For the first time in its 25-year history at the NCAA Division I level, Quinnipiac men’s hockey will enter a season not looking to avenge the previous year’s heartbreak. Instead, it was the one breaking hearts. 

And it’s looking to do it again.

But the Bobcats roster will look significantly different in 2023-24. Below is a breakdown of who’s going, who’s staying and who’s joining Quinnipiac for next season. 

Losses

The Bobcats have lost a number of key pieces in the offseason thus far, five to graduation and another two who left Hamden for the pro ranks with eligibility still on the table. 

Up front, wingers Ethan de Jong, Michael Lombardi and Desi Burgart all exit the program after their graduate seasons. 

De Jong departs Quinnipiac as the program and conference record holder for games played (184) and renounces his title as the nation’s active career point-leader (144). 

Lombardi, a vocal leader for the Bobcats, is not far behind de Jong in games played (175) and racked up 79 points in five seasons with the program, including 59 in his final two years. 

Despite a final season plagued by injury, Burgart chipped in six points in the Bobcats run to the national title. He was also a part of the team’s leadership group, something they’ll have to completely replace for next season with the departure of Burgart and de Jong — the alternate captains — and defenseman Zach Metsa, who wore the “C”. 

Down the middle, the exit of graduate student TJ Friedmann and senior Skyler Brind’Amour leave the Bobcats with holes to fill at the center position. 

Friedmann brought substantial depth scoring to Quinnipiac, exploding in production his final two years with the team, breaking the 20-point mark each year. His hard-nosed play and effort on and off the puck made him hard to match up against and a difficult contributor to replace. 

Brind’Amour was one of the nation’s best face-off men in 2022-23, his 500 face-off wins led the country this season. He also dramatically increased his offensive production, improving his career best in goals from four to 14 and points from 20 to 32. 

Both signed AHL contracts following the conclusion of the season: Friedmann with Utica and  Brind’Amour with Charlotte. 

Senior forward Joey Cipollone told QBSN’s Matthew Mugno in the week that followed the national championship game that he had submitted for another year of eligibility, but as of publication no announcement has been made. 

On the defensive end, Quinnipiac’s blue line will have a completely different look heading into next season. 

Graduate students Metsa, Jake Johnson and Jacob Nordqvist each had their swan song with the Bobcats in the national title game. Freshman Matthew Campbell transferred to Michigan Tech, rounding out four departures for Quinnipiac on defense. 

Metsa and Johnson were the Bobcats top pairing from September to April, combining for 52 points on the year (37 from Metsa), and consistently facilitated plays off the rush all season. Metsa’s second-consecutive All-America East selection earned him an AHL deal with Rochester, while Johnson inked a contract with Fort Wayne of the ECHL. 

Quinnipiac’s goaltending room will also look significantly different this fall. Sophomore phenom Yaniv Perets, who won ECAC Hockey Goaltender of Year, was named a Richter Award finalist and an All-American East in two-straight seasons, signed an entry level deal with the Carolina Hurricanes. Freshman Chase Clark also entered the transfer portal, leaving junior Noah Altman, who has two career minutes to his name, as the Bobcats only returning netminder. 

Returners

The biggest boost to Quinnipiac’s roster in 2023-24 is the return of its first line of freshman Sam Lipkin, sophomores Jacob Quillan and Collin Graf. All three had NHL interest after stellar campaigns as underclassmen, and all three chose to return for another season in Hamden. 

The trio were second, fourth and first on the team this season in scoring, respectively. Graf’s 59 points tied the single-season program record and put him third in the nation. 

Sophomores Cristophe Tellier and Christophe Fillion and freshman Victor Czerneckianair supplement the Bobcats youthful forward core. The former two each surpassed the 20-point mark in breakout sophomore campaigns, while the latter’s gritty play style should help replace the loss of players like Friedmann and Lombardi. 

Freshman forwards Anthony Cipollone and Timothy Heinke saw limited games this season, but each should have expanded roles going forward, as should freshman Alex Power, who only dressed in one game. 

Senior defenseman Jayden Lee announced on April 13 he will return for a fifth year in the wake of his most successful season in blue and gold. Lee is a rock for Quinnipiac on the back end, racking up a team high 54 blocks this season and looks to be a favorite to be a part of the captaincy group in his final year with the program. 

Senior CJ McGee also opted to come back for his graduate season, looking to build off a massive jump in production in 2023-24, where he played in all 41 games and posted 11 points. 

Joining the pair of seniors from the Bobcats’ national championship blue line are junior Iivari Räsänen and freshman Charles-Alexis Legault. 

