UConn men's hockey hires Nick Peruzzi as assistant coach

UConn men’s hockey has a new assistant coach: Nick Peruzzi, who spent the last three seasons at Northern Michigan. The school officially announced the hire on Wednesday.

"We are thrilled to be adding Nick to our program," head coach Mike Cavanaugh said in a statement. "Nick is a tremendous coach who will bring his knowledge and enthusiasm for the game to the rink every day to help our team continue to get better.  He has done a fantastic job in his time at Northern Michigan, and we are looking forward to adding him to our team”

Peruzzi will focus on special teams, forwards, and recruiting. He replaces Mike Pereira, who departed to become the head coach at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford after two seasons with the Huskies. Peruzzi joins a coaching staff that also includes associate head coach Tyler Helton and fellow assistant Vince Stalletti.

With three years under his belt at Northern Michigan, Peruzzi is the most experienced assistant coach that Cavanaugh has ever hired. Of the five assistants that the head coach previously brought on, only one — Mike Souza — had coached at the Division I level prior.

A native of Rochester Hills, Michigan, Peruzzi graduated from Walsh College and began his coaching coaching career with the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies U16 AAA team in 2013. He stayed with the club for three seasons before becoming an assistant coach with the NAHL’s Aston Rebels.

After a two-year stint there, Peruzzi moved to the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms in 2017. During his four seasons with the team, he worked as both an assistant coach and director of scouting before jumping to the USHL’s Lincoln Stars as associate head coach. He held that job for just a single campaign before starting at Northern Michigan in 2021.

Peruzzi also spent time as a skills and development coach for TPH & Pro Hockey in Detroit during the offseason, where he trained players from a variety of levels ranging from AAA to professionals.

Peruzzi won’t be the only addition to UConn’s coaching staff this offseason. The Huskies will also bring in a new director of hockey operations after Joe Ferriss departed earlier this summer.