Left winger Mitch Fossier will become the fifth former University of Maine hockey player to play for the ECHL’s Maine Mariners this fall.
Fossier, a two-time All Hockey East selection, signed with the Mariners and will join Patrick Shea, Brendan Robbins, J.D. Greenway and Eduards Tralmaks as former Black Bears who ventured to Portland to play for the Boston Bruins’ minor league franchise.
“He has always been able to produce. He is a solid player on both sides of the puck,” said former Mariners head coach and UMaine associate head coach Ben Guite, who was instrumental in bringing Fossier to the Mariners.
Guite coached the Mariners last season but recently left to become the head men’s hockey coach at Bowdoin College.
“He will have the chance to move himself up to the AHL,” added Guite.
The 25-year-old Fossier spent last season with HC Banksa Bystrica in Slovakia where he notched 15 goals and 12 assists in 38 regular season games before registering two goals and two assists in nine playoff contests.
The Alpharetta, Georgia, native signed a free agent minor-league contract with the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks after concluding his college career and had five goals and three assists in 19 games for the AHL’s Rockford Ice Hogs during the 2020-21 campaign.
The 6-foot, 187-pound Fossier — also an accomplished musician — led the Black Bears in scoring three consecutive seasons and had a career-high 42 points his senior year with 10 goals and 32 assists in 34 games.
His 42 points tied him for seventh among the nation’s 60 Division I programs and his 32 assists tied him for third.
He concluded his UMaine career with 128 career points in 143 games on 38 goals and 90 assists. He is tied for 30th on the all-time UMaine scoring list with Ray Jacques.
His 90 assists tie him for 17th.
