Seven of Miami’s nine defensemen this season will be first-year RedHawks, which should help the blueline corps offensively and defensively.
MU added a pair of graduate seniors, a sophomore NHL draftee and four quality freshmen to its 2025-26 defense corps.
The RedHawks retained two holdovers from 2024-25, promising sophomore Michael Quinn and fifth-year college veteran Nick Donato.
“There’s a lot of youth there,” Miami coach Anthony Noreen said. “Having said that, we love the pedigree of the group. We feel like we’re getting guys with the type of backgrounds and from the type of places that it takes to have success at this level. Now, are we young there? Yes. Are there going to be a lot of guys that have not played a Division I college hockey game in the lineup? Yes.”
VFG takes a look at the defensemen in Part II of its three-part 2025-26 preview series. Part I, The Forwards, can be found here:
WHO’S BACK: Gr. (1): Nick Donato; Soph. (1): Michael Quinn.
WHO’S GONE (transfers in parentheses): Spencer Cox, Zane Demsey (Northern Michigan); Michael Feenstra, Conner Hutchison, Dylan Moulton, Rihards Simanovics (Bowling Green), Hampus Rydqvist.
WHO’S NEW (transfers’ previous teams in parentheses, others are freshmen): Gr. (2): Kyle Aucoin, Owen Lalonde; Soph. (1): Vladislav Lukashevich; Fr. (4): Shaun McEwen, Charlie Michaud, Michael Phelan, Ryder Thompson.
Miami’s entire defense corps recorded just 48 points last season, and the RedHawks allowed 4.21 goals per game in 2024-25, the second-worst clip in all of college hockey only to Mercyhurst.
MU added three transfers: sophomore Florida Panthers draft pick Vladislav Lukashevich and grad seniors Owen Lalonde and Kyle Aucoin.
Lukashevich, selected in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL entry draft, played one season of juniors and dominated at Tri-City under Noreen. He led all defensemen in goals (11) and assists (32) and finished third among USHL defenseman with 43 points. He also tallied four assists in six playoff games.
He played last season on a loaded Michigan State team, going 1-6-7 in 29 games.
“He’s got that steady presence back there,” Noreen said. “He can break pucks out, he defends well, and he’s also got that edge. He’s not that guy that you’re going to notice physically a ton, but he’s a guy that can throw a game-changing hit, where literally the momentum flips based on a physical play that he makes.”
Lalonde played 95 games for Queens University in Canada the past four seasons, registering 15 goals and 66 assists for 81 points.
Aucoin, son of Vancouver Canucks standout Adrian Aucoin, dressed 28 times for Harvard last season and notched two goals and two assists. In 90 NCAA games he has a pair of markers and five helpers.
Freshmen Shaun McEwen, Charlie Michaud and Michael Phelan all join Miami from the USHL, while Ryder Thompson played juniors in the WHL.
McEwen, was the first player to commit to Miami after Noreen was hired, played for him at Tri-City for three seasons and played a fourth season for the Storm in 2024-25. In 57 games last season, he notched seven goals and 25 assists for 32, double his points output of 16 his previous campaign.
Amazingly Michaud made the same exact points jump as McEwen last season, from 16 to 32 with Madison, including five goals. Michaud just turned 19 and will be the youngest Miami defenseman, but has already logged 132 USHL games and has 50 points, including nine goals.
Phelan also has played two plus juniors seasons, all with Waterloo, which advanced to the Clark Cup final this spring. Phelan went 3-9-12 last season enters his freshman season with 108 games of USHL experience.
Thompson is the first ever player to join the RedHawks from the WHL. Thompson played four seasons with Portland in that league and saw his points totals increase each year, from 18 to 19 to 22 to 23. He scored nine goals last season after netting just one in 2023-24.
Only Quinn, a sophomore, and graduate senior Donato return from last season’s blue line.
Quinn has substantial potential and went 2-10-12, improving as the season progressed and dishing for three assists in the final six games.
Donato played maximum-effort hockey for 13 games and did not record a point. In 49 career games with the RedHawks, he has five helpers.
“We’ve got a lot of games played at a high level on the back end, and we think it’s a group that skates pretty well, it defends hard and is going to be able to chip in offensively as well,” Noreen said. “We’ve got a number of guys that have run power plays at high levels. Do we need to keep developing and keep on working in that area? Absolutely. Because if you look specifically at our league, you’re getting some high, high-end guys, and we’re going to need that to compete. We’re excited about this group on the back end, we think there’s a lot there to build on.”
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