The 2024–25 Northern Michigan Wildcats men's ice hockey season was the 49th season of play for the program and 27th in the CCHA. The Wildcats represented Northern Michigan University in the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Berry Events Center and were coached by Dave Shyiak in his 1st season.
Season With an off-season coaching change, combined with a disappointing season, Northern Michigan experienced the greatest amount of roster turnover in the history of the program. Just four of thirty players on the roster returned (Tanner Latsch, Zach Michaelis, Jakob Peterson and Brendan Poshak) with just 42 games played between them in 23–24 (approximately 6.5% of the man-games). While the Wildcats were bound to lose some players through graduation, the transfer portal helped to induce eleven players to leave for other programs. Northern Michigan was able to add several new players through the portal to mitigate some of the losses but the majority of their recruiting class were new to college hockey.
After a bit of a rough start, the defense settled down and didn't play too poorly from November on. The Wildcats got decent goaltending from Ryan Ouellette who, although he allowed nearly 3 goals per game for the year, stopped nearly 92% of the shots he faced. Unfortunately, the completely remade offense was never able to find its footing. Northern Michigan had the lowest scoring numbers in the nation, averaging 1.62 goals over the season. While the offense picked up in the second half of the year, it wasn't enough to prevent the team from posting the worst record in program history. Due to the CCHA allowing Augustana to compete for a playoff spot, Northern Michigan's 9th-place finish left them without a single postseason game for the first time since their inaugural year.
Though there was little that went well for the Wildcats this season, there wasn't anywhere for the program to go but up.
Departures Isack Bandu Defenseman Transferred to St. Lawrence Tyrell Boucher Defenseman Graduation (signed with Falher Pirates) Michael Colella Forward Graduate transfer to Canisius Mitchel Deelstra Forward Graduate transfer to Robert Morris Connor Eddy Forward Transferred to Massachusetts Lowell Colby Enns Defenseman Graduate transfer to Merrimack Reilly Funk Forward Transferred to Bemidji State Aiden Gallacher Defenseman Graduate transfer to Omaha André Ghantous Forward Graduation (signed with Adirondack Thunder) Charlie Glockner Goaltender Transferred to St. Cloud State Luke Gramer Defenseman Left program (retired) Viking Gustafsson Nyberg Defenseman Transferred to Connecticut Béni Halász Goaltender Transferred to St. Cloud State Travis Hensrud Forward Transferred to Windsor Matvei Kabanov Forward Transferred to Bowling Green Kevin Marx-Norén Forward Transferred to RIT Michael Mesic Forward Returned to juniors (Youngstown Phantoms) Kristóf Papp Forward Graduate transfer to Lindenwood Jack Perbix Forward/Defenseman Graduation (signed with Iowa Heartlanders) Artem Shlaine Forward Graduate transfer to Arizona State Grant Slukynsky Forward Transferred to Western Michigan Carsen Stokes Goaltender Transferred to Augsburg Mike Van Unen Defenseman Graduation (signed with Adirondack Thunder) Rylan Van Unen Forward Graduation (signed with Allen Americans) Josh Zinger Defenseman Transferred to St. Cloud State
Recruiting Jakub Altrichter Forward 21 Prague, CZE Nick Ardanaz Defenseman 22 Surrey, BC; transfer from Rensselaer Matt Argentina Forward 21 Philadelphia, PA; transfer from Boston College Ethan Barwick Goaltender 22 St. Albert, AB; transfer from Lindenwood Médrick Bolduc Forward 21 Val-d'Or, QC Colby Browne Forward 21 Evergreen, CO Danny Ciccarello Forward 23 Kirkland, QC; transfer from Rensselaer Anthony Cliche Defenseman 21 Vallée-Jonction, QC Grayden Daul Defenseman 21 Chicago, IL Will Diamond Forward 20 Carpentersville, IL Ryan Duguay Forward 20 Edmonton, AB Tynan Ewart Defenseman 22 Duncan, BC; transfer from St. Cloud State Wolfgang Govedaris Defenseman 21 Bristol, CT Aidyn Hutchinson Forward 21 St. Albert, AB Rasmus Larsson Defenseman 20 Hässelby, SWE; selected 152nd overall in 2023 Jakub Lewandowski Forward 22 Toruń, POL; transfer from Bemidji State Trevor Mitchell Defenseman 21 South Lyon, MI Julian Molinaro Goaltender 20 Mississauga, ON Ryan Ouellette Goaltender 23 Colorado Springs, CO; transfer from Niagara Billy Renfrew Forward 21 Fairbanks, AK Matthew Romer Forward 22 Chicago, IL; transfer from Arizona State Joe Schiller Defenseman 20 Moorhead, MN Grayden Slipec Forward 23 Surrey, BC Jesse Tucker Forward 24 Longlac, ON; transfer from Clarkson
Roster As of September 13, 2024.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics F 32 10 9 19 14 C 32 3 16 19 4 D 34 1 10 11 4 F 30 4 6 10 16 D 34 4 5 9 14 C/RW 24 6 2 8 4 F 23 5 3 8 4 C 34 3 5 8 26 C 22 5 2 7 6 D 29 2 4 6 12 F 26 2 3 5 34 F 22 1 4 5 12 C 16 2 2 4 10 D 29 3 0 3 14 C 27 1 2 3 0 F 31 1 2 3 2 D 10 0 3 3 4 F 17 0 3 3 4 D 26 0 3 3 6 F 25 1 1 2 4 F 22 1 0 1 21 D 14 0 1 1 6 F 19 0 1 1 6 D 28 0 1 1 16 G 32 0 1 1 0 G 1 0 0 0 0 G 6 0 0 0 0 D 30 0 0 0 20 Total 55 89 144 279
Goaltending statistics 1 33:09 0 0 0 1 22 0 .957 1.81 32 1771:05 5 25 2 87 955 0 .917 2.95 6 221:51 0 2 0 16 106 0 .869 4.33 Empty Net - 33:21 - - - 11 - - - - Total 34 2059:26 5 27 2 115 1083 0 .904 3.35
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.comNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NR USA HockeyNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12 or 26.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.
Awards and honors Jakub Altrichter CCHA All-Rookie Team
References