Michigan has announced the hiring of assistant coach Rob Rassey and Topher Scott as the program’s director of hockey operations.
Rassey has 11 years of coaching experience, most recently serving as the head coach of the USHL’s Sioux Fall Stampede. He took over as head coach and general manager of the USHL’s Omaha Lancers midseason in 2021-22. Prior to his time with the Lancers, Rassey served as an amateur scout for the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings from 2019 to 2021.
From 2013 to 2019, Rassey served as an assistant coach at Harvard.
A four-year letterwinner at Northeastern (2006-09), Rassey played in 134 games with the Huskies. He was a four-year Hockey East All-Academic Team member and twice captured the athletic department’s Academic Excellence Award. Graduating magna cum laude with a degree in business administration, Rassey went on to earn his master’s from Harvard in 2019.
Rassey’s coaching experience also includes being a volunteer assistant coach at his alma mater for two seasons and serving as assistant coach with the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms for two seasons.
A former hockey player and coach at Cornell, Scott spent the last six years working with teams at all levels of hockey on leadership and building culture. As the founder of The Hockey Think Tank, he has collaborated with top coaches and leaders in the game while providing motivational speaking and hockey education services to programs all over North America. In addition to creating a top hockey development podcast called the “Hockey Think Tank Podcast,” Scott has been asked to speak on four occasions at the NCAA Hockey Coaches convention in Naples, Fla., on leadership and building culture.
Scott played at Cornell from 2004 to 2008. While at Cornell, he was a two-year captain and member of the 100-point club while helping lead the team to an ECAC Hockey championship in 2005. As a senior, Scott was named a finalist for the Senior CLASS Award and was a nominee for both the NCAA Hockey Humanitarian Award and Derek Hines Unsung Hero Award.
After Cornell, Scott played professionally for two seasons with stops at Elmira (ECHL), Texas (CHL), and Rio Grande Valley (CHL). During his time in Rio Grande Valley, he won both the Fan Favorite and Unsung Hero awards.
Scott took his first coaching job in 2010 at Miami while earning his master’s degree in sports performance and behavior. During his year at Miami, the Redhawks defeated Western Michigan to win the CCHA championship. Scott then returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach with the Big Red for five seasons (2011-16).
