The 2024–25 Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs men's ice hockey season was the 81st season of play for the program and 12th in the NCHC. The Bulldogs represented the University of Minnesota Duluth in the 2024–25 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at AMSOIL Arena and were coached by Scott Sandelin in his 25th season.

Season There was hope at the start of the season that Minnesota Duluth would be able to climb its way back to being a contending team. Not only was the team adding five players who had been selected in the NHL draft, but the defense, upon which the Bulldogs had found great success recently, was led by a bevy of upperclassmen. Unfortunately, as soon as the team hit the ice they discovered that their highly-touted freshman goaltender, Adam Gajan, wasn't quite ready for the college game. UMD was able to win five games in the first two months but four of those matches were against two of the worst teams in college hockey that year (Stonehill and Miami). To make matters worse, Gajan suffered an ankle injury in late November and the Bulldogs were forced to turn to another freshman, Klayton Knapp, to hold the fort in goal.

With the situation in goal as unsettled at it was, the rest of the team's performance was almost immaterial. The defense did play better than they had the previous year, allowing significantly fewer shots to reach their goaltenders. The offense missed the services of Ben Steeves, who had signed a professional contract in the offseason, but the Bulldogs were buoyed by the return of Dominic James who had missed all but two games the previous year due to a separated shoulder. The team scored at nearly the exact same rate as they had in '24 (2.75 vs. 2.86) even through they were without the serviced of another one of their freshman draftees, Max Plante, for several weeks early in the year.

After their terrible first half, the team looked to have settled down at the beginning of January. After posing four wins in five games, all against ranked opponents, Duluth was nearly back to a .500 record. However, come February the scoring dried up and the team struggled down the stretch. By then Gajan had returned from his injury and was finally playing as expected but the Bulldogs were unable to capitalize on his improved performance. The team finished seventh in the standings and that sent them to their first postseason meeting with Arizona State.

Gajan's poor play resurfaced in the playoffs and he allowed 4 goals in the first game on just 23 shots. Duluth did what it could and twice was able to tie the game in the second thanks to the Plante brothers. However, when ASU got a lead in the third the Bulldogs were unable to respond. UMD came out guns-blazing in the rematch and scored three goals in the first. Gajan stopped all 17 shots in the period to stake his team to a huge lead but then collapsed in the second. Just after the 5-minute mark of the third, Arizona State was able to tie the game. Twice more, Minnesota Duluth was able to get into the lead but the Sun Devils were able to reply with a goal of their own and ended up forcing the game into overtime. Despite widely outshooting the home team in the final two periods, it was ASU that found the winning goal on what looked to be a harmless shot from a sharp angle.

Will Francis Senior defenseman Will Francis had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March of 2020. After sitting out the entire COVID-19 season in order to receive treatment, he began attending Minnesota Duluth but was only able to play 37 games over four years due to several relapses. Through several rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant he was able to not only battle the disease back into remission and earn a degree in communications, but he managed to continue his playing career. His final match with UMD came in their penultimate game but that wasn't his final appearance on the ice. A draft pick of the Anaheim Ducks, Francis signed a professional contract after the season and appeared in 3 games for the San Diego Gulls.

Departures Blake Biondi Forward Graduate transfer to Notre Dame Darian Gotz Defenseman Graduation (signed with Aalborg Pirates) Luke Johnson Forward Transferred to Alaska Kyler Kleven Forward Transferred to Niagara Luke Loheit Forward Graduation (signed with Kansas City Mavericks) Connor McMenamin Forward Graduation (signed with Reading Royals) Quinn Olson Forward Graduation (signed with Ontario Reign) Cole Spicer Defenseman Returned to juniors (Dubuque Fighting Saints) Ben Steeves Forward Signed professional contract (Florida Panthers) Zach Stejskal Goaltender Graduation (signed with Hokki) Matthew Thiessen Goaltender Graduation (signed with Winkler Royals)

Recruiting Callum Arnott Forward 20 King City, ON Blake Bechen Forward 19 Dubuque, IA Harper Bentz Forward 19 Moorhead, MN Adam Gajan Goaltender 20 Poprad, SVK; selected 35th overall in 2023 Ty Hanson Defenseman 19 Hermantown, MN Adam Kleber Defenseman 18 Chaska, MN; selected 42nd overall in 2024 Klayton Knapp Goaltender 20 Sylvania, OH Joey Molenaar Forward 24 Minnetonka, MN; graduate transfer from St. Cloud State Max Plante Forward 18 Hermantown, MN; selected 47th overall in 2024 Zam Plante Forward 20 Hermantown, MN; selected 150th overall in 2022 Jayson Shaugabay Forward 19 Warroad, MN; selected 115th overall in 2023 Trevor Stachowiak Forward 21 Dallas, TX

Roster As of August 20, 2024.

Standings

Schedule and results

!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season

!colspan=12 style=";" |

Scoring statistics C/LW 35 14 16 30 20 C 23 9 19 28 16 C 36 12 14 26 4 D 36 3 23 26 12 C 33 7 13 20 0 F 35 12 7 19 15 D 36 4 11 15 15 D 36 4 11 15 15 D 36 4 10 14 20 C/RW 36 6 4 10 2 F 34 5 4 9 12 C/RW 33 4 5 9 23 RW 27 2 7 9 4 C 33 3 5 8 40 F 31 3 3 6 6 C/RW 32 1 5 6 12 LW 20 2 3 5 8 D 33 2 3 5 13 C 29 1 4 5 14 D 36 1 4 5 50 D 15 0 1 1 2 F 2 0 0 0 0 G 4 0 0 0 0 D 5 0 0 0 5 D 13 0 0 0 6 G 16 0 0 0 0 G 21 0 0 0 0 Bench – – – – – 0 Total 99 172 271 313

Goaltending statistics 16 853:20 6 6 2 38 370 1 .907 2.67 21 1153:36 7 12 1 64 491 1 .885 3.33 4 175:40 0 2 0 10 61 0 .859 3.42 Empty Net - 19:21 - - - 5 - - - - Total 36 2200:57 13 20 3 117 922 2 .887 3.19

Rankings

PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.com18NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NR USA Hockey18NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR–NRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12 or 26.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.

Awards and honors Joe Molenaar NCHC Sportsmanship Award Max Plante NCHC All-Rookie Team

References