The Merrimack roster will have a different look when the 2019-20 season begins in October as head coach Scott Borek, who will be entering his second year with the Warriors, cut seven players from the team. New England Hockey Journal's Jeff Cox reported the news on Wednesday afternoon. Two of those cut were freshmen on...
The Merrimack roster will have a different look when the 2019-20 season begins in October as head coach Scott Borek, who will be entering his second year with the Warriors, cut seven players from the team. New England Hockey Journal's Jeff Cox reported the news on Wednesday afternoon.
Two of those cut were freshmen on Merrimack's team that finished the 2018-19 season with a 7-24-3 overall record and 4-18-2 Hockey East mark that ranked at the bottom of the league standings. Three others were sophomores and the remaining two were juniors.
Such roster turnover is common early in a head coach's tenure. Merrimack is set to welcome 18 players to the North Andover, Mass., campus this coming fall, so these cuts allow Borek to free up scholarship money for the large class. Before the cuts, all players but Christian Simeone (Milton, Mass.) were set to be receiving scholarships for the coming season.
Similar situations have occurred following each of the previous two seasons at UMass and Niagara after head coaches Greg Carvel and Jason Lammers finished their first years at those respective programs.
Freshmen Simeone and Chase Olsen; sophomores Jackson Bales, Laine McKay, and Logan Halladay; and juniors Cole McBride and Logan Coomes will not return to the team. All but Halladay, a goaltender, are forwards.
In addition, defenseman Ryan Cook is expected to graduate from Merrimack early and be eligible to play elsewhere immediately as a graduate transfer.
Borek did not have comment on these personnel changes at this time.
