Leadership defines sports teams at all levels, and when you have experience in that role at the college level, it gives your team such an advantage when things get tough. Returning leaders can change a team's season, and they can bring a group together to help chase the common goal.
Every national championship contender needs leadership in the locker room, and experienced captains are a rare commodity in college hockey. With roster turnover becoming a yearly challenge, having an established voice return behind the bench and in the room can be one of the biggest advantages a team has. These three returning leaders will bring a level of experience and stability that no freshman, regardless of talent, can immediately provide. So who are those players?
Ryan Walsh - Center, Cornell University
It’s pretty easy for a team to buy into a captain’s vision when his game is built around the details and small things, and Walsh exemplifies that. He finished one point behind team scoring leader Jonathan Castagna, who will join the Calgary Wranglers in the AHL next season.
Walsh finished with 10 goals and 33 points in 33 games for Cornell. It will also be valuable for head coach Casey Jones, a former Cornell captain himself, to have a veteran leader who understands both sides of the program. Walsh can serve as the bridge between the coaching staff and the locker room, essentially becoming an extension of the coaching staff on the ice. With a returning captain and a coach who knows this program, the team should be expected to get back to their ECAC championship ways, and this year can be a building block to something so much bigger.
C.J. Foley - Defenseman, Dartmouth College
Although Foley wasn’t the team’s captain last year, he was relied upon as an assistant captain, where the team saw arguably their best season in program history. Foley was seen as a top leader on the team despite wearing the A rather than the C. He’s going to bring experience and a level of leadership most, if not any, first-year captains can bring. Head coach Reid Cashman, who’s coaching the US under-18 team right now, will be expecting high leadership qualities out the gate for Foley.
Foley was also one of the conference's best blueliners last season, and he was a pivotal piece to the one-ice component of Dartmouth’s success last season. He finished fourth on the team in points and first for defernsemen, where he had 24 points in 35 games.
Brodie Ziemer - Right Winger, University of Minnesota
Ziemer is an interesting case because he’s not the Golden Gophers' returning captain; he actually didn’t wear a letter last season for the program. Instead, he’s the returning captain of the U.S. world junior team, and a couple of years before that, he was the captain of the under-18 team. This may be his first time as a captain in college hockey, but don’t get it twisted; Ziemer knows his way around a locker room, and he’s been able to command and lead a team at some of the biggest stages for young players. His experience wearing the "C" internationally gives Minnesota something most teams cannot replicate: a captain who has already led at the highest levels of his age group.
Not to mention he was also elite for the team last season, when he led Minnesota in points 36) and goals with 23, which was nine goals ahead of the next guy.
