2023–24 Vermont Catamounts men's ice hockey season

The 2023–24 Vermont Catamounts men's ice hockey season was the 68th season of play for the program, the 51st at the Division I level and the 40th in Hockey East. The Catamounts represented the University of Vermont, played their home games at the Gutterson Fieldhouse and were coached by Steve Wiedler in his 1st season.

Season

During the summer, Todd Woodcroft was fired after an internal investigation by the college determine that the coach had exchanged inappropriate text messages with a student. Because the investigation had taken four months, by the time it concluded there was relatively little time to conduct a hiring search before this season. The Athletic department chose simply to promote Steve Wiedler to interim head coach and keep the rest of the staff in place.

With off ice issues settled for the moment, the team set about fixing their biggest problem; the lack of offense. The '23 Catamounts were one of the worst scoring team in the country, averaging less than 2 goals per game for the season. With that in mind it was perhaps a good thing that there were so many new faces for the program in '24. The team had trouble out of the gate with the new roster and coach struggling to find consistency. Vermont, too, was hampered by the vast strides for the rest of the conference as Hockey East was the top ranked league in college hockey that season. However, despite the difficulties, the Catamounts were able to take a step forward and climb out of the cellar.

The offense saw a slight improvement as the year went on with Jens Richards making huge strides in his game. The forward went from 4 points as a freshman to leading the team in his sophomore season. While the overall numbers weren't outstanding, the more-than 5-fold improvement was not something to be discounted. In goal, Gabe Carriere held the fort and kept Vermont in the game on most nights. Even when facing nationally ranked teams, the Catamounts proved to be a tough team to beat and they managed to win their fair share of games. By the end of the season, Vermont was 9th in the standings but, with how difficult their schedule had been, they were in the middle of the PairWise rankings. While the dearth of offensives punch cost them in the playoffs, the team had progressed and looked better than they had in years.

Departures

Recruiting

Roster

As of July 18, 2023.

Standings

Schedule and results

Scoring statistics

Goaltending statistics

Rankings

Note: USCHO did not release a poll in weeks 11 and 25.
Note: USA Today did not release a poll in week 12.

References