Coach Large Looks To The Future; Griffs Hockey Begins A New Season.

By: Peter Neville, Assistant Sports Editor

After winning the Atlantic Hockey championship two years ago, Canisius Hockey found themselves out of the 2024 AHA playoffs after being swept by #2 Holy Cross in two games. As is common in college sports these days, this year's roster saw significant turnover, with plenty of new faces as the Griffs look to return to their winning ways from two years ago.

“Inevitably, what happens is, there's a personnel change, right? Every year you're graduating important players; every year you're bringing in new people to the program,” said Coach Trevor Large. “It’s not that long ago that we were coming off the championship, so it’s not just trying to recreate that moment; it’s trying to evolve with everything that’s happening in college hockey.”

Roster turnover is one of the hot-button issues in college athletics these days, and with the expansion of the transfer portal, keeping a roster together year after year is becoming more difficult than ever. Canisius added 11 new players to their roster this season, with a mix of incoming transfers and freshmen to replace the production of key graduates, such as Max Kouznetsov and David Melaragni.

“We have four transfer forwards that come in with a lot of college experience; they've been very noticeable (in practice),” Large said, mentioning Kash Rasmussen, Mikey Collela, Cole Kodsi and Alex Cicero as transfers who he believes could have a big impact this season. Rasmussen, who transferred to Canisius from Michigan Tech, played 72 games for the Huskies over the last two seasons, appearing in the NCAA tournament in 2023 and 2024. 

Of returning players, there are few better in Atlantic Hockey than Matteo Giampa, who last season – as a freshman – posted 18 goals and 17 assists in 36 games, earning AHA honors as the conference's rookie of the year, as well as being named to the All-AHA second team. Coach Large believes that Giampa has much more to come in his sophomore season with the Griffs. 

“I'm excited to see how that leadership continues to grow for him,” said Large. “You know – I've talked about him a few times. The reason Matteo is unique is his skill, ability and skating. He scored early, he scored in the middle of the year, and he scored at the end of the year. He didn't have a lot of lapses in scoring in terms of production, and that’s unique; that’s very abnormal.”

Another returning player is senior forward Matt Vermaeten, who – after skating in 30 games last season and notching seven goals and five assists – takes on the responsibility of leading the Griffs, being named captain by Coach Large. Vermaeten follows Max Kouznetsov as captain of the Griffs and looks to mentor some of the younger players on the roster as one of the last remaining members of the 2022-2023 Atlantic Hockey championship team.

In net, Canisius will look to sophomore Ethan Robertson, who started 16 games last season and split time between the pipes with David Fessenden. In his 20 games last season, Robertson allowed 53 goals and had a save percentage of .904 in his debut season. Freshman Petter Wickström Stumer from Sweden, and Ben Bonisteel from Ontario will compete for the backup job. 

“[Robertson] is very good. He earned a lot of trust from his staff and his team; he really did a nice job with, you know, being unknown at the beginning. Then, I think probably halfway through the year, the players and the staff had complete confidence in his play,” said Coach Large.

Canisius opens its season on the road against Clarkson. Despite beating the Golden Knights 4–3 last season, Coach Large doesn’t think there is much to glean from that performance due to the significant roster turnover and coaching changes that occurred. The game will be this Saturday at 7 p.m. in Potsdam, NY.

Photo Courtesy of Lindy Feider