The Arizona State Sun Devils men's ice hockey team represents Arizona State University. The Sun Devils initially competed in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). The team competed as an independent in NCAA Division I from 2015 until 2023 before joining the NCHC in 2024.
On November 14, 2014, Arizona State University announced that their national championship ACHA club program would join the NCAA ranks. After spending the ensuing nine seasons making history, the Sun Devils will add another notch to their ledger this weekend.
While the game in Colorado Springs is nominally the first of 24 league tilts, it culminates a meteoric rise for head coach Greg Powers’ program since climbing from the American Club Hockey Association (ACHA) ranks a decade ago.
Mullett Arena, the home of ASU Hockey
Early Years and Transition to NCAA Division I
Hockey began as a sport at Arizona State in the fall of 1983 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 80s ASU was fielding a full-fledged ice hockey team competing in Division II of the American Collegiate Hockey Association.
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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. 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.
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.
“It was a surreal moment,” Powers said. “People at the club level ask what the blueprint was to get this done and there wasn’t a blueprint. We focused on becoming a dominant ACHA program, which we did. We did it to a level that the right people noticed, and good things happened.
Early Challenges and Growth
Growing pains come with the territory of transitioning from the club level to varsity-caliber competition, and Arizona State certainly faced them. “That first weekend is always going to be my most memorable,” Powers said. “We had 16 kids who were playing club hockey a year ago and we took Anchorage to overtime on the first night and then won at Fairbanks the next night.
Recruiting talent is the hardest (and most crucial) part of winning in college sports. “We had a three-year ramp up to 18 scholarships,” Powers said. “Recruiting for the NCAA is a much different animal. You have to hire people who are better at what they do than what you do, and you have to let them do their job.
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“We had to find kids who wanted to come here and make our mantra (‘be the tradition’) become a reality. Every program in the NCHC has unbelievable tradition. Here, we are looking for a different kid to set the standard and be a trailblazer and make a name for both themselves and the program. Our early players like Johnny (Walker) and Joey (Daccord) weren’t considered blue chippers at the time.
Powers didn’t have to look far to find a talented player with enthusiasm for what he was building in Tempe. “There were talks about them going Division I for a while,” Walker said. “When it finally happened, everything shifted for me. I knew I wanted to come to Arizona State right away. I bugged Coach Powers quite a bit and told him not to forget me.
While the Sun Devils only recorded eight victories again that year, their first facing exclusively NCAA opponents, they were highly competitive in the majority of their contests.
Breakout Season and Tournament Appearance
Arizona State’s breakout season came during Walker’s sophomore year in 2018-19. 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. Walker provided even more scoring prowess by netting 23 goals (tied for most in the country).
Joey Daccord, an early standout player for the Sun Devils
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“The team before set the foundation for our run to the NCAA Tournament,” Walker said. “Our effort never changed, but we added a few pieces that helped us a lot to improve our results.
After getting a taste of postseason play, the Sun Devils continued their momentum in 2019-20. Walker chipped in another 20 goals and 38 points and ASU finished the regular season with a 22-11-3 record and were comfortably above the PairWise Rankings cut line to make their second-straight NCAA Tournament.
“We had a ton of momentum as a program,” Powers said. “Everyone has their COVID stories, and they are all valid, but COVID really set us back. We had a ton of momentum and felt very good about where our team was and how we were playing. We didn’t have as long of a layoff between games as the year before. It hurt us and our best player was going to be back the next year, but then we didn’t even know if we would have a season. Then we ended up playing an all-road season in the Big Ten.
Facility Upgrades and NCHC Overtures
While the Sun Devils made a compelling case for joining a conference competitively, there was work to do from a facility standpoint. For the first seven seasons of its NCAA tenure, ASU called Oceanside Arena home. Prior to 2022, the Sun Devils played most of their home games at the Oceanside Ice Arena in Tempe. In a conference like the NCHC that features 10,000+ seat jewels such as Ralph Engelstad Arena, ASU needed an upgrade.
Joining a conference was always Arizona State’s goal after the NCAA promotion. It made overtures to the NCHC as early as 2016, but was unsuccessful as the league was not looking at expansion when it had just completed its third season.
“You have to learn by failure a lot of the time,” Powers said. “The best thing to happen to us and our program was not getting into the NCHC at the time. They were still brand new and getting their house in order, we didn’t even have a house to get in order.
While the program was improving its results on the ice, the administration worked tirelessly to make a new home a reality for the Sun Devils. “Mullett Arena doesn’t happen without Greg Powers,” Arizona State Athletic Director Graham Rossini said. “He played with one of the Mullett family members as a club team and he was the key to that relationship and their support for the program. They rallied a lot of donors to make this rink a reality. It was a leap of faith that this was going to be successful, but the right people believed in it.
“After we opened the rink, we were fortunate to play many NCHC schools at home to give them a chance to see for themselves how committed we are to excelling on the ice. We were proud to showcase the investment we made in the sport. With yet another box checked off the list for building its program, Arizona State continued talking with the NCHC.
Joining the NCHC
“There was a lot of excitement when the news came down,” senior defenseman and assistant captain Ty Murchison said. “We’re a team that prides ourselves on proving ourselves. I think we face a lot of doubts because we’re a hockey team out in the desert.
In addition to stability and predictability in its schedule, Arizona State joining the NCHC is another competitive benefit. The Sun Devils won a school-record 24 games in their final season as an independent program last year, but missed the NCAA Tournament due to their strength of schedule rating.
“We knew the PairWise was even more important as an independent team,” senior captain Ethan Szmagaj said. “We were always on our toes on trying to get a push going at the end of the year knowing how the strength of schedule could play out in an independent schedule.
“We’re focused on keeping that momentum going and are excited to get conference play started. Our team is relentless, plays hard and is fast. Even though Friday will be Arizona State’s first conference game as an NCHC member, the Sun Devils are quite familiar with NCHC competition.
“Joining the NCHC is an honor, but it comes with a responsibility,” senior forward Lukas Sillinger said. “The NCHC is looked at as a top conference in the country.
On Friday night, Arizona State adds another historic moment to its storybook. “We worked really hard to get here,” Powers said. “I don’t think that anyone on the outside will ever know just how hard we had to work to get to this point today. It hasn’t been easy and now we’ve closed the first chapter of our history. We’re settled into a brand-new arena, we’re going to the best league in college hockey and it’s time to start chapter two. Chapter two for us is building to a point where we’re starting to compete for national championships. We call it our banner-hanging moment, we want to win conference and national championships.
The Sun Devils begin NCHC play Friday and Saturday night at Colorado College and both games can be seen on NCHC.tv. ASU then hosts its first-ever conference games at Mullett Arena on Nov.
