Ryan Massa - #4 Ice Hockey Coach - University of Denver Athletics

Photo by: Harrison Barden/Clarkson Creative Photography

Ryan Massa

Title:
Assistant Coach

Ryan Massa is entering his fourth season as an assistant coach on the Pioneers hockey team after spending the prior two years on staff as a volunteer assistant coach. He was promoted to his current role on Sept. 5, 2023, and the 2026-27 campaign marks his sixth with Denver hockey.

Massa, 36, first joined the DU coaching staff on Aug. 1, 2021 after training goaltenders at various levels in the state of Colorado the previous four years. Among his responsibilities ad Denver is working with the goaltenders and penalty kill, assisting in on-ice skill development, providing scouting reports and assisting in managing the bench during games.

In his time at Denver, Massa has been a part of the Pioneers’ 2022, 2024 and 2026 NCAA Championship victories, as well as two NCHC Frozen Faceoff Championships (2024, 2026) and two Penrose Cup as NCHC regular-season champions (2021-22, 2022-23). DU also won at least 30 games in each of the first four seasons that Massa was on staff (2021-2025)

The Littleton, Colorado, native helped guide goaltender Magnus Chrona to 50 wins and 10 shutouts across the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns, which included being named the NCHC Goaltender of the Year award in 2023. In 2023-24, he helped Matt Davis post a 20-4-2 record in the final 26 games of the season and post a 0.63 goals-against average and .979 save percentage in four NCAA Tournament contest, including a shutout in the NCAA Championship Game.

Davis finished his collegiate career ranked fifth in both wins (63-tied) and goals-against average (2.13) and ninth in save percentage in (.921) in 90 games and 83 starts in his four years at the program (2021-2025).

In 2025-26, Massa guided Johnny Hicks on a historic run as the freshmen went unbeaten in his first 17 career decisions (16-0-1) and won his final 13 games in Denver’s NCAA title run. Hicks set the NCAA record with a .957 save percentage during the season while his 1.19 goals-against average was the second-best mark all-time in the national record book.

A graduate of the University of Nebraska Omaha with a degree in finance and investment banking, Massa was a goaltender on the Mavericks men’s hockey team all four years and helped the program reach its first NCAA Frozen Four in 2015. He also played two seasons professionally with the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL from 2015-2017 before co-founding Elite Edge Athlete in the Denver area in 2018.

He currently resides in Littleton with his wife Natalie and children.