Spartans' Howard Provides Reason for Senior Season Return
Michigan State junior forward Isaac Howard has already announced that he will be returning for his senior season in 2025-26, following a historic season that solidified him as one of the greatest players in program history. He gave some insight on his decision to return to East Lansing.
Howard joined Barstool Sports' hockey spin-off podcast, "Game Notes," an extension of the award-winning "Spittin' Chiclets" podcast with Mike Grinnell and former NHL draft pick, Matt Murley in St. Louis, prior to participating in the NCAA hockey award presentation on Friday night.
Howard provided comments on his decision to return to Michigan State instead of joining the Tampa Bay Lightning, the team that drafted him 31st overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. He is not the only future NHL'er that has decided to return as future Red Wings goaltender Trey Augustine will be back.
"I don't want to get into it too much, I just feel like with me and Tampa, we didn't see eye-to-eye the same way as I thought maybe we would," Howard said. "It wasn't a situation where I was demanding to step right into the NHL, it wasn't anything like that, but it just didn't necessarily work out and coming back to Michigan State is unreal.
" ... Trey's [Augustine] coming back, that fired me up obviously, he could have left for sure, but he's going to be a brick wall for us again, so it's fun."
The second-year Spartan revealed the redemption that he is seeking in the national tournament. The Spartans were upset in the first round of this year's tournament, falling to Cornell in Toledo. Howard knows this group has more in the tank and seeks a Frozen Four in Las Vegas, next year.
"It's just a fun like unique opportunity," Howard said. "College is a special time of your life and I've absolutely loved that at Michigan State. We want to win that national championship, that's our goal, would there be a better place to win it than Las Vegas? I don't think so, so we might as well go and do it."
Howard did not know it yet, but he would end up winning the Hobey Baker and being named First Team All-American. He finished the season with a career-high 38 goals and 41 assists for a spectacular 79 points. The fact that he is returning to East Lansing is a blessing after what he did.
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