David Carle stood in the lobby of the Stifel Theatre in St. Louis at this time last year and took stock.
He also took aim.
The University of Denver head coach — who has won two national titles in the past four years — had heard whispers about his program’s impending decline. The Pioneers are the NCAA’s standard-bearers, with a record 10 national titles, and have gone to six Frozen Fours in the past 10 years, but with Hobey Baker finalist Zeev Buium and other top players leaving, the chatter was out there.
“What drives me now is people saying, ‘It was a good run,’” Carle said at the time. “F— that. That window is still wide open. And we’ll be back.”
Twelve months later, the Pioneers are indeed back in the Frozen Four, set to face Michigan in Thursday’s semifinal in Vegas. And Carle remembers that prediction.
“I haven’t forgotten that,” he said with a laugh.
Carle didn’t let his team forget it, either. There was an article in College Hockey News shortly after Denver’s loss to eventual champion Western Michigan in last year’s Frozen Four that he turned into bulletin board material.
“Losing Always Stings: Denver thrown off its game by Western Michigan, ending an enormously successful four-year run,” the headline read.
Carle said this was a unifying force for players. He printed it out and put it on the wall in their dressing room.
“I just think everyone wanted to talk about we were losing (goalie Matt) Davis, losing Buium,” Carle said. “We’ve replaced (Carter) Savoie and (Mike) Benning, (Will) Butcher, (Troy) Terry and (Logan) O’Connor. We’ve been doing it for a while. We have a lot of confidence that (assistant coach Tavis) MacMillan can recruit and build a roster that’ll compete and live up to our standard.
“We’re not just satisfied to make it to a Frozen Four and then go away with our tail between our legs. It’s comical that people would say things like that or doubt us or our program. We’re thrilled to be back. But ultimately, we’re not going back to participate. It’s a hungry group that has our eye on the prize.”
Why was Carle so bullish? The program’s standard, for one. Their leadership group, which includes Kent Anderson, Minnesota Wild second-rounder Rieger Lorenz, New Jersey Devils third-rounder Samu Salminen and Boston Buckberger. There’s defenseman Eric Pohlkamp, a Hobey Baker Award finalist who could jump right onto the San Jose Sharks roster after Denver’s season.
Then there was the Pioneers’ 10-member freshman class, which Carle noted wasn’t publicly hyped in publications but has played a big role. Denver tapped into the CHL pipeline, from Los Angeles Kings third-rounder Kristian Epperson (Saginaw) to Seattle Kraken fifth-rounder Clarke Caswell (Swift Current) to Calgary Flames sixth-rounder Eric Jamieson (Everett), not to mention starting goalie Johnny Hicks (Victoria). Fellow freshman goalie Quentin Miller, a Montreal Canadiens fourth-rounder, is from the BCHL.
Turnover is part of college sports. But it does provide challenges for even elite programs.
Is it harder to reach the mountaintop the first time and win a title, or to get back, like Denver is trying to do?
“I think getting back is always harder,” Carle said. “You get everyone’s best game. Throughout the year, you’re a measuring stick to everyone. You always fight a level in your room at times of, ‘Hey, it’s going to be OK. We can turn it on at the end. Everything is going to be fine.’ Complacency is easier to keep in on a back-to-back run than on the first run.
“You lose players. That’s what makes it harder about college. In the pros, your best players are signed to long-term tickets. There’s less turnover. You’re not losing your best players after every run. So to reload is challenging.”
Every championship team Carle has been a part of in Denver has faced adversity during a season. The 2022 team lost four in a row. The 2024 team dropped three of four in February and got embarrassed at home by Western Michigan. This season was a whole different animal.
The Pioneers were in a six-game winless streak (five losses and a tie) before Miller — their original starting freshman goalie — stole a game against North Dakota, 4-2. The next weekend, Denver “laid an egg,” as Carle put it, with a loss to St. Cloud on Friday.
On Saturday, Miller got hurt early on a non-contact play. In came Hicks, who had never started a college game.
“In that moment, you’re not really sure what’s going to happen,” Carle said.
Hicks, a 5-foot-10 kid from British Columbia, shut St. Cloud out 6-0. He’s gone on a 14-0-1 run since, leading the nation in goals-against average (1.125) with a .958 save percentage.
“Was I surprised? No. You believe in him,” Carle said. “But did we think he’d go on this kind of run? I’d be lying to you if I said that. He’s done a wonderful job. He’s very humble and very centered and has given us that spark, the ignition, whatever you want to call it, to get back.”
Hicks wouldn’t have had a chance to make this kind of impact if not for changes to rules about CHL eligibility. Carle is understandably a fan, saying they “opened up the markets for all of our teams and programs to a deeper and deeper player pool.”
There’s been a lot of change in college hockey, even in Carle’s eight years as Denver’s head coach. But Carle would like to see more.
For one, he’d love to see the format for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament changed to make it more exciting and accessible to fans. His pitch is for the top eight seeds to host the bottom eight seeds in Round 1, and then to not re-seed the bracket. That’d mean teams would play into the next weekend (there’s a built-in week off between the regionals and Frozen Four as it is).
He’s also in favor of adding four games to the regular season, pushing the schedule up a week earlier.
And he is a strong believer in changing the recruiting calendar.
“In my opinion, it’s crazy we’re talking to Grade 10s on Jan. 1,” Carle said. “Maybe talking to kids when they’re in Grade 11 and try to slow down the whole recruiting calendar. We should be watching junior hockey, not youth hockey.”
He sounds like a coach still very much invested in the college game, and that’s because he is. He’s been on Denver’s staff since 2008, when George Gwozdecky brought Carle on as an assistant after a heart condition discovered around the NHL Draft ended any chance of a playing career. Carle feels significant loyalty to the school, which signed him to a multi-year extension last summer.
Carle had conversations with NHL teams, including the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks, following last season. He also had a short conversation with the St. Louis Blues a few years ago. So far, nothing has aligned with what Carle is looking for.
Carle has made his feelings about the NHL pretty clear, saying last summer that his latest discussions with NHL teams left him feeling “there’s zero reason to leave Denver in the near term — if ever.”
So while Carle’s name might pop up again as NHL coaching vacancies arise, he maintains that everything is “status quo” and that nothing has changed in his feelings.
“I’m not more close-minded, not more open-minded to it,” Carle said. “There’s no rush to leave here.”