More Moves in NCAA Hockey Coaching Ranks

There have been some recent happenings in the NCAA Division I men's hockey head coaching ranks, including one renewal, one hiring, and one retirement.

Alaska's Erik Largen was signed to a five-year extension after leading the Nanooks to 22 wins and within a hair of a 2023 NCAA tournament at-large berth. A former goaltender for his alma mater, Largen, 36, is 64-64-12 in four seasons at the Alaska (Fairbanks) helm.

Ohio State assistant coach Luke Strand has been named the new head coach at Minnesota State. He replaces Mike Hastings, who left MSU last month for Wisconsin. A former player for Wisconsin Eau Claire who was born in the Phillipines, Strand, 50, previously served as a head coach with his alma mater, and in junior hockey with Green Bay (USHL).

Lastly, longtime Colgate head coach Don Vaughan has called it a career after guiding the Raiders for the past 30 seasons. The St. Lawrence graduate also led Colgate to this year's Whitelaw Cup as ECAC hockey tournament champions. Vaughan, 62, from Almonte, Ont., went 472-504-123 in his tenure in Hamilton, N.Y., which began in 1992-93 and included four NCAA tournament appearances.

Largen Takes Over Hometown Nanooks

My latest USCHO feature story, on new Alaska (Fairbanks) head coach and Nanook alumnus Erik Largen, is now online here. Fairbanks native Largen, a former UAF goaltender and assistant coach, is the ninth head coach in modern Nanook Hockey history.

Largen Chosen as New Alaska (Fairbanks) Head Coach

The University of Alaska (Fairbanks) finally settled on a new head coach—and it's now-former assistant coach Erik Largen.

A Fairbanks native, Largen, 31, becomes the youngest head men’s ice hockey coach in NCAA Division I ranks, following Matt Curley, 35, who was tabbed as the new head coach at in-state rival Alaska Anchorage earlier this month.

Largen, who was an assistant coach at UAF over the past two seasons, is also a former backup goaltender for the Nanooks (2006-2008). According to eliteprospects.com, he entered the coaching ranks in 2009 and spent two seasons as the goaltending coach for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs (NAHL). He then moved on to the Twin Cities (Minn.) Northern Lights (MNJHL) for two years as head coach, before splitting the 2013-14 campaign between Janesville (NAHL) and Tri-City (USHL) as an assistant coach.

Largen then served one season as head coach at NCAA Division III Marian (Wisc.) University, before he returned to his alma mater as an assistant in 2016. His hiring completes a process that was heavily botched by UAF administrators, one that came to a head earlier this month when first choice Brent Brekke, a former associate head coach at Miami, was chosen as the new Nanook head coach but could not come to an agreement with the university on a contract.

Lance West, the other finalist for the position, withdrew from consideration after Brekke was originally selected. West served as an interim head coach of the Nanooks last season after longtime head coach and UAF alumnus Dallas Ferguson took the head coaching job with Calgary (WHL) last summer. West, a former player for Alabama-Huntsville, had served as an assistant coach with UAF for nine years prior to his one year as head coach. Since he was labeled as an interim coach, the position had to be re-opened for applications this year.

Largen becomes the ninth head coach in the modern history of Nanook Hockey, which got its start as an independent NCAA Division II varsity program in 1979. The Nanooks, now a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, moved up to the Division I ranks in the 1980s and made their only NCAA Division I Tournament appearance in 2010 as a member of the now-defunct Central Collegiate Hockey Association.