Former Denver student and assistant coach David Carle has been hired as the Pioneers’ new assistant coach, replacing associate head coach Steve Miller.
Carle will officially join the DU staff on Jan. 1, 2014, as Miller is leaving to accept a position with the expansion Madison (Wis.) franchise in the United States Hockey League.
“We are so excited to announce David Carle as a new assistant coach on our staff,” Denver head coach Jim Montgomery said in a statement. “David is an innovative and elite teacher and communicator that understands the DU culture of excellence and integrity in the classroom and on the ice. He is a proud alum and bright hockey mind who will work tirelessly to ensure Pioneer hockey continues as one of the elite college hockey programs in the country.”
Carle, 24, joins the Denver staff following a season as an assistant coach with the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers.
“I am very honored and excited to join my alma mater,” Carle added. “I am grateful and hungry for the opportunity to add to the rich and proud tradition that is Denver hockey.”
While with the Gamblers, Carle was on the staff of former DU assistant/goaltending coach Derek Lalonde (2006-11).
As a player, Carle was originally recruited to Denver as a player, but was forced to retire from hockey in July of 2008 after being diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Even with the diagnosis, Carle was a seventh-round selection (203rd overall) of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2008 NHL draft and graduated from DU in 2012 with a degree in finance while being on the DU staff as an assistant coach.
Carle’s older brother, Matt, was Denver’s first Hobey Baker Award winner in 2006 and is currently with the Lightning. His younger brother, Alex, plays for the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms.
