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UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

LTsatch said:
Well, it seems they have decided to search for a Coach, not sure about the interim guy, but it does not bode well. http://ahcahockey.com/pdf/jobs/20130330_uc.pdf
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I have no doubt that Berard is a candidate in the coaching search, if for no other reason than he gave a pretty good audition with the team's much improved performance this year. I don't think this is a "sorry, but we still want to see other people" thing for him, and he could very well be the best candidate in the bunch, but I do like the fact that UConn is trying a swing for the fences.

Re: Gwozdecky, I think he would be a good catch, and I have no doubt he'd succeed with the Huskies. I do have doubts that he's what the AD is looking for; I think UConn wants to find their "hockey Calhoun" with the search, someone who will own the position for 20+ years, and make it their career capstone. Gwozdecky, for all his bonafides, is probably not going to coach for another 20 years, and even if he got the Huskies as many titles as he brought Denver, DU is still the team of record in his legacy.

Also, mostly, I think any talk of him being a candidate for the job is more centered around the fact that UConn is one of a very short list of teams who are looking. BU filled their vacancy pretty quickly, and obviously Denver doesn't count as an opening he can fill, so I am given to understand that leaves us and Anchorage at the moment.
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

mar7967 said:
I saw some talk on twitter yesterday about George Gwozdecky being a man of interest. What do you guys think of that?
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Yeah.

Still think Berard makes the most sense and the best fit.
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

kingdobbs said:
I have no doubt that Berard is a candidate in the coaching search, if for no other reason than he gave a pretty good audition with the team's much improved performance this year. I don't think this is a "sorry, but we still want to see other people" thing for him, and he could very well be the best candidate in the bunch, but I do like the fact that UConn is trying a swing for the fences.

Re: Gwozdecky, I think he would be a good catch, and I have no doubt he'd succeed with the Huskies. I do have doubts that he's what the AD is looking for; I think UConn wants to find their "hockey Calhoun" with the search, someone who will own the position for 20+ years, and make it their career capstone. Gwozdecky, for all his bonafides, is probably not going to coach for another 20 years, and even if he got the Huskies as many titles as he brought Denver, DU is still the team of record in his legacy.

Also, mostly, I think any talk of him being a candidate for the job is more centered around the fact that UConn is one of a very short list of teams who are looking. BU filled their vacancy pretty quickly, and obviously Denver doesn't count as an opening he can fill, so I am given to understand that leaves us and Anchorage at the moment.
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I agree with all of that. I think the Gwozdecky talk is just talk. He's available and UConn has an opening so it seems likely they'll at least contact each other. I think Berard fits the profile of what they want more though. they went the "old pro" with football and while maybe disaster is too strong a word, big disappointment sure isn't. Not sure Gwodrecky would find UConn a great fit either. He'd be coming into a situation where he has substandard facilities, at least for the time being, and would be the 4th most popular sport on campus assuming the soccer team doesn't have a good year. If they do,then he'd be 5th. I also think that as a public university, UConn has some obligations regarding advertizing its openings whether they are for a janitor in Beach Hall or head coach of the hockey team. Doesn't mean they don't have candidates in mind.
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

Jim, agree with much of what you said, but I think Gwoz would jump at this opportunity in a NY minute. And Gampel is gonna get enlarged in a few years and include ice this time.
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

Gwoz please. No disrespect to Coach Berard but not too many people can match Gwoz's CV. Instant crediblity for program.
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

Jim said:
I agree with all of that. I think the Gwozdecky talk is just talk. He's available and UConn has an opening so it seems likely they'll at least contact each other. I think Berard fits the profile of what they want more though. they went the "old pro" with football and while maybe disaster is too strong a word, big disappointment sure isn't. Not sure Gwodrecky would find UConn a great fit either. He'd be coming into a situation where he has substandard facilities, at least for the time being, and would be the 4th most popular sport on campus assuming the soccer team doesn't have a good year. If they do,then he'd be 5th. I also think that as a public university, UConn has some obligations regarding advertizing its openings whether they are for a janitor in Beach Hall or head coach of the hockey team. Doesn't mean they don't have candidates in mind.
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I'm not sure folks here could poo-poo Gwoz's track record any more if you set out to. Firstly, expecting to hire a coach who will stay 20 years is a pipedream, given today's ever changing D1 landscape. As for Gwoz, the guy's in the top 5-6 active coaches for wins, can recruit circles around anyone and has routinely sent guys to the pros - many to the NHL. Why would you not want the guy for 10-12 years as the legacy coach bringing you into HE ?? Not to mention the fact that the guy mentors his AC's, so if you had any luck at all, he'd be grooming his successor for they day he decides to head for the 19th hole. Any true UConn fan should be BEGGING the AD to bring him on board.

