournament for 9-year-olds in the world.
Zac Olsen, a highly-touted freshman at Colorado College and third-round pick by the Toronto Maple Leafs, was also on that Brick squad.
“The practices were in Edmonton and I lived in Calgary,” MacBeath said. “He lived like halfway between, so my parents would drop me off and they would take me the rest of the way. We became really close, and we’ve spent a lot of time together for sure.”
Blake Fiddler, who was the No. 36 pick in the 2025 draft by the Seattle Kraken, is the fourth member of what is easily the most highly-ranked group of defensemen in a recruiting class in program history. Zeev Buium became a first-round pick after his freshman season at DU, but the Pios have never had four top-two round picks in one class at the position.
Carle’s program has become a defenseman factory. His brother, Matt Carle, and Will Butcher both won the Hobey Baker Award this century as defensemen, but guys like Buium, Pohlkamp and Avalanche prospect Sean Behrens have all blossomed in recent years with the Pios.
The Pioneers will be deep and talented at forward. They have sophomore sensation Johnny Hicks back after his historic run in net last year.
Talent is certainly not a question for the defense corps. Youth and experience at the NCAA level is, for now.
“The last six or seven years, they just produce elite defensemen every year,” Lin said. “I don’t know how they’re doing it, but I want to be a part of it. I’m starting to see how they do it. Just in the first week of practice, I can see how you know guys get better here and improve. That was definitely a big part of coming here.”
There’s no grey area about the expectations. Every time one of the freshmen leaves the locker room and turns right at Magness, the display case with 11 national championship trophies is there to remind them.
The Pios are the preseason No. 1 team in America in both polls. Ashcroft’s classmates could become the first to win three titles in four years since DU won championships in 1958, 1959 and 1961. How the four freshmen defensemen, including the three roommates, can adjust to college hockey will be pivotal for this pursuit.
“You want those expectations,” MacBeath said. “Even in our short time here, we all see why the winning pedigree is here. It’s the detail they have in practice and the effort they put in the gym. The group of guys they have here all want to work together towards that goal.
“It’s not something I’ve really experienced before, just that bond that these guys have from winning a couple national championships together. It’s special, and I’m grateful to be part of it.”
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