College Hockey, USHL Coaching Updates

The college hockey assistant carousel is in full swing this offseason. New Michigan State head coach Adam Nightingale made two significant hires when he landed UMass associate head coach Jared DeMichiel and Clarkson associate head coach Mike Towns.

According to multiple sources, former Omaha Lancers GM/head coach David Wilkie is going to return to the team. Billett families were told two weeks ago that Wilkie was returning, per a source. It’s unclear where that leaves current head coach Rob Rassey (Omaha has not made an official announcement), but Rassey is in the mix as a potential candidate to replace Jared DeMichiel at UMass.

Earlier this offseason at UMass Nolan Gluchowski replaced Matt Lindsay on the staff.

Clarkson is working through the process on replacing Towns. Earlier this offseason the Golden Knights hired Cory Schneider, who replaced Josh Hauge after he was named Union head coach.

Robert Morris will hire Matt Nicholson as an assistant under Derek Schooley. Nicholson was at Mercyhurst this past season after three seasons at Niagara. He was the head coach with Amarillo in the NAHL from 2015-17 and will return to the Robert Morris program after he spent six seasons there (2009-15), including the last two as associate head coach under Schooley.

Schooley and Nicholson will recruit players this upcoming season and the program will relaunch in 2023.

LIU has an opening on its staff with the departure of Joe Gilhooly, who left the program to take a job outside of hockey.

R.J. Enga was promoted to assistant coach at St. Cloud State. This actually happened a few weeks ago. Enga joined the St. Cloud program last season as the Director of Hockey Operations after a seven-year stint at Colorado College. He replaces Nick Oliver who left the program to become the head coach of the Fargo Force (USHL).

There are currently still openings at Princeton, Mercyhurst, Union, Long Island, Minnesota, Colgate, AIC, and Sacred Heart.