When David Carle was 18 years old and finishing prep school at Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Fairbault, Minnesota, he was projected to be a second-round choice in that year’s National Hockey League Draft.
And he had a scholarship offer in hand from the University of Denver, where his older brother Matt—a 12-year NHL defenseman—had played on the sixth of now 10 NCAA national hockey championships as a sophomore and had received the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s best college hockey player as a junior.
A pro career that might match or even exceed Matt’s seemed a possibility.
But a medical exam before the 2008 draft identified, and a subsequent test at the Mayo Clinic confirmed, an enlarged heart muscle that was not immediately life-threatening but has been shown to be a leading cause of sudden death in athletes.
David retired immediately, but the end of his on-ice career marked the beginning of a different hockey career—behind the bench.
That started with DU honoring its scholarship offer even though he would never wear the Pioneers sweater in competition—as long as he remained with the team in some capacity. George Gwozdecky, then head coach, made sure he did.
David Carle graduated from DU in 2012 and immediately followed DU assistant Derek Lalonde to the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League as Lalonde’s assistant in the future Detroit Red Wings’ head coach’s first head coaching opportunity.
Two years later Carle came back to Denver as an assistant to new head coach Jim Montgomery. Carle served in that role for four years, helping Montgomery win the 2017 national championship.
It is nearly every collegiate hockey coach’s dream to become an NHL head coach, and Montgomery’s dream came true when he was hired by the Dallas Stars. That opened a door for David Carle, who was only 27 years old. Many wondered if he was too young.
Now in his eighth year as DU’s head coach, Carle’s record through the 2026 NCAA Regional in Loveland is 206-85-20.
He’s the third-most successful hockey coach in DU history, behind Murray Armstrong (460 wins) and Gwozdecky (443).
Ahead of him with five national titles, Armstrong was DU’s coach from the 1956-57 season through 1976-77, when he retired to Florida at age 61. (An avid golfer, he lived to 91.)
Along with those five national championships and 460 victories, Armstrong’s teams had only three losing seasons in his 20 years as head coach. (Carle has had one.)
The Pioneers play top-seeded Michigan tonight in the semifinals of the Frozen Four in Las Vegas. Two more victories and DU will be national champs for a record 11th time—and the third time in the last four years under Carle. Another national title would put Carle second alone behind Armstrong.
But it won’t be easy. Michigan is second, with nine national championships. And the other two teams in Vegas are third and fourth all-time, North Dakota (8) and Wisconsin (6).
Carle could have been a head coach in the NHL by now. He withdrew his name from consideration for the St. Louis Blues head job in 2024, and with the Chicago Blackhawks last year.
If head coach of an NHL team is hockey’s behind-the-bench pinnacle, why then would anyone pass it up?
In David Carle’s case, it’s no mystery.
“Denver is home,” he said after spurning the pros and signing a contract extension with DU that will keep him the Pios’ head man for the foreseeable future. (DU did not publicly disclose the term.)
Or, to put it another way, loyalty is a two-way street. He’ll never forget that DU stood with him when he could no longer play.
“We feel very blessed and grateful to stay here,” he said in 2025. “I think going through (the NHL process) probably solidified that even more for us. I think it reiterated that there’s zero reason to leave Denver in the near term—if ever.”
He and wife Mellissa are the parents of three young children—who could attend DU free of charge if their dad remains there that long. As unlikely as that is, it doesn’t necessarily mean Denver won’t still be home.
There’s an NHL team in Denver, too, and the current head coach, as successful as Jared Bednar has been, won’t be behind the Avalanche bench forever.
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Denny Dressman writes a weekly sports column for The Villager. You can write to Denny at dennydressman@comcast.net.