His teammates have elected junior wing Ryan Stoa, a Bloomington native, the captain of the 2008-09 team. That’s quite an honor for him, especially considering he played only two games last season, the first game and part of the second.

He suffered a knee injury against Michigan in the title game of the Ice Breaker Invitational at the X and had knee surgery on Nov. 13. At the time, he was skating on the Gophers’ first line.

He was skating with the Gophers near the end of the season, but the coaches did not want to risk the chance of him re-injuring the knee. He was a second round draft choice of the Colorado Avalanche in the 2005 NHL Draft.

He will probably be granted an extra year of eligibility as a medical redshirt.

He scored 12 goals and had 12 assists for 24 pionts as a sophomore.

He has 23 goals and 28 assists for 51 points in his career.

The assistant captains will be named in the fall.

COACHING SEARCH UPDATE

Coach Don Lucia said the search to find an assistant coach to replace Mike Guentzel is going great. “We have it open until the job is filled,” Lucia said about the posting which went up April 30. “But we can not do anything until May 14.”

That’s when the two-week window for applying — which is the norm on most jobs — is over.

Lucia said he still hopes to have somebody hired by June 1.

He said whether the candidate is a former Gophers player will be a consideration but not an eliminator.

“It is a consideration,” Lucia said, “just like recruiting ability, coaching ability, administation skills. It’s a piece of the puzzle. We are not considering people just because they are U of M grads. We want the best fit for the program, so we are cohesive as a staff. And we’d prefer somebody who can coach defensemen, all things being equal.”

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