The Penn State Men’s upcoming 2015-2016 campaign is looking picture-perfect, mirroring last season’s thrilling campaign.
The Nittany Lions have earned their highest Big Ten Preseason coaches’ poll pick [fourth] on Monday morning along with forwards David Goodwin and Eric Scheid being named players to watch.
As Penn State enters its fourth season of varsity hockey, the Nittany Lions were picked behind Michigan, Minnesota and Michigan State, but ahead of both Ohio State and Wisconsin in the preseason poll. This is an improvement considering the past two seasons, Penn State was picked sixth.
The Nittany Lions surpassed initial expectations last season leading the Big Ten for major stretches of the season, with a chance to even win the conference entering the final weekend of the season before finishing in fourth.
Goodwin is the leading returning Big Ten point scorer. He had posted an impressive career mark of 15 goals and 19 assists with a team-best plus-13 rating. A double major in economics and Spanish, Goodwin was an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention in 2014-15, adding a team-best four game-winning tallies to his ledger.
Scheid is a redshirt-senior coming off a career best season in 2014-15 where he scored 14 goals and 15 assists in 31 notable appearances that included game-winning goals, a short-handed goal and a power-play tally as well, while earning Academic All-Big Ten honors. The speedy lefty is majoring in communication arts & sciences.
Coming into the 2015-2016 campaign, the Nittany Lions will start the season with 17 letterwinners from last year’s astonishing season. Penn State had an overall 10-win increase and a seven-win bump in conference victories.
Penn State’s increased production also saw bench boss, Guy Gadowsky, who was named Big Ten Coach of the Year by his peers.
The Nittany Lions kick off the highly anticipated season on Oct. 4 vs. Windsor in Happy Valley at Pegula Ice Arena.
The Nittany Lions will then hit the road on Oct. 10 to take on Canisius in Buffalo, NY at 7:30 p.m. ET.
2015-16 BIG TEN PRESEASON COACHES POLL
1. Michigan
2. Minnesota
3. Michigan State
4. Penn State
5. Ohio State
6. Wisconsin
2015-16 BIG TEN PRESEASON PLAYERS TO WATCH
JT Compher, F, Michigan*
Kyle Connor, F, Michigan
Zach Werenski, D, Michigan*
Jake Hildebrand, G, Michigan State*
Mackenzie MacEachern, F, Michigan State
Hudson Fasching, F, Minnesota*
Justin Kloos, F, Minnesota
Anthony Greco, F, Ohio State
Nick Schilkey, F, Ohio State
David Goodwin, F, Penn State
Eric Scheid, F, Penn State
Grant Besse, F, Wisconsin
* Unanimous selection
