Cooley Leaves Minnesota for NHL

It appears that Logan Cooley (Minnesota) will not be returning to the Golden Gophers after all.

Two months after saying he would be back for his sophomore season for Minnesota, the Pittsburgh native has signed an entry-level three-year NHL contract with the Arizona Coyotes, who drafted him third overall in 2022. He thus forgoes his remaining NCAA eligibility.

Cooley, 19, notched 22 goals and 38 assists for 60 points in 39 games as a center in 2002-23 in his only college campaign, while leading the Golden Gophers to a No. 1 national ranking and then the NCAA championship game in Tampa, where they fell to Quinnipiac in overtime in April. He had previously helped the Gophers to a Big Ten regular-season conference title, and than an NCAA regional crown in Fargo, N.D.

Cooley led all NCAA Division I players in assists last season as a freshman, and earned First Team All-America accolades at forward. He was also a Hobey Baker Memorial Award finalist, and collected a bronze medal with Team USA at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship in Canada. 

Prior to joining Minnesota, Cooley had played the previous two seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program. In 98 career appearances with the NTDP, he tallied 47-74—121 points.

NCAA Coaching Carousel Continues

The offseason NCAA men's ice hockey coaching carousel was in full swing over the past two weeks.

Foremost among all the moves made was the firing of Todd Woodcroft by Vermont, after a months-long investigation by UVM administrators concerning "inappropriate text messages" with a student at the university. Woodcroft, who registered an overall record of 20-55-9 at the helm of the Catamounts over the last four years, has been replaced by assistant coach Stephen Wiedler for the 2023-24 season. Wiedler played collegiately at Southern Maine, and was an assistant at Curry College and AIC before becoming an assistant in Vermont in 2020.

The rest of the recent coaching movements came in the assistant ranks, as also reported at USCHO.com. Alaska (Fairbanks) brought aboard former NAHL/NA3HL head coach Casey Mignone, who played collegiately at both Lebanon Valley and Westfield State. Michigan hired Mathew Deschamps (Maine) and Kevin Reiter (Alaska Anchorage) as assistant coaches, and also promoted Rob Rassey (Northeastern) to associate head coach. Colgate added Zach Badalamenti (Wisconsin-Stevens Point), while Brock Kautz (Minnesota) has joined Bemidji State.

Lastly, Arizona State associate head coach Mike Field (AIC), who has spent the last eight seasons with the Sun Devils since they joined the NCAA Division I ranks, has jumped to the major junior hockey ranks as an assistant with Everett (WHL).  Field, who has also coached at his alma mater and at Dubuque (USHL), helped ASU to its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in 2019 as an independent.

Fred Willis 1947-2023

Former NFL running back and college hockey player Fred Willis (Boston College) passed away on July 4 at the age of 75.

A native of Natick, Mass., the same hometown as fellow BC football great Doug Flutie, Willis played one year of varsity hockey at BC, tallying nine goals and 19 points in 24 games during the 1968-69 season as the Eagles went 19-7-0 overall and finished second in the ECAC with a 16-5-0 mark.

It was on the gridiron where Willis made his biggest athletic mark, as a halfback, as he became the first player in BC history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a single season when he accumulated 1,107 yards on the ground in 1970. He earned All-America and All-East accolades as a senior, and also played in both the Senior Bowl and Blue-Gray Game that year. He rushed for a then-BC career record of 2,115 yards in only three varsity seasons, earned his bachelor's degree in business administration, and was later inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1977.

Willis then went to play six years of professional football, two with the Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted him 93rd overall in 1971, and then four with the Houston Oilers. In 77 career NFL regular-season games, he ran the ball 780 times for 2,831 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also caught 203 passes for 1,380 yards and five touchdowns. As a rookie with Cincinnati, he rushed for a career-high 590 yards and seven scores, before catching a career-high and AFC-leading 57 passes for a personal-best 371 yards two years later in his first full season with Houston.

