Rick Gotkin’s Final Season at Mercyhurst Hasn’t Been a Storybook For Longest-Tenured Coach
by Anthony Travalgia/CHN Reporter (@atravalgia)
Not many coaches have done more for a single program than Rick Gotkin has done for Mercyhurst.
This marks Gotkin’s 38th and final season behind the bench at Mercyhurst, a program he took over in 1988 when it was in D-III. Gotkin helped move Mercyhurst to D-II in 1992, then D-I in 1999, joining the MAAC.
In three of Mercyhurst’s first six seasons at the D-I level, the program appeared in the NCAA Tournament. In total, Gotkin helped lead Mercyhurst to six NCAA Tournaments, appearing in the D-II national championship on two separate occasions.
Gotkin also led the charge behind the construction of the Mercyhurst Ice Center, an on-campus arena that opened in 1991. The arena is home to the Mercyhurst Men’s and Women’s hockey teams as well as three club hockey programs and a club figure skating program.
“Honestly, I thought I’d be here for a year or two, and then I would use my experience at Mercyhurst as a head coach in a new program to be able to take a step back as an assistant at another Division-I program,” Gotkin said.
“I was excited we built the rink on campus; it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as some other places, the modern rinks, but it’s ours. Building the rink was big. Having our team, when we were in the MAAC, get into the NCAA tournament, we were the first program when the tournament expanded from 12 teams to 16 teams — we were the first team that was able to get in from the MAAC.”
Now, however, Gotkin is facing one final challenge — trying to handle a winless program, while handling the emotions of this being his final season.
In any profession, riding off into the sunset on top of the mountain is always the goal. In sports especially, that is not often the case.
Coming out of the COVID pandemic, Mercyhurst struggled to find its way again. The Lakers have not had a double-digit win season since 2022-23, where they went 10-23-3. Obviously, the transfer portal and the changing recruiting landscape have played a big role. Goalie Kyle McClellan, for example, transferred to Wisconsin after two years at Mercyhurst. McClellan went on to win the Mike Richter Award as the top D-I college hockey goalie.
After a four-win season last year, the hope was a bounce back season for Mercyhurst, sending Gotkin off into retirement the right way.
That unfortunately, has not gone to plan.
The Lakers enter the holiday break 0-15-1. They have just one Atlantic Hockey point. As luck would have it, the injury bug has hit hard. Mercyhurst has already lost three players to injury for the remainder of the season. In recent games against Canisius, Robert Morris and Holy Cross, it’s only been able to dress eight or nine forwards, forcing defensemen to move up front.
“The injury bug has been as worse as it’s been in my 38 years. We have two or three guys that are done for the season. We played Holy Cross; we had eight healthy forwards, and we used two defensemen to get it to ten forwards and that was the same way against Canisius,” Gotkin said.
“The good news is we’re going to get a chunk of those guys back here in the second half. I don’t know how many will be back for [the first game out of the break] North Dakota.”
Announcing his retirement in March, this season was one Gotkin had circled for a while. Turning 66 in November, the age of 65 was the number Gotkin had always targeted.
“My dad retired when he was 65 and I kind of thought that was the magic number, 65 you’re retired,” Gotkin said with a laugh. “With that being said, we started talking about when would that be and there was a lot of factors that went into it. We came up with what would be [the year] 2026.”
At the conclusion of Mercyhurst’s season, Gotkin will be officially passing the torch to assistant Tom Peffall, who has been on Gotkin’s staff since 2022. Peffall was named Head Coach in Waiting in April.
However, Peffall has already started taking on a new role.
“[The Head Coach in Waiting] thing has been really different for me. Tom is a great guy, I think he’s going to do a great job,” Gotkin said. “What I chose to do after talking to administration and talking to Tom, is kind of handed him the reigns and I’m here to help. He hired the staff; it was important he did that.”
Despite the season Gotkin remains positive about what’s to come for Mercyhurst. He knows he’s leaving the program in good hands.
After the Lakers travel to North Dakota for two, it’s nothing but conference games ahead. Getting as healthy as can be is priority number one for Mercyhurst.
After that: it’s get that first tally in the win column and let fate take over from there.
“It all starts with that first one, right? It’s not going to get any easier going to North Dakota, but we’re excited, our kids are excited,” Gotkin said.
“The truth of the matter is we really haven’t been as bad as our record shows. But I can tell you, it will feel great to get that first one whenever it comes, however it comes.”