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Article Courtesy TommieSports.com.

St. Thomas Men's Hockey coach Rico Blasi has announced the addition of Cory Laylin as a full-time assistant coach as the Tommies prepare for their inaugural Division I season in 2021-22. 

Laylin brings a balanced resume of on-ice success as a player, coach and recruiter.  

The St. Cloud, Minn., native enjoyed a standout career with the Minnesota Gophers and later played 16 seasons professionally. He served as head men's hockey coach at Hamline University the last seven seasons, and coached at the high school, college, juniors, pro and international level over the last 13 seasons. 

Laylin had an opportunity to work with a variety of top-flight players while coaching with USA Hockey from 2015-2018 in these roles: 

• head coach for Team USA at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament in Alberta. Team USA finished fourth, losing a semifinal game to Canada, 6-5, and falling in the bronze-medal game to Russia, 5-4.  
• assistant coach for the Under 18 team that played in the 2017 Hlinka Cup event in the Czech Republic. 
• head coach for the Under 17 team that went 4-0 to win the 2016 Five Nations Cup tourney in Dallas, Texas.  
• assistant coach for Team USA, which won the 2015 round-robin event.  

"We are excited to have Cory join our Tommie Hockey family," Blasi said. "His experience at all levels of hockey as a player and coach will be a great asset to our program. He is committed to our culture and the process we're putting together as we transition into Division I."

Laylin replaces Stu Bickel on the Tommie staff. Bickel resigned this month to accept a coaching position with Springfield in the American Hockey League. 
 

Deep Resume:
The St. Cloud Apollo High grad and Pittsburgh Penguins draftee earned a scholarship to the University of Minnesota, where he scored 58 goals over his four seasons. The Golden Gophers advanced to the NCAA tournament all four years of Laylin's era. During his freshman season, Minnesota lost in overtime to Harvard in the national championship game.

He went on to play 16 seasons professionally, primarily overseas. In 1999-2000 while playing for the Iserlohn team in Germany, he scored a career-best 32 goals in 53 games.

Laylin's first coaching assignment was a two-year run as an assistant at Hamline, starting in 2008-09. The Pipers won 32 games in that span, as they reached the MIAC postseason title game in his first year and made the playoffs the next season.

Laylin then served as general manager and head coach of the Brookings Blizzard in the North American Hockey League for two seasons. He also spent one season as the co-head coach at Buffalo High School, and coached a pro team in Carldaro in the Italian professional league. 

He returned to Hamline as head coach in 2014. After winning just three games the previous two seasons, the Pipers finished in fifth place in conference play and then swept through the MIAC playoffs with three road victories. That earned the program just its second all-time berth in the Division III national playoffs in a 14-win season.

The Pipers built on that success during their next two seasons, making the league playoffs again in both 2015-16 and 2016-17.Laylin coached individuals to three All-American and one MIAC Player of the Year award during his seven-year run as head coach.

In addition to his ice hockey resume, Laylin played four seasons of professional roller hockey for the Minnesota Arctic Blast, San Jose Rhinos, and Minnesota Blue Ox.