Previewing SU ice hockey’s 2026-27 season, Brian Idalski’s debut campaign
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New Syracuse ice hockey head coach Brian Idalski isn’t joining a long list of SU head coaches. On July 14, he became just the third in program history.
The Orange had their first-ever coaching change after their last NCAA Tournament appearance, conference championship and winning season, when program architect Paul Flanagan retired in March 2022. Nearly a half-decade later, Idalski is tasked with returning Syracuse to contention.
SU begins its 2026-27 campaign this weekend with home tilts against Stonehill. Syracuse has advanced to the semifinals of the first two Atlantic Hockey America Tournaments, but as the conference enters its third season, SU remains a couple cuts below the class of the conference.
Last season, Syracuse finished 15-18-4 overall and fifth in the AHA at 10-11-3, one win behind Lindenwood and RIT. In the single-elimination AHA Tournament quarterfinals, the Orange beat the Tigers 4-3 before they were swept by No. 3 Penn State in the semifinals.
But a coaching change means shifting expectations. A team’s first few games under a first-year head coach are often judged by their substance and not results. Is the team tough to play against? Are its efforts consistent? Is it playing with structure?
Idalski has avoided adding any “undue pressure” to his players while they’re still learning his expectations amid a new system. Instead, his mindset has been more process-oriented. Idalski said on Sept. 2 that his focus is on habits and allowing the big picture goals — like matching up with Penn State, which Idalski described as AHA’s “gold standard” — to become the byproduct of daily diligence.
“When you walk into a situation, the things that the people inside of the organization want are always the same things,” Idalski said during AHA’s preseason media availability. “It’s always clear communication, the opportunity to have conversations, feel valued, have clear expectations, standards, and they want to be held accountable by someone who they can care about, that they feel cares about them and communicates clearly.”
Accountability. Conversations. Culture. It’s similar to what Idalski’s predecessor, Britni Smith, said when she took over the program in 2022. That tracks. Idalski has said himself there’s no secret sauce.
But what about the hockey?
Idalski has a track record of turning around flailing programs. In 2007, he took over a three-win North Dakota team. By 2010-11, he’d guided the program to a 20-win campaign — the second winning season in North Dakota’s history.
In 2022, Idalski accepted the head coaching position at St. Cloud State. Before Idalski’s arrival, the Huskies had won fewer than 10 games in all but two of their last 12 seasons. In his first year, he doubled SCSU’s win total from nine to 18 and was named the U.S. College Hockey Online National Coach of the Year.
Coming off consecutive 15-win campaigns and AHA Semifinal berths — and only four years removed from its last NCAA Tournament appearance — Syracuse is the most successful college program Idalski’s inherited yet.
Still, there’s a wide gap between Syracuse and AHA’s best.
AHA, formed when the Atlantic Hockey Association and College Hockey America merged before the 2024-25 season, remains in its infancy. SU has spent the conference’s first two seasons tangled up with RIT and Lindenwood in the middle of the league’s standings.
Penn State and Mercyhurst, meanwhile, have separated themselves from the pack as nationally-ranked programs, slotting alongside top teams from older, more cutthroat conferences like the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
It’s fitting, then, that Idalski, in his most recent NCAA stop, spent three seasons in the WCHA, home to both last season’s national champion (Wisconsin) and runner-up (Ohio State).
At St. Cloud State from 2022-25, 53% of the games Idalski coached were against ranked opponents. In that span, he coached in a higher proportion of games against teams ranked in the top five of the country (36%) than Syracuse played against opponents of any rank (32%).
But that’s all big picture.
First come smaller focuses. Like fixing Syracuse’s special teams — a power play (12.4%, sixth in AHA) and penalty kill (74.6%, seventh) that ranked in the bottom half of the conference. Of note, SCSU’s power play improved by more than 10% and its penalty kill by more than 8% in Year 1 under Idalski.
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Or allowing fewer shots past Syracuse’s defense. Sophomore Ava Drabyk faced more rubber than any other goalie in AHA, making a conference-high 926 saves.
A dominant Drabyk performance was behind every marquee SU win. She saved 31 pucks in Syracuse’s shootout upset of Mercyhurst on Nov. 21. She made 27 saves in another shootout win over the then-No. 13 Lakers on Feb. 13. And a whopping 48 in SU’s shock of then-No. 5 Cornell, again in a shootout, on Nov. 25.
Or simply scoring more goals. Syracuse was one of just two AHA teams to average fewer than two goals per game, scoring 1.86. The Orange averaged a competitive 29.8 shots on goal but lacked finish all season, registering a conference-low 6.3% shooting percentage.
Or maybe even smaller focuses. Like effort and diligence and routine.
“Really, that’s what we’re looking for out of this club,” Idalski said. “That is just a compete level that is consistent. That’s tough to play against.”
