Minnesota Adds Experienced Goalie Souliere from Portal
Minneapolis, Minn. — Minnesota head coach Bob Motzko has been cautious with dipping into the transfer portal, but he’s always said that grabbing an experienced goaltender can make a lot of sense for teams and this offseason Liam Souliere made a lot of sense for the Gophers. Souliere is a 25-year-old college hockey veteran that played 84 games for Penn State and 109 games of junior hockey in Canada. He’ll join the Minnesota roster for the 2024-25 providing competition for rising sophomore Nathan Aiery who played in just three games for the Gophers after recovering from a lower body injury.
Airey was a standout goalie for Cranbrook in the BCHL for three seasons, played 100 games for the Bucks and was named the BCHL’s top goaltender in 2022-23. The 6’ 3” goaltender turns 21-years-old next week and while the Minnesota coaching staff is excited about what he can bring to 3M Arena at Mariucci, the addition of Souliere gives them a veteran option in goal.
Souliere is from Brampton, Ontario and had his best season with the Nittany Lions as a junior when he posted a 2.43 GAA and .917 Sv%. The Canadian goalie has been described as a high character, hard working, student of the game with good reflexes and isn’t shy to play the puck.
His coach at Penn State Guy Gadowsky said Souliere’s junior season was one of the best performances in Penn State history and while the first half of the 2023-24 was rough, he felt the goalie was playing his best hockey at the end of the season.
The 5’ 11” Souliere is a three-time All-Big Ten academic honoree, was named to the Allentown Regional All-Tournament Team after nearly backstopping the Nittany Lions to the Frozen Four over Michigan in a 41 save effort and leaves Happy Valley near the top of many Penn State goalie records.
After the splash of Matthew Wood transferring to Minnesota from UConn and Jimmy Snuggerud announcing his return to the program for one more year, the Gophers have only a few question marks for their roster next season. One of them is if Owen Bartoszkiewicz will return to Dinkytown. The 6’ 1” goalie left his USHL Youngstown Phantoms team midway through the 2021-22 season to provide Minnesota with some depth in net after an unexpected early departure by Jack LaFontaine. He then played in six games for the Gophers during the 2022-23 season with a 3.72 GAA and .883 Sv% and elected to get more playing time during the 2023-24 season back in the USHL with Youngstown.
It was a rough season for Bartoszkiewicz in Youngstown posting a 3.01 GAA and .893 Sv% which led to him finishing the season with the Oklahoma Warriors in the NAHL where his numbers of 3.89 GAA and .874 Sv% were not much better. The Northville, Mich. goalie was promised a roster spot for Minnesota, but it’s still unknown if he will want to take it with the increased competition for playing time in net.
Update: Bartoszkiewicz did enter the portal on Wednesday afternoon so that teams can contact him.