3-Time NCAA Champion Coach David Carle Enters Rumor Mill Again

Monday, April 13, 2026 ,

David Carle has done it again. He's led the Denver Pioneers to their third NCAA men's hockey title in the last five years. His coaching resume is as good as it gets for a bench boss without any NHL experience. He turned down a $25 million opportunity a year ago to take the reins of the Chicago Blackhawks, prefering to stay in Denver. 

Will he get some more NHL teams sniffing around yet again after his third national championship in this dominant run? Insider Elliotte Friedman figures he will.

He can afford to call his shot. And I have no doubt that the rumors will already start again... He has a young family, and he will do it, as he's said, when he's ready. 

If $25 million didn't make him 'ready' last year, we wonder what it will take to get him there this time around. 

Carle became head coach for the Pioneers in the 2018–19 season, and immediately led them to the 2019 Frozen Four in his first season behind the bench. They returned to the nation's biggest postseason tournament in 2022 and proceeded to win the first of three national titles in what has been an utterly dominant run.

In his eight years as head coach at Denver, Carle, 36, has a 208-85-20 record for a .696 points percentage. 

He has said he would only leave Denver for the "perfect situation." While the Blackhawks have some great young talent on the rise, they were still a long way away from climbing out of their rebuild at this point last season when Carle turned them down. 

There will be several head coach openings in the NHL as the season concludes this week, and there will be even more as teams drop out of the playoffs. It remains to be seen if any of them can sell the already legendary Pioneers coach that they have a "perfect" situation for him to leave the ideal gig he's had for the past eight years. 

Carle signed a multi-year contract extension with Denver last May, but that hasn't stopped the rumors. There's already a pitch from Vancouver's Sportsnet 650 for the Canucks to do whatever they have to do to bring Carle to B.C.

Let's just put it out there: If the Blackhawks, with Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar and the No. 1-ranked prospect pool in the NHL, weren't cutting it for Carle to leave the confines of Denver, it's unlikely that the Canucks and Elias Pettersson will be able to sway him.

 

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