The Immediate To-Do List for Coach Lang

What will the first few weeks look like for new RPI coach Eric Lang?

Photo: RPI Athletics

Wow! What a day it was yesterday. It had been nearly a month without a head coach for the RPI Engineers, but the guy who had been the favorite all along ends up with the job. Barring a super out of the box hire, Lang always made the most sense and was by far the best candidate. His record at AIC is well documented, with numerous league titles, NCAA Tournament appearances, and a win over the #1 seed in the tournament in 2019. We have spoken at length on Substack and X about why he was the right man for the job and are ecstatic with Dr. Bowers’ decision. So rather than repeating ourselves again, we compiled a to-do list for the first offseason of Coach Lang’s tenure. It calls to mind the first 100 days of the U.S. presidency, as the first month of Lang’s tenure will be hectic to say the least. Decorate the office in June, coach, we have work to do!!

1. Retention, retention, retention

Immediately when RPI fired Dave Smith as the head coach, all of the best players on the Engineers started getting calls from other programs trying to poach them. Most of the top ones did choose to enter the portal, 5 of them to be exact. Gilson landed at Quinnipiac, Smolinski at St. Cloud, and Hotson announced Monday night he would head to Bowling Green, leaving Muzzatti and Caron looking for spots. However, there’s still some left who are likely undecided that had been waiting to see who was hired.

We think most fans would agree that the most important players to retain at this point are Dovar Tinling, Jagger Tapper, Rainers Rullers, and Jimmy Goffredo. These players should be high priorities for Coach Lang to keep as the main players left at the top of the lineup. Additionally, it would be beneficial to keep the depth players as well for culture purposes. Guys like Brad McNeil and Gustavs Ozolins have been looked to as future captains since arriving on campus due to their leadership qualities and compete level. Plus, there’s the fact that they need to field a roster. The team only has 12 players returning from last season as of right now; can that number really afford to be lower? He doesn’t exactly have a head start with the transfer portal, as many players are off the board or very close to committing. The true roster overhauling may begin next offseason, so it makes sense to retain the valuable pieces and develop what he can.

Lastly, Coach Lang should take a run at trying to convince the portal guys to return. While 3 of them are committed, we know all too well that verbal commitments are not binding, which has burned RPI plenty of times. Maybe it is RPI’s turn to be on the other end of it. Muzzatti and Caron are uncommitted and are likelier to return while their future is still up in the air. Caron, in particular, would be a huge piece to return as he has 3 years of eligibility remaining and would be core piece of the rebuild. It’s worthwhile to try to reach out to all of them and attempt to sell them on your vision at RPI. It’s not like they were unhappy at the school; their coach just got fired. It’s not too different from a normal portal recruitment, and worst case scenario, it fails.

2. Determine which recruits to keep

You can probably add in Lucas Lemieux, Jackson Kyrkostas, Nate Krawchuk, and Thomas Klassek from the recruit pool to the players we listed above as well. These players should be just as big of a priority to keep as key recruits who are expected to contribute immediately as freshmen and could help make up the core of Lang’s team as he builds the roster in his image. It bodes well that none have decommitted yet, so I think there’s a good chance of keeping them.

For the rest of the recruits, there’s more question marks surrounding them. For guys like Jack Ziliotto, Easton Adrian, and Landen Hilditch, the question is whether or not they come in this year or get delayed a year. All 3 are good recruits, but Ziliotto would probably be more of a 3rd line player if he came to RPI this fall instead of waiting a year. Adrian and Hilditch have had injury-plagued years, so the question for them is more about how healthy and ready they are. The other recruits either project as depth players or are young and definitely need more development in junior hockey. Coach Lang will have to decide which of those players to keep.

3. Use the portal (and CHL) to fill the remaining roster holes

The first big area that needs to be addressed is the goaltending room. The Engineers currently only have 3rd stringer Carson Dorfman on the roster. The odds are probably high that Lang wants to address this before the season begins! Jokes aside, having a blank slate in the goaltending room is not the worst thing in the world. Goalie may be the only position that you can land a player that is out of your proverbial league simply with the pitch of playing time. Coach Lang has the chance to grab a very solid goalie with a few years of eligibility from the portal based on the playing time he has to offer. Patriks Berzins from Maine could be an option through the Latvian connection. He was teammates with Rainers Rullers in Madison in 23-24 and is in the portal now. Chase Clark started at AIC this year, so he is also an option but would have to be graduating early to get into RPI as a transfer. We would still absolutely like to see Nathan Krawchuk come as well as stated above since he looks to be a good goalie from Sudbury in the OHL. Regardless, this is a position that needs to be filled out very quickly this offseason.

For the rest of the holes, there are not many players from AIC that are worth bringing over as essentially all the best players have committed elsewhere now. It is especially difficult with RPI’s transfer rules, but Lang will have spots to fill. This team graduated 11 players and lost 5 to the portal already. RPI has lost its entire top 4 on defense, both goalies that played, and 7 of its top 10 forwards counting Muzzatti who missed the end of the season. There’s lots of playing time to go around. Here’s what he has to work with right now:

? - Tinling - Tapper
? - Kyrkostas - ?
? - Rullers - Ziliotto?
Bourgault - McNeil - Payant
Sullivan, Janus, Oakenfold

Lemieux - ?
Klassek - Goffredo
Ozolins - Hilditch?
Adrian?
Maguire, Matta

? Krawchuk Dorfman

That’s 6 spots that are totally empty, all in key roles in the lineup, and keep in mind that this assumes that no one else enters the portal or decommits and assumes Coach Lang chooses to keep everyone and doesn’t delay Ziliotto, Hilditch or Adrian. There’s a good chance there will be more spots to fill than just what we have laid out there. Unfortunately, the hiring process took longer than it probably should have, so a good chunk of talent is off the board from the portal. However, there’s still enough to find players from the portal, and there’s probably still some CHL players who can come in and contribute as freshmen. With Lang’s reputation, we bet he can convince some solid players to join the fold early on with the minutes he has to offer, especially younger players who can be sold on being centerpieces of a rebuilding program.

4. Finalize the Coaching Staff

Per sources, we can report that Mathias Lange and Karlis Zirnis will be retained on the staff, leaving one assistant spot open for Coach Lang to fill. Luckily that is much easier to manage, and that should help a lot with the transition. It should also ideally help to keep the rest of the roster and the incoming recruiting class intact. We said before in previous articles that we’d like for Coach Lang to hire a recruiting specialist type of assistant, and that remains the same now. With his reputation in the hockey world, we have no doubt that there will not be a shortage of coaching talent interested in joining the staff.

5. Engage Alumni and Fans

Lang will have some very practical roster building questions to address first, but once he gets the chance to catch his breath, I suspect he will spend a lot of the summer drumming up new interest in the program. Matt Murley of Spittin Chiclets has been helping out a lot, and other prominent hockey alumni have voiced desire to help right the ship. Lang is a smart guy who comes from a situation that lacked resources. He would be wise to draw into RPI Hockey’s history with the alumni and local fans to gain momentum early in his tenure. I would like to see the university get the students more involved as well, which I am sure he and Dr. Bowers will work closely on. Hiring a new coach can reinvigorate a fan base and a recruiting pipeline too. I am sure the athletic department and Coach Lang will be eager to catch a wave of momentum and run with it. A big part of that will be getting as many prominent hockey alumni and donors as possible involved in the program.

Welcome Coach! We are excited for this new chapter of RPI Hockey!