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Colorado College has hired a new head coach after parting ways with former head coach Mike Haviland earlier this spring. On Wednesday, the Tigers announced that Michigan assistant coach Kris Mayotte will take over as head coach at Colorado College.
Mayotte, who just turned 38 this year, is relatively young hire, but considered one of the top up-and-coming young coaches in the college game. Mayotte had stints as an assistant at St. Lawrence and Providence before joining the Wolverines for the past two seasons. He has also been a fixture with the US National Junior program, helping assistant coach the U20s to gold medals in 2017 and 2020, as well as a bronze in 2018.
He holds a reputation as an excellent recruiter and a very good coach on the defensive end of the ice, specializing in coaching goaltending and penalty kill. He’ll face a tough challenge in turning around the fortunes at Colorado College. The Tigers have struggled to keep up with their NCHC counterparts on the recruiting trail in recent years and as a result, have become a fixture in the bottom half of the league.
Colorado College has not appeared in the NCAA Tournament since 2011. Now, with a well-connected coach and a new on-campus arena set to open next season, they’ll look to return the program to the success they had in the early 2000s.