Forward Drew Miller was voted by his teammates to serve as the MSU hockey team's captain next season for his junior, head coach Rick Comley announced Tuesday.

"It's a good group of guys coming back and the freshmen coming in are really talked highly of," Miller said.

"I'm excited to lead the team, and I think I have three assistant captains that are all capable of being captain, too, so I think we have a good leadership for the team."

Forward Colton Fretter and defensemen Jared Nightingale and Corey Potter will serve as assistants to Miller. All three will enter their senior years of play.

"I don't think you could pick a better guy to follow," Nightingale said of the new captain. "He leads on the ice and in the locker room."

Miller, the 10th member of his family to wear the green and white, had a breakout sophomore season while serving as assistant captain and evolved into a vocal leader in the process.

"I grew up around Michigan State hockey," Miller said. "A lot of the guys I looked up to were captains and leaders on the team, and just watching what they did and listening to them has just kind of shaped me into more of a vocal person."

Comley said the decision in naming captains was strictly up to the players, and Miller came in first on every ballot.

"Since the day he got here when he's been in that locker room, he knows what the past is, he knows what the present is, he knows what the future needs to be," Comley said of Miller. "I think he'll do an outstanding job."

Nightingale will enter his third season as an assistant on the team, while Potter and Fretter will each be entering their first. The season starts in October.

"Just to be acknowledged by putting an 'A' on your jersey, there's not a day that goes by that I'm not honored about that," Nightingale said.

Fretter had a breakout junior season, finishing second on the team in scoring with 20 goals and 24 assists, prior to being voted by his team as one of next year's leaders.

"I'm not really a good talker," Fretter said. "I don't really have the motivational speeches or anything, I just come and try to work hard and never quit."

Potter joins Fretter as a first-year assistant next season, after developing into one of the best defensemen in the league last season.

"We're going to try to make it more of a team atmosphere, and more compact and try to make it a fun season," Potter said.