Minnesota has announced two additions to the team’s coaching staff with John Hamre joining the program as director of hockey operations and Andy Kent coming aboard as the team’s volunteer goalie coach.
Hamre replaces Ben Gordon, who stepped down as director of hockey operations to join the Chicago Steel as associate head coach in the USHL. Kent replaces Justin Johnson, who stepped down to focus on other professional opportunities.
Hamre brings more than 25 years of hockey experience to the Gophers coaching staff.
Hamre most recently served as the director of hockey operations at Wisconsin during the 2015-16 season. His extensive hockey background also includes tenures in the ECHL, NAHL, EHL and AJHL, as well as nine seasons as the boys varsity hockey coach at The Blake School from 2002 to 2011.
He has also worked at the international level – serving as video assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Team during the 1994 Winter Olympic Games and later acting as a training camp assistant coach for the South African National Team in 2016.
His first coaching position came at the University of Minnesota as a graduate assistant coach during the 1991-92 season followed by two seasons as the Gophers’ video coordinator and administrative assistant (1992-94).
Hamre earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Minnesota in 1991 before adding an MBA with a finance emphasis in 1993 and a Ph.D in philosophy in 2007.
Kent has spent the last six seasons as the volunteer goaltending coach with the Gopher women’s program and will continue to work with both teams.
He has been on staff for six straight NCAA Frozen Four appearances with the Minnesota women’s program including four national titles (2012, 2013, 2015, 2016).
Kent also served as the goaltending coach for Finland’s Women’s National Team at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
Augsburg, Kent’s alma mater, has also benefited from his goaltending instruction as Kent served as the goaltending coach for the Augsburg men’s team from 2013 to 2017.
Kent was a four-year letter-winner at Augsburg, playing from 2005 to 2009, and graduated from Augsburg in May 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a minor in management information systems.
