Arizona State Sun Devils Men's Ice Hockey

The Arizona State Sun Devils men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team that represents Arizona State University. It primarily plays at the Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe, but occasionally plays games at Glendale's Gila River Arena (home of the NHL's Arizona Coyotes).

The Sun Devils initially competed in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). Since the 2015–16 season, it has competed as an independent in NCAA Division I—one of only two teams to do so. Arizona State also maintains both WCHL Club Level teams with the WCHL D-1 Sun Devils, and the PAC-8 D-2 Sun Devils, respectively.

History
Hockey began as a sport at Arizona State in the fall of 1973 with ASU students gathering at Tower Ice Plaza in Central Phoenix to play pick up hockey amongst each other. As collegiate club hockey evolved throughout the country, so did hockey at Arizona State. By the late 80's ASU was fielding a full-fledged ice hockey team competing in Division II of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. In 1993, General Manager Mike Hoffarth led the program to achieving ACHA Division I status propelling the Sun Devil hockey program into the national spotlight by qualifying for the ACHA Division I National Tournament just two years later in the 1995–96 season. Then Head Coach, Gene Hammett would lead the program to three straight National Tournament appearances from 1995 to 1998.

ASU qualified for 10 ACHA Division I National Tournaments since competing at the Division I level in the American Collegiate Hockey Association, and developed 12 ACHA Division I All-Americans. In the 2013–14 season, the team won its first ACHA National Championship, defeating Robert Morris University-Illinois.

On November 18, 2014, Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson announced that the Sun Devils would move to NCAA Division I ice hockey. The transition was funded by a $32 million donation by multiple parties (including former ASU hockey players). As a transitionary season, the Sun Devils played a split schedule between ACHA and NCAA games during the 2015–16 season, before migrating exclusively to NCAA play the following season. The Sun Devils were expected to begin as an independent, but pursue conference membership in the future.

In the 2018–19 season, Arizona State received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history, in only its third season as a Division I team. They were defeated by the Quinnipiac Bobcats in the regional semifinals.

On October 6, 2020, the school and the Big Ten Conference announced that the team's entire season would be played on the road, with the Sun Devils playing each of the seven Big Ten hockey teams four times for a 28-game season. This would assure the team a full season schedule that would have otherwise been subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to avoid conflicts with the Coyotes at Gila River Arena due to the delay of the 2020-21 NHL season. However, ASU is still classified as an independent program and therefore will not be eligible for the conference tournament, nor will games against ASU count in the conference standings for the Big Ten teams.

Player Hall of Fame Inductees

Steve Hammett, Forward 1994–1998: Inducted 2009

Greg Powers, Goaltender 1995–1999: Inducted 2009

Adam Blossey, Defense 2001–2005: Inducted 2009

Tony Bonacorso, Defense 2004–2008, Inducted 2010

Ian Smith, Forward 1999–2003, Inducted 2010

Executive Hall of Fame Inductees

Gene Hammett, Head Coach 1992–2000: Inducted 2008

Mike Hoffarth, General Manager 1988–1999: Inducted 2008

Don Mullet, Donor: Inducted 2008

John Wold, Head Coach, General Manager, Oversight Committee 2001–present: Inducted 2009

Wayne Reid, Assistant Coach, Director of Hockey Ops, Oversight Committee 1992–present: Inducted 2009

Doug Maire, Video Coach, Projects Manager Executive Hall of Fame Inducted 2013, Lifetime Service Award 2014

National Tournament Appearances

1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98*, 2000–01*, 2003–2004, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–15

Final Four appearances: 2013, 2014, 2015

All-Americans
AHCA Second Team All-Americans


 * 2018–19: Joey Daccord, G

ACHA Division I All-Americans

Steve Hammett, Forward: 1997–98

Greg Powers, Goaltender: 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99

Ian Smith, Forward: 2000–01, 2001–02 (Team USA, World University Games 2002)

