Why First-Year BC Coach Greg Brown Doesn’t Have To ‘Create’ Culture

BOSTON — Greg Brown has big shoes to fill, and that might be an understatement for the first-year coach of the Boston College men’s hockey team.

Brown takes over the helm of the Eagles for Jerry York, who retired in April after 28 illustrious seasons behind the bench at BC.

York gave the Eagles a winning identity, and Brown steps into a new job with a foundation already in place that BC can lean on during the 2022-23 campaign.

“I don’t have to create a culture because the culture under Jerry was always world class,” Brown said at Tuesday’s Hockey East media day at TD Garden. “We do have to just be excited to play the way we’re going to play. Figure out how detailed we’re going to be, how thorough we’re going to be. So, like I said, we haven’t set goals first. Just getting better for this training camp and excited to get started Oct. 1.”

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Brown, who is just BC’s fifth head coach since 1932, is well aware of the culture York established at the Heights. He served on York’s staff for 14 seasons from 2004-2018 and was part of the Eagles winning three national championships over that time frame. Brown most recently was an assistant for the New York Rangers from 2018-21, and last year was the head coach of the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL.

Brown’s pedigree also stretches back to being a player at BC, where he earned Hockey East Player of the Year honors in 1989 and 1990 and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award — given to the best player in college hockey — both years.

Brown will have his work cut out for him in his inaugural head coaching season at BC as the Eagles went 15-18-5 and finished in eighth place in Hockey East during the 2021-22 season. What should surely help matters for Brown and BC is the arrival of the talented Cutter Gauthier, a 6-foot-2, 201-pound freshman forward who was picked fifth overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in this past NHL draft.

In the Hockey East preseason coaches’ poll, BC was tied for fifth place with UMass-Lowell as they both sit behind Northeastern, Boston University, UMass and Providence.

Brown isn’t the only coach presiding over a program in the conference for the first time. Former Bruins assistant Jay Pandolfo takes the rein at his alma mater at Boston University.

The Brown era at BC officially gets underway on Oct. 7 with the Eagles hosting Quinnipiac in their season opener.