University of Massachusets Athletics
Hockey
- Title:
- Head Coach
- Email:
- carvel@umass.edu
- Phone:
- 545-5175
2019 Spencer Penrose Award winner Greg Carvel enters his 10th season as head coach of the Minutemen in 2025-26. He guided UMass to back-to-back Hockey East Tournament Championships in 2021 and 2022 and its first NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey National Championship in 2020-21. The National Hockey League (NHL) coaching veteran was named the 14th ice hockey head coach at the University of Massachusetts on March 29, 2016.
In 2024-25, Carvel led UMass to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in his nine-year tenure and sixth time in the program’s history. The Minuteman advanced to the Regional Final after defeating top-seeded Minnesota, 5-4 in overtime in Fargo, North Dakota. UMass reached the 20-win mark for the sixth time under Carvel, ending the year with a record of 21-13-5. Two players were named Hockey East All-Stars and Cole O’Hara was selected to the CCM/AHA First Team East All-America squad, the ninth All-America award for UMass in the past seven seasons.
Carvel also achieved several coaching milestones in 2024-25. He earned his 150th win at UMass on October 5, 2025 with a 5-4 season-opening victory at Bentley and picked up his 250th career win on February 7, 2025 with a 5-4 triumph at No. 11/10 UConn. Then on March 1, 2025, the Minutemen defeated No. 16/15 UMass Lowell to make Carvel the all-time winningest coach in program history, passing Don “Toot” Cahoon with win No. 167 at UMass.
In 2023-24, UMass earned an NCAA Tournament berth for the fourth time under Carvel and fifth time overall. Three individuals took home Hockey East All-Star recognition and Ryan Ufko was named a First Team East All-American.
In 2021-22, Carvel’s sixth season at the helm, the Minutemen won their second straight Hockey East Tournament title, defeating UConn, 2-1 in overtime at the TD Garden on March 19, 2022, punching their ticket to a third consecutive NCAA Tournament. Senior forward Bobby Trivigno became the second Hockey East Player of the Year in program history and second of Carvel’s tenure, was a Top-10 Finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, the College Hockey News Player of the Year, repeated as the winner of the Walter Brown Award and was one of two First-Team All-Americans from UMass, joined by Scott Morrow, the first freshman in program history to earn All-America status. Trivigno was also the Hockey East 2021-22 Scoring Champion and headlined a group of five Minutemen to garner Hockey East All-Star recognition. Carvel has coached 24 Hockey East All-Stars in the past six seasons, more than any other program in the league over that span.
On April 10, 2021, the Minutemen defeated St. Cloud State, 5-0 in the National Championship game, reaching the pinnacle of college hockey in the fifth season of Carvel’s tenure. En route to the title, UMass outscored its opponents 27-6 in the 2020-21 postseason, and 17-3 in the NCAA Tournament.
Additionally in 2020-21, Carvel led UMass to the No. 3 seed in the Hockey East Tournament and the squad won three games on home ice to secure the Minutemen's first Hockey East Tournament Championship. Five Minutemen collected Hockey East All-Star honors, the second highest total in program history, while Trivigno was named the program's first-ever winner of the Walter Brown Award as the best American-born player in New England and Josh Lopina was tabbed Hockey East Co-Rookie of the Year, the first-ever from UMass.
Trivigno earned a First Team All-America nod, as well, and defenseman Zac Jones was tabbed a Second Team All-American. UMass ended the 2020-21 campaign on a 14-game unbeaten streak, the longest unbeaten streak in program history, going 11-0-3 since January 22 and the Minutemen finished with a 20-5-4 record, the fewest losses for an NCAA Champion since Maine's 40-1-2 season in 1992-93. Carvel was tabbed the USCHO and College Hockey News Coach of the Year in 2021. In addition, he was also the 2021 Spencer Penrose runner-up.
Over the past nine years, Massachusetts hockey has made a meteoric rise under Carvel's guidance, including six of the top-10 winningest seasons in UMass' 95-season history, the program's first NCAA title, first NCAA Runner-Up finish, first Hockey East regular season and tournament titles and first Hobey Baker winner. On his watch, the Minutemen posted four straight 20-win seasons from 2018-19 to 2021-22. He has coached five Hobey Baker finalists, two Hobey Hat Trick Finalists and one Hobey Baker winner in his 13-year head coaching career.
UMass matched its then second-highest wins total in program history in 2019-20 with 21 victories and was poised to make its second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance before the season was cut short. The Minutemen finished eighth in the PairWise rankings and spent 22 straight weeks in the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls, while securing the No. 2 seed in the Hockey East Tournament.
John Leonard led the nation in goals and in goals per-game in 2019-20 and became the third Hobey Baker Top 10 Finalist in program history, the second of Carvel’s tenure. Leonard collected a host of accolades as he was named a CCM/AHCA First Team East All-American, Herb Gallagher Award co-winner (New England’s best forward), a Hockey East First-Team All-Star and the program’s first winner of Hockey East’s PNC Bank Three Stars Award. Two more Minutemen received postseason recognitions as Jake McLaughlin was tabbed a Hockey East Third-Team All-Star and Jones earned a spot on the Hockey East All-Rookie Team.
UMass enjoyed unprecedented success in 2018-19 with the team breaking program records for wins overall (31) and in conference play while finishing as the 2019 National Runner-Up after reaching the National Championship game. The Minutemen went 18-6-0 in Hockey East play and captured the school's first Hockey East Regular Season Championship.
Carvel's Minutemen also eclipsed previous school records for home and road victories and posted the longest win streak in program history in 2018-19. Taking a team that won just five games two seasons prior, Carvel led UMass to its first-ever No. 1 rankings in both the USCHO.com and USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Polls.
