Each offseason, UConn males’s hockey trainer Mike Cavanaugh asks every outgoing senior for concepts all over their go out assembly. This previous 12 months, Carter Turnbull had one who caught with Cavanaugh.
“Carter Turnbull came to me over the summer and said, ‘Coach, I’ve been thinking about what you were saying. With the way the transfer portal is now, I think it might make sense to hold another vote for captain because I think last year, there was a couple of transfers who might have been great leaders on our team and we had already voted for captain and they didn’t have a chance to be a leader on our team,’” Cavanaugh relayed. “So I took that into consideration. I thought it was a really good idea.”
This season, UConn applied two votes for captains: One after the former season ends and every other on the finish of coaching camp. In the primary spherical, Roman Kinal was once voted captain with Jake Flynn and Hudson Schandor because the alternates. When the second one vote came over on the finish of September, the brand new gadget temporarily paid dividends: Boston University switch Ty Amonte changed into the fourth participant to earn a letter on his sweater.
In more or less two months on campus, Amonte made sufficient of an affect on his teammates — and on all the program, since Cavanaugh offers everybody a vote — to formally be known as a pacesetter.
“Ty Amonte certainly has fit in really well,” Cavanaugh stated. “He was here this summer and the team elected him another alternate captain. So I thought that was pretty impressive from someone who’s just come into a program and he’s [already] garnered that much respect this early.”
For Amonte, he’s had an extended college hockey journey with various ups and downs, but it surely’s helped him become such an necessary presence for the Huskies off and on the ice in this type of little while. He arrived as a freshman at BU in 2018 and that very same season, scored a postseason objective towards a UConn workforce that featured the likes of Max Letunov, Spencer Naas, and Derek Pratt, to identify a couple of.
The basis for Amonte’s management was once set that 12 months. He arrived as a part of an incoming magnificence that featured 8 different rookies in addition to RPI switch Drew Melanson. Despite having no revel in within the Terriers’ program, Melanson took the remainder of the learners underneath his wing and changed into an necessary chief for them. When Amonte arrived at UConn along a 12-player freshman magnificence, he went with a an identical method.
“We had a grad student in my freshman class — Drew Melanson — when I was at BU,” Amonte defined. “So having him at BU and being a mentor for all the freshmen, seeing how he was a mentor for me, I think I’ve been able to do that for our freshmen and I’m really close with all of them.”
Amonte discovered how to act as a freshman however the following 4 years would check his love for the sport. He handled a shoulder factor from juniors thru his junior 12 months when he tore a labrum. At that time, Amonte determined to go through surgical procedure and ignored the remainder of the 2019-20 marketing campaign. The subsequent season, the Terriers didn’t play a sport till January due to COVID and after two video games, he tore a distinct labrum in the similar shoulder after being hit in observe. This previous 12 months, Amonte suffered a sports activities hernia within the Beanpot and once more went underneath the knife.
In overall, he performed in simply 24 video games over the past 3 seasons ahead of arriving at UConn. Now that he’s in the end wholesome, Amonte’s enthusiasm for the sport is infectious each time he’s round Freitas Ice Forum.
“He comes to the rink with a smile on his face every day,” Cavanaugh stated. “I don’t think he takes anything for granted because he’s had some injuries in the past and he’s missed an entire season. So every time he steps on the ice, he doesn’t take it for granted. And I think that shows. He just brings a lot of energy every single day.”
While that every one helped mould Amonte into who he’s lately, none of it could’ve mattered if he didn’t need to be at UConn. He comes from a BU circle of relatives — his dad, Tony, starred for the Terriers from 1989-91 ahead of an extended NHL profession whilst his brother, Tristan, is coming into his sophomore 12 months there — however after 5 years there, he sought after a metamorphosis.
“I think with COVID and everything and recruiting backing up, I just felt like it was my time to leave,” Amonte stated. “I felt bad taking up a roster spot from another freshman and I thought it was time for me to just experience something new.”
Once he put his identify within the switch portal, UConn got here calling. Amonte had performed towards the Huskies in Hockey East for the remaining 5 years — or no less than been within BU’s conferences about them — so he had a good suggestion of the way they performed. But as soon as he spoke with the training workforce, he felt UConn was once the easiest fit.
“The way that we approach the game here at UConn, just protecting the house, getting pucks in, pucks out, finding our opportunities where we can inside our system, rather than just being like running and gun (at BU) — I mean, we still we can play offense with those top end teams — but it’s just a great system fit for me. I feel like I’m a good penalty killer, I’m a good defensive forward and that’s what Coach Cav really loves. But I can also give you some offense and play hard-nosed as well. So just a really all-around great fit. I love the campus. We’ve had a great time around and it’s been awesome.”
When Amonte arrived in Storrs for summer time exercises, he “jumped in with two feet” in accordance to Cavanaugh. That — in conjunction with his revel in being mentored by means of Melanson as a freshman in addition to the 3 years misplaced to harm — all performed an element in Amonte’s upward thrust from new man to assistant captain with the Huskies.
Amonte’s college hockey lifestyles hasn’t at all times been simple, however UConn has confirmed to be the easiest position to write his ultimate bankruptcy.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” he stated.