WATERVILLE — When he saw the sweater hanging in his stall hours before the first game of his collegiate hockey career, Michael Thomas thought somebody was playing a joke.

“I was a little confused. I didn’t know if it was a prank or something,” Thomas said this week ahead of the Colby College season opener on Friday night at Williams College. “I’m like, ‘I’m the one who’s supposed to be playing, right?’ It was pretty funny.”

The nameplate on the sweater said “THONAS,” a notable ’n’ where the ‘m’ belonged in the Park Ridge, Illinois native’s surname. It’s safe to assume that’s not an oversight that will be made again, with Thomas — pun intended — certainly having made a name for himself with the Mules as a rookie.

A solid case could be made Thomas is Colby’s best all-around defenseman heading into this weekend’s opening slate of New England Small College Athletic Conference games. After skating alongside departed former captain Thomas Stahlhuth for most of last winter, Thomas headed into preseason workouts this fall eager to take his game to the next level.

“I did a lot of lifting this summer,” Thomas said, noting that the size and strength of players around the NESCAC was what jumped out most to him a year ago. “I made sure to get a lot stronger coming into this season, and I also played a lot of hockey. Not so much at the beginning of the summer but at the end, I did a lot of skating with some pretty good players. I feel pretty strong.”

Thomas is hardly alone.

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Sophomores like Austen Halpin and Velan Nandhakumaran should contribute regularly alongside Thomas on the Mules’ blue line in 2019-20, and the forward crew is littered with second-year skaters poised for breakout seasons.

Among those forwards are winger Logan Clarke, who finished fourth in the team in scoring as a freshman, and center Michael Morrissey. Morrissey’s eight goals were second on the team a year ago, behind NESCAC first-team all-star senior Nick O’Connor.

Even with some early success in his Colby career, Morrissey admits that he never felt truly comfortable last season.

“Definitely. I was always uncomfortable last year. I definitely grew up,” said Morrissey, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. “(The season) is a grind. Every game’s competitive, and you’ve got to be going all the time.

“If you’re going to see a big jump in people’s games, it is typically always that sophomore year,” Colby head coach Blaise MacDonald said. “It’s kind of a sweet spot for human development as a hockey player.

“Now you’re equipped with no excuses. You’ve been through it. You know the balance between academics and athletics, you know the competitive nature of the league and you know the culture of your team.”

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Colby graduated three seniors from last year’s 10-10-5 team which finished sixth in the NESCAC. O’Connor, Stahlhuth and Zack Hale, though key contributors, represent just a third of what graduated two seasons ago from the Mule’s NCAA Division III Frozen Four run. Given so many new faces were plugged into the lineup from the opening puck drop a year ago, that time learning the ropes at the college level should pay dividends this year.

MacDonald said he never coached last winter with an eye on the future, but in hindsight understands that there may have been hidden benefit.

“I’m not much of a forecaster,” MacDonald said. “But then when you look backwards, you say, ‘Oh, so and so got a lot of experience here and should be able do well in this role.’ Or we had a lot of seniors, so you might say, ‘This guy did a little of that but could really step into that more now.’ You can be a little more intentional in their roles going forward when you look backwards.”

Thomas certainly thinks last year’s learning curve was a good thing.

“I think (last year) was a little bit of a blur. Your first season, everything is so new,” Thomas said. “You just get hit so quick with everything that it goes by pretty fast.

“There’s a good core group here that understands the mentality and how we’re supposed to play and what not. I think we’ve done a good job turning that over to the new guys that are coming in.”

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