Well, consider me one of shock... though it isn't shock because Eades is gone. It's more of shock that Eades isn't gone due to a new position...either head coach at the DI level or USHL level.
I think Eades is one of the more up and coming coaches at the collegiate level among the cadre of attractive candidates that do not have DI head coaching experience.
I haven't a doubt that Eades' unemployment will be measured in weeks rather than in months. Best of luck, Cary. Here's to success wherever you end up (unless it is against UND).
The NEW UND coach:
UND has basically two directions: First would be to promote
Dane Jackson to Associate
Head Coach and hire an
Assistant Head Coach. The other would be to hire an Associate Head Coach.
First, hiring a new Assistant Coach:
This would be the least expensive option as they wouldn't necessarily have to shell out as much money as they'd have to if they went for an Associate Head Coach. Not to mention that it opens the most options to UND. Although UND doesn't have to follow "tradition" of hiring former UND or at least WCHA coaches or players, a new assistant can be ANYONE... including poaching a coach from the ranks of Major Juniors if they really wanted. They can also go in the direction of giving a guy his first shot at the DI level...having no real coaching experience outside of the volunteer variety... for example:
Karl Goehring.
Possible Candidates can be from a large variety of sources from juniors up to the pro ranks. With how open this possibility is, I'm not sure anyone other than Karl who jumps out at me. Perhaps Tony Hrkac would be willing to take a shot at this position.
Option Two: Hire a new Associate
This is the more costly option but it holds a lot of intriguing names. People who have made their names known in the past could become candidates. Some names that come to mind include:
Jason Herter,
John Marks, Steve Johnson, even Chad Johnson could come up. There could be non-UND candidates, such as Shattuck's Tom Ward (he was a former Minnesota Assistant Coach). Hey, I hear John Hill and Troy Jutting are available. But then again, hiring John Hill would kill our program. Heh, we should make a run at one of the Sutters. They'd know how to undo the major junior influence. After all, no one knows more about Major Junior recruiting away NCAA players better than the Anti-NCAA Sutter family. I'd also love to see James Patrick be included in the list but he's doing well as an NHL Assistant and probably has a future at that level.
Like with the other option: They could go completely out of the blue.
So my questions to the readership are: What direction do you think UND will take? Who do you think will be a candidate? Any you'd like to see on the list that I haven't mentioned?
