2024-25 Miami preview: Defensemen

Of all the obstacles the Version 2024-25 Miami nine-person defense corps will face, inexperience is not among them.

One freshman and one sophomore will patrol the RedHawks’ blue line this season. The remaining seven D-men are all juniors, seniors and graduate seniors.

And the two greenest MU blueliners — rookie Michael Quinn and sophomore Rihards Simanovics — should both be in the mix for significant minutes this season.

Miami allowed 3.80 goals per game last season, tied with Princeton for fifth-last in Division I, and surrendered an average of 31.2 shots.

The RedHawks are also hoping this rejuvenated group can bolster a power play that finished sixth-last in the NCAA last season.

“It’s an area we’ve tried to upgrade,” Miami coach Anthony Noreen said. “If you look at some of the guys coming back, I do think there’s some ability up there, and when you look at the guys coming in, Quinn ran a power play last year at Fargo, you look at (Conner) Hutchison, a guy who we’re very familiar with who’s run a power play at the Division I level…we’re going to continually work with those guys, trying to develop the guys we have here and actively look for guys to make us better in that area.”

VFG takes a look at the defensemen in Part III of our 2024-25 Miami Preview.

Parts I and II can be found here: Overview | Forwards

WHO’S BACK: Grad seniors (2): Dylan Moulton, Hampus Rydqvist; Sr. (2): Spencer Cox, Nick Donato*; Jrs. (2): Zane Demsey, Michael Feenstra; So. (1): Rihards Simanovics.

WHO’S GONE (transfers in parentheses): Jack Clement, Robby Drazner (Western Michigan), Axel Kumlin (Notre Dame).

WHO’S NEW (transfers’ previous teams in parentheses, others are freshmen): Conner Hutchison (Sacred Heart), Michael Quinn.

*-played with Miami previously

ANALYSIS: Soon after the 2023-24 season ended, it appeared Miami’s fourth-year seniors would land elsewhere this fall, but both Dylan Moulton and Hampus Rydqvist have returned to Oxford as graduate seniors.

Moulton has played 115 games and led all defensemen by far with six goals last season (no other returning blueliner had more than one), and he was arguably the team’s best overall blueliner the second half of last season.

In 124 games, Rydqvist has 12 goals and 22 assists, including a 3-11-14 line his junior season, and he has been a power play regular the past couple of campaigns.

All three seniors are ultimately transfers but took vastly different paths to Oxford.

Spencer Cox is in his second season with Miami, going 1-7-8 in 2023-24, quarterbacking one of the power play units for much of the season and delivering some highlight-reel clean hits despite his sub-six-feet frame. He had eight goals and 25 assists in two years with Long Island.

Hutchison played the last three seasons at Sacred Heart, going 3-17-20 his sophomore season. He was hurt in 2023-24 and limited to 14 games and five points, but he has 35 points in 79 collegiate games and can also run the point on the man-advantage.

This is Hutchison’s third college team, as he dressed for six games with Vermont in 2020-21 and finished that season playing for Noreen at Tri-City.

So the coaching staff is intensely familiar with his skill set.

After playing two seasons at Miami, Nick Donato hit the transfer portal in 2023 but did not find a suitor and is back for his senior season. He also played for Noreen at Tri-City and went 0-5-5 in 36 games with the RedHawks in 2021-23 and played solid, shut-down defense when healthy while at Miami.

While the seniors are vastly different, the juniors are very similar.

Both Zane Demsey and Michael Feenstra played juniors for Dubuque, both are shut-down left defensemen and both suffered shoulder injuries that cost them most of the second half of one of their first two seasons at Miami.

Demsey has logged 51 games in two seasons, missing the final months of 2022-23, and he has a goal, six assists and is only minus-5 in his Miami career on a team that has struggled mightily the past two seasons. Like Cox, he also has the ability to dish out crushing hits.

In 38 games, Feenstra has four assists and was one of Miami’s better shut-down blueliners in 2023-24 before his injury that cost him the winter months. At 6-feet, 3-inches, he has excellent reach and is rarely caught out of position.

Simanovics also improved as the season progressed, earning significant playing time — including major power play minutes — and notching eight assists, the most among Miami’s returning blueliners.

And lone freshman Quinn is coming off a huge season with USHL champion Fargo. He racked up six goals and 31 assists with the Force and went 1-7-8 in 12 games during their playoff run that culminated in an Anderson Cup title.

All nine defensemen boast resumes worthy of regular starting jobs, but only six or seven can dress each night, which makes for extremely intense competition for those slots.

Filling out lineup cards at this position won’t be easy for Noreen as a result.

“I don’t think there’s a huge distance from even our one to our nine,” Noreen said. “It’s a lot of guys that we’re going to see what they’re willing to do in order to be in that lineup, Friday and Saturday nights, and that’s going to be an ongoing competition.”

Of Miami’s defensemen, only three are right-handed shots: Quinn, Rydqvist and Donato, so it’s likely one of the left-handers will switch over to right defense.

“I just think we’re just looking to find the best group of most likely seven — but it could be six — and we’re not so worried about the hands,” Noreen said. “Obviously long-term, ideally is it righty-lefty paired? Absolutely, but what we’ll be looking at for Game 1 is who are the seven that are going to play to our identity, give us the best chance.”

The NCAA recently started allowing teams to dress a 19th skater, and Noreen — like Chris Bergeron — said he prefers to play a seventh defenseman over a 13th forward.

“I’ve been moreso along the lines of using the extra D because I think you actually use (him), where sometimes that 13th forward, you just kind of lose him in the flow of the game,” Noreen said.