Minnesota Moves on from Motzko
Minneapolis, Minn. — After finishing the 2025-26 season with the fourth-lowest winning percentage in program history at .347, University of Minnesota Athletic Director Mark Coyle and men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko mutually agreed to part ways after Motzko’s eight seasons with the Gophers. Motzko led the program to back-to-back Frozen Four appearances in 2021-22 and 2022-23, won three Big Ten regular season titles, five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and compiled a 172-104-24 record.
“I want to thank Bob for leading our team for the last eight seasons. In addition to winning Big Ten titles, the team advanced to the Men’s Frozen Four twice and played in the national championship game in 2023,” said Coyle in a statement.
“Bob coached 15 All-Americans and three future Olympians at Minnesota. He is a great coach and we wish him well in the future. We will immediately begin a nationwide search for our next head coach.”
Motzko is a seven-time conference coach of the year over his 21 seasons as a Division I head coach, but a disappointing loss in the national title game in 2023 and an undermanned 2025-26 roster due to a large number of early departures before the season were glaring issues.
“This was my 42nd year in coaching, and at this stage in my career, now is the right time for new leadership,’ said Motzko in the statement. “I have dedicated 14 years to this program as a head coach, assistant coach and student. I am grateful for every minute of it. In addition to working with so many incredible student-athletes, it was great to see the arena full again and the passion restored to our program.”
Motzko surely anticipated Jimmy Snuggerud would sign after his junior year and perhaps one more player would be an early departure, but the program saw six players sign. Sophomores Sam Rinzel and Oliver Moore signed with Chicago, and three juniors signed professional deals — Matthew Wood signed with Nashville, Ryan Chesley signed with Washington and Connor Kurth signed with Tampa Bay.
“The problem for some of us schools that recruit NHL players, it’s if you get caught,“ said Motzko. “We got kicked in the stones… No one came to us in February and said, ‘we know we’re leaving and give you a little time.’ It happened,” “Like even now, no one’s coming up to us telling us what’s going on [with deciding to leave the program.]”
While Snuggerud has been a key piece of the St. Louis Blues rebuild and was just recently named the NHL’s Third Star of the Week and Wood has been a regular for the Predators scoring 14 goals and 10 assists in 55 games, the other signings have struggled in their transition to the next level. Rinzel has seen games with the Blackhawks scoring 3 goals, 9 assists in 38 NHL games, but has also been in the AHL with the IceHogs scoring 2 goals, 12 assists in 23 games. Moore started the season in the AHL scoring 6 goals, 3 assists in 9 games and has then played 51 games for the Blackhawks in a bottom six role scoring 5 goals, 14 assists. Chesley has spent the whole season in the AHL playing 53 games for Hershey scoring 6 goals, 6 assists and has a -20 plus/minus. Kurth got five games with Syracuse in the AHL last season, but has spent his entire 25-26 season in the ECHL scoring 11 goals, 5 assists in 58 games.
Motzko could feel the pressure much of the season acknowledging at times that no one feels sorry for the Gophers and hearing the noise from frustrated fans comes with the territory of being Minnesota.
“We have to own where we’re at… it’s what comes with this program,” said Motzko earlier this year. “The criticism that comes now, we’ll take it, but it’s the same program when we go to Tampa Bay has 11,000 people there, so we’re going to have a loud crowd both ways. And that that’s special.. I’ve had to remind a few of our guys, this is the same crowd that shows up for us when we’ve been going and we’ve been going here for a while. So they’re ticked off, from what I hear and so is coach.”
Throughout much of the season the coach cited youth as an issue holding Minnesota back this season. The team started the season with only seven returning forwards and three returning defensmen who had significant game experience. Returning just 36 percent of their scoring from the previous season, meant that the Gophers were counting on a lot of their young players to produce quickly.
“The season has not gone how any of us have planned,” said Motzko late in the year. “What are you gonna do? Like we’re gonna keep getting better. We’re gonna keep throwing the young guys over the boards and keep going. Our guys are fighting like heck.”
The Gophers offense fought like heck, but had a hard time getting traction offensively this season as just sophomore Brodie Ziemer and senior Brody Lamb had double digit goals with 23 and 14. The team as a whole scored 97 goals which was last in a loaded Big Ten Conference. Minnesota led the Big Ten in goal scoring during the previous season with 154 tallies and boasted seven double digit goal scorers.
The program saw growth in some of their young players during the season though. Freshman forward LJ Mooney stirred the drink on a dangerous top power play unit scoring 7 goals, 23 assists in 34 games. Freshman Javon Moore finished strong scoring points in six of the team’s last seven games for a total of 8 goals, 13 assists this year and sophomore Beckett Hendrickson despite being snakebit on many scoring chances still put up 7 goals, 13 assists this season.
“Young guys are starting to form an identity where they’re at, even at a young age, and where they’re going,” said Motzko late in March. “You can see where the compass is pointed on some of them and they know it. Boy, I’d love for it to be faster hurrying experience, I’d love to have that, but it’s coming.”
Motzko’s contract extension signed in October 2023 paid him $750,000 annually and was set to run through April 30, 2028. Terms for terminating the agreement without cause for the contract wass $750,000 between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2027. Anything after April 30, 2027 would have paid his remaining base salary, which was $300,000. An agreement was signed by Coyle on May 1, 2026, then signed by Motzko on May 14, 2026 and finalized on May 27, 2026.
The next coach of the Gophers potentially has a roster returning 77 percent of its scoring assuming there aren’t any unexpected departures, but will have challenges to fill out a roster that had challenges seeing much offense from the blue line. Former USHL Defenseman of the year Leo Gruba scored 1 goal, 2 assists as a freshman and followed that up with 2 goals, 5 assists as a sophomore. John Whipple saw limited ice time as a freshman tallying 3 assists and while he made strong strides as a sophomore, he only had 1 goal and 1 assist. Freshman Jacob Rombach has a lot of intriguing tools as a 6’ 6” defender that was drafted 35th overall by Nashville, but is still developing how his game fits in at Minnesota.
The recruiting pipeline for the next coach is stocked with significant players as always for Minnesota. Forwards Wyatt Cullen, Jacob Kvasnicka and Christian Humphreys will add scoring, Brooks Cullen and Jackson Nevers can add depth. Levi Harper is a very skilled defenseman that can contribute offense while Mace’o Phillips and Matthew Grimes both will come into the program with three years of junior experience. The key to righting the ship will be adding some experienced players in the portal as there are significant needs at center and for some offense on the blue line.
Potential names to know in the coaching search could include Garrett Raboin from Augustana, Pat Ferschwiler from Western Michigan, Ben Barr from Maine, Steve Rohlik from Ohio State and Reid Cashman from Dartmouth. There will also be an opportunity for Minnesota to restructure its staff to include a general manager position. There are some scouts out there with connections like Scott Bell or Mike Guentzel who could be good fits in that role. Minnesota is the only non football or men’s basketball program to turn a profit according to NCAA Financial Reporting in FY25 and the opportunity to coach the maroon and gold is surely one of top challenges in college hockey.
