Slate of American-born Division One hockey players in New England includes 19 forwards, four defensemen, and two goaltenders 

BOSTON – February 2, 2026 – Gridiron Club of New England president Tim Whelan, Jr. announced today that 25 NCAA Division One players are semifinalists for the74^th Walter Brown Award, presented annually to the best American-born Division I college hockey player in New England.

The nation’s oldest nationally recognized college hockey honor, the Walter Brown Award was established in 1953 by the members of the 1933 Massachusetts Rangers, the first American team ever to win the World Championship Tournament. Brown coached the Rangers to the title in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where the team defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime in the championship game.

Fifteen teams are represented in the slate of candidates that includes 19 forwards, four defensemen, and two goaltenders. Eighteen semifinalist nominees are from teams in Hockey East; fivenominees are from ECAC Hockey; and two are from Atlantic Hockey. Boston College, Boston University, and the University of Connecticut lead the way with three semifinalists each; Bentley, Dartmouth, Providence, and Quinnipiac all have two; Harvard, Maine, Merrimack, New Hampshire, Northeastern, UMass, UMass-Lowell, and Yale each have one.

The following is the complete list of semifinalists, by team, with statistics through February 1:

Bentley: Senior forward Jake Black (Pomfret, CT) 13-13-26, 1.00 ppg; and sophomore forward Michael Mesic (Ft. Myers, FL) 11-13-24, .96 ppg.

Boston College: Sophomore forward James Hagens (Hauppauge, NY) 12-13-25, 1.19 ppg; senior Andre Gasseau (Garden Grove, CA) 4-7-11, 1.10 ppg; and sophomore forward Teddy Stiga (Sudbury, MA) 4-10-14, .74 ppg.

Boston University: Sophomore defenseman Cole Hutson (North Barrington, IL) 8-15-23, 0.92 ppg; sophomore forward Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, MA) 10-6-16, .73 ppg; and junior forward Jack Harvey (Stacy, MN) 7-8-15, .75 ppg.  

Connecticut: Junior forward Joey Muldowney (Lake View, NY) 13-8-21, .84 ppg; senior goalie Tyler Muszelik (Long Valley, NY) 2.16 gaa, .93 save pct.; and junior forward Jake Richard (Jacksonville, FL) 7-15-22, .88 ppg.

Dartmouth: Sophomore forward Hayden Stavroff (Dublin, OH) 22-10-32, 1.39 ppg; and sophomore forward Hank Cleaves (Riverside, CT) 13-12-25, 1.09 ppg.

Harvard: Senior forward Philip Tresca (Newton, MA) 9-10-19, .90 ppg.

Maine: Senior defenseman Brandon Holt (Grand Forks, ND) 5-27-22, .92 ppg.

Massachusetts: Junior forward Jack Musa (Orange Park, FL) 10-14-24, .96 ppg.

Merrimack: Senior defenseman Seamus Powell (Marcellus, NY) 3-12-15, .56 ppg

UMass-Lowell: Senior forward Dillan Bentley (Peoria, IL) 11-9-20, .87 ppg.

New Hampshire: Senior forward Morgan Winters, (Osprey, FL) 9-9-18, .82 ppg.

Northeastern: Senior defenseman Vinny Borgesi (Philadelphia, PA) 4-13-17, .71 ppg.

Providence: Sophomore forward John Mustard (Oradell, NJ) 10-9-19, .79 ppg.; and freshman goalie Jack Parsons (Ithaca, NY) 2.09 gaa, .922 save pct.

Quinnipiac: Sophomore forward Chris Pelosi (Sewell, NJ) 16-14-30, 1.03 ppg; and freshman forward Ethan Wyttenbach (Roslyn NY) 15-26-41, 1.46 ppg.

Yale: Sophomore forward Ronan O’Donnell (Fairfield, CT) 10-8-18, 1.00 ppg.

“This is a superb field of semifinalists. There’s plenty of hockey yet to be played, with almost six weeks remaining in the regular season, so we’ll be following all the semifinalists very closely to see who separates themselves from the pack,” said committee chairman Tim Costello.

The Gridiron Club will announce the winner of the 74^th Walter Brown Award in the final week of March.