Report: Brandon Naurato Named Interim Hockey Coach
Not long after we heard multiple reports that Michigan would be deciding today whether to go the interim route or conduct a coaching search, Jon Morosi is reporting that they have named to assistant coach Brandon Naurato to be the interim head coach:
Sources: Brandon Naurato named interim Michigan hockey coach for the 2022-2023 season. @NHLNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) August 7, 2022
I will keep this short because I want to do a longer piece on Naurato this week, but in summary, Naurato is a 37-year-old who has one year of experience as a coach at Michigan but glowing reviews. Michigan Hockey fans of the late 2000s may remember Naurato as a rather middling forward on the late 2000s juggernaut teams (including the 2008 Frozen Four squad), where he played 130 career games for the Wolverines, scoring 32 goals and 32 assists in his career. After that, Naurato bounced around the lower minor leagues before retiring from his playing career at age 27 in 2012.
After retiring, Naurato became a skills specialist and hockey consultant in the Metro Detroit area (Naurato is a Livonia native), specializing in prospect development. He founded his own business, Naurato Consulting, and in the 2010s he worked with nearly every notable Michigan player who went to the NHL during the summers, from Connor to Copp to Hughes to Larkin to Werenski. His excellence as a development coach led the Red Wings to hire Nuarato in a player development capacity in both Detroit and Grand Rapids, with the AHL affiliate.
Last fall, Michigan hired Naurato to join the staff as an assistant. While he worked one year under Mel, that one year came while Mel was under investigation, and thus, you can assume, was more cautious about many of the more problematic cultural elements cited in the report. More importantly, Naurato was not affiliated with the program when the allegations surrounding COVID-19 contact tracing lying happened, as well as the ugly dispute with Steve Shields and Strauss Mann. For an internal hire, Naurato would appear very clean of much of the muck that has besmirched the program's name.
At first glance, this hire makes a ton of sense. It's a continuity hire that will keep the roster and recruiting classes in place and the opinions that I have heard from various sources both affiliated with Michigan and not are uniformly glowing of Naurato's abilities and potential. While you'd like him to have more coaching experience than just one year as an assistant, that can be rectified by building a coaching staff with more experience running systems and coaching college (a Phil Martelli type would go a long way here). If Naurato succeeds, you make him the head guy in full next summer and he could be your coach for three decades (unless the NHL steals him). If he stumbles, there will be no shortage of elite candidates next summer.
UPDATE: Michigan has made it official.
Brandon Naurato Named Interim Head Coach
— Michigan Hockey (@umichhockey) August 7, 2022
Read >> https://t.co/ydybeTFLkO#GoBlue〽️ pic.twitter.com/9ARlsqPC6h
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Id guess Muckalt stays on and maybe they try to get a Phil Martelli esque hire for the other spot to have some more experience on the staff
I think this is probably best, realistic case for an august coaching search. Hopefully this maintains continuity with the team and keeps the recruiting class together
Probably the best hire to make given the circumstances. I wonder what happens with Muckalt - I'd read him getting passed over as concerns about him being too close to Pearson and those issues but the report didn't seem to implicate him in any of the worst behaviors.
This team has enough talent to make another Frozen Four run and that can help a young coach breaking out (it's a bit different with Juwan because of his experience in Miami but it certainly helped taking over a talented team his first year). Will be an interesting year to see if UM really gives him the interim-to-full hire audition or if it's treated as merely a one-year filler.
Naurato is the right choice given the circumstances. Good thing that Bacon’s tweet about Red being a possibility was just social media theorizing and nothing more.
Agreed. That would've been a wasted year. Red's done so much for this program, but he'd lost his touch by the late aughts / early 2010s. Can't imagine what he would do for us after several years off and the likely possibility he's a little peeved his right hand man got fired
Yeah, I saw that pop up hours later on my timeline and was happy it was just speculation.
Cross-posted from one of the board posts—Naurato has an interesting coaching approach wrt offense:
https://www.michigandaily.com/ice-hockey/brandon-naurato-named-interim-hockey-coach/
Muckalt’s future is going to be up to whatever the new coach wants. It’s too late in the game for him to leave on his own, so he’ll be on staff this season and then Naurato will have his staff choice if he’s given the full-time gig or the new coach will clean house when he comes in.
Fwiw, everything I’ve heard about Naurato is that he’s very well-liked by the players and on the recruiting trail. I’d guess he’s very much in consideration for the full-time job.
Might as well. It’s an interim job for now, has just enough experience to be able to keep the ship running, knows the roster, has experience with skill development. Maybe there’s a fighting chance they can keep all the talent from leaving.
Maybe.
The huge, huge question is what happens with the incoming class and especially Luke Hughes.
