Paul Kirtland, a former Ohio State player and college assistant coach, joined the Yale Men’s Hockey Staff as an assistant coach in July of 2020.
Kirtland spent the two previous years at Sacred Heart University where he helped the Pioneers produce two of the best seasons in program history while earning their first listing in the national polls. The 2019-20 squad was also No. 3 in the country in offense and No. 2 in shorthanded goals before finishing second in the Atlantic Hockey standings. The year before, they had their highest (fourth) conference finish in eight years.
The young mentor’s responsibilities included recruiting, implementing the penalty kill, assisting with practice and game planning as well as video operations, among other things in the daily operations of the program. He helped produce seven all-conference players during his time with former Yale assistant and current Sacred Heart head coach C.J. Marottolo.
Kirtland was the assistant coach for the 2017-18 Dubuque Fighting Saints, who qualified for the USHL playoffs. He designed and implemented the penalty kill, which had an 80.2 percent success rate.
The Vernon, Connecticut, native broke into the coaching ranks with the NAHL Fairbanks Ice Dogs as an assistant in 2013 on the way to a 2014 USA Hockey Tier II National Championship. Two years later Kirtland was an assistant coach at Trinity College, where he helped lead the team to back-to-back NESCAC Tournament championships and a runner-up finish in the 2017 NCAA Division III Tournament. In 2016-17, Kirtland coached the penalty kill unit to a 89.4 percent success rate, which was No. 3 in the country.
A 2013 graduate of The Ohio State University, Kirtland skated in 50 collegiate games before playing in the ECHL
Kirtland, and his wife, Colleen, reside in East Berlin, Conn.
