Penn State men’s hockey will see a second staff change this offseason as volunteer assistant coach Andrew Magera is set become the Director of Scouting and an Assistant coach for the Fargo Force, a Tier I junior ice hockey team in the Western Conference of the United States Hockey League.
Magera had spent the previous three season at Penn State, and while his role on staff was different than the full-time assistant roles held by Keith Fisher and now former assistant Matt Lindsay, Magera was an active presence in team meetings, program planning, staff discussions and practices.
The move in and of itself is noteworthy largely in the context of the departure of longtime assistant Matt Lindsay who left the program earlier this offseason for the same role at Umass. He was eventually replaced by UMass-Lowell assistant coach Juliano Pagliero. While Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky has not spoken to the media since the hiring of Pagliero, it’s largely assumed that he will focus specifically on Penn State’s goaltending room.
In turn, while Magera’s departure is largely the result of the natural progression of a budding coaching career, it does mark a second change on a fairly small staff.
Who exactly Gadowsky tabs to replace Magera remains to be seen. Generally speaking the volunteer assistant coach position is something akin to a more advanced version of a graduate assistant, filled by a young and up-and-coming coach looking to sharpen his or her teeth without the entire workload of assistant coach duties. Kyle MacDonald, Mike Williamson and George Lewis all previously held the position in recent years.