Lose a bunch and Michigan may be doing a national coaching search next spring.
Keep them, and… well, Michigan has a better-than-average track record of bringing aboard interim coaches after successful ones are shown the door.
My guess is the incoming class stays intact at this point, but that's merely a guess.
I know Michigan didn't have a lot of options at this point of the summer and had to move quick. I'd still have preferred a national coaching search simply because I think the long term implications of this move are going to outweigh the short term.
U-M has enough pieces coming back plus a strong incoming class that they should do well this season regardless of who the coach is. If they finish say top three in the conference this season, does that mean Naurato is the best choice long term? Hard to say.
But long term, what happens with future recruiting? You know it starts early in hockey. I know they still have a handful of kids committed for 2023, two for 2024, and one for 2025 now. That commitment period just opened up and Michigan got one commit on the first day. Nearly every other top player seemed to commit somewhere on those first few days when kids could pledge their verbal. Is this the early affects of the uncertainty surrounding the Mel saga dragging on all summer? And now with an interim head coach with zero head coaching experience and only a year as an assistant, it might be hard sell to get any top players to commit to that resume and the uncertainty around his own future as Michigan's head coach, too.
Short term, this is fine. Long term, this could come back to hurt U-M a few years down the road, whether Naurato is retained after this season or not. It's a big gamble for a program like Michigan to take.
August 8th, 2022 at 10:31 AM ^
Agreed. One of the reasons why the events of the last weeks have been such a disaster.
A quick and understandable decision.
Good in itself, and good as a change in hockey matters.
No mercy
Just a PSA for those that would like to hear a few interviews with the new coach. There’s a podcast focused on hockey development called The Hockey Think Tank. Brandon Naurato has been a guest multiple times, the most recent being episode 49 before he joined Michigan and then episode 200 after he was part of the staff.
Good call. I heard this a few months back and the pod really digs into Naurato’s mindset as a coach/teacher. The pod starts slow and Naurato comes on at around 20 mins in: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hockey-think-tank-podcast/id1441154730?i=1000553921170
Anyone that successfully originates and flourishes their own business has traits that are not usually teachable in character and talents also hard to find. I like the youth and if he can sell these draft picks to go on this journey with him the possibilities are exciting. I will be rooting for the man!
Before seeing the headline I was asking "why is Tom Brady wearing hockey gloves"
From when he was hired last year: https://youtu.be/9TA3VrBwvcI
Naurato looks like he checks boxes for analytics and skill development. The "leading the team" aspect should be a work in progress, but he's a Michigan man. And he'll have Red's guidance in that realm. Very happy with this quick move by Warde.
This is a great move given the current situation in my opinion. The guy flat out knows hockey. Is he a leader and developer of young men? We’ll see, but the only box he doesn’t emphatically check is “experienced head coach”
the current situation sucks ass, obviously.
that said, we are in it, and an interim solution that might turn into a permanent one (a la lloyd or steve fisher) isn’t a bad approach for this season. maybe it works out, and if it doesn’t we start fresh next year.
He doesn’t have enough “JH” initials to begin his first and last name, or even “CH”. But he’s a development guy and has until next summer so I imagine he will get that corrected.
Not a lot of great options after what happened, but regardless Michigan should open up a national coaching search after next season.
What a golden opportunity for Brandon. Wish him great success!
Congrats & good luck to Brandon. Go Blue!
Naruto time
August 9th, 2022 at 12:26 PM ^
Team motto: "BELIEVE IT"
Good hire considering the circumstances, and really a no-lose situation for him. If he wins, he's the young breath of fresh air guy who gave the program the shot in the arm. (To mix my metaphors.) If he doesn't, it's not his fault, since he was thrown in the deep water before he was ready. He'll be back in a another coaching gig one day.
And his hiring has already got a lot of support. Just yesterday I saw a guy wearing a "Let's Go Brandon" shirt. Which I thought was nice.
August 8th, 2022 at 10:03 AM ^
Andy Murray (formerly head coach in the NHL and also of WMU for 10 years) would seem to be a great Martelli-esque hire to support the new head coach. I know he left WMU a year or two ago. Anyone heard his name pop up in any rumors? Not sure he'd be interested in being an assistant, but his was the first name that came to my mind.
August 8th, 2022 at 12:53 PM ^
domo arigato brandon naurato
He's Kilroy?
Is it just me or was he about to say "as you wish" in that photo.
August 9th, 2022 at 12:27 PM ^
Petition to change the position title from "Head Coach" to "Hokage"
September 25th, 2022 at 9:17 AM ^
Haha! I think only nerdy anime fans (like me) appreciate the genius of your comment. Hopefully, we don’t get a bench minor for too many coaches on the bench if Naurato uses his cloning jitsu.
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