Granato Gone - Who's Next?

[Crease Creature]

Given that the RSS feed is dropping multiple stories regarding Granato's firing, I wanted to start one thread for the hockey program and where it's gonna go from here.

One thing that was very apparent while going through the Twitter timeline last night is that TG is universally regarded as a great guy.

But we all knew that.

What was more surprising was the sheer number of people digging up their takes from when he was hired. Badger fans and opposing fans alike where all certain that this was a slam dunk hire, that TG and his brother were just the guys to bring the program back to dominance, and that Wisconsin was on the cusp of relevance again. The number of Gopher fans who dreaded this hire in 2016 and who were gracious now that it didn't pan out was certainly more than any Badger deserves, and was a nice touch.

Five last-or-second-to-last finishes in 7 years. One regular season championship which saw them get to the B1G tourney title game to lose in frustratingly familiar fashion to the Gophers and then get embarrassingly bounced in the NCAA first round. A fun style of hockey, brilliant offensive philosophy, a hobey baker winner, countered by consistently awful defensive schemes and players (who consistently over the seasons made the same kind of mistakes) and never finding a top notch tender save one time (and he was a transfer).

He also coached the US Men's Hockey team to a 7th place finish at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but that's got to do more with the NHL refusing to take a pause for the first time in 30 years.

Say what you want about Eaves, but he was rather reliable in his cycles of two up years, two down years, followed again by two up years. It's not debatable that his two down years in 14-15 and 15-16 were worthy of his firing, and that a lot of the fan base wasn't enthused with his "boring" style (I myself am not a dump and chase guy, and always thought Eaves' best teams coincided when he had guys who could carry it into the zone), but Granato had a 20-win season in 16-17 (the first of what would have been an Eaves "up-year") then again in 2020-21. The three years in between the team didn't crack 15 wins. Then 23 wins combined the last two seasons. One tournament appearance - see: getting trounced as a one-seed by Bemidji State of all places.

As to who comes in and fixes this, that's not clear to me. The Milewski piece lists five possible candidates, but why would any of them leave where they're at to come here? Why would four of them leave a school where men's hockey is -the- sport on campus? And I don't think the guy at Ohio State would be allowed to come to Wisconsin.

What is harder to figure out is how it all went wrong, exactly. I remember at the time that some were saying that the wrong Granato got the top spot, that Don should have been head coach. But I'm not sure people thought Don would leave after that first season (for the NHL no less, where he's currently the head coach for the Buffalo Sabres) , and that the connections with the US NTDP wouldn't turn out any defensemen or netminders, or that the program never jettisoned Osiecki prior to the dismissal of TG.

Whatever happens next, the next guy has to be consistently good rather than consistently finishing five games under .500

105-129-16 / 65-87-12
overall / B1G

 

[GBP4EVER]

WI needs to go find a good coach and just not hire someone with ties to the school. I have faith with the current AD he will do this instead of keeping the program inbred.

 

[Crease Creature]

WI needs to go find a good coach and just not hire someone with ties to the school. I have faith with the current AD he will do this instead of keeping the program inbred.

But that's the thing, the Granato hire was a huge splash in 2016. He was the premier candidate at the time. His success as a player in the League (prior to his head injury) and a history as a good regular season NHL head coach, his ties to the national youth hockey structure and development team, were all secondary to his ties to the program.

Pundits all over the country said it was the best hire UW could have made at that time.

 

[Budman]

Go up and get some old school NMU coach and let him take the reigns

 

[Crease Creature]

Already posted that D Corson Ceulemans has left the program to join his NHL club (Columbus), I also saw today that F Dominick Mersch (younger brother of former Eaves-recruit Michael) is declining to exercise his extra year of eligibility and will be joining the Chicago Wolves of the AHL

 

[McBadgerton]

Really, Dom Mersch was also an Eaves recruit, having committed in 2015 off of the 16U Chicago Mission team. Many people thought then that he would be the more talented of the Mersch Brothers, but he just never developed the goal scoring knack that Michael had.
Dominic did not decline his extra year, this was his 5th year. His eligibility is all used up. Jack Gorniak and Brock Caufield were also 5th year players this year.

 

[Crease Creature]

Really, Dom Mersch was also an Eaves recruit, having committed in 2015 off of the 16U Chicago Mission team. Many people thought then that he would be the more talented of the Mersch Brothers, but he just never developed the goal scoring knack that Michael had.
Dominic did not decline his extra year, this was his 5th year. His eligibility is all used up. Jack Gorniak and Brock Caufield were also 5th year players this year.

Ah, I thought he had an extra year. I knew Dom was an Eaves recruit though he never played for him.