Tag: Drew Bavaro

Notre Dame adds defenseman transfer Drew Bavaro

Solid pickup for the Irish?

Notre Dame lost a lot of players on the blue line to graduation, and it needs to replenish that somehow. Some help is arriving with the addition of defenseman Drew Bavaro, who hails from Bradenton, Florida. For the past two years, he has skated for Bentley of the Atlantic Hockey Association. During the 2021-22 season, he was a First Team All-Atlantic selection who led his team with 27 points and 17 assists to bring his total for that program to 39 points over 52 games.

Before Bentley, Bavaro played junior hockey for the Wenatchee Wild for the 2019-20 season. He played 51 games that season, and 24 of his 33 points went for assists. His nine goals that season matched the number he had for his second and final season with Bentley.

The Irish’s top scoring defensemen for the past season were seniors [autotag]Spencer Stastney[/autotag] and [autotag]Nick Leivermann[/autotag] with 27 points apiece. It might be tough for Bavaro to reach that immediately at a higher level, but at least he’s shown he’s capable of it.

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Notre Dame adds transfer forward Chayse Primeau from Nebraska-Omaha

Another transfer is heading the Irish’s way.

Notre Dame continues to add players via the transfer portal. We’ve already seen the arrivals of defensemen Drew Bavaro and Ben Brinkman. With the blue line shored up, they’ve turned to adding forwards beginning with Jackson Pierson. We also now know that they’re benefiting from the arrival of Chayse Primeau from Nebraska-Omaha.

Primeau has spent the past four years with the Mavericks. In 117 games, he scored 72 points, 29 of which came from goals. In what might be one of the craziest coincidences ever in college hockey, he had identical totals of nine goals and 14 assists in each of the past two seasons. While those aren’t huge totals, it doesn’t make the achievement any less interesting.

If Primeau’s last name sounds familiar, it should. His father, Keith, played in the NHL for 15 seasons. His brother, Cayden, also is following in the patriarch’s footsteps as the goaltender for the Laval Rocket, the Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliate, during the Calder Cup playoffs.

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New Hampshire forward Jackson Pierson transfers to Notre Dame

What are you expecting out of this transfer?

Lately, we’ve been talking a lot about Notre Dame benefiting from the transfer portal. They recently added two defensemen for the 2022-23 season in Drew Bavaro and Ben Brinkman. Now, the Irish have a new outlet for scoring to look forward to thanks to the addition of forward Jackson Pierson from New Hampshire.

In four seasons with the Wildcats, Pierson scored 88 points, including 31 goals, in 115 games over four years. As a senior, he served as an alternate captain. His 24 points from the past season would have tied him for seventh on the Irish. Hockey East also honored him with the Len Ceglarski Individual Sportsmanship Award.

Pierson also is returning to his home state as he hails from Zionsville, a suburb of Indianapolis. His family also has a history of college sports in Indiana as Todd, his father, was a baseball player at Purdue. Let’s hope for the Irish’s sake, those athletic genes will pay off for them.

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Notre Dame adds Minnesota defenseman transfer Ben Brinkman

Some winning experience is coming to South Bend.

Notre Dame really is making an effort to use the transfer portal to shore up its depth on the blue line. First came the news of adding defenseman Drew Bavaro from Bentley. Now, the Irish are looking within their own conference. We know this because they have announced the addition of defenseman Ben Brinkman of Minnesota, although his transfer to the Irish has been known since mid-April.

Brinkman, a native of Edina, Minnesota, has been with the Gophers for each of the past four seasons. Over 120 games in the Twin Cities, he scored 21 of his 23 points for assists. Eight of those points came as a senior. He also will bring winning experience to South Bend as this past season, he was part of the Gophers’ first Frozen Four team in eight years.

We don’t know when the Irish and Gophers will play each other next season yet, but we know Brinkman will have those games circled.

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