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Weekly Roundup: Creating a UConn men's hockey Huskies of Honor (Part one)

Since the Huskies have no way of honoring their greatest players, we decided to put together our own list, beginning with the team's Division III Era.

At the moment, UConn men’s hockey doesn’t have any way of honoring its greatest players. Unlike the basketball programs, which have the Huskies of Honor hanging in Gampel Pavilion, there are very few references to former stars at Freitas Ice Forum in Storrs or at the XL Center in Hartford.

In fact, the only permanent signage for UConn men’s hockey inside the old mall are pennants with each program in Hockey East alongside a banner for the 2000 MAAC Championship team.

When the Huskies finally move into their new on-campus arena in late 2022 or early 2023, they’ll have to find ways to decorate the place. Finally creating a program hall of fame, similar to the Huskies of Honor, would be a great place to start.

So until UConn gets around to it, let’s create our own.

The criteria

This isn’t a simple task and one of the most complicated aspects of it is negotiating the program’s three eras: Division III (1960-98), MAAC/Atlantic Hockey (1998-2014) and Hockey East (2014-present). How much should production or success be weighted in Division III compared to Division I, let alone Hockey East, the best conference in the country?

Should there be some standard like UConn women’s basketball has, where you need to be named a WBCA All-American to get your name and number on the wall? Obviously, that’s too high of a mark for hockey, but what if we used all-conference selections instead?

Ultimately, we decided to incorporate a few aspects.

  • Awards: Statistics are only so helpful considering they’ll favor forwards more than defensemen. Instead, individual awards — all-conference selections, conference player of the year honors, All-Americans — are a better metric to use.

  • Longevity: This is not only how long someone played at UConn but how long did they have success? Were they average for three years and great for one? If they were only here for two years, were they great for both of them? For the most part, the players will need a relatively large body of work to make it. This is a career accomplishment, after all.

  • Context: Yes, it’s impressive that Harry Geary scored 34 goals during the 1985-86 season but his teammate Todd Krygier scored 29 that same year. Clearly, their competition wasn’t all that great. It’s important to honor all eras so the best DIII guys will get their due but production from the Division I (and specifically, Hockey East) players will be weighted more heavily.

  • Importance: Though it’s hard to quantify, how much did a player mean to the program during his time in Storrs? Did they carry the team through a difficult time? Were they the first to accomplish something? Did they break a program record? All those things will be taken into account as well.

With that, let’s get into our selections:

F Todd Krygier (1984-88)

One of three Krygier brothers to play at UConn, Todd Krygier held the program record for points (200), goals (99), and assists (101) when he graduated. He still owns the top mark in goals, though his brother Bryan passed him in both points and assists while Ryan Equale also overtook him in assists.

Krygier also owns the most hat tricks (7) in program history and single-game bests in points (9) and assists (7).

Krygier was a two-time All-American and the first Husky ever to be an ECAC East All-Star. His most important contribution was being UConn’s first NHL player as a first-round pick of the Hartford Whalers in the 1988 Supplemental Draft. Krygier played 543 games in the NHL with the Whalers, Washington Capitols, and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim from 1989-98, collecting 100 goals and 143 assists.

F Bryan Krygier (1988-92)*

Bryan Krygier racked up the most points and assists in program history, though the exact number is uncertain. The record books list him as having 219 points and 127 assists from 1998-92 but this story in the New York Times says he transferred in after one season at Illinois-Chicago. If we’re only counting three seasons, he’d have 204 points and 113 assists.

Krygier was the third All-American ever at UConn (including first-team honors in 1992) and also picked up an ECAC East All-Star selection in 1990 and 1991.

So how did he compare with Todd? The New York Times asked then-head coach Bruce Marshall:

"Todd has great speed and a tremendous shot. Bryan is a great playmaker, with exceptional vision and great decision-making skills."

F Ryan Equale (1992-96)

Ryan Equale is the third-highest goalscorer behind the two Krygiers with 79, owns the third-most points in program history behind the brothers with 188 (35 more than Brian Sutherland in fourth place), and is one of three players to reach the 100-assist mark with 109 (second-most).

When his senior season ended in 1995-96, he led the entire Division I in scoring with 63 points (although the hockey program was Division III, its stats were counted towards DI for some reason — at least according to this story in the Hartford Courant) finishing above Vermont’s Martin St. Louis. That earned Equale First Team ECAC East All-Star and First Team All-American honors.

More recently, Equale was the head coach of the NWHL’s Connecticut Whale from 2017-19.

John Chapman (Coach, 1960-81)

The first hockey coach in UConn’s history, John Chapman helped launch the program and led the Huskies for over two decades. He started at the school in 1955 as an assistant football coach and phys. ed. instructor before being named the head coach of the tennis team in 1956 — a role he held for 28 years. In addition to his duties with hockey and tennis, Chapman also spent nine seasons as a football assistant.

He died on Jan. 2, 2002, at the age of 76.

The program hands out an award in his honor — the Coach John Chapman Award — which goes to the member of the program who demonstrates what it means to be a leader.