With the 2023-24 hockey season wrapped up, the team now transitions to an offseason full of decisions.
Ferris finished last in the CCHA conference with an overall 10-24-2 record. This is their worst record since the 2020-2021 season, where they posted one win.
Head coach Bob Daniels ultimately felt “disappointed” with the finish to the year but found positives regardless.
“I really appreciated the fact that the team always played hard,” Daniels said. “I thought we matched up well with Bemidji, but we really should have had that first game. We’ve got to find a way to flip a lot of those one-goal games. It seemed like we were never able to score consistently, so I think the key for us going forward is creating more offense and at the same time watching our P’s and Q’s defensively.”
In his first year for the Bulldogs, freshman forward Luigi Benincasa was named to the CCHA All-Rookie Team and was the eighth Bulldog in program history to do so. He finished second on the team in scoring with 22 total points.
“I feel that I was given a lot of opportunity to both show I can play at this level and be successful,” Benincasa said. “It was the season I was hoping to have, and I know going forward I will grow and continue to improve on this season.”
Junior forward Zach Faremouth also contributed to much of the Bulldogs’ success in the second half of the season. Eight of Faremouth’s 12 points came in the second half of his breakout junior year.
Faremouth highlighted his junior season journey and his goals for the offseason heading into his senior year.
“At the start of the year I thought I was playing good hockey, it just didn’t show up on the score sheet,” Faremouth said. “Down the stretch I started putting up some points. It gives me some encouragement heading into next year. My main focus is to get faster and stronger over the summer, and we have a lot of young talent coming back so I have high hopes.”
The offseason is likely to change for the Bulldogs, with eight seniors potentially having played their last game for the program.
Senior defensemen Brenden MacLaren and Nick Hale, alongside forward Jason Brancheau, have no eligibility remaining.
Senior forward Antonio Venuto is set to test the transfer portal for his final year after leading the Bulldogs in scoring with 26 points. Venuto was a Hobey Baker Award nominee this past year.
Senior goalie Logan Stein is also entering the portal after playing four years as the Bulldogs netminder. Stein saved more than 1,800 shots over the course of his tenure and is currently in consideration for the Mike Richter Award.
The status of goaltender Noah Giesbrecht, defensemen Ben Schultheis and Drew Cooper, and forwards Austin McCarthy, Jacob Dirks and Stepan Pokorny is unknown.
The Bulldogs have about eight players already committed to the team for next season, including goaltender Martin Lundberg and defenseman Chris Lie, who joined the Norway national junior team earlier this year.
With all the roster changes surrounding the program, Daniels remains active in the recruiting process this offseason and still feels confident about the teams’ hopes heading into next year.
“We have a lot of players coming through the door that we feel good about,” Daniels said. “We’re still looking for some of the right guys to lessen the burden of having such a young team coming in but we’ve benefited from the portal in the past, so it’ll be a targeted approach. Regardless, I’d like to see us return to the top four in our conference and become more in the conversation of a championship and a return to the NCAA Tournament.”
With eight seniors possibly out the door, a freshman class incoming and a transfer portal open, the Bulldogs’ roster has the chance to change dramatically from this past season.