Mike Guentzel, 46, who resigned from Minnesota coach Don Lucia’s staff in April, will be Colorado College’s new assistant coach, The Gazette learned Tuesday. CC confirmed the hire Wednesday.

Guentzel spent the last 14 seasons coaching Gopher defensemen, but will be on the bench as his son, Gabe, starts his career as a Tiger defenseman this fall. His youngest son, Jake, is 13 and plays youth hockey in Woodbury, Minn. His eldest son, Ryan, is a sophomore at Notre Dame, where he plays right wing for Jeff Jackson.

According to published news reports, Guentzel cited “family” as the reason for his resignation, but he also told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he desired to become a head coach, a position which has little turnover in Division I hockey. Star-Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse wrote that Guentzel interviewed for the St. John’s (Minn.) College (Division III) opening in April. When I spoke to Guentzel last month, he said that he’d enjoyed coaching Jake’s youth baseball team this summer.

Guentzel replaces Norm Bazin, who left in August to become head coach at Division III Hamilton College and was responsible for recruiting some of CC’s top prospects. Though his particular duties have yet to be spelled out, Guentzel adds his knowledge of Minnesota talent to CC’s staff

Guentzel’s hiring is marks the first major change to coach Scott Owens‘ staff since Owens hired Bazin and Joe Bonnett after his first season at CC.

The move only deepens the ties between Minnesota and CC. Guentzel played for Minnesota from 1981-85 under coach Brad Buetow, who coached CC from 1988-1993 and was replaced by Lucia. In 1999, Lucia replaced longtime Gopher coach Doug Woog, with whom Guentzel served as associate head coach.

Check back here and on gazette.com/tigerden for more as this story develops and post your thoughts and questions below.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.