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MARQUETTE — Over the past few years, the Northern Michigan University hockey team has become a popular transfer destination for opposing players and this season isn’t any different.

Four outside players will join the Wildcats this fall after exploring the transfer portal, with the big difference this year being all of them will get a chance to play right away instead of sitting out a year.

One of these players should be quite familiar to NMU fans. That is former Lake Superior State forward Hampus Eriksson, who brings a good offensive boost to Northern. Eriksson finished in the double digits in points all four years with the Lakers, with his best season coming in 2019-20 with 24 points. He had 19 points during last year’s shortened season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but helped lead Lake State back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996.

Lake Superior State forward Hampus Eriksson, right, tries to keep the puck away from Northern Michigan University's Mikey Colella during a Jan. 8 WCHA game at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Photo courtesy Shannon Stieg)

“When he went into the portal, very rarely do you know a player that well and playing against him for four years, I thought the jump he took from his freshman year to his sophomore year was massive, and each year he just kept getting better there,” NMU head coach Grant Potulny said earlier this week. “And they played him against (current NMU captain) Joe Nardi, and most of the time, I don’t care who’s playing against who, but he was such a big dominant force that not only did he cause problems for our top guys, and our top guys didn’t enjoy playing against him, but I think he has the ability to be a really good offensive player too and he’s a great penalty killer.

“He blocks shots, he’s good in the dot (faceoff circle), so that will be valuable, but on the power play, we would have to do special things to stop him because he works so well behind the net, he’d get the puck and he’d start going behind the net and his vision from there caused us so many problems….

“I’m ecstatic about him. It’s a position that we’re looking to bolster, the center ice position. So he’s going to be a huge addition. He was a force last year and I think, (in) another year, he could even do more.”

Eriksson was something of a late addition for the Wildcats and Potulny said a lot of that had to do with the current uncertainty that’s going on with the NHL.

“I think you see guys come back (to college) that probably in a normal year are turning pro,” the coach said. “Like Joe Nardi coming back. Typically, that guy’s signed a contract. The NHL sets the marketplace and at the time that these guys were graduating and looking for contracts, the NHL had so much uncertainty about playoffs and uncertainty about ‘Are they going to let fans in next year?’ ‘What’s gonna happen with the salary cap?’ There’s a million things kind of happening, so most NHL teams only signed their top prospects that they’d already drafted, so then these pool of players kind of come into the portal.

Lake Superior State forward Hampus Eriksson, No. 24 at left center, battles with Northern Michigan University's Alex Frye, center, during a scrum at center ice in a Jan. 9 WCHA game at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. Among the other players pictured are the Wildcats' Vincent de Mey, right, and the Lakers' Miroslav Mucha, second from right. (Photo courtesy Shannon Stieg)

“Well, Hampus was even considering playing in Europe, so that’s going to happen after the NHL happens. That’s why he came into the (transfer portal) so late because he was looking for something that he thought would be a good fit in Europe and just didn’t find it. So he kind of came into the (portal) late and fortunately for us, we still had availability for a player like that.”

Northern is also getting two players from out west in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference with Hank Crone and Bo Stanley coming to Marquette from Denver. Crone is a forward, who started his college career at Boston University in the 2017-18 season before going back to the USHL the following year. In 2019-20, he joined the Pioneers and finished with 16 points and had a nine-point campaign last year.

“Hank, we hope can fill the offensive production void of Griff (Griffin Loughran),” Potulny said of a past All-WCHA player who himself has transferred to Michigan State. “Hank was two times, in the USHL, was a 65-point scorer and when you look at players from that league that are 65-point scorers, they are players of the year-type players, they are first team all-league players, they are guys that lead teams in scoring in college hockey.

“I watched a lot of video on Hank and I’ve seen Hank play since he was 15. So I’ve always kind of known who he was, but I didn’t really zone in on him. He goes in the portal and (NMU associate head coach) Byron (Pool) coached him in Fargo. So Byron knows him and he called Byron and said ‘Hey, I’m going in, what do you think?’ And Byron’s like, ‘Wow, I think that could be a really good fit.’

“So Byron was really supportive of it, but I wanted to watch the video too because you don’t know sometimes. So I watched about five of his games at the end of the year and in the playoffs in the NCHC and I really liked what I saw. He looked a lot like he did in the USHL and there’s just certain times that sometimes teams just have a guy who’s a little bit better option at that position and that guy gets to play on the power play.

“That’s where I think Hank could be, and I don’t say this lightly because Adam Rockwood was as good of a half-wall power play guy as I think I’ve ever coached in terms of vision, and we’re hoping Hank can do some similar things that Adam was able to do on the half-wall and try to find some of those guys like the connection he had with Loggy (Troy Loggins). We’ve got A.J. (Vanderbeck) over there and we’ve got Vinny (Vincent de Mey) over there and we’ve got a couple guys who can really shoot the puck. So can we find somebody that can kind of have that connection and I thought at the end of the year, Joe did a really good job in that spot.

“But he’s played the bumper and kind of the shooter his whole career here and he’s really good at it. So maybe moving him back into that spot and having Hank take a run at the half-wall is something that we’ll probably look at too.”

Hanson, on the other hand, is a defenseman who spent his first three years at St. Lawrence before coming to Denver. His best year with the Saints was in 2019-20 when he finished with 19 points, and he had four last year with the Pioneers, though he only played 12 games.

“This move from Denver was going to be Bo’s grad transfer year,” Potulny said. “So he graduated in three years from St. Lawrence, went to Denver and he’s always been a puck-moving offensive player. He’s an Adonis of a human. He’s tall, thick, a really good skater and I think he was hoping to get some of that offensive time in Denver because his history has shown that he’s an offensive defenseman.

“And he just didn’t get it and I think talking to Bo about that, he said ‘Hey, I get it. Halfway through the year, we kind of weren’t having a very good year and they went with the younger guys to grow into the future and I understand that. It’s just unfortunate for me.’ I think that was a situation that Denver just made a decision that we’re going to try to grow these guys for the future and Bo being a one-year guy kind of was the odd man out.

“So he’s going to be in a position where he’s going to be going through some of those reps early in the year and we’re going to try to find the right six defensemen to play every night. The right six might not be all of the most talented, they might not be all of the biggest, it’s just who are the right six defensemen for us. It’ll be a luxury that we haven’t had in two years.

“That position has been decimated by injuries, and case in point, we essentially played with four defensemen and the other defensemen that were dressed that night, we could only dress five defensemen because of injury and suspension.

“I think he played maybe three or four shifts the whole night and hopefully now, we’re going to have through some of these additions with some of the transfers that we’ll have a real dogfight every night to figure out who’s going to try to play back there.”

The other transfer comes from out east and that’s defenseman Trevor Cosgrove from Colgate, who had a solid first year with the Raiders, finishing with 17 points.

“He had a really good junior career (in the BCHL) and had a great first two years (at Colgate),” Potulny said. “And there was a coaching change at that position and I think that affected his ice time in his final two years. But he was a captain and he is just going to be a really solid addition to our team.”

All in all, Potulny is excited for what each player can bring to the roster and thinks that it’s going to be a successful season as NMU joins the new CCHA with the Wildcats’ first game scheduled for Oct. 8 against NCAA Division I newcomer St. Thomas.

“Until you can really get on the ice with the guys, freshmen included, you don’t know what you have until about a week into it,” he said. “So I’m really looking forward to getting on the ice with all the guys.

“Probably Hampus, I know what we’ve got because of four years playing against him, but the other guys and the freshmen, it’s just going to be exciting to see what they look like.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.