At the same time we learned that Northeastern will be adding goaltender Lawton Zacher to their roster out of the transfer portal, we also learned that they will be adding defenseman Austen May as well. May played three seasons at Providence College and will finish his collegiate career on Huntington Avenue.
May is a 5-foot-11, 170 pound right-shot defenseman from Woodhaven, MI and will turn 22 in May. He played mainly on the Providence second pair last year on the right side, and got ice time both on the powerplay and penalty kill. Last year he played 34 games, scoring 14 points (1 goal), after playing 30 games and scoring 13 points (4 goals) as a sophomore. Providence weirdly had four defensemen score 14 points last year, so May tied for the PC scoring lead amongst blue liners. He had 61 shots on goal and 134 shot attempts (nearly 4 per game), tops among Friar defensemen. He averaged over 17 minutes of ice time per game, and blocked 23 shots. He only took three minor penalties all year, and his discipline is a skill he’s shown his whole collegiate career: he’s only taken seven penalties in his career to date over his three seasons.
Austen May has some of the best overall advanced analytics among defensemen in the portal that were available. He ranks in the 90th percentile for defensive play, 79th percentile for offense, and 65th percentile for transition play. His player card from PuckPreps is below, using data from InStat, but I want to highlight his defensive game percentiles at the top- the statistics show May to be excellent in shot suppression and in winning puck battles, getting the puck off opposing sticks and onto his own team’s sticks. From College Hockey Insider’s Mike McMahon: “May is an elite defender. He’s adequate offensively, but he really shines in the D zone and his ability to make efficient breakout passes coming out of the zone. He wins battles, forces turnovers, and shuts down opponents.”
As things stand with roster construction, we expect May to fill the role vacated by the graduating Jake Boltmann as the Huskies RD2 behind Vinny Borgesi, and be a pillar leaned on all season. Expect May to be relied upon on the penalty kill and for defensive zone faceoffs, and to be used as a neutralizer for opposing top sixes. He should bring more offensive ability than Boltmann as a byproduct of his propensity to shoot more (134 shot attempts last year to Boltmann’s 65), but Boltmann did put up 12 points in his one year as a Husky, roughly in line with what May has produced at Providence the last two years. The Huskies have had success with impact defensemen in the transfer portal the last few seasons, from Boltmann and Jo Lemay to Pito Walton to Tommy Miller. We expect May to be the next man up in that lineage.
Welcome Austen to Northeastern! As always, go Huskies!