Aidan Carney followed his father's lead to Maine and now will follow in his sister's footsteps to Liberty.
Flames DI men’s hockey team receives NCAA Division I transfer from Maine
5/29/2025 4:11:00 PM | Men's D1 Hockey
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Liberty will have three sons of former NHL players on its roster for 2025-26 with Aidan Carney, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound forward, joining fellow senior head captain Sam Feamster and sophomore defenseman Joe Feamster.
Aidan Carney, a 6-foot, 4-inch, 210-pound forward who played the past three seasons for the NCAA Division I University of Maine, helping them to qualify for nationals the past two years, is transferring to Liberty University to join the Flames' ACHA Division I men's team for his senior season.
"We're losing a great corps of leadership this year, and we are hoping he can come here and be a veteran leader for us in our lineup," said Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy, who had recruited Carney before he went to Maine. "He is someone who really fits our culture."
Aidan Carney played three seasons at Maine.
Carney only played in 24 games for the Black Bears over three seasons due to two different injuries that he is now fully recovered from.
"I had back surgery after my freshman year, and a couple small injuries from last year, but I am healthy now and hope to bring some experience and leadership to the group and to help in any way possible," he said. "The transition might be a little tough, but I think I'm ready for a new opportunity, and I am looking to have a successful year, joining a really good team."
Carney hopes to make an immediate impact in his senior season with the Flames, who advanced to the ACHA DI Final Four for the third time in the past five seasons in March near St. Louis.
"I'd like to help them get over the hump," he said. "I still love the game and never lost that part of it. I'm just excited for a new opportunity to do it with a new school and a new team, to compete with new guys and develop and grow in my faith."
Carney, 23, is the son of former NHL defenseman Keith Carney, who played for Buffalo, Chicago, Phoenix, Anaheim, Vancouver, and Minnesota in a 17-year career before going on to serve as a scout for the Blackhawks from 2009-11, earning a Stanley Cup ring in 2010.
"(My dad) taught me hard work from a young age and how to act like a pro, to develop a good routine and play the right way," he said, noting he recalls watching his father play the final six or seven years of his NHL career.
"I was born in Phoenix, when he played for the Coyotes," he added. "My dad put me on skates once I turned 2 and he couldn't get me off the ice. I wanted to stay in my skates forever. We moved to California when he played on the Ducks (for four seasons), and then to Minnesota for a few years before he retired."
Though Carney focuses on attack while his dad played defense, his style of play is not altogether different than his father's.
"He was a shut-down D man, whereas I bring a lot of physicality, a power forward style of game," Aidan Carney said. "I like to use my body to protect pucks and take them to the net and to play a physical, hard-nosed game."
Carney is a triplet, with fraternal brothers Cole entering medical school at the University of Auburn and Kade working in Colorado. He is the only one of the three still playing hockey and the only one to follow in his father's footsteps to Maine, where Keith played for the Black Bears from 1988-91 while Liberty's current Director of Athletics Ian McCaw served on staff.
"His parents really love Liberty, and Ian was a proponent in him coming here," Handy said. "He is another piece to the puzzle, another guy who's going to provide leadership on and off the ice, a guy who's definitely going to help us out as we look to contend for a national title."
Carney is pursuing a B.S. in Exercise Science — the same degree his younger sister, Morgan, graduated with from Liberty earlier this month — with plans to apply to physical therapy school next year. His sister, meanwhile, is going to school in Arizona to become a physical therapy assistant.
"She had a really good experience at Liberty," Carney said, noting she met her fiancé here.
He is most excited about the spiritual culture shift, especially within the hockey team.
"That is why I wanted to go to Liberty — to try to grow in my faith and be around like-minded people," he said. "I just thought Liberty was a better fit."
