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UNH Men's Hockey 2022 Off Season Thread- Goodbye Lake Whitt!
- Thread starter HockeyRef
- Start date
HockeyRef
Well-known member
All I'm going with is Marty's praise of Souza being the "right person for the job" so yeah...business as usual at least for the coming season as you'd expect.
And it will be prob more of the same given the youth of the team coming in but hey what do I know? Still think an extension is coming his way....
HawksHockey
New member
Saint Anselm has a much higher chance of doing it than SNHU does (on-campus rink, women’s ice hockey team at the National Collegiate level, alumni base, growing athletics department).
However, if, for example, two of the NE10 members decide to pursue D1 opportunities (in a newly-created conference or as independents), the other five wouldn’t have much of a choice but to go along for the ride.
NCAA watcher
Registered User
Another data point on coaching contracts
For context, I surmise that Souza received a contractual commitment to become head coach when he joined in 2015, so the question about his contract status is the length -- 3 plus 3? 3 plus 4? 3 plus 5? (think about that worst case scenario, an unproven kid four years into a mediocre career, getting a 8 year commitment!!!)
If 3 plus 4, it is up now. Even in the "worst case scenario of 3 plus 5", it expires after next year.
If it was 3 plus 3, and expired in 2021, there is no way a sane AD would have given more than a 2 year extension based on the meager results, so would still be up in 2023, or, if only a one year extension, would be up this summer. (I am assuming Marty was either semi-sane or at least neutered against a longer extension)
The TLDR version: the new AD will come in after this hiring season, so in any event will not make a decision on Souza until March 2023 when we are eliminated from the HE play-in game. At that point he will have a clean slate for a change.
For context, I surmise that Souza received a contractual commitment to become head coach when he joined in 2015, so the question about his contract status is the length -- 3 plus 3? 3 plus 4? 3 plus 5? (think about that worst case scenario, an unproven kid four years into a mediocre career, getting a 8 year commitment!!!)
If 3 plus 4, it is up now. Even in the "worst case scenario of 3 plus 5", it expires after next year.
If it was 3 plus 3, and expired in 2021, there is no way a sane AD would have given more than a 2 year extension based on the meager results, so would still be up in 2023, or, if only a one year extension, would be up this summer. (I am assuming Marty was either semi-sane or at least neutered against a longer extension)
The TLDR version: the new AD will come in after this hiring season, so in any event will not make a decision on Souza until March 2023 when we are eliminated from the HE play-in game. At that point he will have a clean slate for a change.
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SNHUPenman
Member
I do agree Saint Anselm would have the higher chance - but I'd also peg SNHU's chance at 1% (and that may be generous). You guys have a fabulous rink and I am sure if you were DI you could host bigger games downtown at our namesake with little trouble. If SNHU went that route we could play all our games downtown, so the cost to build a rink doesn't create a barrier. Our barrier is our President. Saint A's has an amazing guy running the ship over there so that is a huge plus. But the reason for your growing athletics is because it helps grow enrollment - which is critical in the present and near future. Golf and bowling bring in more $ for the school. Wasn't long ago with that clown you guys had before that there was talk of DIII. Which was outrageous, but I don't think because women's hockey is at the highest level you can expect all programs to move up...would be expensive. Hockey, sure - hopefully with the new DI structure we can see one off sports move up or down depending on the desire/competitiveness. DII hockey is a joke, none of us should be there...DI or DIII that should be how it is.
To the other point, I don't think if SNHU and Saint Anselm made the move up for hockey that all of our fellow conference mates would join. Saint Mike's feels like one bad semester away from shutting down. Heck, so does FPU. I could be wrong...but I think we if we did something like the women's programs we may be more likely to bring back AIC, Bentley etc..
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Well, most likely a similar situation for UNH. No one knows the ins and outs of most of this stuff (the public that is) any more than they know how a teacher needs to re-cert in this state every three years etc. Just found it interesting that in all of the UNH sports I follow on Twitter (and there are at least 5 of them) I have have never seen any other coach EXCEPT for Marc Hubbard getting an extension that was actually announced. Not sure if that came from the AD's office or not to be fair. Prob isn't 'public knowledge'? Guess we'll find out! Maybe.
NCAA watcher
Registered User
So, to summarize my last post, we are at risk that Souza's contract will expire in April and he will be stolen away by either BU, Union or any other openings.
SNHUPenman
Member
I was debated doing an FOIA to see if I can find the details on length of contract for MS...but I need to find the time to do so.
SNHUPenman
Member
HockeyRef
Well-known member
Just for fun am poking that around (I have some time on my hands?!?) but so far have had no luck in finding the UNH contact info for doing that. I guess one could just solicit the AD?
As to your last post 'Watcher...I think I just saw a pig fly past my window hahaha
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Well, technically speaking 'Ref, it's literally impossible to extend a lifetime contract after all ... ;-)
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
That's cold, man. Stone effing cold. (thumbs up emoji)
When Blashill gets the gate in a few weeks at DRW, he'll go to the top of the list for HC of UNH. Has the D-1 background, will need a job, and great reputation as a teacher. Any shortcomings on the motivational side could be overcome by some of the stirring "me & Pavel" tales he'll be able to weave.
Only question then left, who's gonna do the shopping for his "groceries"? Danny DeKeyser???
SNHUPenman
Member
Are we talking MS or did we go down the tortured basketball trail? I'm pretty sure BH has the goods on Marty...
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
My prior post was in reference to Coach Umile, who reportedly snagged the much-desired "lifetime contract" from Judy Ray (Blue Skies' predecessor) when UNH was making regular trips to the Frozen Four, which he leveraged by threatening to up stakes and take the UMass Amherst job.
In fairness to Herrion, he IS the most successful Hoops HC in UNH history ... which says WAY more about UNH Hoops history than it does about BH.
Personally, I don't have a gripe with Herrion. The program is where it is because of what went on for generations before BH ever set foot on campus. I'll grudgingly even give him credit for raising the bar at UNH Hoops from "ridiculously low" to just plain "very low".
MS7 on the other hand has been driving what had been a Maserati into the proverbial ditch ...
SNHUPenman
Member
BH is an ok coach. But to never make a conference final at a minimum in 16 years should call for a change. Maybe he will learn to use the portal soon and not just stick his fingers in his ears about the changes of the landscape. You are correct it is not his fault, it is a complete systemic failure that has gone on forever. Wish they could just drop it and bring back baseball...just saying.
Umile earned what he got. The issue was allowing him to dictate retirement. And then on top of that to allow him to hand pick his successor.
From your lips to the new AD's ears! Blashill would be an absolute home run - he bought the groceries at Miami when the RedHawks were regularly landing elite recruits and making deep NCAA runs. He would have UNH back to the top in a handful of seasons at worst...
Relative to his NHL salary, Im sure he would - but relative to what he made at WMU, Im sure UNH can match or exceed at this point. It's just a matter of what he wants to do next - or, perhaps, how he would want to rehabilitate himself for his next NHL job. The man can flat out recruit and coach at the NCAA level and UNH would have a hard time doing better than Blashill in any future coaching search...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...hockey_seasons
You can see what Miami did from 2002-03 through 2007-08 (and the next couple of seasons) when Blashill was the main recruiter, with help from Chris Bergeron (and of course Head Coach Enrico Blasi). Miami's recruiting slipped substantially after he left and led to Blasi's firing and their current situation. Bergeron has not done much to resurrect recruiting as the team's bench boss the last few seasons (lending further credence to Blashill's contributions)...
That said, there's a lot that needs to happen for this to even be a remote possibility, so probably not worth getting too excited about...
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