Changes may help UM hockey

University of Maine men’s hockey team recruiting coordinator/assistant coach Grant Standbrook’s decision to retire after 18 years and become the Black Bears’ volunteer assistant can be looked at in two ways.

One, the program has lost one of the nation’s premier recruiters and the talent pool could dry up.

Or, two, you could say if head coach Tim Whitehead hires the right person to replace the 68-year-old Standbrook, it could work out very nicely because Standbrook will be able to work with the players on a daily basis. Maine could have the best of both worlds.

Like Standbrook did, the new coordinator will have to spend a tremendous amount of time searching for players all across North America.

Maine is the only school in Hockey East that doesn’t have a fertile Division I recruiting area in its back yard (within three hours of the campus).

And its three primary rivals, Boston College, Boston University and New Hampshire, have much newer facilities.

This past year’s Maine Frozen Four team had players from six states and five Canadian provinces.

“Grant is the best coach I have ever played for and that includes the NHL,” said Jim Montgomery, the Bears’ all-time leading scorer who was recently hired as an assistant coach at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (N.Y.).

Former University of Wisconsin star and NHL player Craig Norwich said Standbrook’s keen ability to teach the fundamentals is matched only by his recruiting prowess.

“He is a hockey genius,” said Norwich.

But he will need talented players to develop.

Whitehead and his staff are going to have to continue finding players who can be molded into productive elite-level players.

As a volunteer assistant, Standbrook won’t be able to call recruits but he will be able to evaluate talent by watching videos and DVDs and he can interact with recruits on campus visits.

He has also made countless contacts that he will pass along to the staff.

Whitehead said two developments have made recruiting even more challenging for eastern schools.

Having USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program based in Ann Arbor, Mich. is one. And the emergence of the United States (Junior) Hockey League as a prime source of Division I recruits is the other.

“A lot of elite players from the east go to the national team program and they wind up staying [in the Midwest] for college,” said Whitehead. “The USHL is in the backyard of the western schools and most of their players wind up in the WCHA and CCHA.”

Indeed, 88 of the 152 players who are college-bound from the USHL are headed to WCHA or CCHA schools leaving the other 64 scattered among the other four conferences.

Still, Maine has overcome the odds in the past.

Maine’s eight consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances are second only to Michigan’s current streak of 16. Maine and Minnesota are the only two schools who have appeared in three Frozen Fours over the past five years.

Whitehead said, “Ideally, I’d like to get somebody with a lot of success recruiting and a lot of coaching experience.

“It’s quite late in the year so not all the elite guys will be available. But there will certainly be some,” he added.

It will be the most important hire of his five-year tenure.

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or by email at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net.