Michigan State Hockey: Dennis Cesana signs two-year contract with Florida Panthers

Despite Michigan State hockey’s ridiculously disappointing season, which could only be described as an unmitigated disaster, we at The Only Colors have some good news to report.

Senior defenseman Dennis Cesana has signed a two-year AHL contract for the 2022-2023 season. The contract is with the Florida Panthers’ AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers. The Spartans’ captain is the third player that Florida signed heading into next year. He joins Xavier Cormier and Robert Calisti.

In 36 games this season, Cesana had eight goals and eight assists totaling 16 points. Throughout his career at Michigan State, Cesana scored 20 career goals and recorded 54 assists for a total of 74 points in 135 games played.

Cesana first joined Michigan State for the 2017-2018 season and was added to the Big Ten’s All-Freshman team right after the season. He had the most points by a freshman defenseman (24) since Jeff Petry in 2007-2008. Petry joined the Edmonton Oilers after graduating in 2010 and now plays for the Montreal Canadiens.

Cesana scored his first-ever game-winning collegiate goal as a sophomore against Notre Dame in a 3-1 Michigan State victory. One of the most memorable senior moments for Cesana is when he put the Spartans up 2-1 against Penn State. The defensemen had a wonderful weekend in that series.

Michigan State finished the season with two-straight losses against Michigan, forcing an early exit for the Spartans in the Big Ten playoffs last weekend, finishing just 12-23-1 on the year.