SU ice hockey adds Brendon Knight, Patricia Elsmore to coaching staff
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Syracuse ice hockey announced the two latest additions to its 2026-27 coaching staff on social media Saturday. Brendon Knight will be SU’s associate head coach, and Patricia Elsmore was named an assistant coach. The pair join first-year head coach Brian Idalski — who was announced as SU’s next bench boss on July 14 — to complete Syracuse’s new-look coaching staff ahead of puck drop on Sept. 25.
Knight previously joined the Orange in 2012-13 as an assistant coach. He rose to SU’s associate head coach under Paul Flanagan, who’s widely regarded as the architect of the Syracuse program, and left the Orange after the 2021-22 season. Before his first SU stint, Knight was the head coach for Hamilton College’s women’s ice hockey team for six years.
During Knight’s decade in Syracuse, the Orange accumulated a 153-154-36 record, collected multiple College Hockey America titles and made two trips to the NCAA Tournament. After three consecutive losing campaigns from 2017-18 to 2019-20, SU posted back-to-back winning seasons in 2020-21 and 2021-22, the latter being Syracuse’s most recent campaign above .500.
When he announced his retirement in March 2022 after 14 years constructing and coaching Syracuse ice hockey, Flanagan directed much of the credit for his team’s most recent success toward Knight.
After leaving Syracuse, the St. Luc, Quebec, native served as an assistant coach at Utica University during the 2022-23 season and coached the United States Women’s Team at the 2023 FISU World University Games in Lake Placid, New York. Last season, Knight coached alongside Idalski on the inaugural staff of the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s Vancouver Goldeneyes.
Elsmore joins Syracuse after two seasons as an assistant coach with the North American Hockey League’s Minnesota Wilderness. The Switzerland native enjoyed a decorated playing career, winning the 2001, 2002 and 2003 NCAA Championships as Minnesota-Duluth’s starting goaltender and suited up for Switzerland at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Elsmore started playing for the Swiss National Team in 1992. In 1997, she was the first Swiss to be voted to the All-Star Team at the World Championships in Kitchener, Ontario.
Elsmore’s coaching career began in 2010-11, as a volunteer assistant at St. Scholastica, an NCAA Division III program in Duluth, Minnesota. She returned to the Saints as an assistant coach in 2016-17.
After three seasons as an assistant at St. Scholastica, Elsmore coached at the high school level in Minnesota for five years, serving as Cloquet-Esko-Carlton’s women’s team’s goaltending coach for three years from 2019-20 to 2021-22 and Rock Ridge High School’s women’s team’s head coach in 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Elsmore worked primarily with the Saints’ goalies as a volunteer assistant before coaching Cloquet-Esko-Carlton’s goaltenders. At Syracuse, she’ll work with Ava Drabyk, who recorded a 2.38 goals-against average, a .922 save percentage and was named to the Atlantic Hockey America All-Rookie Team as a freshman last season.
