The 2025–26 Northern Michigan Wildcats men's ice hockey season was the 50th season of play for the program and 28th in the CCHA. The Wildcats represented Northern Michigan University in the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at Berry Events Center and were coached by Dave Shyiak in his 2nd season.
Season After a miserable season in 2025, Northern Michigan was hoping so see some improvement in its ice hockey team. Unfortunately, the Wildcats somehow found a way to produce even worse results. In the first two months of the campaign, neither Oliver Auyeung-Ashton nor William Gramme played particularly well in goal but the club's chances at winning were harmed more by its inept offense. NMU averaged well below 2 goals over the first 16 games, losing every contest along the way. The only scoring threat for the Wildcats came in the form of senior transfer Caiden Gault who provided more than a quarter of the team's goals. Even after securing their first win of the season at the beginning of December, NMU immediately went into the tank again and lost the next eight games. The offense finally began to show some signs of life near the end of the year but by then it was far too late to save their season. Auyeung-Ashton, in his first year of college hockey, also showed some marked improvement as the year went on and provided the only shutout of the campaign. Northern Michigan finished with just 3 wins on the year, the lowest in the nation, and the worst record in the history of the program.
Departures Ethan Barwick Goaltender Left program (retired) Colby Browne Forward Transferred to Colby Will Diamond Forward Left program (retired) Wolfgang Govedaris Defenseman Left program (retired) Rasmus Larsson Defenseman Transferred to Robert Morris Tanner Latsch Forward Left program (retired) Jakub Lewandowski Forward Graduation (signed with KH Energa Toruń) Zach Michaelis Forward Left program (retired) Trevor Mitchell Defenseman Left program (retired) Julian Molinaro Goaltender Transferred to Michigan Ryan Ouellette Goaltender Graduation (signed with Indy Fuel) Jakob Peterson Defenseman Graduation (retired) Brendan Poshak Forward Left program (retired) Billy Renfrew Forward Transferred to Stonehill Matthew Romer Forward Transferred to Stonehill
Recruiting Oliver Auyeung-Ashton Goaltender 20 Coquitlam, BC Olivier Beaulieu Defenseman 20 Terrebonne, QC; joined mid-season Kyle Bettens Forward 24 Winnipeg, MB; transfer from Minnesota Duluth Mikey Burchill Forward 20 Mundelein, IL Peter Císar Forward 20 Bratislava, SVK Warren Clark Defenseman 21 Riverside, ON; transfer from St. Cloud State; selected 179th overall in 2023 Zane Demsey Defenseman 23 Harrison Township, MI; transfer from Miami Jackson Fuller Goaltender 21 Centerville, MN Caiden Gault Forward 23 Oakbank, MB; transfer from Ferris State William Gramme Goaltender 23 Stockholm, SWE; transfer from Wisconsin Evan Johnson Defenseman 20 Trenton, MI Landon MacDonald Forward 21 Brighton, MI Tobias Pitka Forward 19 Poprad, SVK Ģirts Silkalns Forward 22 Talsi, LAT; transfer from Massachusetts Lowell Tyler Stern Forward 21 Plainview, NY Mathew Ward Forward 21 Kamloops, BC Max Weilandt Goaltender 20 Northbrook, IL; joined mid-season
Roster As of January 1, 2026.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
Scoring statistics F 33 16 2 18 29 C 25 5 7 12 14 C 27 4 7 11 34 C/RW 31 2 9 11 20 C/RW 34 4 6 10 16 D 28 3 7 10 4 D 34 1 9 10 25 F 20 4 5 9 27 F 31 5 3 8 4 F 27 2 6 8 20 F 25 2 5 7 12 F 21 1 6 7 10 D 33 2 4 6 6 F 32 2 3 5 20 D 14 0 4 4 2 F 21 2 0 2 10 F 28 1 1 2 22 F 29 0 2 2 13 F 20 0 1 1 4 D 31 0 1 1 10 D 31 0 1 1 14 D 33 0 1 1 18 G 5 0 0 0 0 D 8 0 0 0 0 D 17 0 0 0 0 G 18 0 0 0 0 G 18 0 0 0 0 Total 56 90 146 352
Goaltending statistics 18 944:32 2 13 1 42 555 1 .930 2.67 5 105:02 0 1 0 6 40 0 .870 3.43 18 974:01 1 15 1 69 579 0 .894 4.25 Empty Net - 36:15 - - - 15 - - - - Total 34 2059:50 3 29 2 132 1174 1 .899 3.84
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.comNRNR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR –NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR USA HockeyNRNR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.
References