Nils Satterstom, Forward: 2000–01

Adam Blossey, Defense: 2003–04, 2004–05 (Team USA, World University Games 2005)

Tony Bonacorso, Defense: 2006–07, 2007–08 (Team USA, World University Games 2008)

Joe Schweiger, Forward: 2008–09 (Eastern Michigan), 2009–10, 2010–11

Mark Schacker, Goaltender: 2010–11, 2011–12

Kale Dolinski, Forward: 2012–13

Colin Hekle, Forward: 2012–13

Ryan Clark, Defense: 2012–13

Joe D’Elia, Goaltender: 2012–13

Arena
The Sun Devils play most of their home games at the Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe. Selected games each season are played at Glendale's Gila River Arena, home of the NHL's Arizona Coyotes. With the move to NCAA Division I, Anderson stated they planed to pursue an on-campus arena in the future. In the meantime, Oceanside underwent a renovation for the 2015 to bring its facilities to NCAA standards.

In November 2020, the Arizona Board of Regents' finance committee approved plans to construct a new, 5,000-seat indoor arena on-campus near Desert Financial Arena, which is expected to house the school's hockey, gymnastics, and wrestling programs among others.

The school was hoping that the new facility and the excitement brought to the school will catch on with other PAC-12 schools. Cal-Berkeley, Colorado, Stanford UCLA, and USC are located near existing NHL teams and Washington is located in the same town as a Western Hockey League team. Utah is located in an area that has hosted minor league hockey in the AHL and ECHL. That would make 7 schools that are in areas that are familiar with the sport at a more competitive level, and give the conference the more than seven teams required for an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I tournament to its champion. The conference could also add affiliate members for ice hockey as they do in wrestling and men's soccer as there is presently no conference organized specifically for teams west of Colorado and the only other D-I programs in the region are located in the state of Alaska (Alaska-Anchorage Seawolves and Alaska Nanooks based in Fairbanks) both of which play in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The AHL, ECHL, and WHL have also been based in many of the states in the area and some schools elevating their programs from the club level (and the American Collegiate Hockey Association) would also be a possibility for other sources of teams to possibly form another conference separate from the PAC-12

All-time coaching records
As of April 30, 2020

2020–21 roster
As of January 3, 2021.


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Head coach
Coach Powers has been on the Sun Devil Coaching Staff for 12 years, and enters his fifth year as Head Coach of ASU's NCAA Division 1 Hockey Program. Coach Powers was a finalist for the 2019 Spencer Penrose Award, which is awarded to the NCAA Division 1 Coach Of The Year.

Prior to becoming an NCAA Division 1 hockey team, Coach Powers helped guide the Sun Devils to their first ACHA Division 1 National Championship.

During the 2018-2019 hockey season, Coach Powers and his staff led the Sun Devils to become the fastest start-up program to qualify for the NCAA Division 1 Tournament in NCAA History. The Sun Devils finished the season ranked 10th in the Pairwise rankings.

Coach Powers was a three time ACHA Division 1 All-American Goaltender while playing hockey for the Sun Devils, and graduated from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in 1999. Powers was also inducted into the ASU Hockey Player Hall Of Fame in 2009.

Assistants and staff

 * Alex Hicks - Assistant Coach (former 15-year professional career including 5 years in the NHL with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks, and the Florida Panthers)
 * Mike Field - Associate Head Coach (former Assistant Coach Division I and United States Hockey League)
 * Eddie Lack - Volunteer Coach (former 9-year professional career including 5 years in the NHL with the Vancouver Canucks, Carolina Hurricanes, Calgary Flames, and the New Jersey Devils).
 * Andrew Matheson - Director of Hockey Operations
 * Jon Laughner - Coordinator, Equipment Operations
 * Liane Blyn - Head Coach, Olympic Sports
 * CJ Clarizio - Assistant Athletic Trainer
 * Chase Drieberg - Equipment Student Manager