By Arielle Aronson/DFP staff
Northeastern University named alumnus Jim Madigan as its 10th head coach in program history Tuesday. Sebastien Laplante, an assistant coach under former head coach Greg Cronin and the interim head coach after Cronin’s departure in June, will remain with the Huskies as an assistant coach under Madigan.
Madigan has never been a head coach and last coached 18 years ago as an assistant coach at Northeastern. He played for the Huskies from 1981-85 and won two Beanpots in his tenure as a player then took his first assistant coaching job with the University of Vermont for the 1985-86 season. Madigan returned to Northeastern in 1986 and was with the Huskies when they won their most recent Beanpot in 1988. Madigan left Northeastern in 1993 and became an NHL scout who worked with the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins.
After his tenure as a coach ended, Madigan worked inside the Northeastern athletic department as the director of athletic development from 1999-2004. Madigan was also the associate dean and director of development for the College of Business Administration from 2004-11.
“Jim played a prominent role in one of our program’s most illustrious decades,” Northeastern athletic director Peter Roby said in a press release. “More importantly, though, Jim has shown a great ability to identify talent and is committed to developing players on the ice, in the classroom and in the community. His energy and enthusiasm, along with his commitment to Northeastern values, made him the obvious choice.”
Madigan will have to revive a program that lost its top four scorers (Wade MacLeod, Tyler McNeely, Steve Silva and Brodie Reid) as well as promising rookie defenseman and last season’s plus/minus leader Jamie Oleksiak, who left the Huskies for the Ontario Hockey League.
In the press release, Madigan said he is looking forward to the task ahead of him.
“The expectations I have for our program are high,” Madigan said. “We will continue to build on the momentum established by Greg Cronin and his staff, and we will compete at the highest level, both in Hockey East and nationally.”
With the addition of Madigan at Northeastern, Hockey East will feature three new head coaches this season as Nate Leaman takes over for Tim Army at Providence College and Norm Bazin replaces Blaise MacDonald at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
I think NU will be one of many bad hockey east teams this year
This is a truly bizarre selection and shows that Peter Roby has either lost the plot, is a complete incompetent or is set on de-valuing the NU hockey program like he did with football.
Jim Madigan has been a part-time NHL scout and NU admiminstrative employee since he last coached in the 1980s.
Think the college game has changed any since then?
This hiring makes no sense, and that takes nothing away from Madigan being a quality person or a loyal NU employee.
If NU were serious about its hockey program, they would have had an actual national search, not hire the guy doing department paperwork from down-the-hall. At the very least, they could have hired Sebastien Laplante as head coach and had Madigan work with him in an adminstrative capacity.
One thing you can count on from Peter Roby: bad decisions.
Wait. Northeastern has won beanpots? Wow I guess it was just so long ago almost no one remembers.