Greg Carvel has seen it all from behind the bench.
After his playing days in prep at Hotchkiss, in college at St. Lawrence and briefly in Sweden professionally, the Canton, N.Y., native dove into coaching.
Following assistant coaching stops at Canterbury School and Amherst College, as well as a stint as the Lowell Lock Monsters' director of hockey operations, Carvel embarked on a five-year run with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, serving as scouting coordinator for four years before becoming an assistant coach.
In 2005, Carvel joined the Ottawa Senators as an assistant, helping the Sens reach the Stanley Cup Final in 2007, before becoming an assistant at his alma mater in 2011.
After becoming the head coach at St. Lawrence in 2012, Carvel led the Saints to a 72-63-15 record over four seasons, including two ECAC semifinal appearances. He won the Tim Taylor Award as the ECAC Coach of the Year for 2014-15.
Following his time at SLU, UMass named Carvel head coach in 2016. The Minutemen enjoyed a meteoric rise under Carvel. After going 5-29-2 in his first season and 17-20-2 the following year, the Minutemen went 31-10-0 en route to a national championship appearance in 2018-19. Two seasons later, UMass won the national championship in 2021, beating St. Cloud State. The Minutemen repeated as Hockey East champs the following season. Through his first nine seasons at UMass, the Minutemen are 170-133-25 with a national title, five national tournament appearances and two conference titles.
Carvel joined the latest RinkWise podcast with New England Hockey Journal editor Evan Marinofsky and writer Patrick Donnelly for a wide-ranging discussion on college hockey. They dove into the changing world of college hockey recruiting, the impact of the CHL ruling and what Carvel looks for in assembling a winning team and coaching staff. He also touched on his coaching philosophy, coaching in the NHL versus in college and how he has transformed UMass into a destination for top players.
RinkWise podcast: UMass coach Greg Carvel on shifting college recruiting
Could recruiting get younger as rules continue to change?
Carvel:Â "We do give out offers on Aug. 1, for sure, but I would say most of our kids who arrive here weren't Aug. 1 offered or accepted. It used to be a long time from then, almost two or three years until that kid gets on your campus. Lots of things change. If the whole thing resets by a year, and 18 or 19 year olds are your freshmen, then it's going to go younger. Everybody just wants to win the race to the top-end kids. We're kind of hybrids. We go after some of those kids, but I'd say a lot of our recruits are a little bit of later bloomers. We kind of take those second-level players. I don't know if we've ever had a U.S. program kid here."
Recruiting the right players
Carvel:Â "My first five years, there wasn't anybody (from Massachusetts) who was going to choose to come to UMass over a Beanpot school. But now, it's a consideration. That's why we have a lot of European kids because they don't have any bias. They just want to go to a school where they think it's going to help them the most to get to the NHL. We live off our reputation, and we live off how advisors and agents and NHL teams see our program. It's pretty consistent that they know, if they're an advisor, 'If my kid goes to UMass, I know what's going to happen to them. I know what he's going to be when he comes out. I know he's going to be really well-prepared for the next level of hockey.' I don't have this chip on my shoulder that we need to have Massachusetts kids. I just want good kids. I want kids who want to come in here and learn how to earn, be really good teammates and be outstanding people. I don't give a (expletive) what state they grew up in."
