ORONO – University of Maine men’s hockey captain Michel Leveille wasn’t the only Black Bear who had offseason surgery.

Three other veteran Bear forwards had surgical procedures as left wing Mike Hamilton had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, left wing Billy Ryan had his right ankle repaired, and right wing Keith Johnson had his left shoulder fixed.

Their injuries hampered them last season but all three still managed to play in at least 30 of Maine’s 42 games.

Hamilton, who served a lengthy suspension for an off-ice incident and had arthroscopic surgery in both knees while sitting out his suspension during the Christmas break, had one goal and 10 assists in 30 games. Ryan had 10 goals and 18 assists in 36 games, and Johnson had 6 & 7 in 39 games.

Hamilton and Johnson are seniors while Ryan is a junior.

Despite their ailments, they were all in the lineup in the Frozen Four when Maine suffered a 5-2 semifinal loss to eventual national champion Wisconsin.

They are looking forward to getting a healthy and productive start to the season, although Ryan’s status is questionable for the Oct. 6 opener against Minnesota.

“Those three players are in position to make a bigger impact on the team this year simply by being healthy,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead at media day Wednesday. “I’m excited for those guys to have the opportunity to attack the season in better health. Bill Ryan is not at 100 percent yet, but at least he’s heading in the right direction in that area. That will be a potential big boost for us.”

Ryan, who began skating last week, said the ankle “bothered me big-time last year. It started bothering me halfway through the season and kept getting worse.

“There were micro-tears in the tendon and they had to clean it out and sew up the tendon. Hopefully, I’ll be out there by the Minnesota game. The doctors told me not to rush back into it because it could take its toll in the long run.”

He said he should eventually be 100 percent and that “I just want to do whatever I can to help the team win.”

Hamilton and Johnson are expected to be ready for the opener.

“My knee is good to go,” said Hamilton. “It was tough mentally last year because I couldn’t do a lot of the stuff I wanted to do like lifting weights. The knee would get sore and I’d have to ice it. It took its toll after a while.

“I’m glad that’s out of the way and I can just focus on playing now. I think it’s going to be a good year. We’ve got some good freshmen and a good senior class and everyone is looking to make a good run this year.”

Johnson suffered his shoulder injury early last season, “but I didn’t want to have surgery then because I would have lost a lot of the year.

“I played with it, but it was always on the back of my mind. I thought I did fairly well with it, but I’m glad I got it [surgery] out of the way so I can go out there with nothing on my mind other than playing hockey.”

He said his surgery was to “clean out a bone chip” and he spent much of the summer rehabilitating the shoulder.

“It’s feeling good. I’m ready to go,” said Johnson.

Senior left wing Josh Soares said, “If they can improve on what they did last year, that’ll be great. We’re expecting it out of them. They’re going to be in leadership roles this year so, hopefully, they can get the job done.”

Leveille said all three have proven to be in good shape during testing and that’s good news.

“We need a guy like Johnson who can play in every situation, Billy is a skilled guy who can make plays, and Mike, even if he doesn’t score goals, can be a presence on the ice every shift,” said Leveille.

Marshall moving to defense

Sophomore winger Jeff Marshall, who played in eight games last year, is being moved to defense this season.

He did play defense in one of those eight games.

“I’m really looking forward to it. In the game I played on defense against Providence, I felt really comfortable,” said Marshall. “And the guys really helped me out. I played defense in practice quite a bit filling in for guys who got injured.”

Marshall said he was informed by the coaching staff last spring that he could be moved to defense, so he played defense this summer in his native Saskatchewan.

Whitehead said he was impressed with Marshall’s play on defense last year and “this is a great opportunity for him to increase his role on the team.”

Marshall said he “learns a lot every day” from his teammates and his main focus is going to be on his defensive zone coverage.