Stuart returning to 'special' place as assistant coach at Colorado College

May 14—The wheels began to spin as Mark Stuart's professional hockey playing career started to wind down four or five years ago.

"Once you retire from hockey ... I knew I wanted to stay in the game in some capacity," Stuart said. "It's a competitive business and I was fortunate enough to find a job with the Manitoba Moose right in town here, and that's how everything started.

"It wasn't until the second half of my career that coaching started entering my mind a lot more."

—Fleming's focus with the U.S. National Team Development Program: Red, White, Blue and greens

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Stuart couldn't have imagined that his coaching career would accelerate so quickly, though, or that it would lead him back to a place he considers a home away from home.

The Rochester native is heading back to the hockey program that primed him for a 12-year NHL career. After one season as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Vermont, Stuart has been named a full-time assistant coach at Colorado College, where he played defense from 2002-05, serving as a captain in his final season at the school in Colorado Springs.

"As a player, I had some great mentors," Stuart said this week from Winnipeg, where he has resided for a decade and where he played for the NHL's Jets for six seasons, the last four as an alternate captain. "As you go through your career, before you know it you become that guy, that mentor and you want to pay it back to younger players.

"I really enjoyed that part of it as a veteran player, trying to help young guys and mentor players."

Stuart did that with the Manitoba Moose — the Winnipeg Jets' American Hockey League affiliate — in 2018-19, serving as a jack of all trades and learning the business side of the game in the hockey operations department.

He did that in an even more hands-on manner last season at Vermont, where he coached under head man Todd Woodcroft, who was an assistant coach for the Jets during Stuart's playing days in Winnipeg.

"With Todd, I was always observing how he interacts with players," Stuart said. "I like the way he does things and builds relationships. He treats everyone with respect and that's something I'll definitely take with me, just the way he conducted himself.

"I'm going to miss it there, but I feel fortunate to have had that opportunity, even thought it was short, at Vermont."

While Stuart will miss working with the Catamounts' players and coaches on a daily basis, he won't have to miss his family. Stuart's wife, Christina, and their three young children — ages 3, 2 and 6 months — remained in Winnipeg last year while Mark coached in Vermont.

After officially accepting the job at C.C. on Tuesday, Stuart said he and his family are in the process of determining how they'll find a home in Colorado Springs and how they'll get their belongings moved. Canada still requires a 14-day quarantine period for international travelers, so the Stuarts would have to quarantine for two weeks every time they return to Canada from the U.S.

"We're still here in the 'Peg, making plans to relocate, but we're excited about it," he said. "We're getting things in order now. We're not really sure when we'll be in Colorado Springs, but it's in progress.

"(Being apart) was the biggest challenge of the past year for us, but we're excited to go on this new adventure together."

A new chapter at C.C.

Stuart said he's also excited to be a part of a new era in hockey at Colorado College, which plays in the ever-challenging National Collegiate Hockey Conference, a conference that has produced four of the past five Division I national champions (Minnesota Duluth twice, Denver and North Dakota), and had another program (St. Cloud State) in this year's national title game.

The Tigers hired a new head coach last month, in former University of Michigan assistant Kris Mayotte. The 38-year-old Mayotte spent the past two years with the Wolverines, following a successful stint as an assistant at Providence, where he was on the staff of the 2015 national championship team.

Stuart said Mayotte hasn't determined his exact role yet, but he would seem a natural fit to work with the Tigers' defensemen and penalty kill units. He excelled on the penalty kill throughout his college career and during his dozen years in the NHL, first with the Boston Bruins from 2005-11, then with Winnipeg from 2011-17. Stuart will be heavily involved in the recruiting process, too.

"The first phone call and our Zoom calls we had were my first real communication with him," Stuart, 37, said. "We hit it off right away. He's a guy who I can tell goes about things the right way. He has a passion for the game and wants to do things the right way and build up the program.

"As a coach and someone who is extremely interested in the (assistant) job, that was exciting, and as an alum, it's really exciting, too."

The Tigers are also set to move into a brand-new, on-campus arena this fall. Ed Robson Arena is scheduled to open in October, just in time for the start of the season. The Tigers' new home will have 3,400 seats, less than half of C.C.'s previous home rink — the 7,700-seat, off-campus World Arena — but the intimate atmosphere and its location on campus will allow students easier access to games. Stuart said he and the Tigers' staff will do their best to put a championship-level team on the ice, too.

"To get this opportunity at Colorado College, a place that's so special to me, I feel very fortunate for that," said Stuart, who was an All-American at C.C. in 2004-05, when he led the Tigers to the Frozen Four. "When you get into coaching you're just trying to find a good spot and learn and be around good people. That's what I was able to do with the Moose and at Vermont. Now, to step in here, at a place I'm very familiar with, I feel very fortunate."