2026-27 Men’s Preview & Analysis: State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC)

Welcome back to another year of Division III hockey & DIIIHockeyNews.com! Our season previews for the 2026-27 Men’s & Women’s Division III hockey season began last week as we dove into the CNE. You can read our men’s article & our women’s article once you finish up here! Today, we’re discussing one of the more-known leagues in D-III hockey from its long-standing history, the SUNYAC. The SUNYAC is coming off its first season following the addition of two affiliate ‘non-SUNY’ member schools in Hobart & Skidmore. This was due to the surprising departure of Geneseo & Brockport a few years back, decreasing the number of league teams to eight.

Last year, we went in alphabetical order in terms of conferences, this year, we’re going to go with the flow and release different conferences in no particular order. However, men’s and women’s articles will always come out together, for example, our SUNYAC women’s preview article will be released in the coming days, we will not switch leagues until both sides have been released.

We’ll discuss various aspects of this league including how our analysis fared last year, as well as returning production, dark horses, and some general analysis!

Currently, the SUNYAC features:

Buffalo State
Canton
Cortland
Fredonia
Hobart
Morrisville
Oswego
Plattsburgh
Potsdam
Skidmore

2025-2026 Overview

Last season, as mentioned, the back-to-back-to-back national champions Hobart joined the SUNYAC along with Skidmore, becoming the only ‘non-SUNY’ schools to join as affiliates for ice hockey with the discontinuation of the NEHC where the two resided, along with the departure of former longtime SUNYAC members Geneseo & Brockport two seasons ago. The addition of the Statesmen & Thoroughbreds brought the league to 10 teams, while also increasing the league’s SOS and overall competitiveness, as the two finished 1st & T-3rd respectively, during the regular season. The league only featured a single team in the NCAA tournament (Hobart).

New league? No problem. What wasn’t surprising to many was Hobart’s perfect 18-0-0 record in SUNYAC play, their closest games (goal differential) came against Skidmore (1-0) & Cortland (4-3). Led by their all-American goaltender Damon Beaver, the Statesmen went on to make their fourth-consecutive national championship game, but this time, they were defeated by Hamilton College 2-1 in overtime, finishing the season 30-1-0. They would’ve been the first-ever team to go undefeated with 0 ties & 0 losses if they had defeated Hamilton for their fourth consecutive national title.

The league runner-up Oswego State started the season a stellar 13-2-2, their only losses coming against Hobart & Utica, while the ties came against Williams & Nazareth. They would end the season on a lower note in comparison to their hot start, finishing 19-7-2, which included a four-game losing streak where they were outscored by a lopsided 17-5 (Canton, Hobart, Geneseo, Cortland). The Lakers very likely win this league based on last season’s results if the Statesmen aren’t added, but with Hobart now in the mix, that adds another obstacle. On another note, this would be the end of longtime legendary head coach Ed Gosek’s career as he announced his retirement during this offseason, longtime assistant coach & alum ’13, Jon Whitelaw was named the Interim Head Coach for this coming season and most likely, beyond.

A team that continued to impress and show that they’re here to stay and continue to be in the mix were the Cortland Red Dragons. Cortland finished T-3 in the regular season (4th with tiebreaker), but were fairly strong overall throughout the regular season, losing to Hobart in the SUNYAC semifinals 4-0. On paper, Cortland had a down year in terms of record, finishing 14-12-1 (previous three seasons were: 16-9-1, 18-9-2, & 19-7-0), but they lost a fair amount of production and played a harder schedule. Their signature win last season was at home against Oswego, winning 3-2. This coming season, the Red Dragons will visit Adrian College to face the Bulldogs for a pair of games, following Adrian’s recent trip east to play Oswego & Cortland. They’ll also be participating in Utica’s Thanksgiving tournament, where they’ll face preseason #9 Univ. New England & either #5 Utica or Gustavus in game two.

The other new addition to the league, Skidmore, finished as mentioned T-3rd with Cortland, but won the season tiebreaker. The thoroughbreds fell to Oswego in the SUNYAC semifinals 6-3, marking the third loss of the season against the Lakers. Skidmore really hit their stride near the end of the season, winning their last seven games to finish the regular season 14-9-2. Their signature win came against Curry College in January, while giving Hobart a run, losing 1-0, giving up the winner with less than five minutes remaining in the 3rd period.

