Mark Carlson (Cedar Rapids RoughRiders), Ryan Cruthers (Sioux Falls Stampede), and Ryan Ward (Youngstown Phantoms) have been named finalists for United States Hockey League (USHL)
Coach of the Year, the league announced Saturday.
The award winner will be announced on Thursday, April 23. The finalists were nominated and voted upon by team general managers.
Mark Carlson, Cedar Rapids RoughRiders
In his 26th year behind the RoughRider bench, Carlson set the all-time wins record for a USHL coach en route to steering Cedar Rapids to a 36-17-3-6 (W-L-OTL-SOL) record and a .653 winning percentage. Despite playing the entire season without their captain and losing alternates to injuries down the final stretch, the RoughRiders tied for the fifth-most points in the USHL and had the league’s third-highest-scoring offense, averaging 3.79 goals per game. Carlson’s team allowed fewer shots per game than any team in the USHL (24.79). The RoughRiders had a 17-game point streak from Feb. 14 until the last weekend of the regular season, the longest point streak for any team in the league in three years. During the streak, Cedar Rapids went 15-0-1-1 to earn home-ice advantage for the first round of the Clark Cup Playoffs.
Ryan Cruthers, Sioux Falls Stampede
Cruthers led the Stampede to a 43-16-3-0 record, posting more regulation or overtime wins than any team in the league (41). Sioux Falls finished the year second in the USHL in goals for (4.31) and third in goals against (2.79) per game, the only team to finish in the top three of both categories. The Stampede was especially good on the road, where they went 24-6-1-0 for a .790 winning percentage and went 12-0-1-0 to close the regular season. Offensively, Cruthers pushed the Stampede to an average of 37.5 shots per game, being outshot on only nine occasions. The Herd’s power play converted at 25%.
Ryan Ward, Youngstown Phantoms
With the Anderson Cup on the line and their last five games of the season on the road, Ward led the Phantoms to their second regular-season title in team history with a 43-14-3-2 record and league-leading .734 winning percentage. Ward helped Youngstown go 7-2-0-1 in its final 10 games down the stretch. The Phantoms played more overtime and shootout games than any other team in the league, going 11-5 in the 16 games that extended past regulation, and they were 15-4-3-2 in one-goal games. With the USHL’s second-best power play operating at 27.6% and the top-ranked penalty kill clicking at 84.1%, Youngstown had the league’s fifth-most productive offense, averaging 3.68 goals per game, and its stingiest defense, allowing a USHL-low of 2.37 goals per game.
The United States Hockey League (USHL) and its 16 teams are committed to being the world's leading junior hockey league. This season, more than 50% of NCAA Division I men's hockey players and nearly 25% of NHL players have USHL experience. The USHL has developed more than 285 direct NHL Draft picks since 2020, and nine of the last 10 Hobey Baker Award winners, including Macklin Celebrini (Chicago Steel).
Elevated through the recently announced Declaration of Excellence with the NHL and USA Hockey, the league's player-first approach, including a 2:1 practice-to-game ratio and a schedule with 90% of games played on weekends, provides its players with the optimal environment for athletic and personal growth, creating pathways for the next generation of stars like Auston Matthews (NTDP), Kyle Connor (Youngstown Phantoms), Jeremy Swayman (Sioux Falls Stampede), and Johnny Gaudreau (Dubuque Fighting Saints).