Column: St. Thomas hiring Enrico Blasi shows what is important to the Tommies

The timing could not work out better for St. Thomas to make a statement. 

During a week where three Minnesota schools look forward to the Frozen Four and five can count an NCAA Tournament victory, Minnesota's sixth Division 1 hockey school announces it will begin its D1 men's hockey history with Enrico Blasi as head coach.

Hiring Blasi, the longtime Miami head coach and current Associate Athletic Director of men's and women's hockey at Providence College, showcases what St. Thomas can do by getting someone with his name value. Being both around for over two decades and still under 50, Blasi, who brought two RedHawks teams to the Frozen Four and sits two wins short of 400, knows his way around building a program. 

Just as important, it showcases what St. Thomas will not be. 

At a time when friendships and connections between the other Minnesota head coaches are as tight as possible, Blasi breaks the state's country club hiring by being as far from Minnesota as any D1 men's hockey coach. Even in the few cases where a new coach came in without a true tie to the state, "foreign lands" were Grand Forks and Fort Frances, separated from Minnesota by a bridge and a river.

Blasi did not grow up in the state. He did not play or coach in Minnesota. His Miami team on average featured 1-2 Minnesotans. That St. Thomas went in this direction, if anything, is much needed. It's different. Being the sixth hockey program in the state - and second based in the Twin Cities - should be reason enough for the new team to think outside the box.

UST could easily be safe and hire someone familiar with the state. Instead, the Tommies' pick contains bits of safety with bits of risk, regardless of familiarity and locale.

By going outside the box with a big-name hire familiar with the CCHA, St. Thomas shows a major commitment to the sport as it enters Division 1. Rather than getting a name from Blasi's coaching tree, which includes prominent coaches like Jeff Blashill, Chris Bergeron and Brett Brekke, UST picks up the real deal. St. Thomas hiring Blasi brings back memories of St. Olaf hiring former Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves.

Plus, there may be no better year to enter the sport. An extra year of eligibility granted due to the pandemic and a one-time waiver to transfer without sitting out a season makes it easier for programs like the Tommies to start up. Leadership and grad transfers are everywhere, with over 250 players in the transfer portal and counting.  

At a place like St. Thomas, in a conference like the CCHA, there will be a need to be creative when it comes to recruiting and coaching. Doing so has been key to Minnesota State and Bemidji State's recent success. Blasi will have an unprecedented opportunity to build a balanced Tommies team from scratch without being underclassman-heavy.

It sets up to be a perfect situation for the Tommies if Blasi can tap into his CCHA coaching success. As impressive as his accolades are, most come from a decade prior. The Frozen Fours were in 2009 and 2010. Miami's top-five 2014-15 season is an outlier surrounded by sub-.500, last-place NCHC finishes. 

Blasi is the first of his contemporaries to seek out a second chance. The game has certainly changed. Recruiting has as well. Many of the forward-thinking things Miami did during its heyday no longer are forward-thinking. They have been successfully replicated elsewhere to the point where the RedHawks continue to rebuild since joining the NCHC.

Going outside the box to hire Blasi means St. Thomas risks missing out on a chance to grab a forward-thinker. In that sense, the Tommies go outside the box compared to other recent new programs.

The Tommies will need to tap into new pipelines and be creative in discovering its own talent despite being in the Twin Cities. It's nothing new for Minnesota schools - Minnesota State, with zero teenagers, appears in the Frozen Four with a team that features players from four countries and states ranging from Alaska to Florida - even if Minnesotans like to pretend it is otherwise. The program will need to create its own culture and D1 tradition much like the Brotherhood in Miami. 

Still, what worked in Oxford in the 2000s will not work in St. Paul in the 2020s. Who Blasi hires as assistants and how well the team can recruit will go a long way to how far and how quickly St. Thomas can compete in the CCHA. 

There is comfort in having someone who knows how to get a program going. St. Thomas bringing in Blasi is a sign acknowledging just that, comfort in being different. It is a sign needed for a program looking to make waves in Division 1 after a successful Division 3 men's hockey tenure and set forth on finding space to build a brand new on-campus rink. 

Blasi has experience there. (In fact, Miami's Steve Cady Arena, which was built while he coached the RedHawks, is a fantastic comparable to what the Tommies should be looking to replicate.) The Tommies hope it ends up being closer to what St. Olaf had with Eaves, where the Oles were able to get national recognition and a brand new ice hockey rink, than what Wisconsin had with Eaves - or Miami had with Blasi - at the end of his tenure.

