With the first game on the horizon, Notre Dame has named its five captains for the upcoming season. Wearing the ‘C’ will be defenseman Adam Karashik and forwards Graham Slaggert and Jake Pivonka. Serving as alternate captains will be defensemen Spencer Stastney and Nick Leivermann. All of the aforementioned are seniors except for Karshik, who is a graduate student.
Slaggert and Leivermann are two of the Irish’s top three returning scorers. Slaggert led the Irish with 18 assists last season to go with seven goals. Leivermann was the Irish’s top scoring defenseman in 2020-21 with 12 of his 17 points coming on assists.
Karashik is a transfer who played the past four years with UConn and was one of the Huskies’ captains in 2020-21. Pivonka, who didn’t miss a game last season, currently is out with an injury. Stastney recently joined Slaggert on the Preseason All-Big Ten Team.
The Irish will get their first taste of game action Sunday with an exhibition against the U.S. National Team Development Program. Their first regular-season game is Oct. 9 when they welcome Long Island University to Compton Family Ice Arena.