ST. LOUIS – Jim Montgomery knows David Carle has a focus on the greatest challenge for a college coach this weekend in St. Louis when the 2025 Frozen Four takes place at Enterprise Center Thursday-Saturday.
But the St. Louis Blues coach, who is part of the coaching alumni at the University of Denver, winning a national championship there in 2017 before handing the reigns over to Carle, his assistant at the time, feels the protege knows his once-pupil will in Carle, going for his third national championship in four years and defending champions, will soon enough be coaching in the NHL.
“I would think it’s a matter of time, yeah,” Montgomery said of Carle. “How soon? That’ll be his choice.”
The Pioneers (31-11-1) are in the Frozen Four defending their title, after winning 2-0 against Boston College last year, and will face Western Michigan (32-7-1) at 4 p.m. on ESPN2; Boston University (23-13-2) and Penn State (21-13-4) play in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. with the winners facing off Saturday at 6:30 p.m. to crown this year’s champion.
And while the Blues are in Canada before jetting to Seattle to play out the final three games of their road regular-season schedule, Montgomery will be pulling for the Pioneers from far away, and cheering for the 35-year-old Carle.
“I’m incredibly proud to have been a part of that,” Montgomery said. “David and I worked together for five years. I saw how good he was going to be, and that’s why I was so happy when he got the job. Our friendship continues. What his record is and what he has done, it’s simply remarkable. It’s the best run of any college coach in, what is it, I think he’s been there eight years now, four Frozen Four’s and this would be a third national championship in four years. As a backer of the program, I’m very proud.
“I’m very proud of the University of Maine, my alma mater, which I helped Ben Barr get that position. He’s doing an incredible job there. Two programs I’ve been associated with and both in the best eight programs in the country in the same year, I’m glad of my roots. I’m very proud that I was able to be part of something at both.”
Carle, in his seventh season after being an assistant for five seasons, is 180-73-17 and feels he owes a lot of his success to Montgomery.
“Yeah, I mean, a lot,” he said Thursday at the pre-semifinal press conference. “First, great hire by (Blues general manager) Doug Armstrong to not let him be on the market very long. Happy for ‘Monty’ that they're in the playoff position now and the heater they've been on over the last five weeks. Happy for him and his family. His wife is from here. A lot of connections here for him. Big fan. We still keep in close contact.
“I learned a lot from him, from preparation, tactics, trying to connect the group, make sure everybody feels valued, team-first attitude. A lot of different things from him that I think make him so successful wherever he's been as well.”
Carle said he will always be grateful to Montgomery for hiring someone laying his grass roots down, and that the two stay connected and always will.
“When ‘Monty’ hired me, I was single. He had two kids. He added two kids while we were together,” Carle said. “He saw me meet my wife. He saw us have three kids now. Our lives have grown, as our relationship has grown as well.
“There's a lot of friendship there, just connecting over our families and checking in on each other. Obviously he's been through some different things since he left DU, and I've leaned on him multiple times for advice as well.
“It's a great friendship. He makes it out to Denver, obviously, to play the Avs. We always try to get together with a few other friends, and he's a great man, and couldn't be happier for him to be in St. Louis doing well.”