October 17 - Game Preview
- Jody Cherneski
- Oct 15
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 15
Presented by Bham Now
The Birmingham Bulls open the 2025-2026 SPHL hockey season Friday night October 17 at the Pelham Civic Complex as defending Presidents Cup Champion Evansville will be up first. This marks the ninth season for the Bulls in the SPHL. While it will be a season of change hopefully it will also come with a change at the end of this season and bring a first championship ever to the Bulls family.
The most noticeable change will be in goal, where after six seasons with the Bulls, goaltender Austin Lotz has retired. His net protection won 55 games for the Bulls in the last three years which included 10 in the playoffs. Another big hit to the roster comes in the retirement of Taylor Brierley. Brierley arguably was the league's best defenseman the past two seasons.
Also gone from last seasons playoff roster is former leading goal scorer Carson Rose, Andrew Bellant, Troy MacTavish, Ben Higgins, Drake Glover, Nikita Kozyrev, Ryan Romeo, and Trevor Thurston. This year will be a real rebuilding effort for both Head Coach Craig Simchuk and Assistant Coach Kevin Kerr to undertake. The first part of the rebuild is done.
Fresh to the Bulls this season will be Jordan Gagnon (Peoria), Michael Herrera (Pensacola), Parker Saretsky (German League), Vadim Frolov (Federal League), Phillippe Caron (France 2 League), Kevni Sadovsky (Quad City), and rookies Doug Scott, Shawn Kennedy, Kyren Gronick, and Matt Wood.
Along with Hayden Stewart, Jacob Mucitelli will pair up in goal for the Bulls. Mucitelli played the last two seasons with Aurora University and spent time in the AHL with Hershey at the end of his college career.
NEXT HOME GAME: Friday, October 24 vs. Macon
It’s definitely going to be an interesting season for the Bulls with so many roster changes. Losing veterans like Lotz and Brierley is tough, but new faces always bring new energy. Hopefully, the rebuild pays off and they can make a solid playoff push. It kind of reminds me of Geometry Dash — you have to start over and keep trying new strategies until you finally get the perfect run.
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