New Michigan Tech head hockey coach Bill Muckalt addresses the media during a press conference held Tuesday at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (Photo courtesy Michigan Tech University)

HOUGHTON — Michigan Tech University introduced Bill Muckalt as its 23rd head coach in hockey program history on Tuesday morning at a university-hosted news conference.

He had previously been at Michigan Tech as an assistant hockey coach under Mel Pearson from 2011-15 before leaving to become the head coach of the Tri-City Storm in the United States Hockey League from 2015-17, where he won a Clark Cup in his first season with that team.

From there, he returned to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, from 2017-23, where he served as associate head coach and the Wolverines’ lead recruiter. He moved on from Ann Arbor to become the head coach of the third-year NCAA Division I program at Lindenwood University in Saint Charles, Missouri, last season.

Muckalt is eager to get started again in the Copper Country and at MTU.

“(I am) extremely excited,” he said. “I mean, it’s such a special place, rich tradition. It’s an honor.”

He has nothing but fond memories of his time here as an assistant coach.

“People in the Copper Country are amazing,” he said. “They’re really down to earth, extremely loyal, and they have a real sense of community up here. So those are things from a hockey standpoint, just building back up a brand, speaking about the first time when I got here, just rebuilding it and restoring it, how proud that people are of Michigan Tech and how proud they are of the Husky brand.”

When Pearson was hired in 2011, Muckalt was one of the first people he reached out to in the hopes that he wanted to be a part of the process of returning the Huskies to the national tournament, somewhere the school had not been in for three decades going back to 1981.

“Obviously, I think the program is in a lot better shape, the locker room, the facilities, everything,” Muckalt said. “It’s truly an honor and privilege to be back here, and I think the expectation doesn’t change. It’s still the same, win a championship, get in the tournament and try and win the last game of the year. That’s the expectation.”

Prior to the 2024-25 season, the Huskies had made the NCAA Tournament three straight seasons under then-head coach Joe Shawhan. When asked if he believed he could get the Huskies back to the tournament quickly, he did not hesitate.

“It’s a belief,” he said. “You have to have a belief in them, and they have to have a belief in themselves that they can achieve that. We have to kind of steer that ship for them and keep them on course at times, or when you’re out and if you’re out in a storm, it’s hard, maybe, to see the land, but you got to get back to the land, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Why make the change now?

Michigan Tech’s Vice President for Athletics and Recreation — the school’s athletic director — Suzanne Sanregret spoke about the timing of this change.

“I think that if anyone read the comments from Coach Shawhan in (online) articles, we just couldn’t come to agreement on an extension of a contract,” she said. “With that being said, and having two assistant coaching positions open, it becomes really difficult to make any of those hires.”

Sanregret is excited to bring Muckalt back now.

“There certainly is an intensity about Bill Muckalt and just a championship pedigree,” she said. “I think all coaches seem to have that, but his relationships, his connections, his relationships with family, advisors, experience in the USHL, and, I think, in the modern era of where the collegiate landscape is going, he has an ability to work with me, to work toward, toward the requirements, I think, of what college hockey is going to look like in the next few years and already is looking like.”

One story mentioned that Shawhan, 62, had signed a three-year contract extension in 2021, which included an option for the 2024-25 season and similar ones for future years.

Then last May, the Tech administration said that deal would end on May 31, 2026, just about a year from now, and a new deal would have to be worked out.

“You don’t want a coach going into the last year of their contract,” Shawhan said in the online story. “I think it was the right time. That’s what I told them. It’s the right time for us to part ways if we’re not going to do an extension.”

“(I am) really pleased with the work that Coach Shawhan did, but I think it’s time for a change and to move into this new direction,” Sanregret said. “With a rapidly changing college hockey landscape, it just felt like the right time to do it, to make the switch.”

Shawhan said he agreed with the decision once he learned that his contract would not be extended for multiple years.

“It was best to not have a lame-duck situation,” Shawhan said. “I was hoping to end my career at Tech…. I’m proud of what we did with the program, and I’m thankful for all the support we got.”

Shawhan had a 154-120-29 record, a winning percentage of nearly 56%, which included 16-17-3 overall and 12-11-3 CCHA records this past season. The Huskies were also swept in the first round of the CCHA tournament by Bowling Green State.

Shawhan is No. 2 in victories in the long tradition of Huskies hockey, behind John MacInnes’ 555-295-39 mark that made him the winningest college hockey coach in history at the time of his retirement in 1982.

Shawhan does not believe he was owed more thanks for his eight-year tenure with the program.

“I don’t think you’re entitled to anything,” he said. “You have to get up every day and do your job, and I think we did that.

“It was a great run here. Before I came here, the program hadn’t made the national tournament in 40 years, hadn’t won a MacNaughton Cup in 40 years, hadn’t won a playoff championship in 40 years…. It’s got to be a regular thing for us.”