Another former Bulldogs captain is returning to Amsoil Arena.

Minnesota Duluth announced Friday the hiring of Hermantown native Adam Krause as an assistant coach on Scott Sandelin’s staff. Krause replaces Duluth native Brett Larson, who last month was hired as the head coach at St. Cloud State.

The 26-year-old Krause is the second former Bulldogs hockey captain to be hired this week by the school as an assistant after the UMD women announced on Monday the addition of 22-year-old Ashleigh Brykaliuk - captain from 2015-17 - to Maura Crowell’s staff.

Sandelin said being a captain is similar to being a coach because of all the personalities both positions have to work with on a team.

“He’s a great fit,” Sandelin said of Krause, who wore the ‘C’ at UMD from 2013-15. “He’s going to bring the things that I think we were looking for to fill that spot.”

What Sandelin was looking for was someone who is approachable to players - “Not that we’re not,” Sandelin said of he and assistant Jason Herter - and Krause’s youth makes him a perfect fit.

Sandelin said he also was looking for an alum to replace Larson, as well as someone who could work with the forwards. Krause, a former forward, checked both of those boxes.

The one question mark concerning Krause would be his lack of coaching experience. Since graduating from UMD, he’s spent the last three seasons playing professionally in the American Hockey League and ECHL.

It just so happens Larson, who was an assistant with the Bulldogs from 2008-11 and 2015-18, didn’t have much coaching experience either when Sandelin hired the pharmaceutical salesman in 2008. Now he’s an NCAA Division I head coach after helping UMD win a pair NCAA titles in 2011 and 2018.

“We all started somewhere. I’m a firm believer that certain guys need that opportunity sometimes,” Sandelin said. “(Krause) has always been someone that I’ve held in a pretty high place. I have a high regard for how he carries himself, how he represented our program. I know he’s going to do the same thing here. Those things are important to keep building what we’re trying to do here.”

The Bulldogs are coming off their second national championship in program history and return 15 of the 19 players who played in the 2-1 win over Notre Dame at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. UMD returns its starting goaltender and all six defensemen, with the biggest losses coming at forward where three graduated and a fourth, sophomore wing Joey Anderson, signed with the New Jersey Devils.

Krause said he’s up for the challenge of keeping his alma mater at the top of the college hockey mountain. After all, he helped start the program-record run of four straight NCAA tournament berths in 2014-15 as a senior captain.

“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Krause, who could have returned next season to the Rochester Americans of the AHL, but found Sandelin’s offer too good to pass up. “I’ve always worked well with coach Sandelin. We have the same values and ideas of where we want UMD hockey to go. He’s done such an awesome job with the culture so I’m not stepping into something that needs rebuilding. The culture has been built and maintained. I’m pretty excited for it.”