Ithaca, N.Y. — Cornell announced Monday seven new freshman additions to the 2014-15 men’s hockey roster, including a pair of players from USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program (NTDP) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The university also announced the return of Gavin Stoic, who played 14 games on the blue line for Cornell in 2012-13 but returned to the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers to transition to forward this season.
Defenseman Ryan Bliss and forward Jared Fiegl come from the NTDP, a program that helps develop elite hockey talent among American-born players aged 17 and 18. Also incoming are forwards Alex Rauter, Dwyer Tschantz and Trevor Yates, defenseman Dan Wedman and goaltender Hayden Stewart.
Fiegl is probably the highest touted of the group, ranked 142nd among North American skating prospects for this month’s NHL Draft in Philadelphia, although the Parker, Colorado, native slipped a bit down the board in the second half in the season. He registered two goals and four assists for the NTDP this past season in 45 games, including scoring a goal at Cornell’s ECAC foe RPI back in December.
Bliss, from Chelmsford, Mass., spent two years with the NTDP, registering 21 points and 58 penalty minutes in 111 games with the program. His mother, Kelly, played lacrosse and field hockey, and was part of Cornell’s Class of 1989.
Right winger Tschantz registered 24 goals and 20 assists in 52 games with the USHL’s Indiana Ice, and is a Delaware product. Alex Rauter split his time between a pair of USHL teams and an NAHL team, and is a native of New Jersey. Trevor Yates is out of Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, and is the son of former Syracuse Crunch coach Ross Yates.
Wedman is an Edmonton native who spent the last two years with the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League, while Stewart split time between the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints and Indiana Ice, posting a solid 1.29 goals-against and .945 save percentage in 14 games with Indiana, and helped the Ice win the league’s championship, the Clark Cup.
The Big Red is expected to have a good senior class next season, although will be looking to fill in the void left by departing leading scorer Brian Ferlin and goaltender Andy Iles.