Rebuilding a program that’s fallen to the bottom of the Hockey East standings would be a challenge even in the best of times.
These are not, you’ve surely noticed, the best of times.
Todd Woodcroft knows it all too well, six months after being hired as the University of Vermont’s new coach.
“It was such a strange time to walk into a dream job,’’ he said on Monday. “I’m not the only guy to be going through it. We have players who are looking toward the coaching staff and me specifically for leadership. To walk in at this time was a real learning experience. I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about how coaching should be. I’ve learned that coaching really is a verb — it’s not a noun. It’s something that we’ve got to be doing every day,’’ he said.
“To walk into this campus and this tradition at UVM in such a weird time, it’s been eye-opening, refreshing. It’s energized me. It’s scared me. Now you look down the bench and see the players that are looking to me and the other coaches for some answers and we’ve got to have them or at least try to find them together. So it’s been challenging, but it’s been very exciting.’’
The biggest question for Woodcroft’s team going into the season is goaltending.
There is no battle-tested successor to Stefanos Lekkas, who was the team’s best player the past couple of seasons, keeping the Catamounts in games nearly every night.
Now that Lekkas has graduated, seniors Tyler Harmon and Matt Beck and freshman Gabe Carriere will compete for playing time. Only Harmon has gotten even a sniff of game action (a total of six appearances in three seasons).
“Stef (Lekkas) left his footprint on our culture by how hard he competed every practice and every single game. (Harmon and Beck) have seen it and they know what it takes. (The three goalies) are friends and they push each other, but at the end of the day, they all want that net,’’ Woodcroft said.
In freshman forward Dovar Tinling, Woodcroft has a potential building block and a player that NHL scouts will be watching. At 17, Tinling most likely will be the youngest player in Division 1.
“He is like a young Steve Yzerman or Joe Sakic in his poise. He doesn’t look young for a second out here. He belongs here. I believe with all my heart that everybody’s going to watch this guy and say, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy is a player’ even as a 17-year-old playing against 23- and 24-year-olds,’’ Woodcroft said.
“He’s surrounded by people who care about him and they’re going to shepherd him. You talk about culture. All the older players on our team, they understand that a guy like Dovar is going to be bringing NHL scouts every night to watch. The payoff is these guys who want to get contracts are going to be seen. It’s a great opportunity for Dovar and for the rest of the guys.’’
Tinling is from Quebec, where some of the best players in school history have come from. Woodcroft says the Catamounts will be recruiting wherever the best players are.
“I don’t believe myself that you have one area that you need to focus on or one area that you need to win in. Of course Quebec is very close to us,’’ Woodcroft said.
“Boston’s close, New Hampshire, Vermont, there’s good players in a lot of different places nowadays. Back in the days with Marty (St. Louis) and Eric (Perrin) and the players they had come through here from Quebec, the strong players that came through that pipeline, there wasn’t the ability to scout players across the world, which we do now have.’’
Bringing former NHL coach Mike Babcock on board as volunteer adviser to the coaching staff — Woodcroft says it was Babcock’s idea — created plenty of summertime buzz. With the U.S.-Canada border closed, Babcock is not in Vermont yet, but is involved.
“He’s all in on Catamount hockey. It’s fantastic. He is on Zooms with our coaching staff all the time. He’s helping us with questions. We push back on him. He pushes back on us,’’ said Woodcroft.
“He was away hunting for a bunch of weeks. He’d be texting me on a satellite phone from wherever he was, wanting to know how we were doing and what kind of drills we were doing in practice, what was the message of the day. If you know Mike, you know his energy knows no bounds. All he wants to do is coach.’’
Energy is one thing there should be plenty of in Burlington this winter as the rebuild gets started.
Blasi to PC
Former Miami University coach Enrico Blasi will be the new associate athletic director for men's and women's hockey and Schneider Arena at Providence College.
It’s a slam-dunk hire for the Friars.
Blasi built a top program in his 20 years as Miami head coach, leading his team to the Frozen Four twice and compiling a record of 398-311-76. The relationship between PC’s Nate Leaman and Blasi goes back many years.
Here’s another coach’s take: “Great hire. Smart. Bulldog mentality. Will be hugely helpful in the Hockey East AD meetings and on-campus administrator meetings for Nate. Will push PC to the forefront leadership-wise in shaping policy at both the Hockey East level and internal level to the benefit and advantage of PC hockey.’’
Ex-Friars captain Kyle Murphy formerly held the job. He left the school over the summer to go to work in his family’s business.
NCAA throws a curve
A handful of coaches I talked to were caught off-guard by the NCAA Division 1 Council’s vote last week to grant an additional year of eligibility for all winter athletes.
The decision, which has the potential to create a logjam on some rosters next season, “came out of the blue. I did not see that coming from anywhere, especially if we’re going to have (a hockey) season. I don’t know how it’s going to be managed. Certainly, it’s great for student-athletes,’’ said Providence’s Leaman.
“I really don’t understand why they did it,’’ said Merrimack coach Scott Borek.
One Hockey East recruiter who asked to remain anonymous said he was fielding calls from commits for 2021-22 who are wondering if they are going to be pushed back a year.
Leaman said the same thing has happened at PC.
“We’ve talked to a couple of the kids. We don’t plan on delaying any of our recruits, I can tell you that,’’ he said.
In addition to the added year of eligibility, the NCAA is expected to vote in January on a measure that would allow athletes in all sports to transfer one time without sitting out a year.
“If that legislation goes through, I think it could be a really crazy time for all NCAA programs. There’s going to be a lot of moving parts,’’ said Leaman.
