David Lassonde - NH Legends of Hockey

Year Inducted: 2022

Birthdate: November 6, 1962 -

Town/City: Rochester, NH

USA Hockey’s National Goaltending Coach, David Lassonde previously spent more than three decades as a Division I assistant on teams that reached five Frozen Fours. Lassonde grew up in Rochester, played at Spaulding High School then went on to Providence College, where he played goal for two seasons under Coach Lou Lamoriello, graduating cum laude in 1984 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education/History.

His coaching career began as an assistant at his high school alma mater which eventually led to his initial stint at UNH (1988-91) and a collegiate career that would span more than thirty years and 1,227 games at the Division I level. Twenty times he helped teams reach the NCAA tournament and five times his teams made the Frozen Four. As an assistant, he was part of 670 wins and a .596 winning percentage.

His career went on to include stops at Wisconsin (1991-94), Miami (1994-97), UNH (1997-2011), Denver (2011-14) and Dartmouth (2014-20).

During his career, he has coached ten Hobey Baker finalists, eight conference Players of the Year and more than thirty All-Americans including goaltenders Jeff Levy, Ty Conklin, Mike Ayers, Kevin Regan, Brian Foster, Sam Brittain, and Juho Olkinuora.

While at UNH, he was a member of the 1998-99 staff that was recognized by the American Hockey Coaches Association as Staff of the Year. In 2007, the AHCA recognized Lassonde with the Terry Flanagan Award, an honor presented annually to an Assistant Coach that has demonstrated a superior body of work throughout his career. That same year, he was also inducted into the Rochester Sports Hall of Fame.

Lassonde joined USA Hockey full-time in 2020 as its National Goaltending Coach and recently served as an Assistant Coach for the 2022 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team. He has been an assistant coach in support of U.S. teams on the international stage on multiple occasions going back seventeen years, including the U.S. NationalUnder-18 Team which earned a Silver Medal at the 2022 IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship.

He has served on the coaching staff of four U.S. National Junior Teams, including the 2013 Gold Medal team andthe 2019 Silver Medal squad. In addition, Lassonde helped lead the U.S. Under-17 Men’s Select Team to the championship of the 2015 Five Nations Cup and the U.S. Under-18 Men’s Select Team to a second-place finish at the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.

A long-time volunteer at the Stan Mikita School for the Hearing Impaired, he assisted Team USA at the World Deaf Ice Hockey Championships, winning a Gold Medal in 2017.