2023–24 Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs men's ice hockey season

In August, junior defenseman Will Francis announced that his cancer had relapsed.^[1] Due to treatment, he would miss at least the first half of the season but was hoping to return to the lineup by January. Unfortunately, he ended up sitting out the entire season. Unfortunately, they wasn't the only bad bit of news for the Bulldogs this year. Just 3 games into the season, Dominic James dislocated his shoulder and tore cartilage in the process. The injury required surgery to fix and he would miss the remainder of the year.^[2] And then, in December, the NCAA ruled Cole Spicer academically ineligible for the remainder of the season.^[3]

The loss of those three players, all NHL draft picks, hamstrung the Bulldogs from the start of the season. Duluth was able to get off to a decent start, going undefeated in their first 5 games, but everything changed when they travelled to play Cornell. The Big Red were one of the top defensive teams and demonstrated as much by holding UMD to a single goal over the weekend. That began a string of five weeks against ranked teams and the Bulldogs were only able to win one game. Though the goaltending tandem of Zach Stejskal and Matthew Thiessen wasn't quite up to par, the bigger problem for Duluth was the lack of scoring. The offense was run through Ben Steeves, who led the team in scoring for the second straight year, but beyond him the team didn't have much in the way of goal scoring.

After the terrible stretch in the first half, Duluth looked much better in January and was able to get two wins over ranked teams when its offense finally woke up, albeit on an inconsistent basis. At the start of February the team was nearly at .500 and still had a slim chance at an NCAA tournament berth but they were staring down a gauntlet of lethal opponents. The final 10 games for UMD were all against ranked teams and the Bulldogs went winless in the first eight matches. Both the offense and defense weren't up to the challenge and despite Minnesota Duluth sweeping St. Cloud State to end the regular season, the team was dropped to 7th in the conference and had no chance at securing an at-large berth.

Duluth's opponent for the first round of the conference tournament was Denver and the #3 Pioneers took no pity on the Bulldogs. After getting shutout in the first game, Denver had a 3-goal lead in the rematch and looked to be sailing to the semifinals. Goals from Luke Loheit and Kyle Bettens pulled Duluth within one with just over 2 minutes to play. Duluth pulled Thiessen for an extra attacker for their second marker but they were unable to get a third. Instead, Denver scored two empty-net goals and ended Duluth's season.

As of July 10, 2023.^[4]

No.	S/P/C	Player	Class	Pos	Height	Weight	DoB	Hometown	Previous team	NHL rights
2		Darian Gotz	Senior	D	5' 10" (1.78 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	2000-10-19	Hermantown, Minnesota	Cedar Rapids (USHL)	—
6		Ben Steeves	Sophomore	F	5' 8" (1.73 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	2002-05-10	Bedford, New Hampshire	Sioux City (USHL)	—
7		Blake Biondi	Senior	F	6' 1" (1.85 m)	198 lb (90 kg)	2002-04-24	Hermantown, Minnesota	Hermantown (USHS–MN)	MTL, 109th overall 2020
8		Aaron Pionk	Freshman	D	6' 0" (1.83 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	2003-01-16	Hermantown, Minnesota	Waterloo (USHL)	MIN, 149th overall 2023
11		Cole Spicer	Sophomore	F	5' 10" (1.78 m)	178 lb (81 kg)	2004-06-13	Grand Forks, North Dakota	NTDP (USHL)	BOS, 117th overall 2022
12		Jack Smith	Sophomore	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	2002-07-06	St. Cloud, Minnesota	Sioux Falls (USHL)	MTL, 102nd overall 2020
15		Quinn Olson (A)	Graduate	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	2001-05-09	Calgary, Alberta	Okotoks (AJHL)	BOS, 92nd overall 2019
16		Luke Loheit (C)	Graduate	F	6' 1" (1.85 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	2000-07-26	Minnetonka, Minnesota	Penticton (BCHL)	OTT, 194th overall 2018
17		Dominic James (A)	Junior	F	6' 0" (1.83 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	2002-07-03	Plymouth, Michigan	Lincoln (USHL)	CHI, 173rd overall 2022
18		Joey Pierce	Sophomore	D	6' 0" (1.83 m)	208 lb (94 kg)	2002-10-02	Hermantown, Minnesota	Lincoln (USHL)	—
19		Riley Bodnarchuk	Sophomore	D	6' 4" (1.93 m)	205 lb (93 kg)	2001-06-01	Okotoks, Alberta	Okotoks (AJHL)	—
20		Owen Gallatin	Junior	D	5' 8" (1.73 m)	167 lb (76 kg)	2002-06-17	Hugo, Minnesota	Fargo (USHL)	—
21		Braden Fischer	Freshman	F	6' 1" (1.85 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	2002-10-02	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Minot (NAHL)	—
22		Kyler Kleven	Junior	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	172 lb (78 kg)	2000-10-12	Moorhead, Minnesota	Waterloo (USHL)	—
23		Will Francis	Junior	D	6' 5" (1.96 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	2000-11-16	Saint Paul, Minnesota	Cedar Rapids (USHL)	ANA, 163rd overall 2019
24		Kyle Bettens	Sophomore	F	6' 3" (1.91 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	2001-07-04	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Youngstown (USHL)	—
26		Anthony Menghini	Freshman	F	5' 10" (1.78 m)	184 lb (83 kg)	2002-12-03	Baxter, Minnesota	Fargo (USHL)	—
28		Aiden Dubinsky	Sophomore	D	6' 0" (1.83 m)	180 lb (82 kg)	2004-04-28	Highland Park, Illinois	Tri-City (USHL)	—
31		Zach Sandy	Sophomore	G	6' 0" (1.83 m)	175 lb (79 kg)	2002-12-07	Fargo, North Dakota	Minot (NAHL)	—
33		Carter Loney	Junior	F	5' 10" (1.78 m)	167 lb (76 kg)	2002-08-02	Columbus, Ohio	Sioux City (USHL)	—
34		Matthew Perkins	Freshman	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	156 lb (71 kg)	2004-01-21	Balgonie, Saskatchewan	Youngstown (USHL)	VAN, 119th overall 2023
35		Zach Stejskal	Senior	G	6' 5" (1.96 m)	217 lb (98 kg)	1999-12-20	Cohasset, Minnesota	Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (NAHL)	—
36		Matthew Thiessen	Graduate	G	6' 2" (1.88 m)	215 lb (98 kg)	2000-06-09	Steinbach, Manitoba	Maine (HEA)	VAN, 192nd overall 2018
37		Luke Johnson	Sophomore	F	5' 9" (1.75 m)	165 lb (75 kg)	2001-10-15	St. Cloud, Minnesota	Lincoln (USHL)	—
38		Luke Bast	Junior	D	5' 10" (1.78 m)	178 lb (81 kg)	2000-11-28	Red Deer, Alberta	North Dakota (NCHC)	—
39		Connor McMenamin	Graduate	F	5' 11" (1.8 m)	185 lb (84 kg)	1999-02-25	Collegeville, Pennsylvania	Penn State (Big Ten)	—

^[6]

Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 11 or 25.^[7]
Note: USA Today did not release a poll in week 12.