Mel Pearson or Guy Gadowsky?

Submitted by ThadMattasagoblin on

I don't think you can go wrong with either one. Mel would obviously be easier to get because he has ties here and has maxed out at Michigan Tech. What do you guys think about Gadowsky? They have a beautiful facility in State College and he has a good team. On the other hand, Michigan is a blue blood program while PSU is just 5 years old. Who do you want as your next hockey coach?

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chatster

January 20th, 2017 at 11:27 AM ^

This may be very hard to accomplish, but I’d consider finding an alumnus who played on some good Michigan teams, has had some experience coaching in college and the pros and also has done some college recruiting. Add at least one assistant who has NHL playing experience, and at least one who has college coaching and recruiting experience. It seems to be working now at Boston University where men’s hockey is the major sport.
 
Boston University’s legendary men’s hockey coach Jack Parker was captain of the team as a senior, an assistant on two back-to-back national championship teams (1971 and 1972) and head coach for 40 seasons until he retired in 2013.  He won national championships in 1978, 1995 and 2009, but some thought that he’d stayed too long.  He retired with a career record of 897–472–115, but over his last four seasons, following that NCAA championship season when BU was 35-6-4 and featured a Hobey Baker winner (Matt Gilroy) and several players who have seen some time in the NHL, his record was 81-60-14, with only one NCAA tournament appearance in which BU lost in the West Regional semis.
 
His replacement, David Quinn (now age 50), also played for BU and had been an assistant on BU’s 2009 NCAA championship team, as well a development coach with USA Hockey, an AHL head coach and an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche. His first BU team was terrible (10-21-4), but he followed that up with an NCAA runner-up season (28-9-5) with Hobey Baker winner Jack Eichel and a 21-13-5 record last season with another NCAA tournament appearance.  His Terriers, with seven players who just competed in the World Junior Championships (six of whom won gold for the USA) currently are ranked 4th in the NCAA with a 14-5-2 record.  One of his assistants, Scott Young, played almost 1200 games in the NHL, represented the United States in ten international tournaments and played on three Olympic teams.

Joined: 09/14/2010

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Alton

January 20th, 2017 at 10:49 AM ^

Guy Gadowski wouldn't even take a call from Michigan.  He has everything he could ever want at Penn State--there's nothing that Michigan could offer that he doesn't already have where he is.

My "emergency backup" selection for Mel Pearson would be Danton Cole.  Yes, he played for State, but he has been a reasonably successful coach everywhere he has been, grading on the curve for his stint at UAH, and he is now coach of the U17 USNTDP.  He might have been waiting for an opening at MSU, but they just signed Anastos to a 5-year contract (?!) so that door seems to have closed for him.  He wouldn't even have to move; he already lives in the area.

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