UMass finished in the top-10 nationally in virtually every statistical category in 2018-19, including first in combined special teams (57.9) and power play percentage (28.5), third in scoring margin (1.66), third in scoring offense (3.68), fifth in penalty kill (86.9) and seventh in scoring defense (2.02). The Minutemen posted their highest goals total in the program's Hockey East era (151) and set a program record for power play goals (43).
On Carvel's watch, Minutemen garnered a host of individual accolades in 2018-19, highlighted by Cale Makar being chosen as the 2019 Hobey Baker Award winner. Makar and Mitchell Chaffee were both tabbed first team All-Americans, while Makar was named UMass’ first-ever Hockey East Player of the Year and Chaffee earned the title of Hockey East Scoring Champion. Chaffee received the Herb Gallagher Award, Chaffee, Makar and senior forward Jacob Pritchard were all tabbed New England All-Stars, while Makar picked up both the Bob Monahan Award as New England's best defenseman and the Leonard Fowle Award as New England player of the year. College Hockey News selected Makar as its CHN Player of the Year and to its All-CHN First Team, while naming Marc Del Gaizo to its CHN All-Rookie Team. Additionally, the Minutemen collected a school-record six Hockey East All-Star accolades and Carvel was recognized as both the 2019 Clark Hodder Award winner (New England Coach of the Year) and the Hockey East Bob Kullen Coach of the Year.
In Carvel's second year at the helm in 2017-18, the Minutemen posted a 12-win improvement from 2016-17, marking the biggest one-year turnaround in program history and in Division I hockey that season. Among the milestone's set by Carvel's Minutemen in 2017-18, the program hosted and won its first postseason series since 2007. Makar earned a Hockey East Third Team All-Star nod and became the first-ever New England Hockey Writers Association George C. Carens Award (Rookie of the Year) recipient. Makar and freshman defenseman Mario Ferraro were both named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team, as well.
Twenty Minutemen have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft during Carvel’s tenure: Cale Makar (4th overall, Colorado) and Ferraro (49th overall, San Jose) in 2017, Leonard (182nd overall, San Jose) in 2018, Jones (68th overall, New York Rangers), Del Gaizo (109th overall, Nashville) and Lindberg (197th overall, Minnesota) in 2019, Matthew Kessel (150th overall, St. Louis) and Lucas Mercuri (159th overall, Carolina) in 2020, Morrow (40th overall, Carolina), Lopina (98th overall, Anaheim), Ryan Ufko (115th overall, Nashville) and Taylor Makar (220th overall, Colorado) in 2021, Kenny Connors (103rd overall, Los Angeles), Cole O’Hara (114th overall, Nashville), Cam O’Neill (143rd overall, Ottawa) and Tyson Dyck (206th overall, Ottawa) in 2022 and Michael Hrabal (38th overall, Arizona), Aydar Suniev (80th overall, Calgary) and Nick Van Tassell (215th overall, Ottawa), and in 2025 Vaclav Nestrasil (25th overall, Chicago) and Francesco Dell’Elce (77th overall, Colorado). This lengthy list includes the highest drafted player in program history (Makar), highest drafted forward (Nestrasil) and six players who were selected after playing a season under Carvel, including Dell’Elce, who was picked in the third round as a 20-year-old after been passed over in two previous drafts.
Prior to his time at UMass, Carvel spent five years at St. Lawrence University from 2011-16, also his alma mater, where he posted a head coaching record of 86-82-18 over five seasons and was named the 2014-15 Tim Taylor Award winner as Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Coach of the Year. Before his return to Canton, N.Y., also his hometown, he spent 15 seasons in the professional ranks. He made two trips to the NHL Stanley Cup Finals while a member of the staff in Anaheim and Ottawa.
During his tenure at St. Lawrence, Carvel coached five All-Americans, two ECAC Rookies of the Year, an ECAC Player of the Year, three Hobey Baker finalists and one Hobey Hat Trick finalist. While head coach of the Saints, he was selected as an assistant coach for the 2015 U.S. Men's National Team and spent the better part of May 2015 in the Czech Republic, joining Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Todd Richards and Buffalo Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma in leading the U.S. squad to a bronze medal finish.
Carvel took over an 11th-place team in 2011-12 and guided the Saints to eighth, fifth, second and fourth place finishes, respectively. In 2015-16, his club finished with a record of 19-14-4 and a final NCAA Pairwise ranking of 19th. The three ECAC teams that finished ahead of SLU advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
He began his professional coaching career as director of hockey operations for the Lowell Lock Monsters of the American Hockey League. He joined the Anaheim Ducks as scouting coordinator in May of 1999, adding video coordinator to his duties in 2002 and earning a promotion to assistant coach in 2003. He joined the Ottawa Senators as an assistant coach in 2004 and was on the staff until the summer of 2011. Both the Ducks and the Senators made it to the Stanley Cup Finals during his time as an assistant coach.
A former Saint captain and the first CoSIDA Academic All-American in SLU program history, Carvel was the first ECAC Coach to have won a major league award as a player and its Coach of the Year Award. He was the 1993 Outstanding Defensive Forward award winner and had 38 goals and 85 assists for 123 points in 131 collegiate games.
Carvel played one year of professional hockey in Sweden and then became assistant athletic director and assistant hockey coach at Canterbury Prep. He earned a master's degree in sport management at the University of Massachusetts in 1998 and was an assistant coach at Amherst College in 1996 while pursuing his degree.
Carvel and his wife, Daina, an Amherst native, are parents to Kathryn, Ava and Drew.
Updated: July 15, 2025