A successful restaurateur with several chains following the completion of his football career, Willis also went on to serve as the founder, president and CEO of NeuroSport, which assisted athletes with evaluation of concussions, risk assessment, and returning to play, and as founder and executive director of NFL Player Brains Matter. where he advocated for former players who suffered from the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Arizona State Hockey to Join NCHC in 2024

The Arizona State University men's hockey program finally has a conference to call home. 

The Sun Devils, who began NCAA Division I play as an independent in 2015-16 after decades as an ACHA club powerhouse, will join the National Collegiate Hockey Conference as its ninth member beginning with the 2024-25 season. It is the first time the NCHC has expanded since its inaugural campaign of 2012-13. ASU will become an official NCHC member on July 1, 2024.

The "new" NCHC will be divided into three-team pods, in coordination with the NCHC's annual 24-game conference schedule. According to TheSunDevils.com, "the new schedule model and rotation consists of three, three-team pods based on geography with teams guaranteed to play home and away series against the other two teams in their pod every season (eight games). The three-team pods are: Arizona State, Colorado College and Denver; Minnesota Duluth, North Dakota and St. Cloud State; and Miami (Ohio), Omaha and Western Michigan."

ASU qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2019 after going 21-13-1 overall, the first hockey independent to do so since Alaska Anchorage in 1992, and the fastest school to ever do so at the NCAA Division I level. The Sun Devils were also on pace to qualify for the 2020 NCAAs after going 22-11-3, had the tournament not been canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. They then played all their games on the road in 2020-21, due to COVID, all against Big Ten conference schools while finishing 7-16-3 overall.

The Sun Devils, who are coached by alumnus and former club team coach Greg Powers, went 18-21-0 this past season, their first in their new on-campus home, the 5,000-seat Mullet Arena that ASU currently shares with the NHL's Arizona Coyotes. Since joining the NCAA Division I ranks, ASU has amassed an overall record of 106-140-16, all under Indianapolis native Powers, a former Sun Devils club team goaltender who had previously guided ASU's ACHA Division I team to a national club title in 2014. ASU also recently hired former Boston University player and assistant/head coach Albie O'Connell as its new associate coach/recruiting coordinator.

ASU will play its final season as an NCAA independent in 2023-24, with two-game series against three of its future NCHC brethren: at Miami on Oct. 27-28, at home versus Denver on Nov. 10-11, and at Colorado College on Dec. 1-2. The Sun Devils will also play on the road at Robert Morris, Alaska Fairbanks, and Alaska Anchorage, and at home against Merrimack, Northern Michigan, Stonehill, UAA, Providence, Dartmouth, Cornell, Augustana, Lindenwood, UAF and Long Island. ASU will also skate in the Adirondack Winter Invitational in Lake Placid, N.Y. on Dec. 28-29, before hosting its annual Desert Hockey Classic on Jan. 5-6 featuring UMass Lowell, Harvard and Omaha.

Hockey Fourth of July

 

Former NCAA Players Changing NHL Places (2023)

Former NCAA players have been changing places lately in the National Hockey League, since the start of June. Listed below are those players, in alphabetical order by last name, along with their school, former NHL club, and new NHL club, per sportsnet.ca:

• Shane Bowers (Boston University) - Boston to New Jersey 

• Ross Colton (Vermont) - Tampa Bay to Colorado

• J.T. Compher (Michigan) - Colorado to Detroit 

• Kevin Hayes (Boston College) - Philadelphia to St. Louis

• Alex Iafallo (Minnesota-Duluth) - Los Angeles to Winnipeg

• Steven Kampfer (Michigan) - Detroit to Arizona

• Alex Newhook (Boston College) - Montreal to Colorado

• Cal Petersen (Notre Dame) - Los Angeles to Philadelphia

• Jonathan Quick (UMass) - Vegas to New York Rangers 

• Reilly Walsh (Harvard) - New Jersey to Boston 

• Sean Walker (Bowling Green) - Los Angeles to Philadelphia

NOTE: List may not be all inclusive.

Players in bold won the Stanley Cup while with their last NHL club.