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Not sure how anyone thinks Pecknold would leave Quinnipiac to coach UMass. Our program has been awful for a while now and he is currently coaching one of the best programs in the country. Yes the conference is a whole lot stronger but I doubt that can compete with the fact that Quinnipiac has a good shot of making the NCAA tournament every year and being a top 10 team.

I don't know how much Pecknold is paid but I would guess it is more than Mich was making.

I think we acknowledge that there's probably not a compelling enough reason for him to leave QU. The ECAC has been arguably pretty close to Hockey East in recent years, with Union, Yale and QU all advancing to National Championships recently. Maybe the only way he considers it is if he has a strong urge to take on the challenge of brining the worst team in the best hockey conference in the country all the way to the top. Again, I get that its a very small chance. We can all dream... Just excited to see where the coaching search goes.

I'm a UMass Hockey fan but not necessarily a college hockey fan. To those folks, doesn't Rick Bennett at Union make a lot more sense than Pecknold? Grew up in Springfield, played in the Hockey East at Providence, coached in the HE at PC, and is having a down year at Union 2 years after leading them to the national title. Just went through the Union roster/stats and a lot of his team is coming back next year so they're bound to improve, but maybe we can pry him away and lure him back to the Hockey East and WMASS.

With regard to Pecknold, at first I thought there is no way he is coming here so don't bother. Then I did some digging around college hockey articles and it occurred to me that more of the big, P5 if you will, schools are starting hockey programs. So I ask those of you who are more rabid college hockey fans, with this changing demographic how much longer can the Quinnipiac's of the world continue to be competitive?

If Bamford can show a coach like Pecknold investments the U will be making, I would think there would be, wouldn't a UMass be a better long term opportunity than QU? Maybe I am being naive but I read, I believe it was the B1G schools tried to put an age limit on freshmen in hockey. Seems to me they tried to do this as an effort to hurt the smaller schools who live on these types of players because they can't compete for the top teenage talent.

I maybe wrong but it's a different look at the situation.

^
If a school like Quinnipiac decides they are going to put all their money behind one sport, then they'll be able to compete with anyone.

Calmass9 wrote:I'm a UMass Hockey fan but not necessarily a college hockey fan. To those folks, doesn't Rick Bennett at Union make a lot more sense than Pecknold? Grew up in Springfield, played in the Hockey East at Providence, coached in the HE at PC, and is having a down year at Union 2 years after leading them to the national title. Just went through the Union roster/stats and a lot of his team is coming back next year so they're bound to improve, but maybe we can pry him away and lure him back to the Hockey East and WMASS.

I'm not sure "a lot more sense" is the phrase I'd use, but "a lot more likely" is probably accurate. I guess it depends on the perspective you're taking. I think Bennett would be an excellent choice and probably one that's a lot more feasible than Pecknold. And I do think the fact Union isn't looking at NCAA tourney play could be a big plus if he happens to be Bamford's clear #1 choice. Potentially wouldn't have to wait around as long. Lots of intriguing names out there, as mostly highlighted by Rocks FTT post.

How quickly should we be expecting news on this front? A week has gone by without even a peep in this thread, much less any news coming out.

Hockey East Tourney ends this weekend. I assume other conferences have similar schedules, and the Frozen Four is 7 & 9 April. I would imagine we would not hear anything at least until the conference tournaments are done.

It was pretty quiet last week but behind the scenes activity has really picked up in the last few days. Not much is making it out to the public yet though. Unlike last time around (which is probably a good thing). From what I hear Bamford has been pretty busy.

Mike McMahon lays it out...
http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2 ... aching.php

Wow, that was well done. Thanks for posting Mike. Lots of good candidates.

We have some competition - which might complicate our search:

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/badgers/ ... 47021.html

Mike McMahon tweeted UMass is unlikely to land Rick Bennett. Time for plan B...

^ Bennett officially out of the running now. http://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2 ... _union.php

Can any hockey guru's(Rocks) explain to me why the UMass job is so unattractive? I just don't get it!