Imagine you are an 18-year-old and you have worked your entire life and gotten to the cusp of achieving your dream of playing hockey on the Division 1 collegiate level and then the NHL, and suddenly you are told that your dream is now kaput due to a health issue. That was the reality faced by David Carle, a star defenseman from Anchorage, Alaska following a physical he received at the NHL combine for top prospects just prior to the 2008 draft. Instead of hearing his name picked in the early rounds by a team that would be eager to add him to their roster after a few years of playing college hockey, he now faced an uncertain future due to a drastic diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the myocardium heart muscle. However, George Gwozdecky, the head coach at the University of Denver, where David had decided to follow in the footsteps of his older brother Matt, a winner of the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey, honored the scholarship offer he had made, and added David to the staff as a student coach. Few freshmen athletes arrive at college thinking they would be stepping into a coaching career, but he embraced this new opportunity to stay in the game he loved. Following his college graduation and a couple of seasons with Green Bay in the USHL, David returned to DU as an assistant coach and helped the Pioneers win the national title in 2017. When head coach Jim Montgomery left for an NHL job in 2018, David at age 28 was elevated to head coach, the youngest in NCAA Division 1 hockey. He guided the Pioneers to the NCAA Frozen Four in his first season, and they took the national championship in 2022, with a tense overtime win in Boston over Michigan in the semifinals, and then a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Minnesota State. Earlier this year, he coached Team USA at the prestigious World Junior Hockey Championships, with the team capturing the gold medal over host Sweden. This season, the Pioneers had a record of 32-9-3, the first time in program history with three consecutive 30-win seasons, and won the NCHC league playoff title. It all culminated in St. Paul, Minn. with DU winning the national championship for the 10th time, the first NCAA program to hit double-digits in titles. The Pioneers beat Boston University, 2-1 in overtime, and then shutout the leading offense in the country, top-ranked Boston College, 2-0 in the final, games that have made sensational goalie Matt Davis a DU folk hero for years to come. David was later named USCHO Coach of the Year. His career coaching record stands at 148-62-16, a winning percentage of .690. All this and he’s still in his early 30s and with a heart they said shouldn’t let him play hockey but is withstanding a lot of high-tension moments. As many listeners know, I am a huge DU fan, have been a season ticketholder since the 1980s, and have attended all of those Frozen Fours mentioned, including those three championship games. So I was very honored to chat with Coach Carle and am excited to bring this to you. I do want to deeply thank Ron Knabenhauer of the DU athletic staff for helping me to arrange it.

David Carle
Instagram @du_hockey

Bill Stahl
silly_billy@msn.com
Facebook Bill Stahl
Instagram @stahlor and @coachstahl
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