Miami's history remains defined by when Enrico Blasi took over at age 27. St. Thomas hopes its history will be successfully defined by Blasi taking over at age 49.

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Who should be the first St. Thomas D1 men's hockey head coach? A name no one has brought up.

Who will be the first D-1 men's hockey head coach for St. Thomas?

A few days ago, The Rink Live's excellent group of writers tackled this question. They came up with a variety of names who should and likely will be considered, including Northern Michigan head coach Grant Potulny, Minnesota State associate coach Todd Knott, former University of Minnesota assistant coach Scott Bell, former UMD associate coach Jason Herter, and Bemidji State assistant Travis Winter. Other names who get brought up usually have a Minnesota tie in one way or another, such as former longtime Minnesota assistant Mike Guentzel.

Reading their answers got me thinking not just who would be a good fit, but who is someone who would be a good fit that no one has brought up yet. I quickly came up with an answer.

Taking the St. Thomas job presents an intriguing challenge as the Tommies enter the D-1 world in 2021-22, joining seven other teams in (re-?)forming the CCHA. Very few coaches get to put their stamp on a program by building from the ground up and pouring the foundation. 

With that in mind, I am going outside the box with someone who understands that all too well in Penn State associate coach Keith Fisher.

Why Fisher? 

The Rink Live writers bring up several fantastic points. St. Thomas can use someone who knows the state of Minnesota, who knows how to recruit, and who knows how to win and compete against some of the top teams in the country by being directly thrown into the CCHA. Names brought up all hit on those points.

The coach also needs to promote a culture and program that is looking to grow, eventually getting a new rink and being competitive as the sixth Minnesota Division 1 school. Whoever does will also have six months before opening puck drop to do so.

Getting someone like Fisher, who as Guy Gadowsky's assistant and recruiter played a major role in creating the Penn State program, from scratch, can be a major help for the Tommies. Unlike others, he has that experience. The Nittany Lions went from a non-entity at the beginning of the 2010s to NCAA Tournament appearances, a Big Ten regular-season and conference tournament title, and a national title contender at the end of the decade. PSU got to that point by building on each recruiting class, getting higher quality players from all over the world, and building a unique culture that works with players buying in.

All of that would be worthy of taking a look on its own, but Fisher also checks off the all-important Minnesota boxes. He is a Minnesota native who graduated from St. Cloud State and served as an undergrad assistant coach for Craig Dahl. Before working with Gadowsky at Princeton, he helped recruit a number of future NHLers to the USHL's Omaha Lancers (then coached by Minnesota State head coach Mike Hastings). At Penn State, the Nittany Lions have found its share of Minnesotans between Nate Jensen, Eric Scheid, Vince Pedrie, and currently with Xander Lamppa and former Gopher Clayton Phillips.

A program like St. Thomas, entering a crowded Twin Cities and Minnesota pipeline, will need to both scour the state and look elsewhere for diamonds in the rough. Getting someone like Fisher who can recruit all over, understands the challenges which come from coaching college hockey in the state, and knows how to build a successful program from scratch seems like a home-run hire.

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What does St. Thomas going D1 mean for college hockey?

Hello, Division 1 hockey, it's us the University of St. Thomas?

Those are unexpected words to open a story. St. Thomas reportedly received an invitation to join the Summit League, which would make the St. Paul school the second Division 1 school in the state of Minnesota. If it happens, the Tommies would require a waiver by the NCAA to move directly from D3 to D1 beginning in the fall of 2021. Normal protocol sees schools moving up one division at a time.

The move has major ramifications for the Summit League as the Tommies, after earlier this year being kicked out of Division 3 MIAC, would give the conference the minimum six teams needed to play football. Fans of teams in the Summit League seem open and happy to UST joining compared to some of the other options.

Sadly, the move would also bring to an end one of the great Catholic rivals between St. Thomas and St. John's/St. Benedict's.

Since this is a place for college hockey discussion, you didn't come here for football takes. You came to answer the big question a splash like this brings to a growing realignment landscape. The one I wrote about earlier this summer. The Tommies currently sponsor 20 sports, including both men's and women's hockey.

Assuming that stays the same, what does St. Thomas going D1 mean for college hockey? Short answer: It's complicated.