Season in 2025-26: 2nd Season
Career Record at NMU: 5-27-2 (4-20-2 CCHA)
Pronunciation: SHY-ak
Former Northern Michigan University hockey player Dave Shyiak was named his alma mater's fourth head hockey coach in June of 2024.
In his first season at the helm for the Wildcats, coach Shyiak led the Wildcats to a 5-27-2 record. Shyiak earned his first win behind the bench on October 18, 2024, against his former team, Alaska Anchorage, in his first home game as the head coach of the Wildcats. Highlights from the season include producing a CCHA Rookie of the Year finalist and CCHA All-Rookie team member in Jakub Altrichter, bringing No. 12 Colorado College to overtime in the season opener, going toe-to-toe with the No. 1 team in the nation Michigan State in the Great Lakes Invitational (GLI), defeating No. 12 Minnesota State at home, and ending the season by winning the final game in what tied the longest shootout in program history.
A 1991 graduate of Northern Michigan University, Shyiak played four seasons with the Wildcats (1987-91), where he helped captain the 1991 National Championship team and was a member of both the 1989 and 1991 WCHA Playoff championship teams. Shyiak returned to Northern to begin his coaching career as an assistant (1995-2002) under Comley before being promoted to associate head coach for three seasons (2002-05).
After his time at Northern, Shyiak took over as the head coach at Alaska Anchorage for eight years, then went on to experience success at Western Michigan and St. Cloud. He has 25-plus years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, where he has been behind the bench for over 1,000 NCAA games, along with an appearance in the NCAA National Championship game and five NCAA tournament appearances.
Before returning to lead NMU, Shyiak spent the past four seasons as the associate head coach at St. Cloud State. With the Huskies, he helped lead the program to new heights with three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including an NCAA runner-up finish in 2020-21.
Under Shyiak’s guidance, six SCSU defensemen have earned All-NCHC honors. This past season, blueliner Dylan Anhorn was named an AHCA/CCM Hockey Men's Second Team West All-American.
Shyiak joined SCSU’s staff after serving as an associate head coach at Western Michigan University from 2014-20. In Kalamazoo, Shyiak helped the Broncos gain an NCAA Tournament berth in 2017, along with earning home ice in the NCHC playoffs in 2017, 2019 and 2020. Prior to his tenure at WMU, Shyiak worked as an amateur hockey scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs organization from 2013-14.
His first collegiate head coach position was at the University of Alaska Anchorage from 2005-13. He ranks as the Seawolves all-time win leader as a coach during the WCHA era with 80 wins and helped UAA advance to the WCHA Final Five.
In 1994-95, Shyiak was the general manager and head coach for the Merritt Centennials of the BCJHL and his junior hockey resume includes one season as the head coach of the Kimberley Dynamiters of the RMJHL in 1993-94. Shyiak was a player/coach for one season with the Murrayfield Racers of the Super League-British Ice Hockey in 1991-92.
An evaluator for the USA Hockey selection camps in Michigan from 2015 to 2020, Shyiak served as a coach at the USA Hockey national selection camp in Buffalo, N.Y. in 2020. He has also served as a guest coach for the Washington Capitals Development Camp in 2010 and the Swedish National U20 Team Camp in 2009.
Dave and his wife, Lucia – a former two-time NMU All-American volleyball standout – have three children, Kristian, Sheldon, and Isabela.
