Seven months removed from capturing a Canada West men’s hockey championship on their home ice, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies begin at zero again this week.
They’re set to battle a familiar rival on Friday night, though their minds are set on the season ahead and not the season that was, according to veteran forward Dawson Holt.
“The feeling is pretty special, but I think the message now is once that banner gets raised on Friday, it’s a new season and we’re no longer the champs,” said Holt. “Our goal is to get another one.”
The Huskies are coming off the program’s 12th Canada West title back in March, winning the conference title in a 3-0 shutout victory over the Mount Royal Cougars.
A major cog in that championship for the Huskies was the play of Canada West Goaltender of the Year Roddy Ross, who departed the program following the team’s title win to sign with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder.
That move has opened the door for Huskies fifth-year netminder Jordan Kooy to take over the crease in 2025-26 after splitting the net for much of the last few seasons at Merlis Belsher Place.
“It was really a tandem for the last three or four years here and they’ve both grown together,” said Huskies men’s hockey head coach Brandin Cote. “[Kooy] is going to have an opportunity to take the net and that experience that he had in some big games is going to really help him.”
Kooy will be getting the majority of starts this season for the Huskies, however the team heads into the Canada West season with a pair of newcomers pushing him for minutes in Bryan Thomson and James Venne.
It’s competition he said will help elevate his own game, as the Huskies look to repeat their conference championship this winter.
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“We got two new guys and they work really hard,” said Kooy. “They’re going to push me and I’m going to push them all the way through, and it’s just going to be an exciting year for us.”
The trickle-down of NCAA eligibility rule changes allowing Canadian Hockey League talent to play south of the border this season has impacted the Huskies in a handful of circumstances, primarily with rookie and former Saskatoon Blades star Trevor Wong leaving the program to join the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
While Cote admits it was a much different recruiting year given all the movement from all levels of collegiate and junior hockey, he believes the team came out on the positive end given the amount of players opting to remain in Saskatoon.
“We were fortunate to come out on the good side of it,” said Cote. “It’s still going to take some time to let things settle out and figure out how it’s all going to go here in the next couple of years.”
WHL veterans in Thomson, Conner Roulette, Eric Johnson and Karter Prosofsky highlight the team’s recruits for the 2025-26 season, as well as forward Zack Somers and red-shirt defenceman Nicholas Andrusiak coming from the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
The Huskies also boast two examples of NCAA commits deciding to return north of the border to U Sports, in third-year defenceman Landon Kosior (University of Nebraska-Omaha) and incoming rookie blueliner Ben Saunderson (Quinnipiac University).
Saunderson, who is coming off a season captaining the WHL’s Blades, said returning to Saskatoon was the right decision as he pursues an agricultural business degree.
“I went down and tried it out in the ‘States,” said Saunderson. “Nothing but good things there, but just didn’t think it was the right fit for me. Saskatoon has kind of become my second home, I was here for five years with the Blades. Such a great organization here, I thought it was the best fit for me.”
Along with Kooy, Holt and Kosior back in green and white this season, the Huskies will return a veteran core including some of their top weapons including Chantz Petruic, Carter Stebbings, Liam Keeler, Raphael Pelletier and captain Gunner Kinniburgh chasing a second Canada West title.
While the Huskies were able to bring home a bronze medal from the 2025 University Cup in Ottawa, there is a sense of unfinished business for this year’s group of Huskies.
This after suffering a 3-0 loss to the Concordia Stingers in U Sports semi-finals, ending their hopes of winning a national championship last season.
“We felt like we left a little bit out there,” said Cote. “There’s no guarantees you’re going to get back to that point, but we got a group that I believe can do it again if all things fall into place and we approach it the proper way.
As the Huskies kick off their 2025-26 season against the same team they vanquished in last year’s final in the Mount Royal Cougars, their push for glory will drive their motivation to best what they were able to do last spring.
“We want to win another Canada West championship, we want to do something special at nationals,” said Holt. “That’s just been the message and what we’ve been striving for.”
The Huskies will raise their Canada West championship banner on Friday night at Merlis Belsher Place, before kicking off the 2025-26 campaign with a 7 p.m. puck drop against the Cougars.
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