Former Arizona State Hockey Players Making Noise In NHL's First Week
As Arizona State heads in to their 12th season of NCAA Division 1 hockey, they can look up to the pros and see an already impressive crop of alumni performing at the highest level.
The program has produced four players that have reached the NHL, and plenty more in the American Hockey League. With their professional season's just dropping the puck, some are already off to a hot start.
Paving The Path
Joey Daccord was a trailblazer once already for Arizona State. He tended the goal for the Sun Devil's first full season in division 1, led them to their first NCAA tournament appearance, hold countless records, and was the program's first ever jersey number retiree last season. Now, playing for the Seattle Kraken, he sets the pace for future Sun Devils to follow, as the most succesful NHLer to date.
Through two starts for the newest NHL franchise, Daccord is 2-0, which ties him for the league lead in wins. He's also boasts an astounding .962 save percentage, and 1.00 goals against average, which are second and first in the league, respectively, among goaltenders with multiple starts. That puts him in the same breath as former Veniza winners like Igor Shesterkin and Andrei Vasilvelskiy.
Daccord is in the second year of a five year, $25 million contract extension he signed before the 2025-26 season. That has his outside the top 20 earners at his position, according to Front Office Sports, as he has been a diamond in the rough find for the Kraken, who are still finding their footing as they begin their sixth season in the NHL.
While all these numbers would be by far career bests for Daccord, it's not totally out of the blue to see performances like this from the 30 year old goaltender. Since establishing himself as a full time NHL goalie in 2023, Daccord has recorded a .906 save percentage and a 2.75 GAA. Turning in those numbers while starting 154 contests puts him in an impressive category of NHL goalies over that span, comprable to big names like Ilya Sorokin or Jake Oettinger.
Like Father, Like Son
The only other active NHL player to graudate from Arizona State is Josh Doan, son of Arizona Coyotes legend Shane Doan. Josh, beginning his NHL journey with the same club his father did in 2023-24, has since moved on to the Buffalo Sabres, and flourished a season ago.
In his first season in Buffalo, Doan featured in all 82 games, tallying career mark in nearly very catagory, including goals(25), assists(27), points(52) and time on ice(15:52 per game). His performance earned him a large payday mid season, when he signed a seven year, $48 million contract extention.
While Doan is still searching for his first point in the 2026-27 campaign, he has been getting substantial ice time for the Sabres again this year. Playing on the team's top line with Joshua Norris and United State Olympian Tage Thompson, Doan has seen 37:12 of ice time through two games, and is a +1 with 4 shots on goal. With a large financial commitment and a top line opportunity on the defending Atlantic division champions, Doan will have every opportunity to push Daccord for the title of best pro Sun Devil this season.
AHLers On The Rise
Despite just a few players having reached the pinnacle, there are plenty of Sun Devils fighting their way up the ranks in the primary affliate league of the NHL.
Artem Schlaine, who tallied 38 points in 31 games in 2024-25 for the Sun Devils, has collected an assist in each of his first two games this season for the Texas Stars(Affiliate of the NHLs Dallas Stars). He's already building well off of a 19 goal, 19 assist season last year in 67 games for the Texas Stars as well.
Robert Mastrosimone has carved out a spot with the Charlotte Checkers, signing a one way deal with the Florida Panthers affliate following a 32 point season across 49 games in 2025-26. He's played the first two games of the season but hasn't record a point yet.
Both Ty Murchison and and Noah Powell are back for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms(Affliate of the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers) after successful first seasons, and looking to build on their season of six and four points, respectively.
After starting just two games for the Milwaukee Admirals(Affliate of the NHL's Nashville Predators), and spending most of the year in the ECHL, TJ Semptimphelter is now a full time member of the "Ads" and awaiting his first start of the season. He played two very succesful season with the Sun Devils prior to transferring to North Dakota for his final season in the NCAA.
To keep tabs on all the Sun Devils in the NHL, Daccord is expected to get his next start on Tuesday, October 6th, against the Vegas Golden Knights, while Josh Doan and the Sabres battle the Minnesota Wild on October 6th as well.
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Fletcher Anderson is a 2025 graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State, and have been reporting for newspapers and writing sports columns since 2018. He began a sports column for the Lake Minnetonka Navigator, when he was still a sophomore in high school. Since then, he has written for teams, schools, newspapers and digital sites, including Cronkite News at Arizona State. In that role he covered area high school sports as well as the Arizona State athletics. He began contributing to On SI in 2026.