Mike Zannella returns for his second season as an assistant coach with the Union College men's hockey team in 2025-26.
In his first year, Zannella helped guide Union to a 19-14-3 record and a top-four finish in the ECAC Hockey standings with a 12-8-2 conference mark, the program's most conference wins in a season since 2017-18 and the sixth most in Union's Division I era. The team started off the year with a 6-1-0 record to earn the program's first national ranking since 2019 and spent much of the year receiving votes in the USCHO rankings as well. Highlights of the season included keeping the Mayors' Cup trophy in Schenectady for the fourth straight year and bringing the Capital Skates Trophy back home for the first time since 2017 with a season sweep of RPI, as well as sweeping the season series from Cornell University for the first time since 2013-14.
Zannella came to Union from the Lincoln Stars in the United States Hockey League where he served as an assistant coach the last two seasons and helped guide the team to a 62-59-6-3 record. During his time in Lincoln, Zannella helped the Stars reach the Western Conference Final for the first time in 12 seasons and also mentored and developed eight NHL draft picks, including defensemen Adam Kleber (2nd round to Buffalo) and Tanner Henricks (4th round to Columbus). There he also coached current Union defenseman DJ Hart and goaltender Lucas Massie.
Prior to his time with the Lincoln Stars, Zannella spent five years as an assistant coach with Elmira College. During his time with the Soaring Eagles, the team improved year after year, culminating with the 2021 UCHC conference title and the UCHC Pat Thompson Trophy. Zannella was also instrumental in the team qualifying for the 2021-22 NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade.
A native of Ithaca, N.Y., Zannella began his coaching career at Skidmore College in 2016-17 after playing two years of professional hockey.
Zannella played four years of collegiate hockey for Buffalo State University where he served as a three-year captain of the Bengals. As a senior, he led his team to the most wins of any class and finished his collegiate career ranked 10th all-time in points.