Räsänen took a major leap offensively this season, tripling his point total from a year prior, while Legault made his presence known in his first collegiate campaign. He tallied nine points as the only freshman to play in all 41 games for Quinnipiac this season and has a fair chance of being selected in the June’s NHL Entry Draft, being pegged as the No. 179 North American skater in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings. 

Transfers

In full knowledge of the losses that awaited it in the offseason, Quinnipiac has been hard at work in the transfer portal, bringing in three players while still in the midst of its NCAA Tournament run. 

Junior Cooper Moore and sophomore Davis Pennington join the Bobcats defense from North Dakota and Omaha, respectively, while junior forward Travis Treloar moves east from Ohio State. 

Moore is an offensive-minded defenseman who has rounded into his defensive game over the past four seasons with the Fighting Hawks and Chilliwack (BCHL). He has a strong one-timer and can quarterback the power play, a positional strength the Bobcats are in need of with Metsa’s graduation. 

The Greenwich, Connecticut, native, played high school hockey for the Brunswick School and was drafted No. 128 by the Detroit Red Wings in 2019, making him the fifth highest-drafted player in program history and highest on next season’s roster.

Pennington is a pass-first defenseman whose 15 assists ranked fourth on Omaha in 2022-23. He’s not afraid to activate on offense and has a keen ability to walk the blue line and make plays. Pennington also has connections to this Bobcats team, as he played alongside Tellier and Fillion with Muskegon in the USHL.

Treloar committed to Quinnipiac just 10 days after he and Ohio State were eliminated by the Bobcats in the Bridgeport Regional Final. He’s a positionally-sound offensive weapon with some flair to his game, who finds a lot of success attacking the slot area. Treloar had a career-high 21 points for the Buckeyes in his junior season and will be an experienced addition to a young forward group. 

Like Moore, Treloar may slot in on one of Quinnipiac’s power-play units. He acted as the bumper on Ohio State’s top unit and scored a number of his goals from the position. 

Junior goaltender Vinny Duplessis also committed to the Bobcats out of the portal. Duplessis, who played for Boston University the past three seasons, posted a .903 save percentage and a 2.48 goals against average in 10 games this season backing up Chicago Blackhawks signee Drew Commesso. 

The highlight of his season came against Michigan on Oct. 16, where Duplessis made 31 saves in a 3-2 victory over Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

Former Wisconsin defenseman Jake Martin will join Quinnipiac for this coming season as well. Martin played 11 games for the Badgers in 2021-22 before returning to the junior level this season, where he’s recorded 16 points in 57 games for Green Bay in the USHL.

Incoming freshmen

Despite bringing in five players from the portal, Quinnipiac still has a number of roster spots available. If it carries 26 players in the same breakdown that it did this season, that leaves five spots on offense, one on defense and one in net. 

Among the eight projected incomers, forwards Andon Cerbone and Mason Marcellus look like bonafide stars. 

Cerbone, a Stamford, Connecticut, native, flipped his commitment from Michigan to Quinnipiac in December, around the same time he was traded from Omaha to Youngstown in the USHL. He’s been lights-out since, posting 49 points in 43 games with the Phantoms and 63 in 64 games overall this season — putting him 13th in the league in scoring. 

He’s a shifty skater with a quick shot who has an uncanny ability to create separation from defenders without the puck. Cerbone also played with freshman standout Sam Lipkin with the Chicago Steel in 2021-22 in a Clark Cup winning campaign. 

Marcellus is even higher than Cerbone on the USHL scoring charts — in seventh with 68 points in 58 games while captaining the Lincoln Stars. He is somewhat undersized at 5’9, but makes up for it with a combination of tremendous vision and accurate shooting. 

Slovakian-born goaltender Matej Marinov is another recruit entering the program with a ton of promise. He not only completes the Bobcats goaltending room for next season, but also has the potential to become the next great Quinnipiac netminder. 

Marinov is second in the USHL in GAA (2.36) and third in SV% (.923) while splitting the net with Wisconsin commit Anton Castro for the league-leading Fargo Force. 

As for the other three, the remaining three forward will be Matthew McGroarty (Madison, USHL). On defense, Chase Ramsay (Des Moines, USHL) who has nine points in 59 games this season, and Nicky Wallace (Madison, USHL) who has 23 points in 48 games, are the two recruits coming in.

2003 birth years Braden Blace (Alberni Valley, BCHL), who’s tallied 22 points in 54 games, and Jonah Copre (New Jersey, NCDC), who has 40 points in 41 games, will remain in junior for at least another year before joining the program. As will Nathan Tobey (USNTDP), an 2005 birth year whose name was thrown into mix for possibly cracking the roster in 2023-24.