Mike Cavanaugh’s Contract Extended Through 2021

As first reported by Mark Divver, The UConn Blog can confirm that UConn men’s hockey head coach Mike Cavanaugh has signed a five-year contract extension, keeping him behind the bench for the Huskies through the 2020-2021 season.

The extension is worth $1.6 million, with Cavanaugh making $300,000 this season and that will increase to $309,000 next year. He will be paid $318,270 in 2018-2019; $317,818 in 2019-2020 and $337,652 during the final year of the deal.

Cavanaugh has completed three seasons as coach of the Huskies after spending 1995-2013 at Boston College, first as an assistant and then as an associate head coach. He coached UConn’s final year in Atlantic Hockey, where the Huskies had a record of 18-14-4, losing in the Atlantic Hockey quarterfinals.

The following season, the Huskies moved into Hockey East, widely believed to be the best conference in the nation. While UConn had a 7-11-4 record in its inaugural season, the start in Hockey East could not have gone better, beating No. 5 Boston College at the XL Center in their first conference game, and it was a better season than expected. The Huskies were selected to finish at the bottom of Hockey East that first year, but ended the year ninth in the standings and were in contention to host in the Hockey East Tournament until the final weekend of play.

Coach Cavanaugh’s squad was selected to finish ninth last season and again beat expectations. UConn finished eighth in only its second year in the conference, hosting a Hockey East quarterfinal. The Huskies added more wins over ranked teams as the program took another step forward.

Since UConn has joined Hockey East, the Huskies have seven victories over ranked teams, three of which held a top-five ranking. With Cavanaugh locked up through 2021, there’s no limit on where this team can go.