Y'all would be CRAZY to run Frosty out of town. How many years has his team made the frozen 4? All but 1 I'm guessing. All you want is a slot in the frozen 4 and a chance to win it all. He's given that to you, he won 4 it looks like.
I'm not sure what span of years you are speaking about. Frost's first year as HC for the tournament was in 2008. The most positive stat in his favor is that the only year the Gophers didn't make the tournament was the Covid mini-season, when HEA had to members on the committee and gave their league 3 teams out of 8. Still, UM didn't do much to build its case that season.
As for the Frozen Four, the Gophers fell short in 2008, 2011, 2018, (no tourney for anyone in 2020 nor the Gophers in 2021), 2022, and 2024. That means that after the last title in 2016, they have made the FF in 2017, 2019, 2023, and 2025, making the final only in 2019. The problem that they have had since tOSU emerged is that UM has rather consistently been the third-best team in its league. You don't hang a lot of banners when that's the case, just like UW didn't before 2006.
Who would do better at Minnesota outside of the two you mentioned? I don't claim to know, but I know that I didn't expect Muzzy to have the run that she's had at this stage of her career back when she was a Gopher assistant. I thought she was great at recruiting and motivation, but had a ways to go when it came to Xs and Os. I guess it's true that it's more about Jenny's and Jo's than Xs and Os. There are likely at least five head or assistant coaches in NCAA hockey that would do better than Frost at UM; that leaves a large number who would do the same, and even more who would do worse. I don't claim to be smart enough to predict who would do better, at least in the long run. Is the success Muzzy is having sustainable? I don't know that either. It's one thing to get to the top, but it is even more challenging to stay there.
I think Johnson's lasting success can largely be chalked up to three factors. His resume of college, Olympic, and NHL star gave him credibility until he proved himself as a HC; at some point, his reputation as the latter became more important than the former. Second, as the son of a winning coach, he already knew a lot of the obstacles to success and ways to overcome them. Finally, he is confident enough in his core values to not change some things during the down times, but he's not so stubborn that he refuses to change anything as the game evolves. I think he's a good enough coach that he would have been able to win at a number of schools. Would he have been able to win it all somewhere like Bemidji, where he would have to surpass teams with more resources and appeal? Or somewhere like Lindenwood, where he would have had to convince players to come to a non-traditional school and league? I guess we'll never know.
