Years have come and gone, skates have been sharpened, fish have been thrown, shots have been blocked and little has changed for Cornell men’s hockey.
Cornell’s hard-nosed defensive game has spanned decades, from its NCAA championship-winning ways of the late 1960s to its modern-day national success. Many players have come and gone, some of them to the NHL and some not, though all of them in the last 30 years had one thing in common — they all played for former head coach Mike Schafer ’86.
This year, that won’t be the case.
Head coach Casey Jones ’90 is no stranger to Cornell — this will be his seventh season coaching in some capacity at his alma mater, albeit the first time at the helm. And although he is a first-year head coach, so to speak, his experience as an associate under Schafer last season skyrockets him ahead of the game.
12 players from last year’s team departed Cornell in the offseason, including 10 graduating seniors, Dalton Bancroft ’26 signing an NHL contract and Ben Robertson transferring to Michigan. To account for the losses, 14 new skaters were brought in.
According to Jones, they look promising.
“It’s competitive. We’ve got size. I feel good about the roster,” Jones said. “I feel good about where we can fit. I feel good about where our ceiling can go. It's just a matter of getting that consistency with 14 new players and getting on the same page.”
This Cornell team — picked to finish third in the ECAC preseason coaches poll — looks exceptionally different from last year’s roster, from the coaching staff to the top line to between the pipes. Here’s a breakdown of each position, what to know about the incoming freshmen and how the Red will look as the season commences.
Defense
It’s hard to pick one position where the Red changed the most, but the d-corps is a strong candidate. Just two regular defensemen return from 2024-2025 — juniors Hoyt Stanley and George Fegaras. Both are NHL draft picks and will be leaned on after the graduation of the Red’s top pairing in Tim Rego ’25 and Robertson.
Losing the bulk of its blueline could be costly. The Red’s incoming class, though, shows real promise — the addition of six new defensemen brings Cornell’s total of drafted d-men to five.
Two guys to keep an eye on are the Red’s two transfers, sophomore defensemen Michael Fisher and Luke Ashton. Clocking in at 6' 5”, 235 lbs, Ashton — a sixth-round pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2024 — won’t be hard to miss on the blueline. Fisher is a San Jose Sharks prospect, drafted in the third round in 2022 (and once rated the No. 52 North American skater by NHL Central Scouting in that draft), who put up modest numbers his freshman year (2022-2023) at Northeastern and in Penticton in the BCHL last year.
Cornell has no shortage of depth on the backend, with freshman Xavier Veilleux — a New York Islanders sixth-rounder — tying a bow the Red’s NHL defensive prospects. Competing for minutes will be senior and alternate captain Jack O’Brien, as well as junior Marian Mosko.
Offense
Cornell’s losses on offense hold some weight — just four of the Red’s top-10 goal scorers last season return for 2025-2026. Perhaps the biggest loss was from Bancroft, inking an NHL contract on April 3, leaving the Red without its prolific scoring threat. Bancroft’s one-timer was a staple on Cornell’s power play, while the two-way winger also led the team in shorthanded goals last year with two.
To fill that void, newly minted captain and junior Ryan Walsh — last season’s top scorer with 31 points — will look to drive the offense and center the Red’s top line. Also returning is junior and alternate captain Jonathan Castagna — he’ll look to step it up after a 15-point sophomore season dipped from 25 points in his freshman campaign. Cornell can expect strides to be made by sophomore Charlie Major, who attended Ottawa Senators development camp this summer as a free agent invite and ranked sixth on the team in scoring (18 points) in 2024-2025.
Last year, the Red took some major blows on offense with the season-ending injuries of then-sophomore Luke Devlin and then-junior Winter Wallace. Both are back on the ice and are trending towards full recovery — but the Red’s large roster size (16 forwards) should give it some breathing room in the event of injury.
Other notable players to keep an eye on are freshman Aiden Long, who finished eighth in the United State Hockey League in scoring last season (22 goals, 37 assists 59 points), and Gio DiGiulian, who ranked at 24th in scoring in the USHL (22 goals, 29 assists 51 points).
Goaltending
Ian Shane ’25 was lost to graduation, leaving Cornell with an issue between the pipes it hasn’t had to face in nearly four years. Cornell has four goaltenders on its roster this season, as Justin Katz and Remington Keopple return for their sophomore and senior seasons, while freshmen Erick Roest and Alexis Cournoyer round out the goaltending group.
Keopple leads the way in experience — the senior has appeared in 12 games throughout his three seasons on the Hill, posting an .896 save percentage. Most of those appearances have come in relief of Shane, however, and Keopple’s save percentage has risen from sub-.900 as an underclassmen to a stellar .958 figure as a junior.
Keopple allowed just three goals on 71 shots last season and even pitched a shutout in the team’s regular season finale against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. If past experience is any indicator, Keopple could be a frontrunner to assume the starting role.
Things get interesting, though, with the arrival of Cournoyer. A late recruit from the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, the fifth-round pick by the Montreal Canadiens in this year’s NHL draft posted a .942 save percentage in 21 games in the high-scoring Canadian league. He was ranked No. 16 among North American goaltenders by NHL Central Scouting for the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, and is expected to push Keopple for the starter’s crease.
Cournoyer compares his style of play to that of Connor Hellebuyck, a goaltender for the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets and one of the top netminders in the NHL.
“Technically, he’s very talented. He moves well. He moves with pace. He has good size,” said director of hockey operations Josh Robinson, who has a background in goaltending. “Everything in practice in terms of work ethic and what I have asked of him, he's been off the charts at.”
Katz had an unfortunate freshman campaign riddled by injury, but the fellow Quebec native will look to push through to provide depth for his sophomore season. Roest is another intriguing prospect — he measures in on the smaller side at 6’ 0”, but that was no issue for fellow six-footer Shane.
Closing Thoughts
There is a sense of unpredictability with how Cornell’s new-look roster — and new coach — will fare. The team that lost in the NCAA regional final last season is not the same one that returns to the Hill this year.
The youth and depth on the roster, though, raise its ceiling to new heights. With an influx of NHL-drafted talent, size (Cornell is the heaviest and second-tallest team in the NCAA) and a fresh face at the helm, the two-time defending ECAC champions are still a force to be reckoned with.
“Our team's depth is really good. I think we'll have a lot of guys who are going to compliment each other really well, and if things aren't working, we have so many options to kind of mix and match lines to find things that work,” Walsh said. “Having 14 new guys — that's going to be a majority of the lineup. Show[ing] them how we play, how our systems are, how our culture is [was] definitely something that we had to work on.
"It isn’t just guys who are wearing letters, it's everyone. Everyone on our team who's returned, even freshmen, are leaders.”
Jane McNally is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and was the sports editor on the 142nd editorial board. She is a member of the Class of 2026 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. You can follow her on X @JaneMcNally_ and reach her at jmcnally@cornellsun.com.
