University of Maine freshman left winger Liam Pecararo has decided to leave the program and return to the United States Hockey League in the hopes of playing at another college for the 2016-17 season.
Under NCAA transfer rules, a player must sit out a full season if he transfers from one Division I institution to another.
He will have three years of eligibility remaining.
Pecararo scored three goals and added six assists in 25 games for the Black Bears last season. He was chosen the Hockey East Rookie of the Week after an Oct. 31-Nov. 1 sweep of Massachusetts.
He was minus-three in the plus-minus category.
But Pecararo did not dress for the final nine games and was briefly suspended by head coach Red Gendron for a violation of team rules before he was reinstated.
He said he will return to play for Waterloo of the USHL where he had 20 goals and 41 assists in 54 regular-season games during the 2013-14 before notching four goals and 10 assists in 12 playoff games.
“It was a difficult decision because you don’t know what you’re stepping into once you leave,” said Pecararo, a native of Canton, Massachusetts. “It came down to what is best for me in my hockey career, and I decided to go back to where I am comfortable.”
He said he talked at length about it with his parents, Allen and Karen.
“It was a family decision,” he said.
The 5-foot-11, 164-pound Pecararo noted that by returning to the USHL rather than seeking to transfer to another school and sitting out a year, that will give him more options for 2016-17.
“I’ll be able to rethink things and get a grip on where I want to play. I’ll see what is the best fit for me,” said Pecararo.
Despite being suspended and a healthy scratch over the final nine games, Pecararo said he learned a lot in his season at Maine.
“I had the opportunity to see guys four, five and even six years older than me and how they did things and carried themselves on and off the ice. I learned how people apply themselves in the classroom. What you do off the ice correlates to what you do on the ice,” said Pecararo.
He said he made a lot of friendships among his teammates.
“I loved every single kid on the team. We were all brothers. We were a very close-knit group,” said Pecararo.
He said he looks forward to taking what he learned at Maine and applying it to his play in the USHL.
He credited Gendron with “helping me out a lot.”
“I had my ups and downs. We had a lot of conversations off the ice. He really did care about me as a person. We had a pretty close relationship off the ice. He loves his players and cares about them,” said Pecararo.
“I wish him all the best in his athletic and academic future,” Gendron said.