UConn men's hockey hires Jacob Paluch as director of hockey operations

On Thursday, UConn men’s hockey announced the hiring of Jacob Paluch as the program’s new director of hockey operations. He replaces Joe Ferriss, who departed this offseason after two years on the job.

A native of Bowling Green, Ohio, Paluch played at Division III Nazareth College and graduated in 2019 with a degree in business management. He served as Colgate’s director of hockey operations from 2019-21 before becoming the director and head of hockey at Total Package Hockey, a club with academies located across the United States and Canada. After that, he became the youth travel hockey director at Sylvannia Hockey, a position he held until joining the Huskies.

Paluch’s father, Scott, played four years at Bowling Green and served as the program’s head coach from 2002-09. He overlapped with UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh throughout his career as an assistant. In 1992-93, the two were on the same staff at Bowling Green (Paluch was a full assistant, Cavanaugh was a grad assistant) and from 1994-2002, they were both assistants at Boston College.

Paluch is the fourth director of hockey operations under Cavanaugh after Morgan Hall (2013-20), Paul Devlin (2020-22) and Ferriss (2022-24). He’s the second addition to UConn’s staff this offseason alongside assistant coach Nick Peruzzi, who replaced Mike Pereira.