Grant Potulny stepped down as Northern Michigan coach to take a job in professional hockey, the school announced Tuesday.
Athletic director Rick Comley, who won NCAA championships as coach of the Wildcats in 1991 and Michigan State in 2007, is the interim coach.
Associate head coach Byron Pool and assistant coach Nick Peruzzi also resigned to take other coaching positions.
Potulny had a 128-113-17 record in seven seasons at Northern Michigan. It was his first college head coaching job after eight seasons as an assistant at Minnesota, where he won two NCAA championships in a playing career that stretched from 2000 to 2004.
The Wildcats underwent a large-scale roster change after the 2023-24 season, with 14 players leaving via the transfer portal, according to a list maintained by Gopher Puck Live. Their 2024 freshman signing class included three NHL draft picks — goalie Hampton Slukynsky and defensemen Rasmus Larsson and Vladislav Lukashevich.
Comley has been Northern Michigan’s athletic director since 2022. It’s his second stint in the position; he also had the job from 1987 to 2000 while he was coaching.
He’s fifth among NCAA men’s hockey coaches with 783 victories in a head coaching career that started at Lake Superior State in 1973.
