ITHACA, N.Y. — With the start of the 2016-17 season two months away, the men's hockey team has announced that senior forward Jake Weidner will serve as its captain and senior forward Jeff Kubiak and senior defenseman Patrick McCarron will be alternate captains.
 
"All three young men are well respected by their peers. Each of them over time has developed the attributes to carry on the tradition of Cornell hockey," said Mike Schafer, the Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey.
 
Weidner is coming off a 2015-16 season in which he set a career high with 15 points on five goals and 10 assists. He led the team with a 56.0 percent success rate on faceoffs, and his 34 blocked shots led the team's forward corps. He scored two goals and added an assist for three points in three games of an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series at Quinnipiac at the end of the season.
 
Also donning a letter is a fellow Ontario native in McCarron, who was one of just two Cornell defensemen to appear in all 34 of the team's games last season. He recorded a career-high 12 points on two goals and 10 assists. Both of his goals came in consecutive games against Colgate in November when he was a plus-5 on the weekend. He also added three games in which he recorded two assists, including the Red Hot Hockey game against Boston University on Nov. 28 at Madison Square Garden. McCarron continued to be a pivotal contributor of the Big Red's penalty-killing units. An NHL free agent, McCarron attended the Detroit Red Wings' prospect development camp this summer.
 
The other 'A' goes to Kubiak, who enjoyed a breakthrough campaign last year. He led the Big Red in scoring with 27 points on 10 goals and a team-best 17 assists. Kubiak's most memorable goal came on Dec. 28, when he potted a rebound to lift the Big Red to an overtime victory over Providence — the defending national champion that was still undefeated at the time. He also led the team with a plus-15 rating and four game-winning goals. The pivot of the 'JAM' line between freshmen wingers Mitch Vanderlaan and Anthony Angello, Kubiak was also solid in the faceoff circle with a 54.7 percent success rate on draws. Also an NHL free agent, Kubiak was the only player from the Ivy League and one of just 11 players nationally to participate in two NHL prospect development camps over the summer (Arizona Coyotes and New York Islanders).