The third program in FloHockey’s State of the Program lineup sees Alaska Anchorage join Alabama Huntsville and Alaska Fairbanks with a new bench boss heading into the 2018-19 season.

The Seawolves are looking to move away from four straight 20-loss seasons and seven over their last 10 with the hiring of new coach Matt Curley. Curley has been behind a bench to some degree since 2011.

His resume includes four years as an assistant with various development squads with Team USA as well as stints in the USHL, NCAA, and Austria’s Alps Hockey League.

The Seawolves announced Curley’s hiring in April as the program’s new head coach.

“Matt exemplifies what Team USA is about, pride, work ethic, intelligence and passion to do things the right way,” former USNDP coach, Don Granato, told UAA Media Relations. “Matt is a great leader. When we worked together with Team USA I gave him the freedom to work with players as a group and individually because of his ability to communicate and motivate players.”

After a 4-26-4 record in 2017-18, the Seawolves will head into the new season without four of their top six scorers from last year. Seven total seniors will be moving on, which includes goaltender Olivier Mantha, who started at least 29 games in each of his four years with the team.

On the surface, the starting role belongs to sophomore Brody Claeys, who went 0-3-0 in seven games last season with a .898 save percentage and 3.34 goals against average as the only other goalie to play after Mantha. But Claeys will have a challenge with sophomore Kristian Stead, who would have earned some playing time had he not suffered a season-ending injury at the beginning of the 2017-18 campaign.

The two will also be joined by incoming freshman Eric Szudor. At 21 years old, Szudor may be past the typical growing pains of a freshman. He spent the last three years with the AJHL’s Fort McMurray Oil Barons, posting a .908 SV% and 2.94 GAA compiling a 75-33-10 record. Szudor was a nominee for Top Goaltender in the AJHL following the Barons season.

Eric Szudor has committed to @UAAHockey starting next season! Congrats Eric! Full details --> https://t.co/0WzvDlhcfh #ymm #AJHL pic.twitter.com/m1zbpqAsLk

— McMurray Oil Barons (@MOBHockey) October 19, 2017

A pair of NAHL graduates in Andrew Lane (Shreveport Mudbugs) and Tanner Schachle (Fairbanks Ice Dogs) joins two former BCHL players in Zach Court (Merritt Centennials) and Jared Nash (Penticton Vees) as the four newcomers up front. The four bring a variety of offense, grit, and winning experience.

Defenseman Malcolm Hayes is a senior transfer after three seasons with the University of Maine Black Bears while freshman Drayson Pears joins from the BCHL’s Victoria Grizzlies.

With Hayes marking the lone senior on the team, Curley will have a very young team at his will this year, and while drastic change in the overall record shouldn’t be expected, he should be able to lay a solid foundation for 2019-20 by bringing back largely the same team.

The Seawolves have a long way to go to get back to the ultimate goal of the NCAA Tournament. They haven’t earned a bid since 1992, their eighth year as a Division I team, but Curley could finally be the answer to moving the program forward.

Have a question or a comment for Jacob Messing? You can find him on Twitter @Jacob_Messing.