Above, Northern Michigan University backup goalie Nolan Kent clears his crease during the second period of a game against Ferris State on December 14, 2018 at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. Kent will be fighting for the starting job next season against incoming freshman John Hawthorne. Below, NMU forward Ty Readman skates up ice during a WCHA quarterfinal playoff game against Alaska Fairbanks on March 8 at the BEC. Readman could return to center this fall after playing left wing last year. (Photos courtesy of Shannon Stieg)

MARQUETTE — With the Northern Michigan University hockey season over, it’s time to start looking toward next year.

On paper, it appears that the Wildcats are bringing in a solid recruiting class.

The most obvious changes to fans will be on the back end of the ice as longtime starting goaltender Atte Tolvanen has moved on, while defensemen Tony Bretzman, James Vermeulen, Connor Frantti and Ryan Black have graduated.

Backup goalie Nolan Kent will be back, but he’ll be fighting for the starting spot with incoming freshman John Hawthorne, while NMU head coach Grant Potulny is bringing in some players from junior-level hockey.

“I think probably the biggest areas of the team that are going to be new are the goaltending and the defense,” the coach said. “Nolan is going to have a chance to win the starting job. John Hawthorne is a goalie out of the BCHL (British Columbia Hockey League). We kind of had it down between him and one other player and kind of kept coming back to John.

“He was on a team that was probably outmatched every single night, but the games that his team was still outmatched, in comparison to where they were, he won those games. That’s a big thing. You can’t control the players in front of you, but you can control games that you should win and he’s a big athletic goaltender.

“(Assistant coach) Rob (Lehtinen) has done an amazing job finding goalies and watching goalies. I’ve been fortunate over my time in recruiting (at Minnesota), whether it was Adam Wilcox, who played in the NHL, and then we went to Eric Schierhorn, who was Big Ten Goalie of the Year, and then it went to Mat Robson, who just signed with the Wild.

“I’ve been fortunate to be able to recruit pretty good goalies, too, and Rob has done a great job recruiting goalies. We feel strongly that John has the ability to come in here and compete for the job.

“When you look at our defensive corps, probably the highlight from a points standpoint would be James Miller, who was the BCHL Defenseman of the Year.

“He had like 60 points this year as a ‘D’ and he has a chance to be the Hockey Canada Defenseman of the Year.

“He’s 6-foot-2 and can skate and can really generate offense. He’s in a position where he’s transferring. He went to UNH (University of New Hampshire) and now he’s transferring to get in here, so he might be available to start and he might be a Christmas add.

“Hank Sorensen is a defenseman out of Waterloo (Iowa). Hank has got some size. He’s another 6-2 defenseman and his ‘D’ partner there is Mason Palmer, another 6-foot-2er and plays in Waterloo. In two years of junior hockey, he’s like a plus-60. He’s probably a defender first.

“Tanner Vescio is another 6-1, 6-2 defenseman from the USHL, he plays in Fargo (North Dakota). Those guys are going to come in and have big impacts on our ‘D’ corps.

“Ben Newhouse is going to be eligible to play immediately. Ben was just in the World University Games, so we got a chance to see him play against guys that are actually playing in the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League of Europe and Asia) at this time. Ben was one of the captains of the team and scored some goals. He really can skate and really can move the puck. He’s going to have a big impact back there.”

As far as forwards go, the Wildcats have a lot of talent to replace as their top line is no more. WCHA Offensive Player of the Year Troy Loggins has moved on to the American Hockey League, while Adam Rockwood has an AHL tryout and Denver Pierce is graduating. Potulny said his staff is still trying to round it out, but there’s going to be some significant talent coming onto the roster.

“We have Jett Jungels, who is coming from Edina (Minnesota),” Potulny said. “He was a finalist for Mr. Hockey (in Minnesota) and led his team in scoring.

Jett’s a guy who plays with great pace and he has the ability to create instant offense. He’s going to have some growing pains coming from high school hockey, but he’s going to be a player that because of his ability to skate, he goes to the right areas of the rink and he doesn’t play on the periphery, I think he’s going to have the ability to score.

“We have Josh Arnold, who is a center playing out in Wenatchee (Washington). He was having a great year. There’s people in the league that felt like he was one of the top five players in the league before he got injured.

“He’s come back in the playoffs and had a big impact on his team. I could imagine seeing him playing in the middle of the rink.

“Andre Ghantous is another player from the BCHL in Penticton. Andre is a very responsible player that can kill penalties and play on the power play. He can play in all situations.

“We’re still rounding out the rest of the class. We’re going to kind of see, No. 1, how some guys finish and kind of look at our depth chart to see where we think we need the most help.

“The center ice position next year is an area that, after losing Adam, is going to be really important to fill that void.

“(Freshman) Ty Readman played center in junior hockey and was recruited to be a center here. We moved him on the wall (to a wing) because we felt like he probably had the ability to help us more on the wing than he could in the middle of the rink this year and I thought that line (with Griffin Loughran and Joseph Nardi) was very good.

“I do think he’s going to get a chance to play center and get him back in his natural position and see where he’s at from there.”

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