Gophers' coach Bob Motzko quietly confident with 2024-25 season two months away (2025)

PRIOR LAKE, Minn. — While some folks get more and more into golf as they get older, Bob Motzko admits he doesn’t swing the sticks very often. Still, the Gophers hockey coach makes an exception for the annual alumni outing for the Minnesota men’s program, held recently at The Legends Club south of the Twin Cities.

While more than 125 former Gophers played the course and reminisced about their time in maroon and gold, Motzko made the rounds, hitting shots in the scramble and keeping up good relationships with a few men who played for him since he took over the program in 2018, and dozens who came before his time running the show.

Pausing for a few minutes to talk with The Rink Live, Motzko underscored the importance of a healthy and vibrant alumni network, and talked a bit about the 2024-25 Gophers, who many expect to see in St. Louis for the next NCAA Frozen Four.

“We’ve got a chance to be awful good,” said Motzko, who has directed Minnesota to either the Frozen Four or a regional final in the past four years at the helm.

The Gophers got a boost shortly after their season ended with a loss to Boston University in the Sioux Falls Regional title game, when star forward Jimmy Snuggerud announced he would return for a third season at the U of M rather than signing with the St. Louis Blues. Fifth-year forward Mason Nevers and defenseman Mike Koster also opted to return, giving the Gophers an important base of experience.

Dipping into the transfer portal has been rare for Motzko’s program, but they added veteran goalie Liam Souliere from Penn State and landed the big offensive prize in former UConn forward Matthew Wood , who is a Nashville Predators first-round draft pick with size and skill.

Like with all contending hockey teams, it starts in goal for the Gophers, who are expecting sophomore Nathan Airey to play big minutes while Souliere has told the coaches that his job is to make their decision difficult when picking the starter. Souliere is coming off a season with average numbers in net for the Nittany Lions, but many think he could thrive in Minnesota’s more defensive-minded system.

“We’ve got a whole lot of faith in Nathan Airey, but he was injured last year and couldn’t play until Christmas,” Motzko said. “Then we dipping into the portal … Liam played over 100 college games, played over 100 junior games, he’s go 50 wins in college hockey, he’s won in every building. We laid it out for him and he said, ‘I’m in, I want to do this.’ Great kid.”

While we are still waiting for the Big Ten schedule release, which generally comes around Minnesota State Fair time, the Gophers’ will get plenty of early road tests in the nonconference slate. After an Oct. 5 exhibition game at St. Cloud State, they travel to Las Vegas to face Air Force and either UMass or Omaha, then go to Minnesota Duluth for two games before their home opener.

“We’re on the road to start the year, so we’re going to get tested,” Motzko said.

Jess Myers covers college hockey, as well as outdoors, general sports and travel, for The Rink Live and the Forum Communications family of publications. He came to FCC in 2018 after three decades of covering sports as a freelancer for a variety of publications, while working full time in politics and media relations. A native of Warroad, Minn. (the real Hockeytown USA), Myers has a degree in journalism/communications from the University of Minnesota Duluth. He lives in the Twin Cities. Contact Jess via email at jrmyers@forumcomm.com, or find him on Twitter via @JessRMyers. English speaker.