USHL 2023-24 Preview: Muskegon Lumberjacks
With a consistent coaching staff in place, can Muskegon make the playoffs?
MUSKEGON — The 2022-23 season for the Muskegon Lumberjacks was one of many trials and tribulations.
Coinciding with a mid-season ownership change, the Jacks parted ways with head coach Mike Hamilton, and Parker Burgess, hired as an associate head coach prior to the start of the season, was promoted to fill the void left by Hamilton.
On the ice, Muskegon sustained two losing streaks of at least four games around the holiday break and fell out of a playoff spot. Once it was apparent the Jacks were not going to be able to make a second-half push, the organization began its sell-off for future assets in late January.
The Lumberjacks moved on from key figures in Owen Mehlenbacher, Jake Richard, and Tyler Dunbar after having already traded Payton Nelson, William Smith, and Tyler Hotson in early December.
While no player or coach enjoys going through that, the Muskegon Lumberjacks believe they will be in a much better spot coming into the 2023-24 season.
“It was a really good learning lesson for the staff, for myself, and for the players. We definitely faced our fair share of adversity and challenges,” said Burgess, who will entering his first full season as head coach of the Jacks in 2023-24. “We also battled all those little things like injuries and had one goalie down the stretch and lost some key pieces.
“I think the encouraging part for us as an organization and definitely as a head coach is how hard the guys played and the experience that a lot of our younger players were able to gain going through those challenges and some of that adversity.
“We were playing meaningful, important hockey games all the way up until I believe the last weekend or weekend before and had some good wins, and that experience will be invaluable going into this year for the players and the staff. It's just nice now to have a summer to plan and prepare and round out our staff and just make sure we're in a good spot here heading into this season.”
All things considered, Muskegon saw tender signing Sacha Boisvert break into the USHL and establish a strong foundation heading into his draft-eligible season. The 16-year-old forward finished with 45 points (17 goals, 28 assists), good for the sixth-most among rookie skaters in the league.
Key Departures
Michael Callow, F
Nicholas Rexine, F
Nathan McBrayer, D
Gavin McCarthy, D
George Fegaras, D
Conor Callaghan, G
Raythan Robbins, G
Key Returners
Sacha Boisvert, F
Cody Croal, F
Ethan Whitcomb, F
Matvei Gridin, F
Owen Keefe, D
William Hughes, F
Ty Henricks, F
Key Acquisitions
Paxton Geisel, G (acquired from Dubuque)
Ryan Koering, D (2021 USHL Phase I Draft)
Tender Signings
Cameron Aucoin, D
Three Keys To 2023-24
Key Players Coming Back
While training camp and the early stages of this season could see several new faces crack the lineup, the Muskegon Lumberjacks return a solid group of veterans vital to implementing the culture change.
Aside from Boisvert returning for his second year, the Jacks will welcome back forwards Ethan Whitcomb and Cody Croal.
The former will slide into Mehlenbacher's role as a third-year player in this league, taking on more leadership and helping the younger players along.
Whitcomb, at 6-foot-4, 207 pounds, is a big-bodied forward who saw his numbers explode last year, scoring 50 points in 53 games played.
Croal got his feet wet in the USHL in a six-game sample size during the 2021-22 season and followed with an impressive showing in his first full campaign a season ago. The University of North Dakota commit had 49 points and played in all 62 games last year. Croal's speed allowed him to create plays on his own or jump into the rush for support.
The Lumberjacks will also get a full season out of Ty Henricks. The young forward was a trade deadline acquisition last year and finished with 10 points in 19 games and comes back to Muskegon having been drafted by the New York Rangers in the sixth round, 183rd overall, in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Together, the core group of returning players will establish the foundation for the new era of Muskegon Lumberjacks hockey, which ultimately began last year.
“They have a pretty strong understanding of what's expected of them and what the standards are for them as players and from us as an organization,” Burgess said of the returning group. “That's something that was built upon in our main camp and some of the conversations we had with players in meetings and things like that.
“Now it kind of goes into training camp, and I think, as coaches, we all believe that player-led teams are usually the most successful and the ones that are the most enjoyable to coach, so we're going to be leaning on some of those guys throughout the year.”
Geisel’s Time To Shine
Losing both goaltenders who saw the majority of time in net last season, Muskegon bolstered their goalie room with a late-summer addition in Paxton Geisel.
The DU commit primarily served in a backup role for Dubuque in 2022-23 behind Marcus Brannman and was expected to see an increase in minutes this year. However, with Thatcher Bernstein and Kevin Reidler entering the fray, moving Geisel was a win-win for both Dubuque and Muskegon.
The Lumberjacks get a third-year netminder in the league with plenty to prove. In 24 games last year, Geisel posted a 3.99 goals-against average and a .865 save percentage.
The job is certainly not Geisel's to lose. Muskegon will have three goaltenders in training camp all vying for the lion's share of starts in net this season.
However, the Lumberjacks are viewing the healthy competition as a positive. Given how last year played out and only having one goaltender available down the stretch, the depth in net heading into the 2023-24 season is much better and competition will bring out the best in all three goalies.
“It was really important for us as an organization to have competitive depth in that position. We are very confident in all the goalies that are in camp. It will be up to them and their performance in terms of who wins the job and how it all shakes out,” Burgess said on the goalie depth.
“I think if you have an opportunity to add a goalie with the experience and talent that Paxton (Geisel) has, that opportunity doesn't come around very often to get a guy that's been a starter in this league and had success.
“I believe he's got 100 games or close to that playing junior hockey in the North American League before (Dubuque),” Burgess continued. “So, he's going into his fourth year of junior hockey, and I think he's got something to prove and a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. So, when that opportunity came about for our organization to add him, now we have a good problem, where we have three very capable goalies.”
Taking Fewer Penalties
One area where Muskegon is focused on improving in 2023-24 is the penalty kill, or one step before that, taking fewer penalties.
The Lumberjacks led the USHL in penalties in minutes (1,204). As a result, Muskegon’s penalty kill was not where they wanted it to be, allowing a league-high 69 power-play goals.
A team’s netminder is their best penalty-killer, and having one goalie available for a large portion of the season was taxing on the Jacks last year. With three goaltenders in the fold entering the 2023-24 campaign, the depth is obviously much improved, placing less burden on a single player.
But regardless of who is in net, the team in front of the goaltender has to play a smarter version, a better version, of Muskegon Lumberjacks hockey, and that begins with taking fewer penalties.
“If you are leading the league in penalties, that’s probably an issue. So, taking less penalties is going to put less stress on our goaltending and put less stress on our penalty kill because you don’t have to hopefully kill off five or six every single night. So, we can be a little bit more disciplined in that area,” said Burgess.
The mid-season ownership and coaching change certainly didn’t lend any favors, with coaches adjusting to find the right personnel on the ice in key situations or just simply coaching in different roles than they have become accustomed to was a struggle to do on the fly.
Assistant coach CJ Kusch, who primarily handles the penalty kill, benefits from an entire summer to reset, prepare, and develop a quality game plan going into the 2023-24 season.
Now that there is some consistency, the Lumberjacks’ penalty kill should hopefully be significantly improved this year.
“For the players having continuity in who is coaching (the penalty kill) and how it is being coached and what the expectations are, it’s going to help, and we are able to instill that from day one as opposed to trying to implement things in January or February,” added Burgess.