Breaking Down UNO's New Assistants

By Jon Brooks

Photo by Greg McVey

In the wake of the firings of UNO assistant coaches Troy Jutting and Alex Todd on March 31, the Mavericks have wrangled up a couple of assistants to try to reverse the fortunes of a program that started off the 2015-16 season 14-3-1, then finished with a 4-14 record.

UNO has hired Mike Gabinet and Leigh Mendelson as assistants for the 2016-17 season. 

Many were surprised when Blais decided to clean house after the season, but the move shouldn't surprise anyone. Not only are expectations higher after the team's first-ever Frozen Four appearance in 2015, there are mounting bills coming due on the university's shiny new Baxter Arena. 

Since most of the local media coverage of the hirings has been "press release" material, I thought I'd take a closer look at both coaches, and analyze the challenges and opportunities facing the entire staff moving forward. 

Gabinet Returns After Coaching a Canadian College Team to a 36-0 Record 

Mike Gabinet is not the first former UNO Hockey player to join the coaching staff as a full-time assistant (that honor goes to Nick Fohr). 

Gabinet is, however, the first former UNO player to join the staff with head coaching experience -- one season with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) Ooks of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC). 

Prior to the 2015-16 campaign, he was an assistant for three seasons with the Ooks (joining them after a nine-year professional career playing in North America, Sweden and Finland). 

We profiled Gabinet in a March blog post focusing on hypothetical assistant coach candidates.  

The Ooks finished their season with a perfect 36-0 record in the ACAC. Regardless of the circumstances or level of play, an unblemished record is worth lauding. 

Canadian college hockey is different than NCAA hockey (or NCAA athletics in general). Athletes who have played professionally are allowed to come back to school and play in the league NAIT competes in. 

In the case of the Ooks, their leading scorer the past two seasons was a forward named John Dunbar (not to be confused with the character Kevin Costner played in the movie Dances With Wolves).  

Prior to joining the Ooks, Dunbar played three seasons professionally in the ECHL -- two with the Fort Wayne Komets and one with the Pensacola Ice Flyers. He also had a two-season stint with Quinnipiac University (2010-12). 

The Edmonton Sun had an article praising Gabinet and other ACAC coaches in Cananda, talking about how the conference is a good proving ground for NHL coaches and that "the quality of ACAC competition remains almost unknown to the general public."  

Another tidbit mentioned in the Edmonton Sun article is the fact that there is no "national championship of colleges" in Canada. 

All schools in the ACAC compete under the same rules, but it illustrates the different dynamic at play north of the border. As such, we will have to see how Gabinet's experience translates to NCAA D-I hockey. 

As a follower and supporter of the UNO program since its inception, I can say that Gabinet was top-notch defenseman with size and reach during his years as a Maverick. Not only that, his affable, polite and laid back manner with the fans during those years should go a long way with players and prospects in his new gig. 

Gabinet, along with former NAIT Head Coach Serge Lajoie, put together a successful pool of talent for the Ooks. 

Lajoie and Gabinet wanted to make a statement against UNO in the fall of 2014. According to the Edmonton Sun, they "hoped to make the North American hockey world come to realize that the hockey in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference is played at an extremely high level."

It worked. NAIT went on to defeat UNO 4-0 in their exhibition game on Oct. 6, 2014. 

It's worth noting that UNO gave Gabinet a three-year contract at $120,000 per year. Multi-year contracts of this length are something of a rarity for assistant coaches at UNO. 

Considering his past relationship with Associate Athletic Director Mike Kemp, it seems likely that UNO views Gabinet as a possible successor to Dean Blais (when the storied head coach decides to hang up his whistle someday). 

Whether that happens remains to be seen, but that appears to be the direction Sapp Fieldhouse is heading at the moment. 

Mendelson Brings a Long List of Coaching Experiences to the Bench

Some of our faithful readers will notice that I had left Leigh Mendelson off the profile of possible candidates I wrote about in a March blog post. 

