The 2020–21 Providence Friars Men's ice hockey season was the 70th season of play for the program and the 37th season in the Hockey East conference. The Friars represented Providence College and were coached by Nate Leaman, in his 10th season.

Season As a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic the entire college ice hockey season was delayed. Because the NCAA had previously announced that all winter sports athletes would retain whatever eligibility they possessed through at least the following year, none of Providence's players would lose a season of play. However, the NCAA also approved a change in its transfer regulations that would allow players to transfer and play immediately rather than having to sit out a season, as the rules previously required.

Providence got off to a bad start, surrendering 12 goals in their opening weekend to Boston College. Afterwards, sophomore transfer Jaxson Stauber, son of Hobey Baker-recipient Robb Stauber, took over in net and the team saw immediate improvement. The Friars were able to remain in the top-20 for the remainder of the season but the team was never able to put a consistent string of wins together to get them either into the top-10 or among the best teams in their own conference.

By the end of the regular season Providence was considered a 'bubble team' for the NCAA Tournament and would need a very good performance in the Hockey East Tournament to improve their standing if they couldn't get an automatic bid. The first impediment for the team was Hockey East using a power index to decide conference placement rather than win percentage. This meant that Providence finished below Connecticut despite possessing a better record and would have to play a road game in the quarterfinals. The team was easily able to overcome that difficulty and defeated the Huskies 6–1. Their next opponent, Massachusetts, was not as easily beaten. After a good start, Providence was shut out over the final 50 minutes of play and lost 2–5.

Getting into the semifinal and losing to the eventual conference champion was a solid performance but Providence had a problem. Because there were little-to-no non-conference games for all of college hockey, the PairWise rankings would not be used. Instead, the NCAA selection committee decided to judge teams based upon how they performed against the best teams in their conference. Providence had lost both games to BC, gone 1–1 versus Boston University and 0–2–2 against Massachusetts (including the playoff match). This left the Friars with a 1–5–2 record against the 'good' Hockey East teams, which was not sufficient to earn them a trip to the national tournament.

Kyle Koopman and Jimmy Scannell sat out the season.

Departures Jack Dugan Forward Signed Professional Contract (Vegas Golden Knights) Jerry Harding Forward Transferred to Massachusetts Shane Kavanagh Forward Graduation Jake Kucharski Goaltender Transferred to American International Michael Lackey Forward Graduation (Signed with Orlando Solar Bears) Caleb Rule Forward Transferred to Miami Vimal Sukumaran Forward Graduation Spenser Young Defenseman Graduation

Recruiting Jack Adams Forward 23 Boxford, MA; selected 162nd overall in 2017; transfer from Union Brett Berard Forward 23 East Greenwich, RI; selected 134th overall in 2020 Anton Martinsson Goaltender 24 Klippan, SWE; graduate transfer from Alaska Nicholas Poisson Forward 19 Vancouver, BC Uula Ruikka Defenseman 20 Oulu, FIN Jaxson Stauber Goaltender 21 Wayzata, MN; transfer from Minnesota State Matt Tugnutt Forward 24 Peterborough, ON; graduate transfer from Sacred Heart Chase Yoder Forward 18 Fairview, TX; selected 170th overall in 2020

Current roster As of February 12, 2021.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular season

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics C 25 11 14 25 16 C 25 7 12 19 14 C 17 6 9 15 8 LW 25 6 9 15 12 F 24 5 9 14 23 D 25 3 11 14 12 D 25 1 11 12 20 LW 19 5 5 10 16 D 22 4 4 8 4 D 17 3 5 8 10 F 25 3 5 8 14 C 25 3 4 7 2 C 22 4 2 6 4 F 25 3 3 6 8 D 24 1 4 5 8 C/RW 16 0 5 5 8 LW 15 1 3 4 2 D 25 1 3 4 8 C 23 3 0 3 23 C 12 1 0 1 4 D 17 0 1 1 6 G 1 0 0 0 0 G 2 0 0 0 0 F 6 0 0 0 4 C/RW 6 0 0 0 0 D 10 0 0 0 4 G 23 0 0 0 0 Bench - - - - - 4 Total 71 119 190 234

Goaltending statistics 23 1393 11 7 5 52 567 4 .916 2.24 2 107 0 2 0 8 44 0 .846 4.47 1 10 0 0 0 3 3 0 .500 16.82 Empty Net - 13 - - - 4 - - - - Total 25 1525 11 9 5 67 614 4 .902 2.64

Rankings

PollWeekPre123456789101112131415161718192021 (Final) USCHO.com1715131219191515161618171616151415171416-16 USA TodayNR151312NRNR13NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR14NRNRNR USCHO did not release a poll in week 20.

Awards and honors Tyce Thompson Hockey East Second Team

Players drafted into the NHL 2021 NHL entry draft 3 91 Taige Harding† Chicago Blackhawks 4 101 Guillaume Richard† Washington Capitals † incoming freshman

References