Following a historic 22-win season, which ties him for most by a first-year coach in program history, head coach Casey Jones ’90 looks poised to bring the team closer to the dominance that resulted in being one goal away from the Frozen Four in 2025.
Cornell has not been to a Frozen Four since 2003, a year in which only three of Cornell's current players were born. Yet, Cornell has always been on the precipice, making NCAA tournaments the last four seasons. The 5-0 loss to Denver at the conclusion of last season raised the question: is Cornell a program ready to break back into winning ways?
“At stages of that [2026 NCAA regional] game, we were as good as Denver,” Jones said. “But they were better than us for 60 minutes.”
Last year’s team, which had only five seniors and welcomed 14 new players, still made the NCAA tournament. While this has quietly become the standard at Cornell, it is not always the case with a young team under new leadership.
Still, that 5-0 loss stung. It surely stung for freshman goaltender and ECAC Goalie of the Year Alexis Cournoyer, whose shocking transfer to Wisconsin provided a major call to action for Jones and his team.
“I really hate losing. It really affected me to get blown out against Denver,” Cournoyer told a French media outlet in July. He attributed his decision to transfer to “the [Wisconsin] program itself and the fact that we have a better chance of winning a national championship.”
Despite the long odds, Cornell has oriented itself towards success. Notable departures — Jonathan Castagna ’27 (Calgary Flames), Hoyt Stanley ’27 (Ottawa Senators), Alexis Cournoyer and others — were replaced with an incoming class of nine players. The class boasts an inter-Ivy League transfer to replace Castagna — Ivan Zadneryuk — five players with CHL experience, including a Canadian World Junior Championship goaltender in Mathis Rousseau, and a recent NHL draft pick, Cole Tuminaro.
Jones managed to replace and improve in all three zones, while sticking to the Cornell formula: big, strong and sound.
Forwards
Cornell lost four forwards from last season, one being leading scorer Jonathan Castagna, who signed professionally in March. Yet the forward core this year may be as strong as ever. Senior forward Ryan Walsh forwent professional hockey and returned for one more year, slotting in at the first-line center position. A two-year captain, Walsh is a leader on the stat sheet and in the locker room.
“We’ve fallen short of the Frozen Four three years in a row; we won the ECAC my first two years and came up a little bit short last year,” Walsh said. “I really want to give the younger guys that feeling of winning an ECAC championship.”
Sophomore forward Caton Ryan exploded onto the scene in his freshman year, becoming the first freshman to score 30 points since Riley Nash ’10. In addition to the Ryans, other impact-making freshmen from last season, sophomore forward Giovanni DiGiulian, sophomore forward Aiden Long and sophomore forward Reegan Hiscock, should develop this season.
“If you're going to make progress, your freshmen have to be better as sophomores,” Jones said. “That's our development model in place; that's what our expectations are.”
Add to this group a high-end, plug-and-play replacement for Castagna: Ivan Zadvernyuk, who led Brown in points last season and had 218 faceoff wins, and other solid first-year players from the CHL and USHL, and the forward core is solid and deep.
“He's a big center, so somebody you want to be big down the middle,” Jones said. “I expect him to have a lot of experience playing in all three zones … He's left-shot, which kind of fits a little bit of [Jonathan Castagna].”
Jones will have plenty of options to juggle lines and maximize matchups as well as flexibility if injuries come around.
Defense
The blueline belongs to senior defenseman George Fegaras as the lone remaining defenseman from a recruiting class that boasted Stanley and Ben Robertson.
“We have George on the defense, and he’s able to talk to the defenseman,” Walsh said. “ I think our senior class is well-rounded in that aspect.”
Cornell has two main gaps to fill from last year's defense, with both Stanley and Jack O’Brien departing after playing in all 34 games. Time will tell whether one of the four defensemen who played less than ten games last season, sophomore Luke McCrady, sophomore Donovan Hamilton, junior Nicholas Wolfenberg, or sophomore Hudson Gorski, will play regular minutes and add some depth. Or, it is possible that one of the two freshmen blueliners, Ryland Randle or Cole Tuminaro, will plug into the lineup. What is clear about the defense is that it still has high-end talent, returning its two leading point scorers in Fegaras and freshman standout Xavier Veilleux.
“There's a confidence to some of our veterans right now on the ice,” Jones said. “ One of our strengths we feel is our depth.”
Goaltending
One thing about the crease in Ithaca is certain: someone new will be in it. Alexis Cournoyer transferred to Wisconsin and Remington Keopple, the other goaltender to play last season, graduated. Cornell returned no games in net from last season. Mathis Rousseau seems primed to backstop the team after transferring from Maine, but no official decision has been made.
“When you look at his history, he’s got a championship pedigree,” Jones said. “ He’s played World Juniors and he’s coming in the door [of our program].”
After all of the buzz around Cournoyer last season, Lynah Faithful should once again be optimistic about new goaltenders. Also don’t forget about junior Justin Katz and sophomore Erick Roest, who won’t just be vying for a backup position, but could be legitimate starters.
“I feel confident we’ve got good goaltending,” Jones said. “We’re good in net with Mathis [Rousseau], [Roest], and [Katz].”
Final Thoughts
This is a team that, on paper, should be a contender, being ranked third in the ECAC Coaches preseason poll and 12th in the United States College Hockey Online preseason poll.
Cornell still has a lot of what-ifs entering the season that should be quickly answered when the team plays Waterloo on Oct. 17 in an exhibition and opens the regular season against Sacred Heart on Oct. 30.
Only time will tell whether Cournoyers' remarks ring true, whether the NIL-laden recruits of programs like Denver, Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State will continue to catapult them above Cornell, or if the careful roster-building and recruiting of Jones triumph in the high-flying modern NCAA landscape.
It won’t be an easy road with matchups against Maine, Boston University and other ranked opponents, but when has anyone at Cornell strived for easy?
Tyler Goldberg is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He is a Sun Senior Writer and can be reached at tgoldberg@cornellsun.com.
