David Carle - #3 Ice Hockey Coach - University of Denver Athletics

Photo by: Maddie MacFarlane

David Carle

Title:
Richard and Kitzia Goodman Head Coach

David Carle is in his ninth season as the Richard and Kitzia Goodman Hockey Head Coach in 2026-27 after being named to the position on May 25, 2018.

The ninth head coach in program history, Carle has led the Pioneers to NCAA National Championships in 2022, 2024 and 2026, five Frozen Four berths and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament in each full season (six total). Under his leadership, the Pioneers set the NCAA record for the most national championships with their 10th victory in 2024 and extended their lead with an 11th title in 2026. Denver has reached the national semifinals in four of the past five years and in five of the last seven held NCAA Tournaments.

At the time of his hire at DU, Carle was the youngest head coach in NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey at age 28. He became the fourth-youngest coach in history to win a D-I national title in 2022 (32 years, 5 months, 0 days) and is the youngest coach ever to win two (34 years, 5 months, 4 days) and three NCAA titles (36 years, 5 months, 3 days) following the Pioneers’ victories in 2024 and 2026.

Carle, 36, is one of 20 coaches in NCAA history to win multiple national championships, and he is the 11th coach to win at least three NCAA titles as he moved into an eight-way tie for fourth place on the all-time list in 2026. Carle and Scott Sandelin of Minnesota Duluth (2011, 2018, 2019) are the only active coaches to win a trio of rings.

In the NCAA Tournament, Carle owns a 16-3 all-time record and his .842 win percentage in the Big Dance is the second-highest all-time behind Herb Brooks, who went 8-1 and posted a .889 mark from 1974-1979 with Minnesota.

Carle served as the head coach and led the United States National Junior Team to back-to-back gold medals at both the 2024 and 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships. The Americans’ victory in January 2025 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, marked the first time that Team USA had won consecutive World Juniors and was the country’s seventh such title in its history. Carle is the only U.S. coach to win multiple World Juniors and is the third NCHC head coach to lead the Americans to gold at the tournament, joining former St. Cloud coach Bob Motzko (2017) and North Dakota and Omaha coach Dean Blais (2010 with Omaha).

The Anchorage, Alaska, native was just the second Denver bench boss to lead the U.S. World Junior squad, joining Marshall Johnston in 1977. In his debut behind the bench for USA Hockey in 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden, the United States defeated the host nation in the final to capture its sixth gold and came exactly 20 years to the day of the country’s first championship at the under-20 tournament (Jan. 5, 2004)—a team that included his older brother Matt.

Entering his ninth season at the helm of the Denver hockey program in 2026-27, Carle has led the Pioneers to a 208-85-20 overall record and a 100-55-12 mark in National Collegiate Hockey Conference play (2018-2026). His .696 winning percentage is presently the highest all-time among Denver hockey coaches, and he ranks third on the program’s all-time wins list after surpassing Ralph Backstrom (182) last season with his 183rd career win on Nov. 1, 2025 versus Alaska Anchorage. Only coaching legends Murray Armstrong (460) and George Gwozdecky (443) have more wins while leading DU’s bench.

Carle is a five-time finalist for the Spencer Penrose Award, given to the national D-I Coach of the Year, earning nominations in 2019, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026 during DU’s trips to the Frozen Four. He has also been a recent finalist for the Herb Brooks Coach of the Year Award in the NCHC, including in 2025-26.

In addition to moving into third place on Denver’s all-time wins list last season, Carle coached in his 300th career game on Feb. 6, 2026 at Colorado College and picked up his 200th career win on Feb. 28, 2026 against Arizona State.

Denver went 16-0-1 to close the 2025-26 season and won each of their last 13 games to claim the NCHC Frozen Faceoff conference tournament championship, NCAA West Regional and NCAA National Championship. The 17-game unbeaten streak was the fourth-longest in program history while the 13-game win streak ranked fourth in the school’s record book for a single season.

Carle and the Pioneers began 2024-25 with the best start in program history as they won each of their first 12 games, breaking the record that was previously held by the 2001-02 squad (9-0-0). The 12 victories to start the season were the most by a defending national champion since 2000 and were more than double the previous best start by a reigning champ in that time (North Dakota in 2016-17 and Union in 2014-15 both won their first five contests). The season-opening stretch was part of an overall 21-game winning streak by the program that dated back to March 9, 2024 and went through Nov. 16, 2024, which was the longest across multiple seasons in school history. Overall, the 21-straight wins fell one shy of tying the longest overall winning streak in the program record book (22, Jan. 5-March 16, 1968).

That season began with Carle coaching in his hometown of Anchorage for the first time since he was a student assistant coach (2011-2012), and the trip also marked just the second instance in which he guided the Pioneers’ bench in his home state (Fairbanks, Oct. 5-6, 2019). He earned his 150th career win in Alaska on Oct. 6 versus the UAA Seawolves, achieving the feat in just 228 games—the second-fastest DU coach to reach the threshold behind Armstrong (216 games).

Denver posted a 31-12-1 overall record in 2024-25 and extended its school-record streak of 30 or more victories to four straight years. In the national tournament, the Pioneers defeated No. 1-overall seed Boston College in the NCAA Northeast Regional Final in Manchester, New Hampshire, on March 30, 2025 to reach the Frozen Four for the second of three straight campaigns.

