This story originally appeared in the official 2023 NCAA Men's Frozen Four program, which can be purchased here.

They've had conversations through the years, just the two of them, Rick and Diane Gotkin, and they've always landed in the same place. It may be fun to start a new project, a new chapter, to take on a new hockey challenge at some undetermined level, maybe college, maybe the pros. It may be fun to explore a new place, to chase the almighty dollar, to create a new legacy somewhere other than Erie, Pennsylvania.
All of that sounds great.

But not as great as what they have.

In a time when climbing the coaching ladder feels like an Olympic sport, when supposed leaders of young men and women are chasing big bucks and even bigger bravado, Gotkin has stayed at tiny Mercyhurst University, with an enrollment less than 2,800 students. Through more than three decades, great seasons and bad ones, new hockey rinks and new logos and new uniforms that he finally does not have to wash himself, Gotkin has stayed. Through Division III and Division II and now Division I, Gotkin has stayed.

And with more than 1,200 games coached under his belt, one of only three college hockey coaches to reach that mark with one team, Gotkin doesn't plan on leaving anytime soon.

• • •

One small correction: Gotkin never had to wash those uniforms alone. 

His wife, Diane, has become an expert in the right amount of laundry detergent to remove the stench of 25 hockey uniforms, which, as you can imagine, is a lot. She's become adept at slicing oranges for halftime snacks. She may not know the exact strategy for the perfect neutral zone trap, but she can hang with the best of them.

Want to know why Rick Gotkin has remained faithful to Mercyhurst? Look no further than Diane, who was born and raised in Erie and remains close with her group of high school friends, with some of these relationships dating back more than 40 years. Her family is there, a support system that spans an entire region.

They make enough money between the two of them. Their kids, Lindsey and Brandon — two Mercyhurst grads themselves — are fully grown and embarking on careers of their own, Lindsey as an attorney, Brandon as a hockey coach, following in his father's skates.
It sounds like paradise in Pennsylvania, if not for the cold. Come to think of it, he's a hockey coach. He loves the cold. Why would Gotkin ever leave?

"There aren't many million-dollar opportunities in hockey," he said. "Being here, we're rich in other ways. We're rich in family and love and friends — so many things we're grateful for."

Not that there haven't been dalliances.

He's been courted. He turned down a chance to be a head coach in the ECHL and also turned down a chance to return to some more high-profile programs as an assistant.

"I thought briefly about all of them," Gotkin said. "I visited the ECHL city that offered me the job, and I was presented with a contract. But I spoke with Diane and realized this isn't something I wanted to do right now. And I'm glad I didn't do it. A couple bigger universities said come be the associate head coach, and I even visited them, and turned down those as well. And I'm glad I did."

Without riches or fame, Gotkin has found himself satisfied at every step of the journey. And there have been steps. 

Gotkin was hired in 1988 in year two of the Mercyhurst hockey program, which had been established a year prior by Fred Lane. A 1982 graduate of SUNY Brockport and a student-athlete for two years, Gotkin served two seasons as an assistant at Rensselaer from 1986-88 before joining the Lakers. He wasn't an immediate hit — Mercyhurst went 11-16-1 in his first year — but the Lakers went 18-8-4 his second year and never looked back. Before year five, they made the jump to Division II, finishing as runner-up that year in the 1993 NCAA Division II tournament, also two years later in 1995. Four years after that, they moved from the Eastern College Athletic Conference to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Since the 2003-04 season, the Lakers have competed in the Atlantic Hockey League, where they've won 20 games six times. They've also lost 20 games five times in the same stretch, and they've won no championships.

"I would like to think, and I don't know this for sure, that the people at Mercyhurst, through the years, that they think of me as a good leader," he said. "The coaching part is important, too. But I like to think they look at the program and say I'm a good leader of young men, that I connect pretty well with them, that I understand them, that I still relate well to them."

All along the way, Gotkin has rewarded Mercyhurst with loyalty and Mercyhurst has rewarded Gotkin with more investments into the program. That's all he ever really wanted anyway.

