SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – The Union College men's hockey team announced its team award winners for the 2025-26 season, with six student-athletes earning recognition for their play on the ice and dedication to the program off the ice.
Senior Brandon Buhr was named the recipient of the Thomas Van Arden Dukehart Academic Award for the third straight season, an award presented to the player with the highest grade point average. He also was selected as the team's most outstanding player after tying for the team lead in goals (19) and assists (17). Six of his scores served as game-winners, marking the third-most in Division-I men's hockey. His seven power-play goals were the seventh-most nationally. The economics major was the runner up for the ECAC Hockey's Scholar-Athlete of the Year award and signed a professional contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 18.
Sophomore Lucas Buzziol won the Scott Richardson Unsung Hero Award. The forward played every game this season and has an active Ironman streak of 60 games dating back to his first season in Schenectady. Centering Union's first or second line most of the year, he scored 14 goals with 13 assists, recording at least one point in 19 of Union's 37 games. Buzziol enjoyed an eight-game point streak in the back-half of the season, becoming just the 14th Union men's hockey player with a point streak of eight games or longer since 2005-06.
Sophomore Drew Sutton earned the Charlie N. Morrison Award for the second year in a row, given annually to a player who participates in extracurricular activities while demonstrating academic interest and achievement. On the ice, the sophomore played in 33 games and scored three goals with seven assists for a single-season career-high 10 points. He is a member of Union's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and the Scholars' Program.
AHCA All-America East second teamer junior Tyler Dunbar was named the winner of the Coaches Award. The transfer from Colorado College produced one of the finest seasons by a Union blueliner in the team's history with a program-record 12 goals while also scoring 33 points, tied for the fifth-most in a season by a Union defender. His 12 goals were tied for the second most among all DI defensemen in 2025-26, and his 33 points were the fifth most.
Dunbar's primary pairing on the blue line, first-year Etienne Lessard, received the team's Rookie of the Year award after a 24-point season featuring 19 assists. Lessard recorded four of those assists in one game against Clarkson on Feb. 7. He produced the ninth 4+ assist game in Union's DI history and first since Cole Maier '19 against St. Cloud State in 2019. Lessard became the 11th player in the country at the time to have a 4+ assists game during the 2025-26 campaign and was the first rookie defender to do so. Of his five goals in 2025-26, three came on the power play.
First-year forward Troy Pelton earned the team's Most Improved Player Award. The Clifton Park, N.Y. product recorded an assist in his debut on Oct. 18 against Niagara and scored his first collegiate goal on Jan. 16 versus Brown. Pelton recorded six points across his final nine games of the season, bringing his first-year total to two goals and seven assists.
