One of the esteemed sports columnists from that other daily paper on the east side of the Mississippi suggested the other day that Bemidji State’s Tom Serratore could be the next Gophers’ hockey assistant, replacing Mike Guentzel.

Let’s take a look at his resume: He was born in Coleraine, Minn., a long slap shot away from Grand Rapids where Don Lucia is from.

He played college hockey at Mankato State for two years and finished at Bemidji State (1985-87).

He was a high school assistant at Brainerd from 1987-91, and head coach at Henry Sibly from 1991-93.

He was an assistant at St. Cloud State from 1993-98 and was the Huskies’  recruiting coordinator most of those years.

He was a BSU assistant for a couple years, then became the head coach.

His teams at BSU have had winning records for six years in a row, although this year the Beavers were only 17-16-3.

They did with the College Hockey America regular season title for the third year in a row, though.

He was there when BSU made the jump to Division I and the Beavers played in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 2005, then again in ‘06 after winning the CHA tournament.

Seems like he is a committed hockey guy, knows the state and the WCHA pretty well, is still young (in his early 40s.)

Reason he might want to go: The CHA is crumbling. It will be down to four teams next season with Wayne State dropping its program. So scheduling and getting a berth in the NCAA tournament could be harder in the future. The CHA tournament champion had an automatic spot.

A reason to stay: BSU could have a nifty new arena to play in by 2010. The 2008 bonding bill appropriated $20 million to the project, which will actually be an events center with a rink which will have 2,100 more seats than Glas Fieldhouse which was built in the dark ages, actually the 1960s.

Serratore is not an ’M’ man and that might bother some program supporters because then none of the three coaches, counting Lucia or John Hill, are ‘M’ men either. Only volunteer goalie coach Robb Stauber is.

Guentzel was, of course. He and had a passion for the maroon and gold.

Personally, I don’t think Lucia necessarily has to hire an ‘M’ man, somebody who played for the Gophers, but if he has two candidates and one is an ’M’ man and the other is not, and both are otherwise equal, I would go with the ‘M’ man every time.

He would have U memories and stories to share with his players and — hopefully I am not getting too mushy — probably would have a special place in his heart for the U.

One Gophers hockey web site is taking a vote on this issue and, in early returns, voters are saying 4-1 it doesn’t matter if an ‘M’ man is hired.

It does to some people, though. I know ex-coach Doug Woog would like to see an ‘M’ man hired.

Trouble is, there are not too many in coaching.

Woog said most of his former players are in investments or pharmecutical sales or commercial real estate, and not coaching hockey.

Lucia has been out of town the last week, but the American Hockey Coaches Convention in Naples, Fla., ends on Sunday with a golf tournament at 1 p.m.

Finding a couple of goalies for next season and hiring an assistant will probably be two of Lucia’s top priorities when he returns. 

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.