Nate Leaman has won practically everywhere he's been.
Since taking over at Providence College in 2011, Leaman has led the Friars to their first national championship (2015), two Frozen Four appearances and seven national tournaments, compiling a 280-174-67 record.
Before Providence, Leaman coached eight seasons at Union, going 138-127-35. Over his final two seasons with the Dutchmen, his teams went 47-22-10, culminating in the program's first Division 1 tournament appearance in 2010-11.
Leaman, who also won a national championship in 1999 as an assistant at Harvard, has coached Team USA to gold at the World Juniors (2021) as well as the Under-18 World Championship (2005). He won the Spencer Penrose Award as college hockey's top coach in 2011, in addition to twice winning both ECAC and Hockey East Coach of the Year honors.
Leaman joined New England Hockey Journal editor Evan Marinofsky on the latest RinkWise podcast to break down everything from player development to recruiting to the CHL and shifting college hockey pathways.
RinkWise podcast: Providence College coach Nate Leaman
How can college hockey grow?
Leaman:Â "Really, what we need is 20 more Division 1 teams. That's gonna rebalance things, and all the opportunities are going to open up again. That can happen. Club hockey has never gotten better in colleges. There's a lot of stuff going on right now with the NCAA and all these rules and eligibility. Three years ago, it was just being brought up by people, 'We should just break away from the NCAA.' ... People are thinking more and more of that conversation. ... All of a sudden, maybe if USA Hockey took it over, you wouldn't have strict requirements on what Division 1 hockey is. Maybe you take the top 20 club teams in the country. Obviously, they're not going to get to the top of Division 1, but what happens if Arizona and Oklahoma State [have Division 1 hockey]?
"We need to grow the game at that level. We need college hockey to grow at that level. That's how you get the bigger TV contracts. That's how you get more people following hockey in our country, getting some of those bigger schools or a West Coast presence. Maybe that would be one way to do it. I would say, for all these kids, I think there eventually will be a push through where there's a lot more opportunities to equal the number of really good players out there."
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How did CHL players adjust to college hockey?
Leaman: "I can't voice it enough. All those perceptions of a major-junior kid, I didn't think any of them were accurate. 'Oh, these guys don't want to go to school,' or 'Oh, these guys just want to be pros. They just want to be paid.' Every guy we had was A, a great teammate, and B, loved college. ... They liked being part of something more than just a team. When you're part of a college [team], you're part of a whole university. We really pushed them to get out to as many other things and sporting events as they could. I wanted them to understand what college is about. ... These players are high character. They're team players, and they want to win.
"I thought the real adjustment came with, they're used to playing 65-70 games with light fluff on their schedules. There's none of that in college, even when you're supposedly a top-five team playing a bottom-five team. Everyone knows those games are hard. If you don't show up, and you don't compete, you lose. I found that the intensity of the season wore the guys down a little bit. That was new to them. The other thing that dawned on me in the last two or three weeks of the season is this is the most they've practiced in their entire lives."
