| David Carle | |
| Current Title: | Head coach |
| Current Team: | Denver |
| Current Conference: | NCHC |
| Birth Date: | 9 November 1989 |
| Birth Place: | Anchorage, Alaska, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | University of Denver |
| Player Positions: | Defenseman |
| Coach Years1: | 2008–2012 |
| Coach Team1: | Denver (assistant) |
| Coach Years2: | 2012–2014 |
| Coach Team2: | Green Bay Gamblers (assistant) |
| Coach Years3: | 2014–2018 |
| Coach Team3: | Denver (assistant) |
| Coach Years4: | 2018–present |
| Coach Team4: | Denver |
| Overall Record: | 148–62–16 |
| Tournament Record: | 10–2 |
| Championships: | 2021–22 NCHC Champion 2022 NCAA National Champion 2022–23 NCHC Champion 2024 NCHC Tournament Champion 2024 NCAA National Champion |
David Carle (born November 9, 1989) is an American ice hockey coach who is the head coach for the men's ice hockey team at the University of Denver.[1]
Hailing from Anchorage, Alaska, Carle attended prep school at Shattuck-Saint Mary's in Faribault, Minnesota. After his career at Shattuck, Carle was projected to be a second-round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. While preparing for the draft an abnormality was detected during the NHL combine and after undergoing tests at the Mayo Clinic Carle was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, an enlargement of a heart muscle.[2] While the genetic abnormality is not immediately life-threatening, it has been shown to be a leading cause of sudden death in athletes.[3] The diagnosis caused Carle to retire from ice hockey as a player, but despite the end of his career he was still drafted 203rd overall in the seventh and final round by the Tampa Bay Lightning.[4] Then-owner Oren Koules's son attended Shattuck-Saint Mary's at the same time as Carle; Koules directed general manager Jay Feaster to select Carle in recognition of Carle's hard work.
The University of Denver honored the scholarship it had offered to Carle and he began attending the school in the fall of 2008. Wanting to keep him as part of the team, head coach George Gwozdecky offered Carle a place as an assistant coach with the program as long as he was a student at Denver.[5] What started out as a tentative effort to see if Carle was still interested in the game eventually turned into a full-time coaching position. After graduating from Denver in 2012, Carle joined the Green Bay Gamblers of the United States Hockey League (USHL) as an assistant coach, but returned to Denver less than two years later as an assistant under then-new head coach Jim Montgomery.[6] Carle stayed with the Pioneers for four years, helping the team win the 2017 national championship, before he replaced Montgomery as head coach in 2018.
In the 2018–19 season, Carle led Denver to the 2019 Frozen Four in his first season as head coach.
In 2021–22 season, he led the team into the 2022 Frozen Four as a first seed (fourth overall), where they defeated Minnesota State 5–1.
In 2022–23 season, Carle led Denver to a 30-win season, and the Penrose Cup as National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) regular season champions. He was also selected to coach the U.S. national junior team at the 2024 World Junior Championship in Sweden. He led the U.S. to its sixth World Junior Championship gold medal, where they defeated Sweden 6–2.
In 2023–24 season, he led Denver to its record-breaking 10th national championship in the 2024 Frozen Four as a first seed (third overall), where they defeated Boston College 2–0.
Carle has two brothers who also played ice hockey.[4] Older brother Matt played for Denver, winning two national titles and a Hobey Baker Award, before embarking on an 11-year career in the National Hockey League (NHL). His younger brother Alex played for Merrimack College.[7]