Tehy needed some big ugly defensemen to keep shooters away from the goaltender...and a tougher call, they need to replace their leading scorer, cole Schnieder, who signed with the AHL at the end of the season.
Butchy, I have no idea whether he'd be a good or bad coach. I tend to think that bringing in your most illustious alumnus as the head coach is a bad idea in most cases, though I guess he is coaching in one of the Junior leagues. I'd be more likely looking at some of the same folks UMass has been looking at, head coaches at smaller schools, a few top college assistants like the guys at BC. I'd look at the assistant at UNH maybe, though he might get the UMass job. But in reality, marshall will be the head coach for the foreseeable future, at least for the first few Hockey East seasons. So it is a pretty theoretical discussion.
He's coaching in Michigan right now, for a high school and a mites team (and neither one is his 'day job'), but I'm gonna agree with freescooter on this one. Whether he's a capable coach or not, it's not a move that, to me, speaks aloud any commitment to the future of the sport (neither is keeping Marshall, really, but something something horses something midstream). We didn't go after a famous UConn alum to be our first I-A football coach, nor did we do so for either our men's and women's basketball coaches. What we'll be looking for, if we start looking, is a Karl Hobbs or Dave Leitao type of assistant from another program; has a good deal of coaching experience, albeit as a short-term assistant, but it's all in the shadow of the school's "Coach" (i.e. the guy that even when he retires, people will still talk about him as "Coach"), and isn't likely to move up in the queue anytime soon. We will need someone who knows the ins and outs of recruiting, can bring some connections with him, and can bring some different ideas into the fold.
We could always get Bruce Crowder. Although I'm not sure that technically qualifies as an improvement.
Oh god, he was worse than Madigan. He's a firm believer of the dump and watch strategy. One of these games the defenseman will score on his own goal.
