You may not see a younger defensive unit in all of the ECAC next year, but that may turn out to be the best possible thing for RPI as a program. As Trevor Russell, Gunnar VanDamme, Gustavs Ozolins, Jimmy Goffredo, Lucas Lemieux, and Matthew Jovanovic headed for the door, there was a mountain of playing time up for grabs. It’s hard to argue that the writing wasn’t on the wall, as the staff lined up 3 blue-chip recruits who couldn’t return to juniors and would surely be expecting to play immediately. These three talented freshmen — Burzynski, Michael, and Guo — will join last year’s standouts Kaz Sobieski and Thomas Klassek to form the core of the Engineer D in 2026-27. Three right-shot defensemen, Landen Hilditch, Simon Motew from Maine, and Logan Heroux from Ferris State, and late summer add Guerin Slezak, will round out the core and likely vie for the final regular spot. The group is young, but incredibly talented with a chance to be the real driving force for success over the coming years.
Standout Returners: Kaz Sobieski and Thomas Klassek
From night one of last year’s regular season, Sobieski and Klassek firmly planted themselves on the top pairs and were the catalysts of the Engineers’ unit. It was very important to retain them both as they are each on a path to being all-league caliber players. Klassek made the ECAC all-rookie team with an offensive onslaught in February, where he was defender of the month. He deserves a lot of credit for coming right to the NCAA without a stop in North American juniors, as the transition is often pretty difficult. It seemed like the American game started to slow down for him in the 2nd half, hopefully inspiring confidence in him that will carry over this fall.
Sobieski’s overall offensive output ended up trailing Klassek’s just barely, but he was more heavily relied upon and generally the more dependable one. Kaz had the best all-around numbers of RPI’s defensemen last year by a wide margin and found his rhythm in college hockey. I expect him to quarterback the top PP unit once again and find himself firmly on the top pairing again. Now Sobieski and Klassek didn’t pair together, presumably because they are both offensively minded and better complemented by other players. Whether this will be the case again remains to be seen, but frankly I’m not sure it matters much. Make no mistake about it, these two will make this unit go and be the ones RPI has to lean on for leadership and stability.
Freshman Re-Enforcements: Grayson Burzynski, Ryan Michael, James Guo & Guerin Slezak
Coach Lang once quoted an old college hockey adage to us on one of our podcasts, saying “The best time to play a freshman defenseman is when he is a sophomore.” Well, given that he has 9 defensemen right now and 4 are freshman, that’s going to be hard to go through on. While Coach’s joke holds equal parts truth as it does humor, he’s not bringing these three CHL guys in to play immediately without a reason for it. All three players are very, very talented recruits, rated 4-stars or better by Neutral Zone, each with over 150 games of CHL experience. The blueprint is simple: Expedite their development to build an elite defensive unit in the 2-3 years that follow.
Grayson Burzynski is one of the 3 Brandon Wheat Kings coming from Western Canada to Troy. He has a case for the most prolific defensive recruit in the past decade, which I don’t say lightly. His 4.25-star Neutral Zone rating is the best of the class and it’s reasonable to project him onto that top pair with Sobieski. He has the size, skill, and IQ to make a big difference for RPI once he is acclimated to the college game.
James Guo has a unique calling card as he comes to RPI. As we’ve covered prior, Guo’s team in Saginaw went to the 2024 Memorial Cup finals with NHLers Michael Misa and Zayne Parekh on the roster. The OHL is historically a better league and its players translated the best production wise in year 1 of the NCAA’s CHL inclusion. This boosts Guo’s stock a bit, which was plenty high already given the caliber of his past 2 seasons (73 points in 125 games). I think his two-way game will translate extremely well and he has a real case for top-4 minutes right away.
Ryan Michael is probably the most adept defender of the group, known for his IQ and penalty killing prowess. Michael put together a really solid offensive season though with 3-30-33 in 67GP this year. He was a multi-year captain player in the WHL and certainly has that “hard skill” that Lang covets. I have no concerns about his game translating and think that RPI only carrying 3 left-shot defensemen tells you everything you need to know about how they feel about him.
Guerin Slezak was a mid-summer add and figures to play a depth role in year 1. Slezak missed all of last season with injury after captaining Cedar Rapids of the USHL the year prior. He’s a defensive specialist and has potential as he gets back to health but probably finds himself behind a few guys on the depth chart to start.
Right-Side Depth: Simon Motew, Landen Hilditch, and Logan Heroux
I think Simon Motew will earn the final spot on the right side to open the season. Motew played sparingly at Maine last year but posted very good years in USports and the OHL before. It’s unclear what happened at Maine, maybe the competition jump was just too much. But Motew has some pedigree, and with a year of NCAA experience now, he looks poised for a breakout at RPI.
Logan Heroux comes over from Ferris State for a change of scenery and chance to earn a bigger role. Heroux’s production dropped off from his promising freshman year, and he’ll be looking to regain that form at RPI. He does bring a lot of game experience to a very young group, which will help his case for playing time.
Last is Landen Hilditch, who played very well in February when Trevor Russell went down last season. Hilditch plays a steady yet unexciting game and by all accounts is an excellent leader. I think you know what you’re getting with Landen, he’s going to give you some size, physicality, and reliability when he plays. He’s got some competition on the right side but figures to get a good bit of run in a 3rd-pair role.
The Engineers have a really promising defensive core that could develop into something very special. We talk about the Quinnipiac model and how Eric Lang built his best AIC teams with great puck-moving defensemen. This is the group of guys he has handpicked to do it with, and while there might be growing pains with the youth, I think they’re going to get really good. We’re less than 2 weeks from having hockey. Let’s go red.