The University of Maine men’s hockey team has lost 15 players between the NCAA Division I transfer portal, graduation and early pro signings.
But Black Bears head coach Ben Barr has begun re-stocking his roster with the addition of three wingers, two defensemen and a goalie from the transfer portal, including two players from rival Hockey East schools, according to the Elite Prospects website.
Sophomore right wing Lee Parks from UMass Lowell and sophomore defenseman Alexander Bales from Providence College will join the Black Bears for the 2026-27 season, along with freshman left wing left wing Judah Makway from Alaska-Anchorage; sophomore defenseman Chris Romaine from Ohio State; junior left wing Tanner Klimpke from Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pennsylvania; and sophomore goalie Petter Wickstrom Stumer from Canisius University in Buffalo.
Klimke, Makway and Parks will all supply the Black Bears with some badly needed size up front as Klimke and Makway each stand 6-foot-3-inch and Parks is 6-foot-2.
Among the returning forwards, only freshmen Jaden Lipinski and Brock James are taller than 6 feet at 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-2, respectively.
Bales and Romaine will give the Black Bears five defensemen with Division I experience as UMaine returns just three blueliners in freshmen Lukas Peterson, Lois Usereau and Jeremy Langlois.
Parks had six goals and eight assists in 35 games for the River Hawks after notching eight goals and six assists in 34 games his freshman campaign.
Seven of his 14 career goals have come on the power play and he could bolster a UMaine power play that ranked just 38th among 63 Division I schools with an 18.7 percent efficiency rate this season.
He had 30 goals and 28 assists in 62 games for Fargo in the United States Hockey League in 2023-24.
The Elite Prospects 2024 NHL Draft Guide wrote that Parks “moves non-stop in the offensive zone to get open and creates chaos around the net. He becomes a tip threat as he skates across the screen, provides a screen in front, creates space to grab rebounds and reloads high to get walk-in chances.”
Klimpke was the Colonials’ captain and leading scorer with 31 points in 40 games with 16 goals and 15 assists.
He was their Hobey Baker Award nominee and was a second team All Atlantic Hockey America selection.
The 23-year-old Klimpke scored four goals in six AHA playoff games. He also led the team in shots on goal with 119 and in game-winning goals with four. He had 26 blocked shots.
The native of Calgary, Alberta, has amassed 80 points on 41 goals and 39 in 103 career games for the Colonials.
Klimpke also led the team in scoring his freshman year when he tallied 26 points on 15 goals and 11 assists in 37 contests with five power play goals. He had 10 goals and 13 assists in 26 games as a sophomore.
Prior to coming to Robert Morris, Klimpke had 33 goals and 25 assists in 60 games for two teams in the Alberta Junior Hockey League during the 2022-23 campaign.
Bales appeared in 27 games for the Friars and had three assists. But his plus-14 rating was fourth-best on the team.
Players receive a plus-one if they are on the ice when their team scores an even-strength or shorthanded goal and a minus-one if the opponent scores one.
Bales averaged 18 minutes and 40 seconds of playing time in Providence’s losses to Merrimack in the Hockey East quarterfinal and Quinnipiac in the NCAA Tournament’s Sioux Falls Regional.
He played in 32 games for the Friars as a freshman and had a pair of goals and three assists. He was plus-two. He blocked 23 shots.
The 5-foot-10, 181-pound native of East Amherst, New York, spent the 2023-24 season in the United States Hockey League for the Tri-City Storm, registering three goals and 14 assists in 34 games. He was a minus-three.
The Elite Prospects’ 2024 NHL draft guide called Bales a “physical defenseman capable of throwing thunderous hits and winning puck battles with subtlety, too. He isn’t one to chase or over-extend, he instead prefers to steadily eliminate space and time with his pokechecks. He instantly closes on opponents and punishes those who venture into his space.”
Makway led his 5-27-1 Alaska-Anchorage team in game-winning goals with two and finished with three goals and six assists for nine points in 33 games.
He was third on the team in shots on goal with 60 and is a gritty, physical player who delivers big hits. He led the Seawolves with 47 penalty minutes.
Romaine has played in 27 games for Ohio State over his first two seasons including 18 this past season. He has yet to register a point.
According to the Neutral Zone website, he is an excellent skater with a strong, powerful stride who moves the puck quickly and efficiently and has a high hockey IQ.
Romaine is a sixth round draft pick of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche.
The Boston native had six goals and 24 assists in 55 games for the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers in 2023-24.
The 6-foot-6 Stumer will join fellow Swede Albin Boija between the pipes for the 2026-27 campaign.
Stumer made 72 saves in a 4-3 win over Lindenwood this past season, the most in a regulation Division I game since the 1973-74 season. He stopped 32 of 34 shots in the third period alone.
He appeared in 12 games for AHA team and had a 6-5 record, a 2.64 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage.
Stumer had a .904 save percentage his freshman season to go with a 3.52 GAA and a 2-10-2 record.
Four Black Bears who entered the portal have found new homes with Miguel Marques heading to Northeastern; Luke Coughlin going to Ferris State in Michigan, Anthony Calafiore playing at Long Island University and Nick Peluso going to the Rochester Institute of Technology.
