Vermont has announced staffing updates for the men’s hockey team ahead of the 2023-24 season.
Brendan Bradley has been promoted to assistant coach and the Catamounts have hired Shane Madolora to the same role. In addition, Viktor Stalberg will the rejoin the Vermont hockey team as advisor to the coaching staff.
Bradley enters his second season with the Catamounts after serving in a volunteer capacity last season. Following graduation, Bradley had a successful pro career in the AHL and ECHL. Since his retirement from playing, Bradley coached in Pennsylvania in the prestigious Flyers Elite program. He also served as an assistant coach at King’s and with Holy Ghost Prep.
In his UVM career, Bradley played in 147 games, and he had 20 points or more in all four of his seasons in Catamounts colors. In total, he picked up 31 goals and 54 assists for 85 points. In his senior campaign, he served as captain of the Catamounts.
“Pride in this program, and a belief that we will win on a nightly basis is very important as we move into this new era of UVM men’s hockey,” said UVM head coach Steve Wiedler in a statement. “Brendan lived it and brings this passion with him to the rink every day. His playing experience here at UVM and beyond will aid in the development of our current student athletes while his knowledge of our current roster will support the stability and continuity of our coaching staff moving forward. We talk about bleeding green and gold within this program; you can’t find another guy around D-I NCAA college hockey that does that more than Brendan.”
Madolora comes to Burlington via RIT where he was the volunteer goalie coach last season. Madolora graduated as RIT’s Division I-era career leader with a .932 save percentage, which is tied for 10th in NCAA history. He is also tops with a 1.97 GAA, which remains tied for 20th in the NCAA record book. Madolora remains first in Tiger history (and tied for 20th in NCAA history) with 13 career shutouts, as well as fourth with 1,727 saves, fifth with 36 wins, and tied for fifth with 65 appearances. Madolora was voted the 2010-11 Atlantic Hockey goaltender of the year after landing the first of back-to-back first-team all-conference nods.
Madolora played professionally for four years following his RIT career, including training camp invites from the NHL’s San Jose Sharks and AHL’s Rochester Americans, along with appearances across the top leagues in France, England and Italy. He also served as head coach/director of player personnel for the Rochester Monarchs Tier II junior program and from 2016 to 2019, was an assistant coach with the RIT women’s hockey team.
“Shane will bring a polished and detailed approach to our coaching staff,” said Wiedler. “On top of being an exceptional DI NCAA goaltender himself, his ability to develop goaltenders over the last few years at RIT has been exceptional. Every reference call we made on Shane raved of his professionalism and attention to detail. He’s been a head coach at the Junior A level and will bring our staff a wealth of knowledge in multiple areas of our program. We are excited to welcome Shane and his wife Lauren to Catamount Country.”
Stalberg spent eight seasons in the NHL with six different teams and won the 2013 Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks. He played in nearly 500 NHL games and posted 82 goals and 86 assists in his career. In addition, he represented Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
During his junior year at Vermont, Stalberg was a first team All-American and finalist for the Hobey Baker Award with 24 goals and 22 assists, leading the Catamounts to the 2009 Frozen Four. In three seasons with UVM, he never missed a game and registered 84 career points. In 2020, he was announced as a UVM athletics hall of famer.
“Vik was one of the first alumni to reach out and express not only support, but an interest in helping the program however possible,” said Wiedler. “His playing career and personal story through the doors of UVM carries a lot of similarities to some of our current student-athletes. He has a strong sense of pride in this program and belief in its ability to win championships. Our coaching staff will lean on Vik to provide us feedback on our style of play, and key characteristics that made the program so successful while he was here.
“We are extremely lucky to have one UVM Athletics Hall of Famer fill a vacant spot left by another UVM Athletics Hall of Famer as Viktor will do with the departure of Patrick Sharp with his new role with the Philadelphia Flyers.”
