St. Lawrence University sophomore goaltender Kyle Hayton is in the pre-season national spotlight as the Saints prepare to open the 2015-16 men's hockey season with a Saturday night exhibition game against Carleton University at Appleton Arena.

The Saints and Ravens will square off in a 7 p.m. start with SLU slated to open its NCAA season at Appleton with games against Niagara and RIT as part of Homecoming Weekend Oct. 9-10.

Hayton, who had a record-setting rookie season for the Saints and helped them to a second place finish in the ECAC regular season standings, has been named to the College Hockey News Pre-Season All-America Team and was selected as one of 10 Goalies To Watch in 2016-16 by US College Hockey On Line.

Hayton was named a first-team Pre-Season All America by CHN, joining forwards Jimmy Vesey of Harvard and Mike Vecchione of Union as the ECAC representatives on the 12-player team. "His save percentage was just .002 worse than the other top returning goaltender, Yale'a Alex Lyon, last season

while facing a lot more shots," said CHN of his selection.

Hayton, Quinnipiac's Michael Garteig and Yale's Lyon were among the 10 to Watch for USCHO among goaltenders. Hayton was the ECAC Rookie of the Year, second-team All ECAC and a finalist for the Richter Award as the nation's outstanding goaltender last season. He set program records for goals against (1.95), save percentage (.37) and shutouts (five).

Five rookies are likely to make their first appearance in a Saint uniform in Saturday's exhibition against Carleton. Forwards Michael Ederer, Jacob Pritchard, and Michael Laidley will join defenseman R.J. Gicewicz and goaltender Arthur Brey as the Saint hockey class of 2019.

The Saints head into the season ranked 19th in the USCHO Division I pre-season poll, one of five ECAC teams in the rankings. Harvard is eighth with Yale at 12, Quinnipiac at 18, SLU at 19 and Colgate at 20. The Saints were picked to finish second with one first place vote by the ECAC coaches and were picked fourth by the media. Harvard led the coaches' selections while Yale, Quinnipiac and the Crimson were slotted in front of the Saints by the media.