St. Cloud State filled the assistant coaching vacancy left by Steve Johnson, who moved on to take an assistant's role at Nebraska-Omaha, by hiring recent alum Garrett Raboin.
Raboin graduated from St. Cloud in 2010, and played two years professionally in Finland and Norway, before taking what will be his first coaching job. That quick turnaround from player to coach will mean that Raboin will be coaching three players that he was once teammates with at St. Cloud.
Raboin's record as a player at St. Cloud is pretty sterling. After coming to the Huskies as a barely-recruit overage player from the USHL, Raboin quickly earned a spot on the Huskies' top defensive pairing, and was named an alternate captain as a sophomore, before being the team's captain in his final two seasons. He ended his career by leading St .Cloud to their first and only NCAA tournament victory, despite playing through a pretty significantly injury. And perhaps the greatest credit to Raboin's influence on the ice is how poorly St. Cloud's defense has played in the two years since his departure.
The question will be how quickly Raboin can make the transition from player to coach. The responsibilities of an assistant coach at the NCAA level are pretty huge, and tough for someone with no coaching background. He graduated from St. Cloud with a degree in special education, so he at least has some teaching background.
Meanwhile, new Minnesota State head coach Mike Hastings officially announced that he will be keeping both assistant coaches from the previous coaching regime rather than hiring his own.