That wasn't meant to be a slight, but in the past, "volunteer assistants" with UNO have been on different career trajectories, many with families, and are aiding the team as an outlet to stay involved with the game they know and love. That's not the case with Mendelson.

Mendelson is owner and instructor with Goalietown Omaha -- working with youth goaltenders in the Omaha area. 

(He also earned an undergraduate degree from UNO in 2015). 

Mendelson has served as Volunteer Goaltending Coach for UNO the past two seasons. The results between the pipes have been impressive during that time -- in particular, Ryan Massa's performance during the 2014-15 season. 

The list of coaching stops for Mendelson has been extensive the past 20 years, featuring brief stints with a variety of junior and professional teams in North America and Europe. He mentions on his Goalietown Omaha Facebook page that he has trained more than 40 NCAA Division I and professional goaltenders during his career. 

He has served in both assistant and head coaching capacities. Local hockey fans might remember the 2000-01 Omaha Lancers (USHL) team that won the Clark Cup -- Mendelson was an assistant under Mike Hastings.

He was one of Dave Hakstol's assistants with the Green Bay Gamblers (USHL) in the 2005-06 season.

During a coaching stint in Finland, Mendelson studied at the Vierumaki Sports Institute with the likes of Erkka Westerlund, who led the Finnish national men's ice hockey team to a silver medal in the 2006 Olympics. 

Mendelson has had a relatively "nomadic" coaching career, moving from team to team and not staying anywhere for long.

This chart from hockeydb.com shows the varied coaching experience Mendelson has had with 15 different teams over 20 years:

I've been told that the UNO Hockey players have a great deal of respect for Mendelson. That is an important attribute to have as an assistant -- especially during a period of transition. 

Talent acquistion and scouting are two areas junior teams in the USHL and NAHL deal with on an annual basis. Mendelson's experiences suggest he has knowledge in that area. 

Challenges and Opportunities: Where Does UNO Go From Here...?

The reality is that neither new assistant has experience recruiting players for a NCAA Division I hockey program. That alone makes the hires somewhat surprising for a program that is a season removed from a Frozen Four appearance. 

To be sure, there will be a learning curve for both coaches. If anything, the NCAA game has changed during the past 10 to 15 years.

The recent addition of "full cost of attendance scholarships" (which UNO has said it isn't ready to offer) creates a new dynamic when recruiting student-athletes, and also creates challenges for schools like UNO. 

The key will be for the coaching staff to continue making inroads with the youth and prep ranks -- as it is becoming more common for teams to garner verbal commitments from 15-year-old players. That trend creates uncertainty on the "risk/reward" spectrum, and coaching staffs have to have a discerning eye for talent. 

UNO has had some impressive players during Dean Blais's tenure, and the program needs to continue landing recruits like Ryan Walters, Jake Guentzel, Josh Archibald and Andrej Sustr if it is going to progress into a perennial NCAA tournament participant.

The coaching staff also needs to find a way to harness the power of "lunch pail" players (along the lines of #oldbulls Jeff Hoggan and Mike Lefley, among others), and form a grittier squad better able to compete with the rigors of NCHC play. 

You wonder if the team will shift from the top prep players in Minnesota and the USHL ranks and look for more "golden nuggets" in the Canadian junior ranks (as they did in the program's early years with players like Jeff Hoggan, David Brisson and Greg Zanon). 

The second half of UNO's 2015-16 season featured lackluster performances. In particular, the power play looked anemic. But all aspects of play were suspect. 

Over the years, Blais has tended toward a more freewheeling style of play, with an aggressive forecheck. When you have skilled players with speed, you can have success using that philosophy. Be that as it may, there were moments last season when the team looked slower and less athletic than their NCHC counterparts -- and it cost them in conference play. 

With one assistant having worked extensively with defensemen and defensive systems, and another having spent his career working with goaltenders, it could mean the team will look to build from the "net out" in a more conservative, tough manner with rigid systems and formations.

Then again, it might not mean that at all.

One thing is for sure, the microscope will be on the team the next two seasons, and these two new hires will have a great deal of influence on the direction of the program.