(Photo: Ross Leviton/WCSN)
With the Frozen Four concluded and Providence owning the championship, the first official NCAA off-season has begun for Arizona State Ice Hockey. They have hit the ground running announcing their schedule on Monday, offering season ticket deposits as of Wednesday morning, and now their roster for the 2015 season.
In all, 28 players are present on the roster. 15 of them are newcomers recruited by Head Coach Greg Powers and 13 are retained from last season.
As expected, some key players from the 3rd place-finishing ACHA team are left off the roster. Last season’s captain Brett Blomgren, former Team USA participant Chris Burkemper, and backup-goalie-turned-starter Lucas Felbel are among the notable absentees from the roster.
The returnees include one major surprise, Liam Norris. The senior forward and assistant captain has one year of eligibility left thanks to the NCAA’s redshirt rule. A player has five years from enrollment at a school to complete four seasons. Norris can use his redshirt on any of his previous ACHA seasons to be granted one more season with ASU.
The other returners include Drew Newmeyer, Ed McGovern, Sean Murphy, Ryan Belonger, Patrick Yudez, David Norris (who will redshirt this season due to his transfer), Jordan Young, Robert Levin, Eric Rivard, Ryan Ostertag, Connor Schmidt, and Michael Cummings.
Powers had this to say in a video referring to the veterans staying on the team.
“We’re excited about the kids we’ve brought back. They can all play. They all had an opportunity to play NCAA hockey somewhere. They were kids that we recruited and deemed very high-level kids on our ACHA program. They turned around our program and every day that goes by I don’t forget the fact that we’re here mainly because of them – because they believed in our vision for Sun Devil Hockey, and were able to execute on the ice.”
Eight of the recruits come from the USHL, the same league that produced all four returning defensemen (Newmeyer, McGovern, Young, and Schmidt) and forward Belonger.
Those USHL alums include forwards Joe Lappin, Ryan Stevens, Jack Rowe, Jake Montgomery, Liam McGing, and Louie Rowe. The remaining two are defenseman Joey Raats, and goalie Ryland Pashovitz.
Click here to view the full roster.
Dominic Cotroneo is the play-by-play voice of ASU Hockey. You can reach him on twitter @Dom_Cotroneo
