The Bulldogs return 20 letter-winners for the 2010-11 sea­son, includ­ing eight seniors, eight juniors, and four sophomores.

Ferris lost six key con­trib­u­tors to the team’s offense, includ­ing point-leader Blair Riley. The team also lost two-year cap­tain Cody Chupp and seniors Casey Haines and Aaron Lewicki. However, Ferris will still have the major­ity of its offense intact.

Ferris returns senior Todd Pococke, who tal­lied five goals and seven assists last sea­son, along with senior Mike Fillinger. Sophomore right wing Matthew Kirzinger had a nine goals and five assists sea­son last year. Kirzinger was given the Ferris State University Rookie of the Year award last season.

Senior left wing Mike Embach will look to repeat last season’s per­for­mance, in which he com­piled nine goals and 11 assists. Senior cen­ter Justin Menke scored eight times last sea­son, four of which were dur­ing power play sit­u­a­tions, and assisted on 10 goals.

“Menke is some­one that we’re going to look to step up for us this sea­son and I know he’s capa­ble of doing so,” said head coach Bob Daniels.

Also return­ing for the Bulldogs is junior Jordie Johnston and sopho­mores Eric Alexander, Travis Ouellette and Kyle Bonis. Junior cen­ter Derek Graham scored two goals and 11 assists for the Bulldogs a sea­son ago.

“I see the defense being our main strength, but then every year some for­wards step up,” said Graham.

On the defen­sive side, senior defense­man Zach Redmond, who is fresh out of off­sea­son train­ing with the Atlanta Thrashers, will be return­ing after record­ing a team-high 21 assists last season.

Redmond tal­lied 27 points to lead all Ferris defense­man a sea­son ago. He scored five pow­er­play goals last sea­son, includ­ing three game-winners.

Redmond earned a spot on the 2009-10 CCHA Preseason All-Conference Honorable Mention team. He is ranked 10^th in plus/minus rat­ing in school his­tory with a plus 19 rating.

Senior defense­man Scott Wietecha racked up 11 points last sea­son that totaled from one goal and 10 assists per­for­mance. The Bulldogs also return junior defense­men Brett Wysopal, Michael Trebish, Aaron Schmit and Tommy Hill. The new­comer to the defen­sive group is fresh­man Scott Czarnowczan of Macomb.

Rounding out the defen­sive unit is Chad Billins, a junior who played 40 games dur­ing his sopho­more sea­son. Billins snagged three goals and eight assists dur­ing the 2009-10 season.