DULUTH — Nine former Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are set to start the 2025-26 season in the National Hockey League when the regular season gets underway Tuesday, and 44.4 percent of them will be playing for the Winnipeg Jets.
Defensemen Neal Pionk and Dylan Samberg of Hermantown and former All-American winger Alex Iafallo are now joined by winger Cole Koepke, also of Hermantown.
Samberg will miss the start of the season with a broken wrist.
Justin Faulk, who helped UMD win its first NCAA title in 2010-11 from the Bulldogs’ blue line, begins his 15th season in the NHL and seventh with the St. Louis Blues this week.
Here’s the full list of Bulldogs who will start the 2025-26 season in the NHL:
Justin Faulk — St. Louis Blues
Cole Koepke
— Winnipeg Jets
Dylan Samberg
— Winnipeg Jets
Neal Pionk
— Winnipeg Jets
Alex Iafallo — Winnipeg Jets
Wyatt Kaiser — Chicago Blackhawks
Noah Cates — Philadelphia Flyers
Mikey Anderson — Los Angeles Kings
Carson Soucy — New York Rangers
The Chicago Blackhawks placed Joey Anderson on the injured, non-roster list
prior to the start of the season. He’s likely to be sent down to the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs once he is cleared.
In addition to Anderson, these former Bulldogs are tentatively slated to start the 2025-26 season in the American Hockey League, which gets officially begins its regular season on Oct. 10:
— Syracuse Crunch*
Ryan Fanti — Syracuse Crunch*
Will Francis — San Diego Gulls
Jackson Cates — Rockford IceHogs
Dominic Toninato — Rockford IceHogs*
Scott Perunovich — Tucson Roadrunners*
Riley Tufte — Providence Bruins*
Derek Daschke — Abbotsford Canucks
Ben Steeves — Charlotte Checkers*
Connor Kelley — Colorado Eagles
Blake Biondi — Chicago Wolves
Isaac Howard — Bakersfield Condors*
Hunter Shepard — Belleville Senators*
* — denotes player on two-way AHL/NHL contract
Co-host of the Bulldog Insider Podcast and college hockey reporter for the Duluth News Tribune covering the Minnesota Duluth men’s and women’s hockey programs.