Doug Friedman is the first-ever head coach of the Western Connecticut State University men's ice hockey team, which will begin varsity play in the fall of 2025, in August of 2024. Friedman comes to WestConn from Boston University, where he was a vital member of the Terrier staff that is second to none in all of collegiate ice hockey. Friedman was the Boston University director of hockey operations since 2021, helping that squad win the Hockey East title in 2023 and reach the NCAA Division I Frozen Four in each of the last two seasons. He has a wealth of hockey experience, including head coaching stints with the Twin City Thunder of the United States Premier Hockey league (USPHL) and Kents Hill Prep School in Maine that followed an eight-year professional career in the NHL. Friedman coached the Wolves' club ice hockey program in 2024-25 while recruiting student-athletes and preparing for the Wolves' inaugural varsity campaign next fall.
At Boston University, Friedman assisted Head Coach Jay Pandolfo in all aspects of the hockey program, including coaching on ice at practice and on the bench during games, overseeing recruitment of student-athletes and team academics, coordinating community service and fundraising activities, and managing the budget. The Terriers went 19-13-3 and won the Beanpot title in Friedman's first season with the club in 2021-22. The next winter, BU finished 29-11, won the regular season and the post-season tournament in the Hockey East, and played its way into the NCAA Division III Frozen Four. Last year, the Terriers went 28-9-2 and returned to the NCAA Semifinals. Friedman was program director and head coach of the Twin City Thunder from 2018 to 2020, leading that team to the post-season in its inaugural season and placing several junior hockey players on NCAA teams. He was head men's ice hockey coach, director of athletics, and head men's golf coach at Kents Hill from 2014 to 2018 and increased that hockey team's season win total each year.
Friedman was a highly-decorated, four-year player for the Terriers and served as captain in his final season in 1993-94 after making the squad as a non-recruited walk-on freshman. He helped the Terriers win two Hockey East crowns and two Beanpots and advance to three NCAA Frozen Fours and two appearances in the NCAA national title game while earning the New England Collegiate Defensive Player of the Year Award as a senior. Friedman was selected by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1993 NHL Draft and played seven seasons of professional hockey, skating for the Edmonton Oilers and Nashville Predators of the NHL in addition to stints with five AHL (Cornwall Aces, Hershey Bears, Hamilton Bulldogs, Kentucky Thoroughblades, and Worcester Ice Cats) squads and in the IHL with the Milwaukee Admirals. Friedman was an assistant captain in each season of his professional career and won the 1997 Calder Cup in that role with the Hershey Bears.
Friedman coached youth hockey while working in the business works for 10 years, before taking on a full-time role as coaching director with the Portland Junior Pirates where he coached junior hockey teams and ran the junior program from 2011 to 2014. He has been a USA Hockey National Development Festival Coach and New England Development Festival Coach, and owns both a USA Hockey Level 4 Coaching Certification and a USA Hockey Level 3 Officials Certification. Friedman was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.
