Dalton Bancroft (Photo Lexi Woodcock/Cornell Athletics)
While he can’t sign until his team is bounced from the 2025 NCAA tournament, big winger Dalton Bancroft is drawing plenty of interest on the NCAA free agent circuit.
An NHL source has confirmed to RG that the Boston Bruins are one of a handful of teams making a push to sign the Cornell University forward.
Another NHL source confirmed that “4-5” teams are pursuing the 24-year-old, 6-foot-3, 207-pound son of Steve Bancroft, who was drafted 21st overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. This same source also indicated that the Pittsburgh Penguins, Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, and Tampa Bay Lightning have also expressed interest.
“Teams like this kid a lot,” the source said.
“He’s got that rare power-forward package that so many teams covet these days. He’s big; he’s not afraid to drive to the net or dig deep in the corners, and he can skate. When he’s playing that north-south game to perfection, he’s really hard to stop.”
Bancroft attended the 2024 Boston Bruins Development Camp, and according to this source, he left that same impression on them.
“You saw how they’ve been trying to get bigger and tougher, and that’s what they saw with him,” the source said.
ECAC Title Caps Regular Season Surge
After finishing the regular season with 15 goals and 11 assists in 34 games, Bancroft had a goal and two assists in five ECAC playoff games as the Big Red extended outgoing and legendary head coach Mike Schafer’s career with a 3-1 win over the Clarkson Golden Knights in the ECAC Championship game this past Saturday. After clinching the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with that win, Bancroft and his Big Red teammates will now play second-seeded Michigan State, who was ranked No. 1 in the final NCAA Hockey Rankings Poll.
Before assisting on Tim Rego’s overtime winner in a 3-2 Cornell win over Quinnipiac in the ECAC semifinals, RG caught up with Bancroft and discussed what he believes he can bring to the NHL team that signs him.
“When you get to the NHL level, you have to adjust and find a role,” Bancroft pointed out to RG. “Here, I’ve had mostly an offensive role, and I know I’ll most likely have to switch over my approach at the pro level, but with my size and physicality I’ve always brought to my game, I think that will be a big part.
I’ve always said that my favorite player is Tom Wilson. Big guy, lays hits, he can fight—I don’t know if I can fight yet because I haven’t been able to get in one yet—but yeah, kind of just being one of those guys who always lays his body on the line. I love laying guys out just as much as I like putting the puck in the net, so I think that’s an attribute of mine that I’ll try and carry all the way through to the pro level.”
Late Bloomer, Steady Climber
After being a 12th-round pick in the OHL back in 2016, Bancroft never played for an OHL team and instead honed his craft by playing 171 games in the OJHL and 42 games in the GOJHL before starting his college career with Cornell in the 2022–23 season. Despite never accomplishing his childhood dream of suiting up in the OHL, the Toronto native couldn’t be happier that he took a path less traveled and wound up playing NCAA hockey at Cornell.
Despite more and more NHL teams scouting him over the last 1–2 years, Bancroft has done his best to let his humble roots guide him to the present.
That underdog mentality stuck with Bancroft as he worked his way up through juniors, constantly battling to prove himself. Even as NHL teams started to take notice, he never let outside expectations change his approach to the game.
“So, there was never really any pressure on me, and I’ve kept that same approach even now and through my whole college career. You gotta just enjoy the moment. College is four of the best years of your life, and that’s when you meet your best friends,” he continued. “Your classmates you come in with, your teammates you spend six or seven hours a day together, and that’s an experience that you can’t get anywhere else. So, I live by that every day. Just enjoy every day and put my friends and family first, and hopefully everything in the hockey world goes the right way.”
As Bancroft focuses on his NCAA tournament run, he knows that the next chapter in his career is just around the corner. With NHL teams lining up to secure his services, the hard-nosed winger remains grounded, taking things one day at a time.
James Murphy