Overall, the standings were very similar to the previous few years, minus Hobart/Skidmore, giving us another competitive year of SUNYAC hockey. It’ll be interesting to see if historically good programs such as Plattsburgh, can get back to challenging for the title once again following their disappointing 13-13-0 season. While programs such as Canton continue to improve as the Kangaroos finished 5th in the league, with their signature win coming against Trine University early in the season.

FINAL REGULAR-SEASON STANDINGS 2025-26:

How our analysis panned out

Last season, I wrote preview articles for each league, noting some thoughts and analysis as we will do here, if you would like to read last season’s SUNYAC preview article, click here. Otherwise, we’ll briefly circle back to see how I did in terms of ‘predicting’ / making educated guesses as to what would occur last season. I’m doing this to preface that of course we aren’t perfect, but we [Scott & Myself] have a pretty solid clue on what to lookout for and some notable stats/offseason occurrences to keep an eye on as we enter a new season.

*Keep in mind, this section can vary in length for each conference depending on what was said in last year’s article, it can be brief, or more detailed, some leagues had more ‘predictions’ & ‘analysis’ than others. 

My thoughts last season revolved around the additions of Hobart & Skidmore due to them being the new additions. I felt Hobart would be Hobart and they would likely win the league barring any major upsets. My thoughts on Skidmore were leaning toward the fact they may be slept on as most of the chatter would be on Hobart, despite Skidmore making the NEHC title game recently in 2022 & 2024. Overall, those two thoughts shaped out fairly well. While the Hobart thought wasn’t exactly a difficult one, Skidmore finished 3rd in the league behind Oswego, which again, I believe some may have forgotten about their significance as a new member of the league due to all of the deserved Hobart noise.

My main ‘dark horse’ prediction ended up being a disappointing miss as Plattsburgh finished 13-13-0, their worst season since 2019-20 where they finished 10-13-3. The Cardinals won the SUNYAC title in 2023 (their first since 2017) and were the runner-up back-to-back years in 2023 & 2024, falling to both Cortland & Oswego, respectively. Plattsburgh is a well-supported team fan attendance-wise, consistently averaging the 2nd most fans in the SUNYAC behind Oswego as they get the mid 1000s for fan attendance on average.

My other thoughts involved Cortland, which weren’t too in-depth as I believed they no longer could be considered a ‘dark horse’ following their SUNYAC title in 2023 and consistent wins over teams such as Oswego, Plattsburgh, & former SUNYAC member Geneseo.

Overall, my main pick was a complete miss, but it happens, with such a parity-filled league each season, it becomes harder and harder to predict / get a feel for the future.

Returning Production

Disclaimer via Scott: “I did the best I could to predict these rosters going forward, as I believe all players with exhausted eligibility are out of the equation.  NOTE: Transfers are a bit tricky, as I only took players off who were absent from the final rosters of 2025-26, and players who have confirmed found a new spot.”

Looking at the league and the estimated returning production via our guy Scott Huston, let’s rank the teams based on total returning cumulative points:

1. Skidmore: 86.59%
2. Buffalo State: 85.03%
3. Fredonia: 83.87%
4. Morrisville: 80%
5. Cortland: 71.6%
6. Hobart: 68.46%
7. Oswego: 67.88%
8. Canton: 66.1%
9. Plattsburgh: 58.97%
10. Potsdam: 54.32%

Before we get into things, I’d like to point out that the SUNYAC seems to be returning a large portion of their players unlike a fair number of leagues. Only two teams (Plattsburgh & Potsdam) are returning less than 66% of their production, with half the teams bringing back over 70%. I’m curious to see if this will help the NPI numbers with this league as the returning veteran players may make a difference especially for the bottom half of the league when it comes to their non-conference games.

