UMD Men's Hockey Lose Two More Bodies After Senior Class Departure

The state of the University of Minnesota Duluth men’s hockey team may look a bit bruised after the following departures from the team the last several days.

Freshman goaltender Hunter Miska tendered his resignation with the Bulldogs last week signing in the National Hockey League with the Arizona Coyotes. Miska signed an entry-level contract on Saturday.

The Mike Richter award finalist displayed an amazing amount of talent in the 2016-17 campaign racking up a 27-5-5 overall record with a .920 save percentage and a 2.20 goals against average.

Miska was one of the driving forces that helped lead the Bulldogs back to the Frozen Four this year for the first time since the 2011 title season.

Sophomore Neal Pionk Hung up his Bulldog jersey on monday after two seasons with the program to enter NHL free agency. The defenseman racked up an admirable amount of interest from teams around the league this season and began talks with NHL teams this week.

Pionk played in 82 games over the course of his tenure here at UMD. The Hermantown native accumulated 11 goals and 40 assists in that time.

These two significant losses come after the departure of the Bulldogs senior class that included forwards Dominic Toninato, Alex Iafallo, Kyle Osterberg along with defensemen Carson Soucy, Willie Raskob, Brenden Kotyk, and Dan Molenaar.

Soucy and Iafallo have both inked contracts in the NHL since the Bulldogs 3-2 loss to Denver in the national championship game. Soucy signed a two-year entry level contract with the Minnesota Wild and played in the final three regular season hockey games with the Wild’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild. Iafallo, the Bulldog All-American, signed with Los Angeles Kings yesterday on a two-year entry level contract. Iafallo led all Bulldogs with with 51 points this season.