The Indy Fuel have brought back three players this month, adding defenseman Kyle Aucoin and forwards Michael Marchesan and Anthony Petruzzelli for the 2026-27 season.
The signings come while the Fishers Event Center tenants still have no head coach. Duncan Dalmao, who led the team for four full seasons, left earlier this month to take an assistant coaching job with the Bakersfield Condors of the American Hockey League. The Fuel have not announced a successor, and the club’s 13th ECHL season opens in October.
Aucoin, 24, returns after appearing in four regular-season games and five playoff games for Indy, recording two assists. The 6-foot blueliner from Hinsdale, Illinois, spent one season at Miami University of Ohio, where he was named an NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete, following four years at Harvard University. He won an ECAC title as a freshman and majored in entrepreneurship.
Detroit drafted Aucoin in the sixth round of the 2020 NHL Draft, 156th overall. Hockey runs deep in the family — his three younger siblings play, and his father, Adrian, spent 17 seasons in the NHL.
Marchesan, 25, joined the Fuel in April 2024 after being claimed off waivers from the Atlanta Gladiators. The 6-foot-5 forward from Burlington, Ontario, posted seven goals and six assists last season while piling up 88 penalty minutes, leading Indy in that category for much of the year.
Before turning pro, Marchesan put up 58 points in 46 games for the Danbury Hat Tricks of the Federal Prospects Hockey League in 2022-23, then added 13 points in 10 playoff games as Danbury won the Commissioner’s Cup. He was named playoff MVP. The previous season he led the St. George Ravens of the Greater Metro Jr. A Hockey League with 101 points in 32 games.
Petruzzelli, 33, gives the Fuel a veteran presence and a familiar Indiana résumé. He first arrived in Indianapolis during the 2023-24 season in a trade with Jacksonville, playing 48 games and collecting 21 points.
The 5-foot-10 forward from Federal Way, Washington, spent six seasons with the Fort Wayne Komets before that stint, serving as captain for two of them, and returned to Fort Wayne for the past two seasons as an alternate captain. He recorded 40 points in 117 games over that span and helped the Komets reach the Kelly Cup Playoffs both years. He was called up to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves for four games in 2019-20.
The Fuel remain affiliated with the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks and the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs.