Incoming Long Island men’s hockey coach Brendan Riley has introduced his coaching staff for the 2025-26 season.
Mikhail Bryan (assistant coach), CJ Kusch (assistant coach), and Caleb Johnson (director of hockey operations) will join Riley for his first season leading the Sharks.
Bryan comes to Long Island after three successful seasons as an assistant coach at Tufts (2022-25), where he helped lead the Jumbos to their first two NESCAC championship game appearances in consecutive seasons. The 2023-24 team racked up 14 wins, the most in program history.
Prior to Tufts, Bryan worked two seasons at Curry (2020-2022), where he helped lead the program to its first playoff win in more than seven years and recruited the program’s two winningest classes.
“Mikhail is already a proven and successful college hockey coach and recruiter,” said Riley in a statement. “His familiarity with the North American junior leagues and the recruiting process will allow our staff to hit the ground running this offseason.”
Kusch joins LIU from the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks where he worked four seasons as an assistant coach and one season as a video coordinator (2019-25). With Kusch on staff, Muskegon won its first-ever Clark Cup, reached the Eastern Conference Finals three times, and produced 10 NHL draft picks, including two first-round picks.
Kusch also brings previous college hockey experience to the Sharks, having served as the director of hockey operations and video coordinator at Western Michigan during the 2017-18 season.
“CJ adds a great deal of coaching experience to our young staff,” said Riley. “He is a proven winner and has worked with some of the best young talent that our country has to offer. Our players and staff will benefit from his in-depth knowledge and understanding of the game.”
Johnson joins LIU after four seasons in a video and hockey operations role at Minnesota Duluth (2021-25), where the Bulldogs claimed one conference title and one NCAA tournament appearance during his tenure (2022).
“Caleb comes to us from one of the most successful D-I college hockey programs in the last decade,” said Riley. “He brings with him a great wealth of knowledge on what it takes to make a program run smoothly, but also what it takes to a be a nationally contending hockey team. He has an unbelievably strong work ethic and is hungry to move himself up through the coaching ranks.”
The Sharks enter next season on the heels of the most successful season in program history. In 2024-25, LIU set a new program record with 20 wins and went 14-1 at home, compiling the best home record in college hockey. The Sharks finished the season as the highest-ranked independent team in the country.
