The Clarkson Golden Knights will welcome the Canisius Golden Griffins to Cheel on Family Weekend to open the era of JF Houle as Head Coach.  Houle, who was hired this summer to replace Casey Jones, has played for the Knights and been on the bench as an Assistant Coach and will now be the 2nd former player, joining Billy O'Flaherty, to take over as Head Coach.

The Knights return 15 players and welcome 11 newcomers to the line up.  Of the new faces to the line up, 6 are freshman and 5 are transfers.  

In the crease, the Knights return Brady Parker, who saw action in 6 games last season, his best, a win vs the USNDTP U-18 Team.  Ethan Langenegger will provide a veteran presence as a Graduate Transfer from Lake Superior State.  Ethan made 21 saves in a 4-3 LSSU win at Cheel last season.  Marcus Brännman will also compete for time in net as a Sophomore Transfer from Providence College.

The Blueline will feature the ECAC Defender of the Year, Trey Taylor along with the return of 5th Year Grad Student, Kaelan Taylor.  The Knights brought in some size with two rookie Defensemen, Ty Brassington, at 6'1 and Jack Sparkes, at 6'8.  

Ayrton Martino is the Knights leading returning point producer, with 27 points last season.  Clarkson retained 4 of their top 6 in points from last year.  Ryan Richardson, who will switch to wear the Morrison #6, had 22 points and was a big piece of the penalty kill.  Transfers Ryan Bottrill from Brown, Ray Fust, from Omaha, Garrett Dahm, from Mercyhurst, and Shawn O'Donnell from UMass Lowell will help replace the points lost from the graduation of Mathieu Gosselin and Anthony Romano.  

Clarkson is 4-2-4 all time vs Canisius, with a win in Buffalo last year.  The only time the Knights have opened their home portion of the season with the Griffs, was 2 years ago, which ended in a 2-2 tie.  

Make sure to follow Clarkson Men's Hockey on Instagram @clarksonmhockey,  on X @ClarksonMHockey and keep up to date on all Golden Knights Athletics with the Clarkson Athletics App powered by Sidearm Sports.