UConn men's hockey hires Vince Stalletti as third assistant coach

UConn men’s hockey’s new assistant coach is a familiar face. Head coach Mike Cavanaugh officially announced the hiring of Vince Stalletti as the program’s third full-time assistant — a new position created by the NCAA beginning this season — at the team’s media day on Tuesday. Stalletti has spent the last three seasons as the team’s volunteer goaltending coach. Now, he’ll be paid for his work and can also recruit.

“He's super detailed in everything,” Cavanaugh said of Stalletti. “He's got a great hockey mind and he wakes up every day trying to make our program better.”

Stalletti played hockey at Division III Johnson & Wales and began his coaching career there in 2016. In 2017, he joined the staff at UMass Dartmouth before arriving at UConn ahead of the 2020-21 season. While Stalletti has exclusively worked with the Huskies’ netminders, he assisted with the defensemen and penalty kill at UMass Dartmouth.

In the three seasons with Stalletti on staff, UConn’s received strong goaltending. Tomas Vomacka held a 2.84 GAA and .909 save percentage while playing every minute in 2020-21, Darion Hanson had the best season by a goalie in the program’s Hockey East Era with a 2.24 GAA and .923 save percentage in 2021-22, while both Logan Terness (2.53 GAA and .913 save percentage) and Arsenii Sergeev (2.61 GAA and .912 save percentage) performed well while splitting time this past year.

This season, Stalletti will work with Sergeev as well as Clarkson transfer Ethan Haider, who was viewed as one of the top goalies available in the transfer portal. A 2019 fifth round pick of the Nashville Predators, the 6-foot-4, 190 pound Haider had a 2.51 GAA and .906 save percentage in 35 starts last season while owning a career 3.36 GAA and .910 save percentage in 80 career games.

Stalletti will join Cavanaugh’s staff alongside associate head coach Tyler Helton and assistant coach Mike Pereira.