The Fredonia State men's hockey team returns its top eight point-getters from a year ago and the Blue Devils expect to be on the upswing in 2026-27. The team will open its season with a visit to Saint John Fisher on Friday night before welcoming those same Cardinals on Saturday.

The group of Top 8 scorers includes all forwards, starting with Hudson Cameron, who had a team-high 13 points (six goals, seven assists), and a trio of players who finished with 12 points last year: Cash Anderson, Owen Cross and Luke Morris. Morris was the team's leading goal-scorer with nine tallies.

Keenan McNeill (eight points), Austin St. Onge (eight points) and Xavier Fortin (seven points) round out the Top 8 from '25-26. Only St. Onge and Fortin are seniors, Morris is a junior and the other five are sophomores.

"We're excited about who we are and who we can become," head coach Jeff Meredith said. "We're young, but other than our freshmen, a lot of our young players — our sophomores and juniors — have played a lot of hockey in the past two years. There's a lot of belief within our locker room and within the coaching staff that, if we continue to do the things we've been doing and continue to develop, we can make some noise."

The Blue Devils are coming off a 4-21-1 season, which ended in the SUNYAC Tournament quarterfinals when Fredonia lost to eventual national runner-up Hobart. The team culture continues to hold as the Devils look to build off last year's development."

"Our culture is in a tremendous place," said Meredith. "A lot of that has to go to the leadership that we have."

Fredonia State has a formal captaincy group in the form of Morris, who will wear the 'C,' and alternate captains St. Onge and Owen Arnold. That group is joined by Anderson, Fortin and McNeill; the contingent meets with the coaching staff on a weekly basis.

"That group is responsible for setting the tone within our locker room," Meredith said. "During the second day on campus, our team met and we awarded 14 AHCA All-American Scholar awards. Right there, the tone is set for the freshmen. We maintain excellence in the classroom and make sure to keep our end of the bargain. That excellence is a character trait that lets me know that we hvae the right people who want to get better, develop and progress."

The Blue Devil roster includes 31 players: 18 forwards, 10 defensemen and three goaltenders. The senior class is four-deep with forwards St. Onge, Peter Bürfent and Dillon Schmidt and defenseman Fortin.

Fortin and Arnold, a junior, will lead a defensive unit that features five first-year players. The forward group also has five newcomers while 2 of 3 goalies are also first-years. First-year tender Nicolas Morvan is scheduled to get the first crack in goal on Friday.

"The forwards work hard and they're very disciplined," Meredith said. "We're going to play a lot of freshmen on the back end and they're going to do a great job for us."

The head coach is just as enthused about his own staff as assistant Griffin Green returns for his second year.

"Having an assistant coach for the second year in a row — for the first time in the last six years — is huge," Meredith added.