Carrier Retires after 36 Seasons with Spartans

Wishing the best to my friend, Dave Carrier, Associate Head Athletic Trainer at Michigan State University, who retired on Tuesday after 36 years as the head athletic trainer for the MSU men's ice hockey team.

Dave was a part of two NCAA championship teams (1986, 2007) with the Spartans, with whom he worked more than 1,500 games in all. Among his many accolades were induction into both the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame, and the Michigan Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame.

He has also served as president of the Michigan Athletic Trainers Society, and was the athletic trainer for the U.S. men's hockey team at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, among a multitude of career assignments. He was named the recipient of the Jim Fullerton Award, as announced by the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA), in 2016.

A U.S. Army veteran, Dave earned his bachelor's degree from Ferris State University and his master's degree from Central Michigan University. An avid golfer, he has also served as president of the Duck Lake Country Club in Albion, Mich., on several occasions.

Congrats on your retirement, Ace!

Lucia Named First Commissioner of New CCHA

Don Lucia will be the first commissioner of the revamped Central Collegiate Hockey Association, which is scheduled to begin play in 2021-22, according to multiple sources.

Lucia, 61, a Grand Rapids, Minn. native and a former defenseman at Notre Dame who was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 1978, served as an assistant coach at Alaska Fairbanks and then Alaska Anchorage from 1981 to 1987. He then took the reins at UAF for six seasons and paced the Nanooks to three 23-win campaigns as an independent.

Lucia then moved on to Colorado College for six more seasons, where he was named both the Spencer Penrose Trophy winner and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year in 1993-94, and also guided the Tigers to the 1996 NCAA championship contest after again winning WCHA Coach of the Year accolades. He took the top job at the University of Minnesota in 1999 and stayed for 19 seasons. He also led the Golden Gophers to six consecutive Big Ten regular season championships after the program left the WCHA.

As an NCAA head coach from 1987 to 2018, Lucia compiled an overall record of 736-403-102 (.634). He led Minnesota to back-to-back national titles in 2002 and 2003, the first NCAA Division I hockey school to do so since Boston University in 1971 and 1972, and altogether guided his teams to a total of 18 NCAA tournament berths, 11 conference regular-season titles, and four conference playoff championships. He also recorded 23 seasons of at least 20 wins apiece.

The "new" CCHA will consist of Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State and Northern Michigan, all current members of the WCHA along with UAF, UAA and Alabama-Huntsville. The original CCHA dissolved in 2013 after 42 years of play.

Adams Chosen as New GM of Buffalo Sabres

Kevyn Adams (Miami) was named the new general manager of the NHL's Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. A product of Clarence, N.Y., Adams has worked in various roles within the Sabres organization since 2009 after retiring as an active NHL player. He won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.

After two season of junior hockey with Niagara (NAHL), where he averaged a point per game in 95 outings, Adams, a center, skated four collegiate seasons with Miami (Ohio). He collected 69 goals and 102 assists for 171 points in 151 appearances with the then-Redskins, while also helping them to their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance as a freshman in 1993.

Drafted 25th overall by the Boston Bruins in 1993, Adams turned pro in 1996-97 with the expansion Grand Rapids Griffins, then of the International Hockey League, where he scored a career-high 22 goals. He split the next three seasons between the NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs and their American Hockey League affiliate in St. John's. He recorded a career-high 35 assists and 50 points with St. John's in 1998-99, and in 161 career AHL regular season games registered 38-67—150 points .

Adams played a total of 540 NHL regular-season games with Toronto, Columbus, Florida, Carolina, Phoenix and Chicago, from 1997 to 2008, and notched 59-77—136 points before retiring as a player following the 2007-08 campaign. He twice helped Carolina to the Stanley Cup final, in 2002 and 2006, and scored 16 goals in the regular season and postseason combined in 2005-06 as the Hurricanes claimed their first-ever Stanley Cup championship.

Adams, 45, joined the Sabres organization in 2009 as a development coach. After two seasons in that capacity, he served the next two years as an assistant coach with the NHL team before spending the following six seasons as Buffalo's director and youth hockey supervisor. He was then named Senior Vice President of Business Administration in 2019, and was working in that role when he was tabbed as general manager.

Adams also served the last seven years with the Buffalo Junior Sabres (OJHL) as that club's president. In addition, he coached their entry in the 2019-20 Quebec PeeWee Tournament.

Alumnus West New Interim Coach at UAH

Lance West is the new interim head hockey coach at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

West, who skated at forward for the Chargers from 1991 to 1995, was elevated to the head job following the resignation of head coach Mike Corbett, who had guided UAH since 2013-14, and assistant coach Gavin Morgan.

The UAH hockey program, which has more than 40 years of history from the club level to the NCAA, last month was terminated for the second time in a decade due to financial concerns, including those sparked by the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A major public fundraising campaign brought in more than a half-million dollars in under one week to help enable the Chargers to play at least the 2020-21 campaign, which will be their last in the current WCHA before seven of its teams leave the conference to form their own league.

UAH went 48-181-24 altogether in Corbett's seven seasons at the helm, including 2-26-6 overall in 2019-20. In their history, the Chargers have earned two NCAA Division II national titles (1996, 1998) and two NCAA Division I tournament berths (2007, 2010).

West, 49, served as an assistant coach at Alaska (Fairbanks) from 2007 to 2018 before overseeing the Nanooks as their interim head coach for 2017-18. The British Columbia native then returned as an assistant to Huntsville, the place where he recorded 45 goals and 68 assists for 113 points to go along with 100 penalty minutes in 108 career outings with the Chargers.

West ranks 15th-time in career points at UAH, and also tallied a pair of hat tricks in his time with the Chargers. Immediately after finishing his collegiate playing career, he spent 10 seasons as a volunteer/assistant coach with his alma mater before going to Fairbanks.

ADDENDUM: On July 22, UAH elevated West to permanent head coach of the Chargers.

Cashman Takes Helm at Dartmouth

Former Quinnipiac University defenseman Reid Cashman is the new head men's ice hockey coach at Dartmouth College. Cashman, 37, who played at Quinnipiac from 2003 to 2007, succeeds Bob Gaudet, who mentored Dartmouth, his alma mater, for the last 23 years.

A native of Red Wing, Minn., Cashman spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL's Washington Capitals, following a pair of campaigns with their AHL affiliate in Hershey, Pa. He was an assistant at Quinnipiac from 2011 to 2016, where he helped the Bobcats to the NCAA title game in his final season behind the bench there.

A junior hockey product of Waterloo (USHL), Cashman skated in 151 career collegiate games on the Bobcats blueline, notching 23 goals and 125 assists for 148 points to go with 246 penalty minutes. He recorded 32 or more assists in each of his final three campaigns, and was a two-time All-America and All-ECAC Hockey selection. He also helped Quinnipiac to three 20-win campaigns, plus the 2007 ECAC hockey championship game, and was named the 2004-05 Atlantic Hockey player of the year in Quinnipiac's final season in that conference.

After departing Quinnipiac as player, the undrafted Cashman played five seasons of professional hockey. He skated in the ECHL with Columbia, Wheeling and Cincinnati, and in the AHL with Toronto, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Milwaukee, before finishing his career in 2010-11 with Linz EHC (Austria) and then subsequently returning to his alma mater as an assistant.