The 2022–23 RPI Engineers Men's ice hockey season was the 103rd season of play for the program and the 61st in the ECAC Hockey conference. The Engineers represented Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, played their home games at Houston Field House and were coached by Dave Smith, in his 5th season.
Season Entering the season, Rensselaer had to contend with the loss of each of their top 6 goal-scorers from last season. Early on, at least, the Engineers didn't appear to miss those players as RPI began the season 4–0. Unfortunately, as soon as the team left the friendly confines of the Houston Field House, the Engineers began to lose. Rensselaer lost its first 9 away game on the year and tumbled down the national rankings. During that stretch a slight lack of offense was apparent for the team and the Engineers scored 30 fewer goals than they had the year before, albeit in 9 fewer games. The bigger problem for the team was the decline in performance in goal. While the defense allowed an average of less the 30 shots against per game, the team saw its goals against average increase by more than half a goal. Jack Watson's less-than-stellar performance in the leading role saw the team regress and finish well below .500.
RPI ended the season in a tie for 7th in the conference standings but were able to receive a home site for the first round. They played host to one of the worst offenses in the nation, Yale, and had a good chance to at least make the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, the troubles with the offense and goaltending were on full display and the Engineers were knocked out with a 1–4 defeat.
Departures Justin Addamo Forward Graduation (signed with Wheeling Nailers) Anthony Baxter Defenseman Graduation (retired) Nick Bowman Forward Graduate transfer to Canisius Zach Dubinsky Forward Transferred to Michigan State Jake Johnson Defenseman Graduate transfer to Quinnipiac Simon Kjellberg Defenseman Transferred to Northern Michigan Jakub Lacka Forward Graduation (signed with HK Nitra) Ottoville Leppänen Forward Graduate transfer to Merrimack Ture Linden Forward Graduate transfer to Penn State Linden Marshall Goaltender Graduation (signed with Greenville Swamp Rabbits) Shane Sellar Forward Graduation (signed with Reading Royals)
Recruiting Nicolas Ardanaz Defenseman 20 Surrey, BC Finn Brown Forward 20 North York, ON Brendan Budy Forward 22 Langley, BC; transfer from North Dakota Carson Cherepak Goaltender 19 Winnipeg, MB Danny Ciccarello Forward 21 Kirkland, QC John Evans Forward 20 South Surrey, BC Austin Heidemann Forward 23 Maple Grove, MN; transfer from Mercyhurst Sutter Muzzatti Forward 19 Okemos, MI Max Smolinski Defenseman 19 Bloomfield Hills, MI Nick Strom Defenseman 22 Dayton, MN; transfer from Western Michigan
Roster As of December 24, 2022.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 ! style=""; | Regular Season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics F 31 15 7 22 6 C 28 10 12 22 61 F 35 7 15 22 42 F 34 10 10 20 6 LW 35 7 10 17 4 RW 31 6 10 16 4 D 35 4 11 15 31 D 35 3 11 14 16 D 35 2 11 13 14 D 32 2 10 12 24 F 29 5 3 8 6 C 31 2 6 8 4 D 31 1 6 7 39 F 23 3 3 6 2 D 35 1 5 6 6 LW 30 0 5 5 6 F 20 2 2 4 17 D 20 0 3 3 8 C/RW 16 2 0 2 23 F 24 1 1 2 8 F 21 1 0 1 8 F 16 0 1 1 10 D/F 21 0 1 1 23 F 2 0 0 0 0 G 4 0 0 0 0 G 6 0 0 0 0 F 10 0 0 0 0 G 30 0 0 0 0 Total 84 143 227 383
Goaltending statistics 30 1695:02 13 15 1 87 740 1 .895 3.08 7 250:37 0 4 0 13 112 0 .896 3.11 6 149:06 1 1 0 9 50 0 .847 3.62 Empty Net - 19:56 - - - 6 - - - - Total 35 2114:41 14 20 1 115 902 1 .887 3.26
Rankings
PollWeekPre12345678910111213141516171819202122232425 26 27 (Final) USCHO.comNR-NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR-NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR-NR USA TodayNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 1, 13, or 26.
Awards and honors Sutter Muzzatti ECAC Hockey Rookie Team
Players drafted into the NHL 2023 NHL entry draft 5 143 Sutter Muzzatti Nashville Predators † incoming freshman
References