For the first time in 20 years, Milton Academy has a new boss on the bench.
Jim Gaudet, the former assistant at Babson, was hired over the summer to take the reigns from Paul Cannata, who announced his retirement in January.
Cannata's team rose to the occasion in his final season, despite not being ranked inside our preseason top 10. The Mustangs won the Flood-Marr Tournament. After a 2-3-1 start to the second half, Milton Academy never lost again in the regular season, going 9-0-3 in its remaining games, scoring big wins over Nobles and Belmont Hill.
Milton earned the No. 3 spot in the Elite 8 Tournament, but fell to Belmont Hill, 7-2, in the opening round.
Quite the season of accomplishments even with the early postseason loss.
Now, it's a different-looking Mustangs team. Milton will be without various players who helped earn the No. 3 spot in the Elite 8 last season.
But there's a new crop of recruits who will be shaped by a new coach in a whole new era of Milton Academy hockey.
"The unique thing about a new coach coming in is that everyone's really on the same page to start the way I see it," Gaudet said. "Everyone's going to have a chance to make their mark and make an impact early. Everyone's getting an opportunity to do that."
Strength in net
If there's one thing Milton Academy can count on this season, it's Sam Caulfield in net.
The Needham, Mass., native burst onto the prep scene last year in a huge way, winning Flood-Marr MVP and tied for the NEPSAC lead in save percentage at .948.
"To have Sam with the year he had last year and coming to follow that up this year, it helps a lot," Gaudet said.
Caulfield followed up a terrific prep season with a strong enough showing at the Massachusetts District Festival to get an invite to USA Hockey's Select 17 Camp in June. At the camp, he provided strong netminding for the Central District.
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His sheer athleticism, along with all of that success so far, has Caulfield on Division 1 college hockey radars. Typically, goalies commit later than skaters.
"I have a lot of experience [with college recruiting] where I can help Sam understand what the timeline is," Gaudet said. "It doesn't have to be tomorrow that he commits. It might be soon, it might be down the line. Helping him understand that timeline is going to help him focus on the present moment. Obviously, I want him to have those goals of playing college hockey but obviously, you don't want him to be distracted by it. Working towards it, but not distracted by it."
The next step for Caulfield this season is to move into a leadership role with Milton.
"He's another player getting towards the older side of the team now in his junior season and another kid that has a ton of leadership ability based on what I've seen so far," Gaudet said.
Losing a lot of offense
Last season, senior forwards Jacob Pohl, Mikka Kelechian and Brendan Maher, along with senior defenseman Mason Chen, led the Mustangs in points. All four departed due to graduation. Along with those four, impactful forwards Henry Cohen and Madden Powers graduated, too.
We'll get to Chen and the defense in a bit, but there are a lot of spots up for grabs in Milton's top six.
The returning forwards who will be tasked with stepping up and providing that scoring punch will be seniors Will Cannata (Milton, Mass.), Ryan Shea (Norwell, Mass.) and Jonathan Careri. Juniors Anthony Sergeyev (Dover, Mass.) and Luis Valencia are safe bets as breakout candidates as well.
Also competing for spots in Milton's forward core are the numerous new players Gaudet has coming in.
Ewan Cleary and Kyle Green, both from Newfoundland, enter Milton Academy this season as junior forwards. Both also play for the 18U Cape Cod Whalers. Cleary played for Little Caesars 16U last season, while Green was with Bishop Kearney Selects.
In the sophomore class, Gaudet brought in forwards Joe Feinberg, Justin Garvey and Jeremy Polzer. Feinberg has been impactful for the Neponset Valley River Rats for the past two fall seasons and was effective for BC High last year. Garvey, from Rye, N.Y., played for the Connectcut Jr. Rangers last season and is playing his fall hockey with the East Coast Militia 16U. Polzer enters Milton from Florida after playing with American Hockey Academy last year. He's with the Cape Cod Whalers 16U team this fall.
And then there are the freshmen forwards: Reed Enders (Hingham, Mass.) and Marco Linton (Hopkinton, Mass.). Enders plays his hockey with the Boston Advantage, while Linton was at Dexter Southfield last year.
"Everyone's going to be able to have a chance to make their mark and be an impact player for us," Gaudet said.
That will be most true upfront.
On defense
While the forwards have lots of spots open, that's not as much the case on defense. That doesn't mean they didn't lose anybody.
As mentioned, Chen is a big loss. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound senior posted eight goals and 31 points in 27 games last season, ranking fourth in the region in scoring among defensemen. His power play prowess and heads-up plays in transition will be missed. The same is true of the loss with Jackson Faughnan, who provided solid two-way play.
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Fortunately, Gaudet can rely on Dylan Hunt (Marlboro, Mass.) to be a strong No. 1 on the back end. Hunt was a two-way force as a sophomore last year and parlayed that into a strong showing at Select 17 Camp this summer. He recently committed to Yale.
"I think we're going to have to count on him to be a really impactful leader," Gaudet said. "He's going to be a strong player on the ice, but what I'm really going to be looking to him for is to provide really good leadership and lead by example. Show the younger players and the new players how we have to do things here."
An intriguing area of growth with Hunt is his offensive game. He posted one goal and 11 points in 27 games last year. An uptick in production would go a long way for this season's Mustangs.
Other defensemen poised to make an impact are seniors Chris Amodeo, Connor Lee and Curt Heath (Bridgewater, Mass.), as well as junior Danny Lee.