UConn fans need to understand one thing -- if they don't get the hire right you WILL be mired in the bottom of the HE. Cahoon, Sneddon and others arrived in HE with tons of experience, a lot of momentum and plenty of good intentions, but the results have not followed. HE is a **** hard league to recruit and play in.

Call me crazy, but I would think a coach like Gwoz - who is wired into blue chip recruiting - is exactly what you'd want.
 
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Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

Wicked Slappaahs said:
I'm not sure folks here could poo-poo Gwoz's track record any more if you set out to. Firstly, expecting to hire a coach who will stay 20 years is a pipedream, given today's ever changing D1 landscape. As for Gwoz, the guy's in the top 5-6 active coaches for wins, can recruit circles around anyone and has routinely sent guys to the pros - many to the NHL. Why would you not want the guy for 10-12 years as the legacy coach bringing you into HE ?? Not to mention the fact that the guy mentors his AC's, so if you had any luck at all, he'd be grooming his successor for they day he decides to head for the 19th hole. Any true UConn fan should be BEGGING the AD to bring him on board.

UConn fans need to understand one thing -- if they don't get the hire right you WILL be mired in the bottom of the HE. Cahoon, Sneddon and others arrived in HE with tons of experience, a lot of momentum and plenty of good intentions, but the results have not followed. HE is a **** hard league to recruit and play in.

Call me crazy, but I would think a coach like Gwoz - who is wired into blue chip recruiting - is exactly what you'd want.
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I agree with you on the basic point: if there's mutual interest, ABSOLUTELY with no reservations take Gwozdecky. Hire him, offer Berard his old assistant spot back if he wants it, and nlet that be that. I cannot, under any circumstances, argue that he is not a great coach, because he absolutely is, and he has the results to prove it.

I have doubts whether he is interested in the job, given that UConn going forward is a major building project. Does he really want to potentially spend 5-10 years building UConn to get 2-5 years of good success under his belt? Would he be committed to UConn if in five years in HEA, we haven't won more than ten games (in spite of his coaching bonafides)?

The best thing in our favor right now is that we have an opening, and Gwoz doesn't want to ride into the sunset just yet. But I would be shocked if the first question, or one among the first few questions, in the interview isn't "Are you willing to give us a long-haul commitment, knowing the possibility exists we could be the worst team in Hockey East every year for the next ten?" If he still wants the gig after all that? Hire him, and don't look back.
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

Eric, you will be surprised at how quickly UConn gets competitive in HE regardless of whether Berard or Gwoz is the coach. It's not gonna be 5 years let alone 10. One of Berard's advantages, btw, is that his salary is gonna be a lot lower and that will free up a LOT of budget to do all the stuff that needs to be done in the recruiting sphere. Recruiting is a lot more just the number of rides. A lot of it is travel budget for both coaches and recruits. That aspect does not get discussed here much.
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

Wicked Slappaahs said:
I'm not sure folks here could poo-poo Gwoz's track record any more if you set out to. Firstly, expecting to hire a coach who will stay 20 years is a pipedream, given today's ever changing D1 landscape. As for Gwoz, the guy's in the top 5-6 active coaches for wins, can recruit circles around anyone and has routinely sent guys to the pros - many to the NHL. Why would you not want the guy for 10-12 years as the legacy coach bringing you into HE ?? Not to mention the fact that the guy mentors his AC's, so if you had any luck at all, he'd be grooming his successor for they day he decides to head for the 19th hole. Any true UConn fan should be BEGGING the AD to bring him on board.

UConn fans need to understand one thing -- if they don't get the hire right you WILL be mired in the bottom of the HE. Cahoon, Sneddon and others arrived in HE with tons of experience, a lot of momentum and plenty of good intentions, but the results have not followed. HE is a **** hard league to recruit and play in.

