Albie O'Connell will be returning to BU, his alma mater, to take the assistant's position vacated by the recent retirement of Buddy Powers.
— USHR (@USHRhockey) April 6, 2014
It was strongly rumored that a change in the BU hockey coaching staff was coming this off-season with many people reporting that assistant coach Buddy Powers is retiring and BU alum Albie O'Connell will be joining the staff in his place. It was also speculated that BU alum and NHL star Scott Young will be joining the staff as Director of Hockey operations after Pertti Hasanen left the position at the conclusion of the season. Both of these announcements were made official recently as coach David Quinn noted to the Free Press today.
O'Connell was rumored to be a candidate to join the staff last season but things never materialized and he remained the assistant coach at Harvard and was given a raise. Young was most recently the head hockey coach at St. Michael's high school, his alma mater.
Powers and Hasanen will be missed and it should be noted of all that they contributed as crucial members of the staff to transition the program from former coach Jack Parker to current coach David Quinn. Both guys were counted on heavily by Coach Quinn this season as was obvious by the fact that Hasanen was referred to interviews by Quinn as someone he would talk about games and strategy about throughout the season.
Powers was the head coach of three different division 1 program in RIT,RPI and Bowling Green where he compiled a 255-220-41 record as head coach. Powers coached 24 years total at the Division 1 level, the last 5 being at his alma mater Boston University. He will be missed on the staff but we wish him the best as he looks to continue his career back in Ohio.
Hasanen worked as an assistant of some sort with Boston University on three different occassions for a total of 9 years with the program. This was the first year where he stood on the bench was indicated how much he was being counted on by first year coach Quinn. Hasanen left to look for coaching opportunities elsewhere. It certainly would not surprise us for him to find a quality assistant coaching job somewhere as he has plenty of experience and would be an asset to any program that he was hired by.
Quinn referred to Young as being his right hand man to the Free Press while O'Connell would contribute on the recruiting trail with associate head coach Steve Greeley. In the past, O'Connell has worked with both special teams and defense. This should only help BU's recruiting in years to come as they now have a former NHL and AHL coach in Quinn, former NHL star Scott Young, NHL scout in Greeley, and long time college recruiter in OConnell. If you combine all of this with the amount of success that BU guys are having in the NHL playoffs, there should be no recruit that the staff views as unobtainable. If they want a guy, they should be able to go get him more often than not.
I don't know about Hasanen but powers showed no energy at all. He had not coached for years when Parker hired him. The NHL guys you see in the playoffs were for the most part recruited by Quinn years ago. Coyle was recruited by the Bavis group but quit 1/2 through the season.Also during the Power "era" there were problems all over the place with the players.It is safe to say that Powers was fired and Hasanen as well.
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