Rand Pecknold
Induction Year: 2016
Birthday: February 4, 1967
City/Town: Bedford, NH
From growing up in Bedford and skating for Manchester West High School, to building one of the top college programs in the country, Rand Pecknold has impacted the game at both state and national levels.
After playing for two years at West and two more at Lawrence Academy, Pecknold attended Division 3 Connecticut College, where he was a standout player. As a senior, he led the Camels to the ECAC South championship. He set school single-season records for goals (17) and points (47) by a defenseman.
He earned first-team All-ECAC South honors and a spot on the Division 3 All-England Team as a senior. Playing as a forward in his first three collegiate seasons, he led the Camels in goals as a sophomore (19) and junior (23). Overall, Pecknold scored 59 goals and 64 assists for 123 points, the eighth-most in program history.
But it’s as the head coach at Quinnipiac that he has achieved national renown, and is currently in his 23rd season. Twice in the last four seasons, he has led the Bobcats to the Frozen Four and NCAA championship game.
To date, Pecknold owns a career head coaching record of 446-26483 and currently ranks sixth among all active Division 1 coaches in career victories. Since Quinnipiac qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2012-13 — the first of four straight times it would make the NCAAs — and advanced to the national championship game, the Bobcats have the second-most wins (109) among all Division 1 programs in the country, behind only North Dakota (110). In addition, over the last fi ve years in the NCAA, Quinnipiac is #1 in Power Play, #1 in Penalty Kill and #2 in Wins.
In 2015-16 Quinnipiac won a program-record 32 games while winning the ECAC Hockey regular-season (Cleary Cup) and tournament (Whitelaw Cup) championships. The Bobcats’ 32-4-7 record made them the first team since Michigan in 1997 to finish the season with only four losses for the year.
Quinnipiac then went on to win the NCAA East Regional with wins against RIT and UMass-Lowell before advancing to its second Frozen Four. The Bobcats defeated perennial power Boston College before falling to North Dakota in the national championship game.
Pecknold has the most wins of any coach in Quinnipiac hockey history (446). He is a four-time Spencer Penrose Award finalist, given to the national Coach of the Year (2002, 2005, 2013, 2016), and the award winner in 2016.
He was hired at Quinnipiac on May 5, 1994, following three years as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Connecticut College. He has overseen the program during its move from Division 2 to Division 1 (for the 1998-99 season), from the MAAC to ECAC Hockey (for the 2005-06 season) and into the TD Bank Sports Center, regarded as one of the top rinks in college hockey.