Call me crazy, but I would think a coach like Gwoz - who is wired into blue chip recruiting - is exactly what you'd want.
Click to expand...
Guy is a great coach, no doubt about it. I'm just not convinced he would want to come to UConn and face the following conditions: 1. Hockey is barely on the radar and to the extent it is, Quinnipiac and Yale are lightyears ahead of UConn in terms of prestige. 2. Even on the UConn campus he's going to be at best the 4th option, playing in front of 1500-2000 while up the street the Womens basketball team plays in front of 10000. 3. He is taking on a major building project. Does he want that at this point in his career? 4. he will be recruiting with facilities that probably rank 13th in the 12 team Hockey East Association. 5. He's a western guy. There are lots of good things happening in Storrs, particularly under the new UConn President. But Storrs isn't Denver. And he isn't going there for the research.

As far as along term hire, I think most hockey coaches, even the ones that aren't that successful, end up having pretty long tenures. Toot spent something like 12 years at UMass with at best modest results. Sneddon's been in Vermont for a decade now. Pooley was at PC for a decade. even Army was there for 6-7 years. And Hockey is not like basketball or football in that there just aren't all that many places to go. A guy like Pecknold brings QU to the Frozen Four and he's probably back next year in his same position. His basketball counterpart does something similar and he'll be coaching at Georgetown or someplace next season. I don't think this job is a quick fix either. I think it is a long term commitment and you need to be willing to accept that it will have some serious bumps. On the other hand, I don't think it will be a situation where the Huskies are a perpetual 12th place finisher, either. But it will be a while before they'll be championship contenders, too. I agree with dobbs that they need to know he is in it for the long term. Because I don't think this can be built in 2 or 3 seasons.
 
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Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

I don't think UCONN can afford Gwoz. We already have hundreds of gadflies bemoaning the university coaches salaries. Bringing in a coach with his salary requirements will be very difficult for the admins IMO. That said, I think they should do it anyway, screw the gadflies and the high taxes, we want more good hockey in CT!
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

LTsatch said:
I don't think UCONN can afford Gwoz. We already have hundreds of gadflies bemoaning the university coaches salaries. Bringing in a coach with his salary requirements will be very difficult for the admins IMO. That said, I think they should do it anyway, screw the gadflies and the high taxes, we want more good hockey in CT!
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Oh I don't know about that. On the scale of things, a college hockey coach is a relative bargain. And if they can fund it with booster money rahter than university funds like they did with Geno's recent extension, they'll get even less pushback.
 
AspyDad said:
Gwoz interested in UCONN. Awesome!!!!!
http://blogs.denverpost.com/college...openings-at-ohio-state-maine-and-uconn/27082/
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I think you guys have a better chance to land Osiecki & I think he's actually more of what you're looking for than Gwoz...obviously doesn't have a dozen consecutive 20+ win seasons and a couple national championships, but has a fantastic résumé, big time D1 HC & AC experience, international experience & a great recruiting network...oh, and he has to be stinging from the OSU thing & he's definitely hungry. UConn's administration being (seemingly) very passionate about growing hockey & I think it could be a match made in Heaven. He also has a great staff that I'm sure he'd bring along with him as well...
 
Re: UCONN Hockey 2012-13: Hockey East Here We Come

hockeyjunkie10 said:
I think you guys have a better chance to land Osiecki & I think he's actually more of what you're looking for than Gwoz...obviously doesn't have a dozen consecutive 20+ win seasons and a couple national championships, but has a fantastic résumé, big time D1 HC & AC experience, international experience & a great recruiting network...oh, and he has to be stinging from the OSU thing & he's definitely hungry. UConn's administration being (seemingly) very passionate about growing hockey & I think it could be a match made in Heaven. He also has a great staff that I'm sure he'd bring along with him as well...
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That all might be true, probably is true in fact, but I don't see UConn going for a guy who was just fired because his teams didn't perform. It is a tough case to make I think that you want to upgrade by hiring a guy who just got fired. Gwoz is different because his situation was related to business issues. Osiecki was dumped because his teams didn't succeed.
 
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