WAKEFIELD, Mass. – A record 70 alumni of the Hockey East Association will start the 2017-18 season on National Hockey League rosters, one more than the previous record of 69 set last season and 11 more players than began the 2015-16 season on NHL teams.
Hockey East alumni on NHL rosters to start the season represent 11 different schools. Boston College sends 20 players for opening night, while Boston University boasts 14, Maine, Massachusetts and UMass Lowell each send six, Northeastern and Providence claim four, New Hampshire and Vermont each have three Hockey East alumni, and UConn sends one, while three former Notre Dame skaters who spent time in Hockey East also appear on NHL rosters.
Five players that skated in the 2016-17 Hockey East season were named to an NHL club as Boston College's Colin White (Hanover, Mass./Ottawa), Boston University's Clayton Keller (Swansea, Ill./Arizona) and Charlie McAvoy (Long Beach, N.Y./Boston), UConn's Tage Thompson (Orange, Conn./St. Louis) and Notre Dame's Anders Bjork (Mequon, Wis./Boston) will all start 2017-18 at the game's highest level.
Hockey East alumni are featured on 27 of 31 NHL teams and 11 carry at least three Hockey East alumni: Anaheim, Boston, Carolina, Colorado, Dallas, Florida, Nashville, New Jersey, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Boston and New Jersey each carry seven league alumni, the most of any NHL club.
| NHL Team | First | Last | Pos. | School |
| Anaheim | Josh | Manson | D | Northeastern |
| Anaheim | Brandon | Montour | D | Massachusetts |
| Anaheim | Patrick | Eaves^ | F | Boston College |
| Arizona | Adam | Clendening | D | Boston University |
| Arizona | Clayton | Keller* | F | Boston University |
| Boston | Noel | Acciari | F | Providence |
| Boston | Anders | Bjork* | F | Notre Dame |
| Boston | Matt | Grzelcyk | D | Boston University |
| Boston | Charlie | McAvoy* | D | Boston University |
| Boston | Kevan | Miller | D | Vermont |
| Boston | Tim | Schaller | F | Providence |
| Boston | Frank | Vatrano | F | Massachusetts |
| Buffalo | Jack | Eichel | F | Boston University |
| Buffalo | Evan | Rodrigues ^ | F | Boston University |
| Calgary | Johnny | Gaudreau | F | Boston College |
| Carolina | Scott | Darling | G | Maine |
| Carolina | Noah | Hanifin | D | Boston College |
| Carolina | Brett | Pesce | D | New Hampshire |
| Carolina | Trevor | van Riemsdyk | D | New Hampshire |
| Colorado | Matt | Nieto | F | Boston University |
| Colorado | Colin | Wilson | F | Boston University |
| Colorado | A.J. | Greer | F | Boston University |
| Columbus | Cam | Atkinson | F | Boston College |
| Dallas | Ben | Bishop | G | Maine |
| Dallas | Stephen | Johns | D | Notre Dame |
| Dallas | Jamie | Oleksiak | D | Northeastern |
| Dallas | Devin | Shore | F | Maine |
| Detriot | Jimmy | Howard | G | Maine |
| Detriot | Gustav | Nyquist | F | Maine |
| Edmonton | Matt | Benning | D | Northeastern |
| Edmonton | Eric | Gryba | D | Boston University |
| Florida | Connor | Brickley | F | Vermont |
| Florida | Mike | Matheson | D | Boston College |
| Florida | Ian | McCoshen | D | Boston College |
| Los Angeles | Christian | Folin | D | UMass Lowell |
| Los Angeles | Jonathan | Quick | G | Massachusetts |
| Minnesota | Charlie | Coyle | F | Boston University |
| Montreal | Torrey | Mitchell | F | Vermont |
| Nashville | Anthony | Bitetto | D | Northeastern |
| Nashville | Matt | Irwin | D | Massachusetts |
| Nashville | Nick | Bonino | F | Boston University |
| New Jersey | Brian | Gibbons | F | Boston College |
| New Jersey | Jimmy | Hayes | F | Boston College |
| New Jersey | Ben | Lovejoy | F | Boston College |
| New Jersey | Steven | Santini | D | Boston College |
| New Jersey | Cory | Schneider | G | Boston College |
| New Jersey | Miles | Wood | F | Boston College |
| New Jersey | Brian | Boyle^ | F | Boston College |
| NYR | Paul | Carey | F | Boston College |
| NYR | Kevin | Hayes | F | Boston College |
| NYR | Chris | Kreider | F | Boston College |
| NYR | Kevin | Shattenkirk | D | Boston University |
| Ottawa | Colin | White*^ | F | Boston College |
| Philadelphia | Colin | McDonald^ | D | Providence |
| Pittsburgh | Brian | Dumoulin | F | Boston College |
| Pittsburgh | Chad | Ruhwedel | D | UMass Lowell |
| Pittsburgh | Bryan | Rust | F | Notre Dame |
| Pittsburgh | Conor | Sheary | F | Massachusetts |
| Pittsburgh | Scott | Wilson | F | UMass Lowell |
| San Jose | Justin | Braun | D | Massachusetts |
| St. Louis | Carter | Hutton | G | UMass Lowell |
| St. Louis | Wade | Megan | F | Boston University |
| St. Louis | Zach | Sanford | F | Boston College |
| St. Louis | Tage | Thompson* | F | UConn |
| Toronto | Ron | Hainsey | D | UMass Lowell |
| Toronto | James | van Riemsdyk | F | New Hampshire |
| Vancouver | Ben | Hutton | D | Maine |
| Washington | Brooks | Orpik | D | Boston College |
| Winnipeg | Connor | Hellebuyck | G | UMass Lowell |
| Winnipeg | Brandon | Tanev | F | Providence |
| * Played in Hockey East in 2016-17 | ^ Will start NHL season on injured reserve | ||||