In terms of returning production, let’s start with Hobart, who’s losing some key pieces as their star-studded class of 2026 graduates after never losing a home game, finishing 68-0-0 in The Cooler. Goaltender Damon Beaver is the key piece the Statesmen lose, for me, Beaver covered up any issue big or small for Hobart. He made everyone around him play freer and created a better, more confident squad, cleaning up nearly every mistake Hobart ever made, which weren’t many. Other major pieces lost are Kahlil Fontana & Tanner Daniels. Despite losing these key pieces, they return plenty and will be chasing another national championship as they have the past four years. The three big pieces (on-paper) they return includes star forward Arvega Hovsepyan, who tallied 11 goals and 32 assists last season following his transfer from Salve Regina, Conor Lally, the defenseman who felt like a forward at times, put up 14 goals & 25 assists, then Chris Duclair, brother of the NHL’s Anthony Duclair, putting up 13 goals & 14 assists to go with his quick skills on the ice. They’ve also announced the commitment of a few transfers for this coming season, which includes F – Jack Silich (Ferris State – NCAA D-I), G – James Norton (UMass – NCAA D-I), & F – Christian Kocsis (Mercyhurst – program discontinued – NCAA D-I). Hobart for me, will obviously still be the favorite for the national title until they give us reason to think otherwise, but losing Beaver may play a bigger role than many may want to admit. We will see who steps up and how the Statesmen fare in their chase for their fourth national title and fifth-straight national championship game.

Looking at the runner-up Oswego, they lose a good amount but return just under 68% of their production. For me, the key here is that Oswego had an enormous sophomore (now junior) class that had a decorated freshman year in terms of awards and success, including a SUNYAC title & NCAA tournament appearance where they fell to Trine in the first round 4-1. These players are now entering their junior year, with key pieces such as Brandon Cohen (9G, 14A) & Colin Vassallo (15G, 13A) looking to have big seasons. The Lakers are also bringing in a surprising transfer from Utica Univ. Nick Ahern, who originally started his career at the Univ. of Vermont, then transferred to Utica, now playing his final year of eligibility at Oswego. Ahern put up 11 goals & 17 assists for 28 points in 29 games. For me, I believe the key will be goaltending for the Lakers as it’s been a struggle for them to find a solidified #1 starter in the past few seasons. They’ll return sophomore Michael Manzi, along with junior Gavin McCarthy, Manzi started 17 games while McCarthy started 6. Despite Oswego losing big names such as Matt McQuade, Connor Gatto, & Tommy Bannister, I believe they’ll be right back where they were last season, challenging Hobart for the title.

Leading the way is the Thoroughbreds of Skidmore, returning slightly more than Buffalo State for the highest percentage of returning points at approximately 86.59%. Skidmore brings back a large freshman class which featured 12 players, along with six sophomores, only graduating four players and it doesn’t appear as though they had any players transfer out. This team could be very dangerous considering how they fared last season with the amount they’re bringing back. Like Oswego, they’ll need to find the answer in net as junior Tommy Aitken started 14 games, freshman Kyle Ozgun started 6, while graduating senior Joshua Seeley started 7. Stats wise none of them stood out from one another, finding that lockdown goaltender will likely be the key for them as this seemed to be a weak spot at times last season.

One team I want to mention here is Morrisville. The Mustangs will be entering this new season with a new head coach, former Clarkson assistant Sebastian Ragno. Ragno enters with a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to rebuild this program as the Mustangs have a cumulative program record of 112-324-29, which dates back to 2006-07. Morrisville has won 10+ games only once (2010-11, 11-13-1) and has only won 10 games in their past three seasons, losing 61 and tying four. However, a few times Morrisville has won, it’s come against some big opponents. In 2023-24, they defeated Cortland 2-1, last season, they defeated Plattsburgh 2-1 (2nd win over Plattsburgh in program history), & in 2023-23, they defeated Oswego State 3-1 (the 2nd win over Oswego in program history). Morrisville returns 80% of their roster and with a new coach with some new energy, it’s hard for me to believe we see regression following their 2-20-3 season, I believe they can scare a few teams potentially or at the very minimum have some more success in the non-conference or against the other bottom-half SUNYAC squads.

