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Feeling firmly entrenched in his second season as an assistant coach for St. Thomas’ men’s hockey team, Cory Laylin is considering moving from his home in St. Michael to be closer to St. Paul.
That’s not to say that Laylin, a St. Cloud native, has ever shied away from traveling great distances to remain a part of the game he has loved since childhood. Following four seasons as a forward for the Gophers, Laylin embarked on a 16-year professional career in Europe that included stops in Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark. He also coached a year in Italy.
Through it all, including a distinguished coaching career, Minnesota remained his home base, which eventually paid off for the Tommies (7-15-2 overall and 6-10-2 in the CCHA), who take a three-game unbeaten streak (2-0-1) into their two-game series at Arizona State that begins Friday night.
“I’m so blessed to be a part of this program and this university,” Laylin said. “I wake up and pinch myself every morning. The direction we’re going … it’s pretty exciting.”
Laylin is also reveling in the fact that his oldest son, Luc, is a freshman forward for the Tommies. Another son, Casy, also a forward, who is currently playing junior hockey for Salmon Arm in British Columbia, will join St. Thomas for the 2024-25 season.
The youngest of Cory and Stacy Laylin’s three boys, 15-year-old Bode, plays defense on the 16U team at North Star Christian Academy in Alexandria. Laylin doesn’t rule out the possibility of all three of his sons will end up playing for the Tommies — perhaps all at the same time.
“Wouldn’t that be special?” he said.
That possibility has its roots in a phone call that, for Laylin, came out of the blue.
The Phone Call
Tommies head coach Rico Blasi and Laylin had never met when Blasi reached out in the summer of 2021 to gauge Laylin’s interest in joining his staff. Laylin had just completed his seventh season as Hamline’s head coach.
“We have mutual friends who brought his name to me,” Blasi said before adding with a smile, “I think he accepted in about 10 seconds.”
Laylin was 38 when his playing career ended. Not knowing what he would do next, he started a hockey school in Maple Grove. “When my wife gave me the green light to coach, knowing that we would have to zip around a little bit, it was like, ‘OK, let’s go for it.’ ”
Former Gophers player Scott Bell was coaching at Hamline and brought Laylin on as an assistant. Laylin then spent some time coaching in junior hockey before returning to Hamline as head coach.
“We went from worst to first in our first year, which was a great experience,” Laylin said.
His international coaching experience included being the head coach for Team USA at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, assistant coach for the Under-18 team in the 2017 Hlinka Cup and head coach for the U17 team the 2016 Five Nations Cup.
“It’s been a great fit,” Blasi said. “He’s a good hockey person, well known here in the state. He played pro for a long time and is really knowledgible about the game. And his care level is through the roof.”
Laylin said it was an easy decision to accept the job, even though it meant going from being a head coach to an assistant.
“I was a head coach for so long,” he said. “You need opportunities to grow and learn so you can better yourself, too. As a head coach, you kind of do things your way, so it’s fun to learn different ways.”
The Player
Laylin was a productive forward for the Gophers from 1989-1992. He collected 58 goals and 107 points from 1988-92 and ranks 15th all time with 170 games played. The Gophers qualified for the NCAA tournament all four years.
“I was a piece of the puzzle that made us successful,” Laylin said. “I worked hard and did whatever I was told to do.”
The highlight of Laylin’s Gophers career also represents his biggest disappointment. The Gophers reached the NCAA championship game in his freshman season but lost to Harvard 4-3 in overtime at St. Paul’s Civic Center.
“That was a tough one to swallow — for the whole state of Minnesota,” Laylin said. “I’ve still never watched (a tape of) it.”
Laylin was an 11th-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1989 but never got the chance to play for the Penguins, who had a deep and talented team. So, he turned to Europe, where a team need led to him switching from forward to defense.
“I went back on ‘D’ and scored as much as a defenseman as I did as a forward,” Laylin said. “I was a good skater, and I learned the game from the defensive side of things. I ended up playing a 16-year pro career as a defenseman.”
Stacy Laylin (nee Bjorklund) was a track athlete and a cheerleader at the U at the same time Cory was on campus. They married in 1999 after reconnecting after college and settled into a life of spending hockey seasons in Europe and summers in Minnesota.
Luc was born in Germany, Casey in Switzerland and Bode in Minnesota. Although he was young, Luc vividly recalls sitting in the stands of sold-out rinks in Germany cheering for his dad.
“I’ve looked up to him my whole life,” he said.
Now, they are part of the same team, with both appreciating the “separation” that comes with Cory coaching the defensemen and Luc playing forward. Cory considers having his son join the program an unexpected pleasure.
“It was not part of the plan,” Laylin said. “It’s truly a joy to be around him and to track him, but he’s truly one of the guys. At the rink it’s very professional, but at Christmas and at Thanksgiving it’s fun to sit around and talk about things.”
Instant Contributor
Luc is among the team’s leading scorers with five goals and eight assists. While he has quickly shown that he can play at the Division I level, he said St. Thomas was the only Division I program that made him an offer. Blasi believes Luc’s size (5-foot-8, 170 pounds) probably had a lot to do with that.
“He has always been undersized so he has had to learn to play (accordingly),” Blasi said. “But he has always been able to score; he’s shown it at every level. He fits the mold of some of the guys I have coached over the years. I had no questions about his size.”
Like his dad, it didn’t take too much convincing from Blasi for Luc, who played for St. Michael-Albertville High School and three years of junior hockey, to accept the offer to join the Tommies.
“I just felt like St. Thomas was the right spot for me,” he said, adding that he appreciated the opportunity to have the chance to contribute right away.
“I know it can be hard for (young) guys to get into the lineup,” he said. “It’s nice that all of our coaches are giving all the freshmen a shot. And we’re getting better, everyone — individually and as a team.”
The Tommies have shown marked improvement in their second season of Division I hockey as their talent level continues to increase. Becoming a contender in the CCHA is the next step, but the team across the river is in their sites, too. The Gophers and Tommies will play a home-and-home series each of the next two seasons, which likely will become a regular occurrence.
The Gophers’ current lineup features players Laylin has coached, as well as sons of former Gophers teammates, and his affection for the program and the university remains strong. But just as he found happiness and success across the pond, he feels at home across the river.
“They’re already at the top of the mountain and we’re working our way up,” Laylin said of the Gophers. “I think that the rivalry will be great for the entire state of Minnesota.”
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