RinkWise podcast: Jim Gaudet lays out his vision for Milton Academy

Jim Gaudet spent two seasons at Babson. (Jonathan Endow Photography/Babson Athletics)

There weren’t a ton of head coaching vacancies in boys prep hockey this year. But one of the bigger ones was Milton Academy after Paul Cannata announced his retirement.

In May, the Mustangs hired then-Babson assistant coach Jim Gaudet as their next bench boss.

Gaudet has experience coaching at almost all levels — from being a youth hockey director to most recently an assistant coach at Babson College. He also is the son of longtime Dartmouth head coach Bob Gaudet.

The new Milton head coach recently joined host Stephanie Wood on the latest RinkWise podcast to talk about his life in hockey, as well as his plans for the Mustangs.

Listen to the podcast

Highlights

On coaching younger levels

Gaudet: “I think you have to be patient when you’re coaching the little guys and little girls and your communication has to be concise and to the point. That’s when I ditched the whiteboard. I don’t use a whiteboard anymore. That was because it was useless for the little guys and I found that I could do everything that I wanted to do without one and continue to do that today. With the little kids, you want to keep them moving and you want to keep them engaged and that’s sometimes a challenge.

THE PLAN: What will Milton Academy look like under Gaudet?

How he found out about the Milton coaching job

Gaudet: “[Babson coach Jamie Rice] came to me and said, ‘Milton might be a place that’s going to be looking for a coach because Paul Cannata might be retiring. I think it would be great for you to think about it. I’m happy to help you however I can.’ And as I said, you don’t see that every day so I’m very thankful for that. I had known Paul Cannata through coach Rice and getting to know him a little bit over the past few years and getting to see what type of person he is, what type of coach. Obviously, he did an unbelievable job at Milton Academy. Going to see the school and learning about it was a great experience and going through the interview process, meeting the players, the players that are both graduating this past year and returning, knowing Jake Thibeault (Fitchburg, Mass.), who was a freshman at Babson this year and part of our hockey team. He went to Milton and any school that’s going to produce a kid like Jake Thibeault is a pretty good school because he’s an unbelievable kid. All those things made it something that I really wanted to be a part of.”

The RinkWise podcast can be streamed here and on major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.