Better than any individual win or tournament appearance, Gotkin reflects warmly on the increased buy-in from the faculty and staff and students. By the way, he's on his fourth school president and fifth (or sixth) athletics director (he can't remember). 

He's had a dangling carrot almost every year, from a new team with renewed hope to a new project in which to dive.

The first one was helping design the team logo and uniforms and even the mascot. Then came the building of a new rink — the Mercyhurst Ice Center — of which Gotkin contributed to the design. Then came level changes and league changes and before he had a chance to breathe, Gotkin was coaching his 1,200th game for the program in mid-February.

"When I first came here, I'd just left Rensselaer Poly where I was an assistant, and I thought I'd get some head coaching experience at a brand-new hockey program, and I really thought it'd be for a couple years, and I'd move on to something bigger and better. And then I blinked and it was 35 years later and here I am. A lot of things really happened, and all of it good."

• • •

Mostly all of it. Diane still laughs about the laundry. Forget the rink or the uniforms — she's most happy the program was able to hire an equipment manager. Her nose thanked her.

"It all comes back to feeling fulfilled in doing what he's doing," Diane said. "I'll be honest, sometimes I feel like his facilities are tired and the school is small, but the kids who come here really want to be here. "If you could go to Penn State or Minnesota with what they have, they'd go. But some of the things that draw you here are because you really want to be here."

"I remember a while back when Penn State went from being a club sport to Division I. They ended up asking to play in the local arena because they wanted a bigger venue [than Mercyhurst Ice Center]. Rick just laughed — they had so many buses. I don't even know if they had room to park them. He said, 'Maybe try the back?' They asked about his ticket guy. Rick said, 'I am the ticket guy.' 'Well, who's your hockey operations guy?' Rick says, 'That's me, too.'

"We're totally the flip side of that. Everyone is on the same bus here. I think every kid shares a seat. I've gone on the bus. The kids have gone on the bus. Rick wouldn't be comfortable on a bigger bus."

His players don't need a bigger bus, either.

They're looking for fit, for family, for bon mots that go much further than face-off techniques and goaltending tips. 

"Rick has always had this culture-driven mentality," senior center/right wing Gueorgui Feduolov said. "He's really knowledgeable about the hockey world. He's had such great insight about the game. It was a pleasure to play for him and to experience his words of wisdom. He pushes us to be better human beings, better hockey players. It all ties back to Laker Pride. He has such a great legacy that will never be forgotten."

Feduolov has professional hockey goals in his future, where he hopes to become the second Mercyhurst player to play in an NHL game. Another half-dozen other former Lakers signed NHL contracts but never made it to the league.

But that was never Gotkin's goal.

Mercyhurst is not a hockey factory. There aren't a ton of championship banners in the rafters. You'd never confuse Mercyhurst with a Michigan or a Minnesota. That's never been the goal. Gotkin could've pursued that path decades ago, but instead, he chose to be happy. To be content.
He doesn't measure his success — nor Mercyhurst's — in terms of Stanley Cups or all-star appearances.

"I can tell you, we've had seven guys in 35 years who signed NHL contracts, and we celebrate that every chance we can," he said. "We've had a number of guys in the AHL and the ECHL and the KHL. For a place like Boston College, that's no big deal. They might have seven guys a year go pro, and we've had one guy play an NHL game.

"But how many of those other guys have gone on to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, firemen, police officers? We've had guys who've done all of those things."

• • •

You want a testimony to stick-to-itiveness? You want a lyric on loyalty? 

Just a short time ago, Gotkin got an email from a former player. This was not one of his favorite players, one of his success stories, one of his retired numbers. This was dangerously close to a cautionary tale.

"He just says, 'Thanks for not throwing me off the team when I failed a drug test,'" Gotkin said. 
In general, Gotkin said, "I'm not changing guys' lives here. We get really good kids. They come here as really good kids and they leave as really good kids. But I've been to drug rehab with a couple players, to Alcoholics Anonymous. 

"It's satisfying to know a guy who failed a drug test, and we stuck with him, he's doing great things today. Married, family, great job. If we throw him off the team, what happens? He went through all the steps and the kid fixed all his mistakes.

"To me, that's better than winning 10 more games."