Luke Antonacci has become the fourth University of Maine defenseman to enter the NCAA Division I transfer portal.
Antonacci, who will be a senior in the fall, played in 30 games this past season and had two goals and two assists. He was plus-10 in plus-minus.
Players are awarded 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.
Antonacci struggled in the middle of the season and was a healthy scratch for five games in January before returning to the lineup and playing well over the final 13 contests. He scored a pivotal third period goal in the Hockey East semifinal this past season, forcing overtime in a game that the Black Bears won on their way to UMaine’s first Hockey East championship in over 20 years.
During his career at UMaine, the Princeton, N.J. native tallied five goals and 16 assists in 103 games according to Hockey East statistics. He was a plus-28. His 103 games would have been most among the returning defenseman, one more than Brandon Chabrier.
The other three defensemen who went into the transfer portal were sophomores Liam Lesakowski and Jack Dalton and freshman Brian Morse. Dalton had five assists in 21 games this past season for the Black Bears. Lesakowski didn’t have any points in 24 and Morse never played.
Lesakowski transferred to Sacred Heart in Connecticut, Dalton will play for Bentley in Massachusetts and Morse is going to Ferris State in Michigan.
UMaine has also lost senior defenseman and co-captain David Breazeale, who graduated and signed a free agent deal with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League.
The Black Bears do return five defensemen and four have played in at least 73 career games.
The other, sophomore Bodie Nobes, became a regular midway through the season and finished with a goal and four assists in 21 games. He has played in 40 career games at UMaine and scored his first career goal in UMaine’s 5-1 loss to Penn State in the NCAA tournament regional in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Chabrier, who will be a senior and has played in 102 career games, had 10 assists in 37 games for the 24-8-6 Black Bears.
All Hockey East third team defenseman Brandon Holt had four goals and 16 assists in 34 games and has played 91 career games. He was the runner-up for the league’s best defensive defenseman award behind Boston College’s Eamon Powell.
Holt will also be a senior as will Grayson Arnott, who has played in 79 career games and had two goals in 20 games this past season.
Frank Djurasevic, who will be a junior, was UMaine’s top scorer among defensemen with 28 points on seven goals and 21 assists in 38 games. The Merrimack College transfer has 73 career games under his belt.
The Black Bears will also have three point-producing defensemen joining the team in former Arizona Coyotes third round draft pick Jeremy Langlois; Loic Usereau and Lukas Peterson.
Langlois was sidelined this past season due to injury but he had 17 goals and 45 assists in 61 games for Rouyn-Noranda in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League two seasons ago; Usereau had 11 goals and 35 assists in 62 games for Chicoutimi in the same league this past season and Peterson notched seven goals and 36 assists in 60 games for the Green Bay Gamblers in the United States Junior Hockey League.
