David Urquhart was appointed full-time head coach of the McGill University men's hockey team in May, 2021.
A 2018 inductee to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame, Urquhart spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach of the San Diego Gulls, an American Hockey League affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks. During that span, he helped guide the team to a 92-60-17 record in regular season play and three playoff berths.
The 36-year-old native of Thorold, Ont., is the 30th bench boss in team history and the 13th former McGill player to take the helm of the historic 144-year-old program, which played its first game on Jan. 31, 1877. He replaced
Liam Heelis, who was serving as interim bench boss.
Urquhart played for McGill and served four years as a full-time assistant coach (2014-2018) under the direction of
Kelly Nobes. He also was head coach of the Serbian national team at the 2018 IIHF Div. 2 world hockey championship.
A graduate of McGill's Desautels school of management in 2008, Urquhart majored in finance and entrepreneurship. In 2019, he completed a master's degree in sports psychology at McGill. For his thesis, he interviewed six of the most successful coaches in U SPORTS and the NCAA to discuss their coaching vision and learn how they built cultures of excellence to win multiple national championships for their respective programs.
Urquhart was recruited to McGill in 2004 out of the GHJHL, where he skated for the Welland Cougars (2001-2004) and Thorold Blackhawks (2000-2002). During his McGill playing career, Urquhart was a three-time OUA all-star from 2004 to 2008. He also merited All-Canadian honours -- earning a berth on the second team in 2006-07 -- and concluded a brilliant university career with 23 goals and 107 points, along with 330 penalty minutes, in 147 games overall.
More than a dozen years after his last varsity contest, he remains tied with
Mike Babcock as the ninth-highest overall point-scoring defenceman in McGill history. He trails
Marc-André Dorion (192 points),
Dominic Talbot-Tassi (190),
Gilles Hudon (152),
Martin Routhier (135),
Ryan McKiernan (117),
David Bahl (110),
Bryan Larkin (109) and
Luc Latulippe (109).
Named to the OUA all-rookie squad during his freshman year, Urquhart won the Bobby Bell Trophy as Team MVP in his third collegiate season and in his senior year, he captained McGill to the Ontario University Athletics conference championship in 2008. It marked McGill's first Queen's Cup league title since 1946..
Fluent in three languages -- including French and Italian -- Urquhart also speaks some German. He was a two-time OUA conference nominee for the Randy Gregg trophy, awarded nationally for combining hockey ability with academics and citizenship. He made the Principal's Student-athlete Honour Roll, merited Academic All-Canadian honours, won the Richard Pound Trophy for athletics leadership over his McGill career and received the University's prestigious Gretta Chambers Award for student leadership.
Urquhart went on to a solid professional career, including stints in the AHL with Hartford (2008-10) and Hamilton (2010-11), where the six-foot, 195-pound rearguard played 130 regular season games, scoring six goals and 23 points to go along with 78 penalty minutes. He also had stints in the East Coast Hockey League with Charlotte and Wheeling. He then headed overseas to play for three years in Italy, where he patrolled the blueline for teams in Valpellice (2011-12) and Pontebba (2012-13) before guiding Ritten-Renon to a league championship in 2014.
McGill Men's Hockey Coaches (since 1909-10)
| SEASON COACH OVERALL RECORD (W - L - T) |
| 1909-10 *Harry Trihey (4-3-0) |
| 1910-11 Art Ross (4-2-1) |
| 1911-14 Laurie Roberts (17-14-2) |
| 1914-16 (no head coach) (5-18-3) |
| 1916-17 F.L. Poulin (6-6-1) |
| 1917-18 *Vincent P. Heney (see overall record listed in 1929-20) |
| 1918-19 *Harry Hyland (7-4-1) |
| 1919-27 Frank Shaughnessy (61-56-2) |
| 1927-28 Wallace Whitehead (8-7-0) |
| 1928-29 *Vincent P. Heney (see overall record listed in 1929-20) |
| 1929-30 *Vincent P. Heney (17-24-4) & Walter Smaill (4-8-1) |
| 1929-37 *Dr. Bobby Bell (see overall record listed in 1944-45) |
| 1937-42 *Hugh Farquharson (46-18-3) |
| 1942-43 *Dr. Bobby Bell (see overall record listed in 1944-45) |
| 1943-44 Lorne White (3-11-3) |
| 1944-45 *Dr. Bobby Bell (137-58-25) |
| 1945-51 Dave Campbell (62-40-4) |
| 1951-58 *Rocky Robillard (54-64-5) |
| 1958-61 Ken Murray (12-37-4) |
| 1961-64 Kelly Burnett (22-29-6) |
| 1964-68 Dave Copp (28-62-6) |
| 1968-71 Brian Gilmour (29-41-6) |
| 1971-72 Dave Dies (3-28-0) |
| 1972-79 *Herb Madill (47-92-16) |
| 1979-88 Ken Tyler (130-200-27) |
| 1988-90 Al Grazys (46-24-6) & Jean Pronovost (see overall record listed below) |
| 1990-94 Jean Pronovost (76-77-11) |
| 1994-95 *Jamie Kompon (16-9-0) & *Martin Raymond (see overall record listed below) |
| 1995-96 Terry Bangen (19-16-2) |
| 1996-09 *Martin Raymond (293-192-35) |
| 2009-10 *Jim Webster (34-14-1) |
| 2010-19 *Kelly Nobes (399-287-14) |
| 2019-21 *Liam Heelis (20-17-0) |
| 2021-pres. *David Urquhart |
|
| *previously played for McGill |
