BC Hockey Names Mike Ayers New Assistant Hockey Coach

Boston College officially announced today the hiring of former UNH goaltender and current (now former) National Team Development Program (NTDP) goaltending coach.

There have been plenty of jokes about Ayers bringing his "University of No Hardware" pedigree to the Heights, but this is a good hire for the Eagles. It appears that Ayers will fill the hole left by Coach Cavanaugh's departure to UCONN.

Given Ayers' obvious goaltending specialty, that seems to point to rumors of current goaltending coach Jim Logue's impending retirement being true. Hiring Ayers as assistant coach would seem to fill the void left by both departing coaches.

For a while it seemed possible that BC might hire two coaches to replace Cav and Logue, and while that might still be possible I don't expect that to be the case. Former Eagle Mike Mottau was on the short list according to The Kid, but now it appears he will be heading over to UCONN as an assistant to Coach Cav. There are other candidates, obviously... but my guess (and I don't have inside information) is that we're set with York, Brown, and Ayers behind the bench.

Probably the most important aspect of Ayers' hire, at least in the short term, is that Ayers was incoming goalie recruit Thatcher Demko's coach this past season at the NTDP. It will certainly smooth the transition for Demko, the top recruit in the country for the incoming class according to CHN (side note -- holy crap, look at how many BC recruits are on that list...) who could possibly jump right into the starting role with the departure of Parker Milner.

Welcome to the Heights, coach!