Last season, St. Mark's finished at 22-6-1, just narrowly missing the Elite 8 and landing as the No. 1 seed in the Small School Tournament.
However, injuries to star forward Richard Gallant (Concord, Mass.) and top defenseman Calvin Beard (Southborough, Mass.) down the stretch threw the Lions' plans for a deep run out of whack, as New Hampton upset head coach Carl Corazzini's team, 5-4, in overtime of the first round.
Things are a bit different entering this season.
Gallant made the United States National Team Development Program, leaving St. Mark's after his sophomore season. Forwards Sebbie Johnson, Jimmy Lyver (Grafton, Mass.) and Damon Myers (Worcester, Mass.) all graduated. So, too, did defensemen Maddox Lizotte (Harvard, Mass.) and Justin Pare.
And while St. Mark's was a runaway train in the ISL's Eberhart division last year, teams have improved around them, most notably St. George's and Rivers.
"There are some potential losses there that we haven't had in a while," Corazzini said.
But St. Mark's has various strong players returning, along with an infusion of recruits coming in that should keep the Lions in the running for the Elite 8.
Replacing the lost scoring
Corazzini's squad had a whopping 10 players with more than 20 points last season. Six of those players — Johnson, Lyver, Gallant, Lizotte, Myers and Pare — won't be back.
The good news for the Lions, however, is forwards Andrew Gibbons (Wakefield, R.I.), Jonathan Balzarini (Milford, Mass.) and Austin Borggaard (Worcester, Mass.) enter their senior year coming off strong campaigns. Gibbons, an Air Force commit, was tied for second on the team in points last season with 38, while Balzarini totaled 33 points and Borggaard ranked third on the team in goals with 16. Borggaard also has interest from Hockey East and Atlantic schools.
I mean @BorggaardAustin competing, then doing what he does, snipe. No one shoots like him. pic.twitter.com/3jtNp7v6IN
— Carl Corazzini (@CarlCorazzini) October 22, 2023
While those three can be penciled in as premier producers, others will have to step up. The two Corazzini pointed to were Evan Nee (Arlington, Mass.) and Drew Carr (Medway, Mass.).
Carr posted 15 points in 29 games as a sophomore '06 last year, while Nee finished with 14 in 19 as a freshman '07. Both have been improving quite a bit this fall — Carr with the Little Bruins and Nee with the Junior Eagles. Both are due for large increases in production.
"That'd be huge if they're able to do that," Corazzini said. "Then we're in really good shape."
St. Mark's will also be bringing in three forward recruits who should factor into the top nine. One of them is Teddy Drury, whose uncle is longtime NHL star and New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury and cousin is Jack Drury, who is in his senior year at Brunswick and is committed to Brown.
Teddy Drury, an '07 forward who stands at 6 feet and 161 pounds, is coming off two strong seasons with the Chicago Reapers.
Evan Nee always around the net. Going to have a huge year for @SMBoysHockey pic.twitter.com/SQnYkkaYtC
— Carl Corazzini (@CarlCorazzini) October 21, 2023
Then there's Cam MacPherson, who was a force for Hopkinton High last winter, posting 12 goals and 40 points as an '08. That success has continued into this fall as he leads the Neponset Valley River Rats 15U squad in points.
The oldest of the forward recruits is Max Santos, an '06, who enters St. Mark's after playing for the Milwaukee Jr. Admirals the past two seasons.
ELSEWHERE IN PREP: Kimball Union | Milton Academy | Taft
"If they can help finish out our top nine, we're in really good shape," Corazzini said. "But that's a lot to ask of new kids."
Preventing scoring
While Corazzini tries to put the best trios of forwards together up front to generate scoring, the Lions also have to play strong defense. After all, the Eberhart projects to be a much more challenging group of teams this year.
Leading the way is Beard, an '05 senior, who ranked second among prep defensemen last year in points with 33 in 26 games.
"When Calvin got to us, he was a pass-first, defensive, stay-at-home defenseman," Corazzini said. "And then a recognition on both of our parts that he needed to get offensive. You can find a 6-foot-5 guy that's going to stay at home and make a first pass. But that's probably not going to cut it because he's not overly physical. And credit to him for both his athleticism and work ethic, he put in the work to get more offensive and you can see that in his game."
The next step for Beard, who comes in at 6-foot-2 and 179 pounds is finding the happy medium between being defensively responsible and dynamic offensively. In other words, he needs to bolster his two-way game. It can only help as he has interest from Hockey East, ECAC and Atlantic schools.
"He's going to play against other teams' first lines, obviously when we're leading games or down a goal," Corazzini said. "We're going to try to get matchups but he might be the best defenseman in New England prep hockey and like when we go to St. Sebastian's, he's going to have to show he can play against guys like Teddy Mutryn (Norwell, Mass.), Casey Mutryn (Norwell, Mass.) and Isaac Mitchell (Harvard, Mass.) or Ben Merrill (Harvard, Mass.), Nolan Flynn (Natick, Mass.) and Rian Chudzinski (Needham, Mass.).
"That's the type of player that he's probably going to have to be at that next level — that middle-pairing guy who plays a well-rounded game."
Obviously, Beard won't be alone in being tasked with shutting down opposing forwards. With spots open in the top four, one name to keep an eye on is Jack Taylor (Framingham, Mass.), an '07 sophomore.
"I think he's probably the most urgent defender I've seen in his age group," Corazzini said. "I think him and Calvin, not as a pair but separately, are probably going to be on the ice every other shift."
Then there's new recruit Moussa Seydi, a 6-foot-5 defender from Quebec.
"He is extremely physical," Corazzini said of him. "He is intimidating at times."
Joining Seydi is Blake Grislis (Narragansett, R.I.). Grislis, an '07 who comes in at 5-foot-9 and 154 pounds out of Bishop Hendricken High, reminds Corazzini of a former top player at St. Mark's.
"He is Tucker Hartmann lite," Corazzini said. "Same kind of skill set, get up the ice. Probably a little more attention to detail on the defensive side than Tucker had at that age."
Hartmann was the captain of St. Mark's in 2019-20 before two seasons with the BCHL's Salmon Arm Silverbacks. He now plays at Yale.
BEAST CHAMPS: 5 standouts from 15O | 5 standouts from 16U | 7 standouts from 18U
Some other names to watch on defense are Finn Howard and Jack O'Connor. The defensive crew would be even deeper, but senior Gannon Austin suffered a season-ending injury playing for the Little Bruins this fall.
In net, St. Mark's has two new recruits who will battle with sophomore Alex Tarves (Marlboro, Mass.) for the net.
First, there's Justin BriseBois — son of Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois. BriseBois played at Jesuit High in Florida last season and is fresh off a strong showing at USA Hockey's Select 16 Camp this summer. The 6-foot-2, 165-pound netminder is a strong bet to be one of the best breakout goalies in prep hockey and already has interest from Atlantic and ECAC schools.
Then there's Cassidy Kittredge — an '07 out of Charleston, W.Va. who stands at 6-foot-5 and 174 pounds.
