Jared DeMichiel Joins Spartan Hockey Staff

East Lansing -- Jared DeMichiel has joined the Michigan State hockey staff as the first hire by head coach Adam Nightingale.

Since 2016, DeMichiel has been on staff at Massachusetts, first as an assistant coach and, since 2019, the associate head coach. One of the bright rising assistants in the collegiate game, he has spent the last six seasons at UMass with head coach Greg Carvel and helped lead the Minutemen to their first-ever NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship in 2021, first-ever Frozen Four in 2019, and capturing Hockey East tournament titles in 2021 and 2022.

"Jared DeMichiel has shown that he can help rebuild a program not only into a national title contender, but to a national champion and perennial power," said Nightingale. "His ability to recruit and develop players is a perfect fit for MSU. The players that he has recruited and developed have received multiple national awards along with moving on to the National Hockey League. As impressive as his resume is, it's the person he is that we are most excited about adding to our staff. We look forward to him helping restore our great program to prominence as he has done in his time with UMass."

Over his six seasons at UMass, DeMichiel was instrumental in turning a team which went 5-29-2 in 2016-17 when the staff arrived in Amherst to making the Frozen Four in year three (2018-19) and winning a national championship in year five (2020-21). Over his final four seasons at UMass (2018-22), the Minutemen compiled a record of 94-39-7 (.696).

"I'm excited & thankful for the opportunity to work with Adam Nightingale at Michigan State University," said DeMichiel, who will be the program's Associate Head Coach. "Adam thoroughly impressed me with our conversations & his vision for the future of Spartan hockey. His passion for MSU runs deep & I'm honored to join him. There's a championship history at MSU as well as players moving on to NHL success that I am privileged and enthusiastic to be a part of. We understand it's a process, but our goals are to add to the history of NCAA success while moving our student athletes on to the NHL. We will do everything within our power to build a peak performance culture on and off the ice that will be a source of pride for students, staff, administration, & alumni."

In his six years, UMass had five All-America selections, including 2021 and 2022 honoree Bobby Trivigno, who became just the second UMass player to twice earn All-America honors (along with Pat Keenan in 1972 and 1973). DeMichiel also tutored two Hobey Baker finalists (and one winner), two Hockey East Players of the Year, one Hockey East Rookie of the Year, one Hockey East scoring champion, 18 All-Hockey East selections, and 103 Academic All-Hockey East selections.

One of his prize goaltending pupils, Matt Murray, wrote himself into UMass' all-time record book in several categories, finishing his collegiate career as the school's all-time leader in wins (73) and shutouts (14), and ranks second in GAA, games played, and minutes played while finding himself third all-time in both career saves and save percentage. Murray turned in four consecutive seasons in the top 10 for single-season goals against average and in the top 11 for save percentage in the UMass single-season record book, and his 910 saves was the second-most for any netminder in Minuteman history.

During the national championship season, the Minutemen finished second in the nation in scoring defense at 1.66 goals per-game and ranked in the top-10 in the country in that category for a third straight season. Goaltender Filip Lindberg tied for the third lowest goals-against average and posted the fourth-best save percentage in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey history. Lindberg also set the NCAA record for career shutouts in the NCAA tournament (4), and Murray became UMass' all-time wins leader under DeMichiel's guidance.

Eleven Minutemen were drafted in DeMichiel's time at UMass: Cale Makar (Colorado) and Mario Ferraro (San Jose) in 2017, John Leonard (San Jose) in 2018, Zac Jones (New York Rangers), Marc Del Gaizo (Nashville) and Lindberg (Minnesota) in 2019, Matthew Kessel (St. Louis) and Lucas Mercuri (Carolina) in 2020 and Scott Morrow (Carolina), Josh Lopina (Anaheim), Ryan Ufko (Nashville) and Taylor Makar (Colorado) in 2021.

DeMichiel first joined forces with Carvel at St. Lawrence (2014-16), where DeMichiel was the Saints' primary recruiter and he played a pivotal role as the Saints put together 20- and 19-win seasons with second- and fourth-place ECAC finishes, respectively, during his time in Canton. In his first season at St. Lawrence, DeMichiel took a penalty kill that was ranked second to last in the country at 73.7% prior to his arrival, to eighth in the country at 87.6% and first in ECAC play with six shorthanded goals. The following year, the Saints' penalty kill unit was tied for 13th nationally at 84.9%. St. Lawrence goaltender Kyle Hayton was among the national leaders in save percentage (.935, 4th) in 2015-16 and save percentage (.939, 3rd) and goals-against average (1.81, 5th) in 2014-15 under DeMichiel's guidance.

DeMichiel got his start in coaching working under George Roll, starting the hockey program at Nazareth College (2011-14). In three seasons of recruiting for Nazareth, his recruits collected one second team All-America honor, one ECAC West Rookie of the Year, five all-conference and four all-rookie honors for the Golden Flyers. In the program's first season of existence, DeMichiel oversaw the team's power play unit that finished the season at 20.7%. Since the summer of 2012, DeMichiel has worked the USA Hockey National Select Festival, as well.

A former Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) goaltender, DeMichiel won three Atlantic Hockey Association regular season titles and one postseason AHA Championship in his four-year career. In his senior season he led all of Division I with 27 victories, was second in shutouts (six), seventh in goals against average and eighth in save percentage. He paced RIT to the 2010 Frozen Four and holds RIT's Division I record for career victories and wins in a season by a goaltender. In 2010, DeMichiel led the AHA in every major statistical category and was a first-team AHA all-star selection. He also was named Goaltender of the Year and made the AHA all-tournament team. DeMichiel was tabbed the Most Outstanding Player at the 2010 East Regional and was honored as the Rochester Press-Radio Club's 2010 Paychex Male College Athlete of the Year.

Following graduation, DeMichiel signed with the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears. He attended NHL training camps with the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins. In addition to Hershey, DeMichiel played with Providence in the AHL as well as South Carolina Stingrays, Elmira Jackals, Kalamazoo Wings and Chicago Express of the ECHL.

DeMichiel graduated from RIT in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in business management and he received his master's degree in management from Nazareth in 2014. A native of Harwinton, Conn., DeMichiel and his wife Kara have a daughter, Paige, and son, Jordan.

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