Dark Horses

My first ‘dark horse’ in this league is the Roos of Canton. Entering his 10th year at the helm, head coach Alex Boak & Canton consistently gets a gold star in my book for scheduling some top non-conference competition. Last season, the Roos scheduled Trine Univ., Hamilton College, & Utica Univ., consistently challenging themselves against the best. This season, they’ve got a slightly lesser talented non-conference slate, but will be participating in the Comfort Inn Complex Winter Classic which will pair them with Connecticut College and then either Plattsburgh (host) or Manhattanville. Canton enters their third season as a member of the SUNYAC after being an independent for 12 years (2012-2024) and finished 12-13-1, an improvement from the prior season of 9-16-1. Their highlight wins last season came against Trine, Skidmore, & Oswego, while challenging the rest. Despite Canton losing a good amount of production, they’ll retain their starting goaltender Trey Miller who started 18 games with a .934 save-%. To go along with their recruiting class, they bring in few transfers: F – Rhett Evjen (Aurora Univ.), D – Dean Noonan (Alvernia Univ.), & D – Joshua Rumolo (SUNY Cortland). I believe the Roos going through another recruiting cycle in the SUNYAC, while also getting some signature wins last season, they’ll be right there with the top teams in this league giving them all they can handle. I’m not saying they’ll break into the top 3/4, but I think we’ll see them getting consistent wins over opponents they should beat. Their schedule is quite favorable to start out relatively speaking, so before they get into the teeth of their games, they’ll be able to get their feet under them. I’ve got high hopes for the Roos this upcoming season.

Once again, Skidmore finished in the top quarter of the league, but I feel like they’re slept on (not from teams in the league), but the general public because of the Hobart noise like I mentioned. Now, I do think it’ll be unfortunate for the history of the SUNYAC if non-SUNY schools win two titles in their first two years, nothing against them, but I respect the traditional SUNYAC structure & history. As mentioned earlier, the Thoroughbreds return a lot, the most in the league. They’re a team I’m not going to discuss much more as I went fairly in-depth on them earlier, but I think we could easily see Skidmore in the title game and potentially knock off the reigning champions Hobart if it comes down to that again.

Another team I could see improving and knocking a team or two off is Potsdam, under 2nd year head coach Mike Grace, the team showed improvements last season and with some new recruiting and coaching energy, I see them at the very minimum winning more games against the bottom half and/or non-conference than we’ve seen in the past few seasons, with the potential of knocking off one of the top-half teams. I don’t see them competing for a title of course, but I can easily see them making strides from what they’ve historically been, while potentially winning a playoff game if it comes to that. To go along with their recruits, they also welcome a transfer from their north country neighbor SUNY Plattsburgh, D – Kyle James. Look out for the Bears in the next few seasons to make strides under their new head coach Mike Grace, a former Elmira College assistant and Plattsburgh alum ’13.

Final Thoughts

Starting off, I’d like to make note of one of the best holiday tournament lineups we’ve ever seen in D-III hockey. Oswego State has put together quite the Oswego State Hockey Classic lineup which features (D3HN preseason ranking):

#5 Utica University vs RV (#16) Trine University
#1 Hamilton College @ #12 Oswego State*

In the opening round we’ll see Oswego vs Hamilton & Utica vs Trine. Utica vs Trine will have a few personal feelings to it if I had to guess between the two, following a specific freshman goaltender commitment (if you know, you know), but nevertheless, it’ll be an electric New Year’s weekend as this takes place January 2-3, 2027.

Some other SUNYAC-hosted tournaments we’ll get treated to:

Comfort Inn Complex Winter Classic – (January 2-3, 2027)
Connecticut College vs SUNY Canton
Manhattanville Univ. @ SUNY Plattsburgh*

Skidmore Thanksgiving Invitational – (November 28-29, 2026)
#1 Hamilton College vs Curry College
SUNY Brockport @ Skidmore College*

In the broader scope of things, I expect to see another great competitive season from the conference I grew up watching (I still miss Geneseo & Brockport, but that’s for another day) and I hope we can see two SUNYAC teams in the NCAA tournament once again, not just one. With some new young coaches at the helm, we’ll potentially see some different play styles/recruiting styles in terms of the type of player they bring in. I also am intrigued to see if Hobart does indeed run the table again in the league, or if we see them come back down to earth a little a drop a game here and there… We’ll know soon enough as the season for everyone besides the NESCAC begins the final weekend in October!

Here’s to another great season of Division III hockey and thank you for reading our first preview article of the season! Our SUNYAC women’s preview will be out in the coming days!