Ryan Hunter ’18 begins his third season as an assistant coach with the men’s ice hockey program at Nichols College in 2022-23.
In his first full season as an assistant at his alma mater in 2021-22, the Bison qualified for the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) playoffs and upended No. 3 Salve Regina on the road to advance to the Semifinals. A total of 15 Bison student-athletes received CCC Academic All-Conference honors while captain Curtis Carlson was named to the CCC Third Team.
A member of the 2018 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) championship team, Hunter spent the 2019-20 campaign as a scout for the Fargo Force of the United States Hockey League (USHL). He was tasked with scouting, identifying, and tracking potential players in Ontario and submitting bi-weekly report to the general manager of the Force. Last season, the Force placed third in the Western Conference with a 27-15-4 mark.
The Mississauga, Ontario native began his coaching career as an assistant with the Oakville Blades Jr. A Hockey Club out of Oakville, Canada in 2018. A top-five ranked junior team, Hunter helped the Blades capture both the Buckland Cup and the Dudley-Hewitt Cup, and earn a third-place finish at the National Jr. A Championships. He worked to develop the forwards both on the ice and with off-the-ice video sessions while assisting the management team with scouting.
Hunter skated in 51 games for the Bison in a bottom-six role and collected 11 points on six goals and five assists. He scored his first collegiate goal against the defending CCC Champions, Salve Regina, on November 19, 2016 and later scored twice in Nichols' first-ever game at the Boston Landing Collegiate Invitational, a 5-2 win over Stonehill College. Hunter – who earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and graduated Summa Cum Laude – was named to the CCC Academic All-Conference Team in both seasons in Dudley.
Hunter earned his Hockey Canada Level 1 Coaching Certification in August, 2018.
