Plymouth State University

Craig Russell begins his 17th season as head men’s ice hockey coach and 27th year overall with the program in 2026-27. Russell played four seasons in a Panther uniform, served five years as assistant coach and two as associate head coach before becoming the program’s eighth head coach in 2010.
 
Russell has enjoyed remarkable success during his 16 seasons at the helm, building a dominant program in the MASCAC before transitioning to the LEC in 2025-26. He boasts an overall record of 276-108-31 (.702), with 12 MASCAC regular-season titles, seven MASCAC Tournament championships and seven NCAA Tournament appearances. In the first year of LEC ice hockey, the Panthers went 11-6-1 in league play and advanced to the semifinals.
 
All three of the Panthers’ 20-win seasons have come under Russell’s leadership. The 2015-16 squad went 21-5-1 before the program set new records for wins in back-to-back seasons in 2022-23 (23-4-1) and 2023-24 (24-3-2).
 
Russell earned his 200th career win and became the program’s all-time leader in wins during the 2022-23 season, when the team posted a 19-game winning streak and a perfect 18-0-0 run through MASCAC play. PSU was ranked as high as No. 8 in the USCHO.com national poll, while Russell earned his fifth MASCAC Coach of the Year award. Myles Abbate ’23 earned multiple postseason honors, including AHCA First Team All-American and MASCAC Player of the Year.
 
A year later, Russell’s Panthers re-established the program record for wins with a 24-3-2 mark. The team won a fifth straight MASCAC Tournament title and the program’s first NCAA Tournament game, defeating No. 13 Cortland State, 5-2, at Hanaway Rink.
 
Russell guided the Panthers to the first MASCAC regular-season and tournament titles in program history in 2011-12. He duplicated the feat in 2014-15 and led PSU to tournament titles in every season from 2018-19 through 2023-24, excluding the COVID-canceled 2020-21 season.
 
Russell has had at least one athlete earn All-Conference First Team honors in every season except 2019-20. All told, he has coached 35 First Team All-Stars, 18 Second Teamers, four Rookies of the Year and five Players of the Year. Several of his players have also gone on to sign professional contracts following their collegiate careers.
 
A 2003 graduate of Plymouth State, Russell played four seasons for the Panthers, serving as alternate captain as a senior. He joined the Panther staff as an assistant in 2003 and was elevated to associate head coach in 2008. In that role, he helped lead the Panthers to an 86-80-12 record and four postseason berths before taking over as head coach.