ASU Hockey: Sun Devils announce leadership group

ASU hockey named their leadership group with Brinson Pasichnuk and Tyler Busch named co-captains with Anthony Croston and Dominic Garcia as alternates.

Arizona State hockey will kick off its third full NCAA D-I season with a weekend series at Oceanside Ice Arena against the University of Alaska-Fairbanks on Saturday and Sunday. When the Sun Devils take the ice, they will be led by a duo of new co-captains.

After two years of transfer forward Dylan Hollman wearing the “C”, the redshirt senior will pass the torch to two juniors from Sun Devil Hockey’s inaugural freshman class: Brinson Pasichnuck and Tyler Busch. Senior Anthony Croston and sophomore Dominic Garcia will continue to wear the “A” for the Sun Devils this season.

Head coach Greg Powers named Tyler Busch a co-captain in late September, promoting the junior forward out of Alberta who joined the Sun Devils after dominating the AJHL wearing the “C” for the Spruce Grove Saints.

Busch brings a harder style of leadership than his co-captain, and that is part of why Powers gave him the opportunity to wear the captain’s letter on his jersey.

“Buschy will tell guys what they don’t want to hear,” Powers said at Tuesday’s practice, “And you need that out of your leaders.”

While Busch is quick to constructively criticize his teammates, co-captain Brinson Pasichnuk leads in a very different way.

“I truly care about these guys, and I want to be a captain that doesn’t just care for them at the rink,” Pasichnuk said. “I want to be the guy that people will come to if they’re having family troubles, or relationship issues, or anything.”

When Powers named Pasichnuk a captain in July, he knew that was the style of leadership he would be getting out of the Canadian defenseman.

“Brinson is the ultimate teammate,” Powers said, adding that the team voted Pasichnuck the “best teammate” at the end of the previous season.

Powers is more than excited to see the good cop, bad cop leadership team in action.

“Brinson and Buschy came in at the same time, and they both bring a different leadership style to the table. It’s a really good mix with those two,” Powers said of his captains.

Powers praised the job done by Dylan Hollman manufacturing leadership in a completely new program the previous two seasons, but felt that 2018-19 was finally the season to go with a new, more natural leadership group.

The only part of the leadership group that remained the same is the alternate captains. According to Powers, sophomore Dom Garcia has the ultimate leader from the get go, and Anthony Croston’s growth from local walk-on to scholarship player with a major role in the program is “too much to look past” when deciding on the leadership team.

Sun Devil Hockey is a family, and the chemistry on the ice and in the locker room starts with the leadership, which is something known by all four of the players with a letter on their chest.

Pasichnuk, who strives to be the hardest worker on the ice, wanted to make one thing clear.

“As we grow closer as a family on this team, that’s really going to translate to a lot more wins this year. ”

All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand by Devils in Detail unless otherwise noted.