Announcement Could Come Early This Week
by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@chn-adam-wodon)
Current St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson is the leading candidate to be the next coach at Minnesota, and could be named this week, according to CHN sources.
Larson and Grant Potulny, who played and coached at Minnesota, were granted second interviews Sunday. Earlier, Augustana coach Garrett Raboin, a former Minnesota assistant and St. Cloud State alum, was contacted, but he decided to decline the invitation to continue the interview process.
Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle has been moving quickly, and limiting the scope of his interviews. It’s believed he feels an urgency to name a new coach fast, thanks to the impending opening of the transfer portal.
There is believed to be another late interview candidate or two, which may set back a final announcement a few days, but it’s not clear at the moment who those candidates are.
A defenseman, Larson played at Minnesota-Duluth from 1991-95. After a long pro playing career spent largely in Europe, he joined the UMD coaching staff in 2008. He later coached in the USHL and then at Ohio State before returning to Duluth, where he helped win a pair of national championships. He replaced Bob Motzko as St. Cloud State head coach in 2018, and would be replacing Motzko again at Minnesota.
Potulny won two national championships with Minnesota as a player in 2002 and 2003. He later was an assistant with the Gophers, and then got the job at Northern Michigan head coach in 2017, where he spent seven seasons. The last two years, he’s been the head coach at Hartford, the AHL affiliate of the New York Rangers.
