AHA Preseason Coaches’ Poll/ AHA Media Day Video/ Lammers' segment

[le]

FYI:

*This is a general AHA/College Hockey thread regarding the upcoming 2023-2024 season. The media cycle has started with many publications posting updates, team previews and other stories of interest.

USCHO has released their 2023 Hockey East and NCHC men’s preseason coaches polls. The AHA and ECAC polls should be released this week.

https://www.uscho.com/2023/09/12/boston ... ches-poll/

*NU's season begins with an exhibition game at home against Royal Military College of Canada : Oct 7 (Sat) 5:00 PM.

https://purpleeagles.com/sports/mens-ic ... y/schedule

[NewEnglander]

Optimistic despite losing 5 of their top 7 scorers from last year, Ott and Randklev return. 4 of the 7 that scored 10 or more goals return. They do have Jay Ahearn returning who played less than half the season last year. He was on a pace to lead the team in scoring with the best PPG on the team. Glebs Prohorenkovs was their most accurate scorer hitting on almost 22% of his shots. The only other ones over 15% are all returning, Gauthier 18.6%, Ahearn 17.1% and Randklev 16.5%. Prohorenkovs also was a +10 on the year leading the team by 5. There are several transfers from high level schools which could be promising, hopefully much like Casey Carreau worked out. Yet I don't quite see as much of an upside to them as Carreau held but you never know. A couple of very promising Freshmen could also make an impact. Goal should be fine with Fiske replacing Veltri.

[le]

NE: Thanks for your take on NU Hockey heading into the 2024 season. We did graduate many of our leading scorers but with Ahearn returning along with a few transfers, NU should have enough firepower to compete at the top of the AHA. Here are the transfers :

A quick look at NU's new transfers from the NIAGARA HOCKEY THREAD:

FISKE -AIC- GOALIE:

Fiske earned a Second-Team nod and was the AHA Goaltending Champion; the latter is given to the qualifying goalkeeper with the lowest goals against average, as he posted a 1.91 goals against average and .931 save percentage in league play, also the best in the league. In doing so, he became the fourth-consecutive winner of the award from AIC. His overall .923 save percentage is second-best in a season in AIC's Division I era, and his 2.38 goals against average for the campaign is the fifth-best in that span.

ALEX MURRAY- MIAMI - D

• Has appeared in 25 games through two seasons
• Has produced three career points (0-3-3)
• Two-time member of the NCHC Academic All-Conference team

2022-23 HIGHLIGHTS
• Skated in 19 games
• Finished with three points (0-3-3)
• Picked up an assist in victory at No. 19 North Dakota (11/19)
• Posted +2 rating on two different occasions (10/21 and 2/25)
• Blocked a total of seven shots
• Member of the NCHC Academic All-Conference team

Conner Mylymok- Alaska- Forward

Conner had a total of 8 points last year at Alaska. At 6’1 205, he can provide some thump.

https://alaskananooks.com/sports/mens-i ... lymok/3507

Luke Mylymok- Minny Duluth – Forward :

Conner had a total of 8 points last year as well for Minny Duluth.

https://umdbulldogs.com/sports/mens-ice ... lymok/6555

[Truthful]

Any idea why Fiske left AIC ? It seems like a lateral move , whatever the reason I'm glad he came to NU .

[le]

Fiske was splitting time last season with junior Alexandros Aslanidis who recorded a 2.14 GAA. My speculation is that Fiske wanted to be the "go to guy" which he was for some time at AIC. He was Second Team All AHA last season, what a steal for Niagara !

[Truthful]

Thanks le , I agree a definite steal for NU . I really hope that this year's team can be dominant at home . In fairness to Lammers , his teams generally play pretty good on the road , but to hover around .500 at home is unacceptable . Hopefully they can reverse that trend .

[le]

YUP, NU has to start dominating on home ice !

Anyways, here is the 2023-24 CCHA Preseason Coaches Poll. Of note, Augustana (SD) begins their first year as a D1 program in the CCHA.

2023-24 CCHA Preseason Coaches Poll
Michigan Tech – 67 (4 first-place votes)
Northern Michigan – 66 (3)
Bowling Green – 55
Bemidji State – 49
St. Thomas – 45 (1)
Minnesota State – 45
Ferris State – 36
Lake Superior State – 29
Augustana

[Millsy]

YUP, NU has to start dominating on home ice !

Anyways, here is the 2023-24 CCHA Preseason Coaches Poll. Of note, Augustana (SD) begins their first year as a D1 program in the CCHA.

2023-24 CCHA Preseason Coaches Poll
Michigan Tech – 67 (4 first-place votes)
Northern Michigan – 66 (3)
Bowling Green – 55
Bemidji State – 49
St. Thomas – 45 (1)
Minnesota State – 45
Ferris State – 36
Lake Superior State – 29
Augustana

Augustana will be a provisional member this year and next, not fully joining the CCHA until 2025-26 season. They will play only one series against each member both seasons and are not playoff eligible until the 2025-26 season.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Bowling Green after yesterday's announcements due to hazing. Head coach put on leave, three players suspended, and the preseason conference player of the year, Austen Swankler, entering the transfer portal. He IS NOT one of the suspended players, but looks to want out of BG after all of this.

https://www.uscho.com/2023/09/18/bowlin ... -incident/

[le]

FYI:

The NCHC schools voted this week to approve Arizona State's memebership as the leagues ninth team, beginning in 2024-25.

[le]

Three Hockey East schools (BU,BC,Merrimack) and one ECAC team (Qpac) are in the CHN Top 10.

AHA = nada.

https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/ ... on-Top.php