The 2025–26 LIU Sharks men's ice hockey season will be the 6th season of play for the program. The Sharks will represent Long Island University in the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, play their home games at the Northwell Health Ice Center and be coached by Brendan Riley, in his 1st season.

Season After the end of the previous season, head coach Brett Riley was hired by Ferris State for the same position. Less than two weeks later, Long Island announced that they had hired Brendan Riley, Brett's cousin, as his replacement. Along with the change in head coach came an increase in roster turnover as five players followed the elder Riley to the Bulldogs. Among the untimely losses were the primary starter in goal and the top two goal scorers from last season. Brendan Riley was able to neutralize those losses in part thanks to the diminution of American International and take on four former Yellow Jackets.

As the season began, the roster turnover did the team no favors as they dropped five of their first six games. A lack of scoring was the primary reason for the defeats, however, as soon as the team was able to find the back of the next, they immediately went on a winning streak and brought themselves back up to .500. This pattern would repeat throughout the season as the Sharks oscillated stretches of good and bad play. Noah Serdachny and Brett Rylance, two of the AIC transfers, finished 1st and 4th in scoring respectively on an offense that wasn't quite as good as it had been a year before but was still a consistent threat. The biggest chance came in goal where Daniel Duris, who had been the third string netminder as a freshman, now found himself as the starter. There were several stretches during the season where the young goaltender was unable to rise to the occasion, however, he was also impacted by the fact that the LIU defense had worsened significantly since last year. Long Island allowed more than 200 additional shots over the course of their season and Duris could not shoulder the extra load all of the time. The increased pressure on goal resulted in the team finishing the year with a losing record.

At season's end, Long Island participated in the inaugural United Collegiate Hockey Cup. Their record against fellow independent clubs resulted in their being seeded #3 and meeting Lindenwood in the semifinal. The two battled hard in the game with LIU twice tying the score but fell behind for a third time with just 8 seconds to play and were sent into the consolation round. Over their final two matches, Serdachny ran roughshod over Stonehill and Alaska Anchorage with five points to earn the Sharks a third place finish.

Departures Austin Brimmer Forward Transferred to RIT Isaiah Fox Forward Graduation (signed with Adirondack Thunder) John Gormley Defenseman Graduation (signed with San Jose Barracuda) Connor Gregga Forward Graduation (signed with Savannah Ghost Pirates) Aaron Grounds Forward Graduation (retired) Xan Gurney Defenseman Graduation (retired) Andrius Kulbis-Marino Defenseman Graduation (signed with Utah Grizzlies) Cade Mason Defenseman Transferred to Northern Michigan Tyriq Outen Goaltender Graduation (signed with Knoxville Ice Bears) Chris Pappas Forward Graduation (retired) Valtteri Piironen Defenseman Transferred to Ferris State Carter Rapalje Forward Transferred to Ferris State Noah Rupprecht Goaltender Transferred to Ferris State Nick Trela Forward Graduation (retired) Riley Wallack Forward Transferred to Ferris State Josh Zary Forward Transferred to Ferris State

Recruiting Nate Benoit Defenseman 22 Bow, NH; transfer from Quinnipiac; selected 182nd overall in 2021 Carter Bickle Goaltender 21 Brooklin, ON Blake Dangos Defenseman 23 St. Louis, MO; transfer from American International Jack Darby Defenseman 21 New Hartford, NY Jaden Dyke Forward 21 St. John's, NL Trevor Griebel Defenseman 24 Tampa, FL; transfer from Merrimack Luke Hause Defenseman 21 Saint Paul, MN Dylan Kinch Forward 20 Salzburg, AUT Blake Matheson Defenseman 20 Everett, WA Casey McDonald Forward 24 Kindersley, SK; transfer from American International John McMahon Forward 21 Oceanside, NY Lukas Renaud Goaltender 21 Montréal, QC Brett Rylance Forward 24 Edmonton, AB; transfer from American International Noah Serdachny Forward 22 Edmonton, AB; transfer from American International

Roster As of September 19, 2025.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition

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

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics F 33 13 16 29 31 F 33 11 14 25 27 LW 33 8 17 25 4 C/W 30 11 13 24 10 RW 33 9 15 24 6 D/F 30 2 18 20 18 D 30 8 9 17 14 C 32 10 5 15 22 D 31 4 9 13 29 C 30 5 7 12 10 D 33 1 10 11 16 C/W 24 4 6 10 35 F 31 4 6 10 37 C/W 33 3 7 10 8 F 20 4 2 6 18 C 16 3 2 5 4 F 27 2 3 5 10 D 31 1 4 5 30 RW 13 1 2 3 16 D 24 0 3 3 2 D 32 0 3 3 37 F 6 1 0 1 0 D 13 0 1 1 0 G 3 0 0 0 0 G 5 0 0 0 0 F 10 0 0 0 0 G 31 0 0 0 0 Total 105 172 277 398

Goaltending statistics 7 113:28 0 0 0 5 39 0 .886 2.64 31 1769:45 14 16 1 97 870 2 .900 3.29 5 104:00 0 2 0 9 43 0 .827 5.19 Empty Net - 10:49 - - - 1 - - - - Total 33 1998:02 14 18 1 112 952 2 .895 3.36

Rankings

PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.comNRNR NR NR NR NR NR NRNR NR NR NR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR USA HockeyNRNR NR NR NR NR RVNRNR NR NR NR –NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.

References