North Dakota has announced the hiring of former UND captain and defenseman Matt Smaby as the program’s associate head coach.
“We are excited to welcome Matt to our coaching staff,” said Fighting Hawks head coach Dane Jackson in a statement. “Much like his playing days, his teams brought a strong work ethic and tenacity to everything they did, and we are excited to have that in our program. He has succeeded at every level he has played and coached at and knows what it takes to win the right way.”
Smaby returns to North Dakota after a successful four-year run with the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks as the organization’s head coach. As the bench boss, he guided the Blackhawks to the postseason in each of his four seasons and won over 100 games in that stretch.
In 2024-25, Smaby led Waterloo on a historic postseason run that included defeating the league’s top regular-season team, the Lincoln Stars, before coming within an overtime goal of winning the second Clark Cup in the organization’s history with a 3-2 series loss to the Muskegon Lumberjacks.
“UND has always been a special place to me,” said Smaby. “My time at UND, both as a student-athlete and a coach, have molded me into the person, coach, father and husband I am today. When I had the chance to sit down with Coach Jackson, what was most evident was his passion and love for UND hockey. Sharing that same passion, our visions aligned for what was needed to bring the program to the top of college hockey. I’m thrilled for the opportunity to work alongside Coach Jackson and the rest of the staff, and I’m anxious to get to work.”
Smaby has also enjoyed success at the international level, working on the coaching staff for Team USA at the World Junior A Challenge over the last three seasons. He won gold as an assistant in 2022 before taking over as head coach and capturing bronze in 2023 and gold once again in 2024.
He got his start in the coaching world at North Dakota, serving as a volunteer assistant coach from 2017 to 2019 while completing his degree. After his time at UND, Smaby got his first full-time coaching position with EC Red Bull Salzburg in Austria where he coached the league’s second-best penalty kill at 85.3%.
Smaby played at UND from 2003-04 through 2005-06 and captained the 2005-06 squad to a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four. After leading the program to a pair of Frozen Four appearances and a WCHA title in his three seasons, Smaby went on to play in 122 games over four years with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning before winning multiple championships in Europe.
