Some thoughts with hockey season rapidly approaching
Hockey season is almost back!
The Boston College men’s hockey team will get their season underway on October 11 when they start a two-game weekend series in East Lansing against Michigan State. It’s been more than five months since the Eagles fell to Denver in the National Championship game, and there are plenty of expectations around this year’s team. BC is ranked second in the preseason poll and were also voted as the favorites to finish the season at the top of Hockey East.
There’s a whole lot to be excited about as we get closer and closer to the start of the season, here’s some of what might be worth looking at in a few weeks once the games get started.
PLENTY OF NEW FACES AT FORWARD
The 2023-2024 version of Boston College hockey team was ridiculously loaded up front. They averaged right around four and a half goals per game and had the ability to score in bunches and put teams away early. For a team with a lot of strengths, their greatest might have been just how many dangerous playmakers and goal scorers they could send over the boards at any time.
They should still be able to score this season, but things are going to look different.
Gone are Cutter Gauthier and Will Smith and their combined 63 goals and 136 points. Gone is Jack Malone, a perfect third line forward and the man responsible for scoring the overtime winner against Quinnipiac in the NCAA Tournament to keep BC’s season alive. And gone are important depth pieces in Colby Ambrosio and Jamie Armstrong.
Replacing them will be a freshman class and a handful of transfers that the team will be relying on to contribute from day one. James Hagens is the biggest name of the incoming class and is expected to be one of the first picks in the 2025 NHL Draft. Dean Letourneau was a recent first round pick himself and has the talent and the size to be an impact player. Teddy Stiga and Jake Sondreal will be important members of the top nine right away. And Brady Berard has two years of experience playing in Hockey East from his time at Providence and should help fill out some of the team’s depth.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this forward group looks, especially in the early stages of the season. Greg Brown mostly kept the lines together unless an injury forced him to change things up last year, especially the top two units. With Gabe Perreault, Ryan Leonard, Oskar Jellvik, and Andrea Gasseau all returning there’s a whole lot of talented players that Brown can put out there. Will it be as successful as last season? That remains to be seen. But on paper at least the Eagles have the pieces to make things work.
WHO TAKES CONTROL ON THE POWERPLAY?
BC’s power play was one of the biggest advantages they had on other teams for the entirety of last season, hovering around the 30 percent mark for most of the season before ending the year at 28.8 percent. But for the past two years, a lot of the power play ran through Cutter Gauthier. Gauthier had 20 power play goals in his two years as an Eagle and spent most of his time positioned on the half wall on the right wing where he was able to rip one timers and quickly feed passes into the slot.
Now Gauthier is gone and there are some questions on what the top power play unit is going to look like. Four of the spots seem like they’re pretty safely spoken for, with Perreault, Leonard and James Hagens seeming like obvious choices with Eamon Powell likely to continue playing on the point. So who does the fifth spot go to and who ends up being the main option? Does Hagens become The Guy right away? Is Letourneau a net-front option with his 6’7” frame? Do they move to a look using two defenseman instead of the four forwards look that they’ve been using for years? It will be interesting to see who takes the ice the first time BC gets a power play chance and equally as fascinating to see if Greg Brown tries some different things before ultimately deciding what he likes best.
JACOB FOWLER’S FOLLOW UP PERFORMANCE
Jacob Fowler had a standout freshman season for BC last year, putting up a .926 save percentage and a 32-6-1 record in his 39 starts. Fowler was the Hockey East Goaltender of the year, a Hockey East All-Star, and a finalist for the Richter Award given annually to the best goalie in the NCAA.
Fowler was everything BC fans could have hoped for last season – a standout freshman on a team full of standout freshman. He’s going to be the guy in net pretty much every night once again, and it’s exciting to think about what he could look like in year two. If he can turn in a repeat of his freshman campaign, BC is going to be in great shape this year. If he can actually find a way to take a step forward? Then we might be in for something special.