Gianfranco Cassaro

Gianfranco "JoJo" Cassaro is a Canadian ice hockey defenseman who is currently a free agent. He was named a Second Team All-American in 2023–24.

Playing career
After playing for the Youngstown Phantoms in his final two years of junior hockey, Cassaro signed on to play for Massachusetts after the team reached the NCAA championship for the first time. As a freshman, he was relegated to the third pair on defense. Though he scored just 3 points in 30 games, he was helping the team prepare for another run in the postseason when the season was ended abruptly. COVID-19 forced the entire playoff schedule to be abandoned and it was uncertain when Cassaro could resume his career. The 20–21 year started late and saw many cancellations throughout the year. Despite this, UMass played a total of 29 games. Unfortunately, Cassaro was only in the lineup for 10 matches and he ended up going pointless for the entire season. While the Minutemen ran up a tremendous record and ended up winning a National Championship, Cassaro was more of a spectator than a participant and he wasn't dressed for the championship game. With his career seemingly at a crossroads, Cassaro used the new NCAA transfer rules to move on to RIT and join the Tigers the following season.

Cassaro played all 38 games for the Tigers in his junior season. While his scoring numbers weren't outstanding, they were a distinct improvement over his time in Amherst. In his senior season, however, Cassaro found a new level to his game and broke out with a spectacular campaign. Cassaro quadrupled his point total and ended up scoring 14 goals over the course of the year. The pairing he made with Aiden Hansen-Bukata proved to be one of the most potent duos in the country and helped RIT win its first conference title in over a decade. While he was all-conference first team, Cassaro and the Tigers were stunned by Holy Cross in the semifinals and had their season ended abruptly.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cassaro was entitled to a fifth year and he remained in college for one final season. He ended up playing even better than he had as a senior and scored at nearly a point-per-game pace. His 18 goals on the season was tops in the nation for defensemen as was his 8 power play goals. Cassaro was named as a second team All-American for the outstanding year. His exploits of both sides of the puck helped RIT repeat as Atlantic Hockey champions and this time there was no repeat upset in the playoffs. RIT ran through the conference tournament and won all five games by at least 3 goals. The tournament championship sent RIT to the NCAA tournament for the first time in eight years and set up a match with #2 Boston University. The Terriers scored twice in the first period but Cassaro helped to spur on the RIT comeback. He assisted on one goal and scored a second to twice get his team within 1 but the BU offense was just too much for the Tigers.