GRAND
FORKS, N.D. – University
of North Dakota Men’s Hockey Coach Dave Hakstol announced today that senior
defenseman Dillon Simpson has been named team captain for the
2013-14 season. Hakstol also announced that junior forwards Michael Parks
and Stephane Pattyn will serve as assistant
captains.
Simpson,
a native of Edmonton, Alberta, has collected nine goals and 43 assists in 114
career games. Last season he was named UND’s Most Improved Player after leading
the team’s defensemen with a career-high five goals and 19 assists in 42 games.
In his three years as a collegian, Simpson has helped lead UND to three straight
NCAA regional championship game appearances and a 2010-11 berth in the NCAA
Frozen Four.
A
managerial finance and corporate accounting major, Simpson was a three-time
All-WCHA Academic Team selection and a two-time WCHA Scholar-Athlete. He was a
fourth-round draft pick (92nd overall) of the Edmonton Oilers in 2011. Simpson’s
father, Craig, won two Stanley Cups with Edmonton during a 10-year National
Hockey League career that also included stops in Pittsburgh and
Buffalo.
Parks,
a native of St. Louis, Mo., was UND’s Rookie of the Year in 2011-12 when he
collected 12 goals and 10 assists in 42 games. Last season he scored seven goals
and one assist in an injury-plagued season that limited him to just 25 games. A
general studies major, Parks has received UND’s Engelstad Family Foundation
Endowment in each of the last two seasons. He was selected by Philadelphia in
the fifth round (149th overall) of the 2010 NHL
draft.
Pattyn,
who hails from Ste. Anne, Manitoba, has missed just one game through his first
two seasons at UND, amassing six goals and five assists in 83 games. Last
season, both of Pattyn’s goals came against top-12 opponents, while three of his
four goals as a freshman in 2011-12 were game-winners. An entrepreneurship
major, Pattyn has previous captaincy experience having served as team captain
for Portage in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in 2010-11 before arriving at
UND.
UND
takes to the ice for the first time on Sunday, Oct. 6, when it hosts the
University of Manitoba in exhibition action. The regular season begins the
following weekend when non-conference foe Vermont visits Ralph Engelstad Arena
Oct. 11-12.
