With big-name head coaches being officially introduced at Boston College and Boston University, the attention of much of the college hockey world turns to possible movement in the assistant coaching ranks.
At Boston College, newly minted head coach Greg Brown will retain both associate head coach Mike Ayers and assistant coach Brendan Buckley. Ayers (Hingham, Mass.) has been instrumental in the recruiting and development of numerous good goaltenders to The Heights over the past decade. Buckley (Needham, Mass.), a BC alum, is another defensive mind on the coaching staff with Brown being a guru in that regard.
There is more turnover expected at Boston University. Jay Pandolfo had to fill one vacancy after he was promoted from assistant to head coach following the dismissal of Albie O'Connell. As I had predicted, Len Quesnelle will also be moving on, meaning there are two open assistant vacancies at Agganis Arena.
The top assistant coach will be BU alum Joe Pereira, who has been an assistant at UConn since the 2013-14 season. The West Haven, Conn., native helped the Huskies recruit a number of solid pro prospects. He has been with head coach Mike Cavanaugh since the Huskies moved from Atlantic Hockey to Hockey East. UConn made the Hockey East finals for the first time in program history this spring. Pereira’s expertise is certainly on the recruiting trail, as he’s built a number of very good connections and is adept at building relationships with advisors and junior coaches.
The other assistant coach will likely be someone more well-versed in development. One name floated has been Kim Brandvold, a UMass Lowell alum who has been with the Bruins for the past three seasons as a skating consultant. He’s been a longtime director at Dynamic Skating, one of the top power skating organizations in the region. Pandolfo, a former Bruins assistant, would obviously be familiar with Brandvold.
Other possibilities, per college hockey sources, are Bentley assistant coach Jon Coleman and Rivers head coach Freddy Meyer, both Terriers alums.
According to several sources within the NHL scouting and college hockey coaching ranks, O’Connell, the former Boston University head coach, will be joining the Montreal Canadiens in a scouting capacity. The Watertown, Mass., native has established himself as having an elite eye for talent. He was courted by new Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale for an associate head coaching position with the Spartans. O’Connell opted to stay in Massachusetts.
With Pereira moving on to BU, Cavanaugh is filling his spot on the UConn staff with Mike Pereira, Joe's brother. Mike was a standout player at UMass and has been an assistant coach at Avon Old Farms since 2017.
One interesting tidbit about UConn reportedly hiring the younger Pereira is the tendency for Cavanaugh to bring on assistant coaches with little-to-no experience coaching at the collegiate level. His hires have been Mike Souza, Buckley, Pereira and Tyler Helton. Only Souza had a college hockey coaching bullet on his resume from his brief stint at Brown.
At American International, head coach Eric Lang has promoted Brendan Riley from director of hockey operations to assistant coach. The move comes following the departure of Cory Schneider, who left to take a similar post at Clarkson. It’s the second time in three years that AIC has lost a top assistant to Clarkson. Mike Towns previously made the jump from Springfield to Potsdam.
Andy Boschetto, a native of Chelmsford, Mass., is leaving his post as an assistant at Colgate to join Garrett Raboin’s staff at Division 1 newcomer Augustana. It was reportedly a significant pay raise and a chance to join an up-and-coming program for Boschetto, who played Division 3 hockey at Hobart and Suffolk. Boschetto was the head coach at Salve Regina for seven seasons before becoming an assistant coach at Niagara for three seasons. He’s been at Colgate the past two years under longtime bench boss Don Vaughan.
It’s not official yet, but a number of college hockey sources believe TJ Manastersky will not be retained as an assistant coach at Union. The former Curry head man will likely be replaced by Northeastern alum Will Messa, a Worcester, Mass., native. Messa, an assistant coach at Long Island University, previously was a volunteer assistant at Northeastern, Union and Notre Dame.
If the buzz throughout the rinks is any indication, the carousel isn’t close to coming to a halt.
