One of the major question marks facing the IceCaps heading into this season was how their defence corps would handle the permanent losses of Nathan Beaulieu,Greg Pateryn, and Jarred Tinordi. Enter Morgan Ellis, who not only made up for the offensive loss of the NHL graduates, but became the leader of a group of defencemen that, by the end of the year, was mostly comprised of players on amateur tryout contracts.
After spending much of the previous season in the ECHL with the Wheeling Nailers, Ellis was thrust into a leading role alongside Mark Barberio to start the year.