AUGUST 24 • 2023 | 41
last few seasons. We look for-
ward to watching him develop
at the professional level with
our staffs in Vancouver and
Abbotsford,” said Vancouver
general manger Patrik Allvin.
Sasson played in seven
regular-season and six playoff
games for Abbotsford in a
short stint last spring, and he
had three goals and one assist.
Intensity of the professional
game didn’t surprise him.
“Of course, every higher
level you play is tougher,” he
said. “Players are a lot smart-
er, tougher and stronger at
this level. Every inch of the
ice is contested.”
Sasson scored 15 goals
(four game-winners) and
had 27 assists for 42 points
in 38 games last year in his
sophomore season at Western
Michigan, tying for 15th in
the nation in points.
He was named the Broncos’
Rookie of the Year as a fresh-
man after scoring nine goals
and dishing out 13 assists for
22 points in 37 games.
Outside of hockey, he was
named twice to the National
Collegiate Hockey Conference
Academic All-Conference
Team while he was at Western
Michigan.
Western Michigan assistant
coach JJ Crew said Sasson is
more than ready to move on
to the next level.
“I won’t lie. We’d love to
have Max back next year to
hone his craft, but I’m confi-
dent he’ll succeed in the pros,”
Crew said. “He has a high
hockey IQ. He can score, he
can assist, and he’s strong in
the faceoff circle.
“He moved up from our
fourth line to earning a spot
among our top six forwards
when he was a freshman.
That was impressive.”
Crew praised Sasson’s atti-
tude and character and called
him a “team first” guy.
“Max was part of our lead-
ership group last season. He
was always pushing guys to
elevate their game,” he said.
Western Michigan placed
second last year in the
NCHC, its best finish since
joining the conference in
2013, and made its second
straight NCAA tournament
appearance.
Sasson played three seasons
of junior hockey with the
Cedar Rapids RoughRiders
and Waterloo Blackhawks
in the United States Hockey
League before moving on to
Western Michigan.
He had 39 goals and 52
assists for 91 points in 156
career regular-season games
in the USHL and two goals
and three assists in six playoff
games with Cedar Rapids in
the 2018-19 season.
Why did he go into junior
hockey and not directly to
college hockey?
“I wasn’t good enough as
an 18-year-old to play col-
lege hockey,” he said. “Few
18-year-olds are.”
A 2018 Birmingham
Seaholm High School gradu-
ate, Sasson celebrated his bar
mitzvah at Temple Beth El.
He’s the son of Alan and
Ellen Sasson, and he has an
older brother Joe, 24, a former
Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-
Kingswood High School
hockey player who’s now a
computer software engineer.
Send sports news to
stevestein502004@yahoo.com.
Max Sasson had 42 points (15
goals, 27 assists) in 38 games
last season for the Western
Michigan University hockey
team.
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
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