Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill cast a wide net in the team’s coaching search that ultimately ended with Jim Montgomery leaving Denver for his first NHL head-coaching job. In the process Monty became just the fifth man to make the leap from college coach to a top NHL job.

How widely will the Pioneers look for their next coach? After a handful of discussions with coaches at various levels this week, I’d like to offer a few ideas:

The popular pair

There are two names that have been brought up more frequently than any others this week, and they represent opposite ends of the spectrum – current assistant coach and recruiter extraordinaire David Carle and former head coach George Gwozdecky.

How realistic is the chance of either gaining or regaining the top job?

Consider: Gwozdecky’s legend at the school is secure but every coach I spoke to told me there was absolutely zero chance of this happening after the parting of ways in 2013. Still, expect some buzz to continue about his candidacy given he’s right down the road building a prep powerhouse at Valor High School.

As for Carle, he has Montgomery’s full endorsement (stick tap to Denver 9’s Aaron Matas on this one). Though people tend to focus on his age (28), Montgomery pointed out that Carle has been coaching 11 years – or just as long as Montgomery had when he took the DU job in 2013.

Carle was an elite player who was committed to DU when in July 2008 it was discovered he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – a leading cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes and is a primary disease of the myocardium muscle of the heart.

Carle learned the trade as a student coach at DU, spent a season plus as an assistant in the USHL before returning to Denver at the start of 2014. He and Tavis MacMillan are an elite recruiting tag team (more on this very soon) and well versed in the Monty’s ways.

Yet, the coaches I spoke with also felt this would not happen, despite Carle recently turning down the top job at Alaska Anchorage.

Reunion tour

Three candidates who could get interviews include a collection of former Gwozdecky assistants, Seth Appert, Derek Lalonde and Steve Miller.

Miller, who helps teams win wherever he goes (Denver, Providence, Air Force, Ohio State) is a tactical wizard. However, he told the New York Times in the run-up to the Frozen Four that he’s content being an assistant. One coach I spoke to said he thought Miller would make an excellent head coach but questioned if he would want to do it. Miller is 52

Lalonde is another intriguing prospect in that he has been a college assistant, including from 2006-11 at DU, won a USHL championship in Green Bay (where Carle was later on his staff) and has been a solid coach in the professional ranks the past four seasons – two in the ECHL and two in the AHL, where he leads the Minnesota Wild’s top farm club. He is 46.

Appert was on Gwozdecky’s staff from 1999-2006 before 11 seasons as RPI’s head coach. His teams were above .500 just three times in that span, but he is well respected in the coaching community. One coach I spoke with called RPI one of the tougher places to win at in Division I and considered Appert and outstanding coach. He currently is coaching the Under-18 team for the prestigious U.S. National Team Development Program.

Looking elsewhere

One name that has consistently come up is former Minnesota assistant Mike Guentzel. You might not know him, but his son Jake was a standout for Omaha before becoming one of Sidney Crosby‘s wingmen on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And … Mike Guentzel conveniently is available right now because he has parted ways with the University of Minnesota for the second time.

His first stint lasted 24 years (1994-2008). He then served as a UNO assistant for a year, head coach and GM of the USHL’s Des Moines Buccaneers for a year and an assistant at – ugh – Colorado College. He returned to the Gophers in 2011 and moved on with their regime change to Bob Motzko.

It would be an upset if the 55-year-old doesn’t have conversations with DU’s hierarchy as he is hugely respected in the coaching community.

Handicapping it

Before you launch grenades, let me be the first to tell you this is only a best guess based on a fair amount of research and several off-the-record conversations with people all over the college hockey world, so take it for what it is.

No one can say who the next coach will be, but I think Carle and Guentzel will be in the mix, and if Lalonde enters the picture he’d be right there with them as well. The latter might appear to be on a pro track right now, but his experience is similar to Montgomery’s and he has ties to Carle, which could be crucial for the Pioneers if they don’t go that direction.

No timeline has been announced but every day this job is open is a day that isn’t spent on the recruiting trail. Expect a decision sooner than later.

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