He coached in his 250th career contest on Jan. 25, 2025 at Minnesota Duluth, and Carle was at the helm when Denver became just the sixth program to reach 1,600 wins on Nov. 2, 2024 at Yale and played its 2,800th game on March 14, 2025 against Colorado College.

During the 2023-24 campaign when the program won its NCAA-record 10th national championship, the Pioneers also won their third NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championship following back-to-back campaigns where they captured the conference’s Penrose Cup as regular-season champions (2021-22, 2022-23).

DU went 32-9-3 in 2023-24 and ended the year on a nine-game winning streak and went 20-4-2 in the final 26 outings after the holiday break. The Pioneers were the highest-scoring team in the nation at 4.6 goals per game and became one of the top defensive squads in the postseason as they only allowed three goals against during the NCAA Tournament, including a 2-0 shutout victory in the National Championship Game against Boston College on April 13, 2024.

Carle surpassed his predecessor, Jim Montgomery (125), for sole possession of fourth place on the school's all-time wins list on Nov. 25, 2024 and earned his 125th career victory in 13 fewer games than Montgomery. The Alaskan coached in his 200th contest on Dec. 9, 2024 at Western Michigan and picked up his 100th career victory on Dec. 10, 2022 at Minnesota Duluth (160th game). He was the second-fastest Pioneer bench boss to reach the century mark behind Armstrong (125), and his .666 winning percentage at the time (100-47-13) was also the second-best mark among DU coaches in their quest for 100 wins (Armstrong, 100-34-9, .731).

Denver recorded its second-straight 30-win campaign in 2022-23 (30-10-0), and the Pios also won their second consecutive Penrose Cup as NCHC regular-season champions after posting a 19-5-0 mark in league play. It was the first time in program history that the Pioneers won 30 or more games in back-to-back campaigns, while the 19 conference wins were the team’s most since 2009-10 in the WCHA.

During the program’s record-tying ninth championship season in 2021-22, Carle and the Pioneers sported a 31-9-1 mark and won its second-ever Penrose Cup as NCHC regular-season champions with an 18-6-0 mark in conference play. The program went 17-1-1 at home and 22-1-1 in the state of Colorado during the campaign, which began with the Pioneers winning each of their first eight home contests—the longest streak to begin a season since Magness Arena opened in 1999 and tied for the third-longest in school history. Overall, DU began the year on a 15-game unbeaten streak at home—the third-longest in program history and the longest since the 1967-68 season. Carle was named the Coach of the Year by USCHO at the end of the season and was at the helm for the program’s 1,500th victory on Oct. 8, 2021.

In his first season as head coach in 2018-19, Carle guided the Pioneers to a 24-12-5 overall record and their 12th straight trip to the NCAA Tournament, which included the program’s third berth in the Frozen Four in a span of four seasons (2016, 2017, 2019).

Denver finished its 70th Anniversary in 2019-20 with a 21-9-6 record (11-8-5-4 NCHC). The Pioneers were set to play in another NCAA Tournament that season, but the remainder of the campaign was canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Denver finished fifth in the Pairwise Rankings and sixth in the national polls with a resume that included top-10 sweeps of Boston College and UMass. The Pioneers opened the year on an eight-game winning streak and went on an 11-game unbeaten stretch from Dec. 7-Jan. 25, their best single-season unbeaten streak at the time since 2016-17 (13).

Denver retained the Gold Pan for the 15th time after sweeping Colorado College to end the COVID-shortened 2020-21 regular season. In the single-elimination NCHC Tournament in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the Pioneers defeated Omaha 5-4 in the quarterfinals before falling 2-1 in overtime in the semifinals to the UND Fighting Hawks. Carle earned his 50th career victory with a 4-1 win over North Dakota on Jan. 17, 2021 (90th game, 50-28-12), accomplishing the feat in one fewer game than predecessor Montgomery (91st game, 50-33-8).

Prior to being named head coach, Carle served four and a half seasons as an assistant coach with the Pioneers under Jim Montgomery. He joined the program on Jan. 1, 2014 following a season and a half as an assistant coach with the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League (USHL) with then-head coach Derek Lalonde. While in Green Bay, Carle assisted the Gamblers to a 37-23-4 record, a second-place finish in the USHL’s Eastern Conference and a franchise-record 15-consecutive wins on home ice.

During his tenure as an assistant coach with the Pioneers, Carle helped Denver to a 115-51-23 record, a 66-32-14-8 mark in the NCHC, one NCHC regular-season title (2016-17), two NCHC Frozen Faceoff titles (2014, 2018), five NCAA Tournament appearances (2014-2018), two Frozen Four appearances (2016, 2017) and the 2017 national championship.

Carle served four seasons as a student assistant coach with the Pioneers from 2008-2012 after being diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the primary disease of the myocardium muscle of the heart, and was forced to retire from his playing career. Carle graduated from the University of Denver in 2012 with a business administration degree in finance.

As a player, Carle was a defenseman at Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep school in Faribault, Minnesota, where he helped the Sabres capture back-to-back national titles in 2007 and 2008 and was recruited to play at Denver. A 2008 NHL Draft-eligible prospect, Carle was drafted that year by the Tampa Bay Lightning (seventh round, 203rd overall) despite his diagnosis.

He resides in Denver with his family.