Red Gendron’s future as the University of Maine men’s hockey head coach is still up in the air.
Gendron just completed his eighth season behind the Black Bear bench and his contract expires on June 30.
“We expect Coach Gendron to do everything necessary to prepare our team to compete next year,” UMaine athletic director Ken Ralph said on Wednesday. “There is no [contract] extension at this time.”
Gendron’s teams have posted a 103-137-32 overall record (.438) at UMaine, including a 63-89-21 Hockey East mark and a 4-13 playoff record.
Amid an abbreviated schedule prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, he guided the Black Bears to a 3-11-2 record this season. New Hampshire beat UMaine 7-2 in the first round of the single-elimination Hockey East Tournament.
UMaine was the eighth seed in the Hockey East Power Index and UNH was 10th.
“UMaine Athletics will not be commenting publicly about personnel issues until we have items finalized,” Ralph said.
The Black Bears played all of their regular-season games on the road this season due to state COVID-19 restrictions, but UMaine finally was cleared to host last week’s playoff game.
Gendron is the highest-paid head coach at UMaine, earning $213,282.08 per year. But he is one of the lowest-paid, if not the lowest, among Hockey East head coaches.
He received two-year contract extensions in 2016 and 2018.
The 63-year-old native of Berlin, New Hampshire, a former assistant coach with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils, UMaine, Massachusetts and Yale, has had three winning seasons at UMaine, two in the last four years.
Gendron was named the league coach of the year last season when he guided the Black Bears to an 18-11-5 campaign, 12-9-3 in Hockey East. UMaine was the fourth seed, but its home quarterfinal series was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
UMaine has never advanced past the league quarterfinals under Gendron and hasn’t done so since the 2011-12 season under Tim Whitehead, who was fired after the 2012-13 season.