NCDC 2024-25 Awards: Islanders Hockey Club’s Powers Named New England Division MVP And Forward Of The Year

By Joshua Boyd / USPHL.com 

The National Collegiate Development Conference congratulates Braxton Powers for being named the 2024-25 New England Division Most Valuable Player and Forward Of The Year. 

“It’s definitely a huge honor to be recognized by everyone in the division for two amazing awards. It just shows the hard work not going unrecognized, so it is definitely an honor,” said Powers, a 2004-born Raleigh, N.C., native who played over all or part of four NCDC seasons with the Islanders. He is advancing to the University of New England to begin his NCAA hockey career in the fall of 2025. 

Powers was a 2020 NCDC Draft Pick in what was then the Futures Draft (equivalent to this year’s NCDC Phase I draft, in terms of selecting younger birth years). After completing one more season with the Carolina Jr. Hurricanes 16U AAA program, he joined the Islanders in 2021-22, playing mostly for the IHC 18U AAA team. He played in his first six NCDC games that year, registering two assists. 

The next three seasons saw Powers rise up from 24 points to 38 points to 68 points this year, which placed him fourth in NCDC scoring for 2024-25. Over his career, he scored 132 points in 149 games, placing him first on the all-time IHC leaderboard for points – by a margin of 46 points over the second place all-time scorer.

He also played in 27 more regular season games for the Islanders’ NCDC team than any other player in their eight-year history. From his perspective, all of these accolades came thanks to the efforts of more than 100 NCDC teammates that he worked alongside from 2021 to 2025. 

“I had great line mates and teammates all year who made it easy to play with day in and day out. Playing with players like that makes it easy to find the back of the net and have ongoing success,” said Powers.

He also spoke fondly of the work that the Islanders staff did with him, to help improve his game towards becoming an NCAA recruit with UNE. 

“I’ve been with the Islanders NCDC staff for the last three and a half years, so they have been there for me and supported me all the way through,” Powers added. “Even if we weren’t getting bounces and things weren’t going our way, they were always there for me, lifting me up and being the backbone for our team.

“It was definitely a roller coaster to say the least,” he added, about his seasons with the IHC. “We went from being at the bottom of the division to being first place in the New England the year after, and since then, we have found our way to the playoffs for two straight years. Regardless, I wouldn’t change any of it. They were definitely some of the best years of my life.”

Later this summer, he’ll pack his bags (and sticks) and head north to Biddeford, Maine, to begin his life as a college student-athlete with the University of New England. He will take full advantage of this new life opportunity, both in and out of the classroom. 

“I’m super-excited to get things going at UNE,” Powers added. “They have such a talented group of guys who already made a great run this past season, so I just want to get in there and do the best I can to help push for another run for the championship.”