Biggest questions facing UConn men's hockey as the school year begins

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On Monday, classes began in Storrs for the start of UConn’s fall semester, which means hockey season is just around the corner. Mike Cavanaugh’s squad will begin preseason shortly while the opener vs. Colgate is roughly six weeks out.

Between now and then, there’s plenty of questions surrounding the Huskies that remain unanswered.

What’s the final roster?

Even though the new semester is underway, UConn’s roster isn’t finalized — at least not officially.

The Huskies dealt with an exodus of players through graduation (Andrew Lucas, Jake Flynn, Harrison Rees, Nick Capone), turning pro (Chase Bradley, Ethan Haider) and the transfer portal (Matthew Wood, Samu Salminen, Arsenii Sergeev, Jake Black, Mark D’Agostino).

In turn, UConn added three players from the portal to go with nine freshmen — so far. Those numbers leave the Huskies short on in a few spots, so they need a few more pieces to have enough depth to get through the upcoming season.

While the school hasn’t officially announced its full 2024-25 roster, UConn has plugged the remaining holes. The identity of those players remain a mystery, though — the Huskies have kept their recruiting efforts under wraps this summer.

Until they’re revealed, it’s nearly impossible to forge ahead on any outlook or preview of the upcoming campaign.

Who starts in goal?

UConn will have a new goaltender between the pipes for the third time in the last four years. Gone are Ethan Haider, Arsenii Sergeev and Matt Pasquale; in are Tyler Muszelik, Callum Tung and Thomas Heaney.

Muszelik, a UNH transfer, and Tung, a top prospect in the BCHL, are expected to compete for the starting job. Muszelik has struggled in college with an .879 save percentage and 3.30 goals against average in 58 career games, but (theoretically) has the talent as a former USNTDP player. Tung, meanwhile, is unproven at the level but put up impressive numbers in juniors (2.80 GAA, .917 save percentage in 38 games with the Alberni Valley Bulldogs).

Ideally, the two will both perform well enough that the Huskies play them both in a rotation — at least early in the season. At the very least, UConn will hope that goaltending won’t lose games like it did all too often last year

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Who emerges as a scorer?

Of the 90 goals that UConn recorded last season, a staggering 51 were scored by players no longer on the roster. While the Huskies were far from a prolific offense in 2023-24, they still need someone to light the lamp.

The return of Hudson Schandor for a fifth year will help — especially if he can return to his junior year form where he put up 11 goals. Jake Richard and Joey Muldowney should also take steps forward after combining for 12 goals as freshmen.

The wildcards will be the freshmen (and whoever the new additions are). While the likes of Hugh Larkin, Jake Percival, Ryan Tattle and Tabor Heaslip are valuable, they aren’t necessarily point producers.

That’s not the case with the kids, who all put up impressive numbers in juniors. Kaden Shahan’s 39 goals for the Sioux City Musketeers were third-most in the USHL. Ethan Whitcomb had the eighth-most assists in the league with 44. Ethan Gardula was nearly a point-per-game player with 49 points in 58 games as a teammate of Shahan in Sioux City. Mike Murtagh had 63 points, good for fourth-most in the BCHL.

Relying heavily on freshmen is always a dicey proposition, but the Huskies aren’t left with much of a choice. If someone in that group can stand out from the jump, it’ll take a lot of pressure off the rest of the offense.

How does defensive depth chart play out?

At the start of the offseason, UConn looked like it was heading towards a full-on rebuild of its defensive corps with four spots open for next season. Then John Spetz decided to return for a fifth year and the Huskies added Nick Carabin out of the transfer portal from Princeton, cutting that number in half.

With Tom Messineo and Jack Pascucci also locked in, five players will compete for two spots in the lineup.

Kai Janviriya is the favorite to fill one of them — Cavanaugh implied that he’d replace Andrew Lucas as UConn’s top offensive defensemen — leaving Owen Simpson, Kevin Fitzgerald, Trey Scott and Bauer Swift to battle for the other.

What are Nick Peruzzi’s duties?

After Mike Pereira left the staff to become the head coach at Choate, Mike Cavanaugh replaced him with former Northern Michigan assistant Nick Peruzzi. While he’s been on the job for a couple months now, his role remains unclear — at least to those of us on the outside.

Will he be a recruiter first and hockey coach second? Does he bring anyone over from Northern Michigan? Will he be tasked with fixing UConn’s oft-broken power play? Is he an X’s-and-O’s tactician?

Cavanaugh went off-script with this hire — Peruzzi has no previous ties to the program and he’s the most experienced of any previous assistant. We’ll see if that translates into an immediate impact with the Huskies.