Kris Mayotte enters his sixth season at Colorado College in 2026-27 after being named the 15th head coach in the history of the hockey program on April 7, 2021.
In just five seasons, Mayotte has instilled confidence and a championship culture back into the storied Tiger program.
In 2023-24, Mayotte guided the Tigers to their best season in over a decade, producing a 21-13-3 record, the most wins in one season since the 2010-11 campaign.
CC tied for third place in the NCHC standings, hosted its first playoff series since 2012 and completed a four-game season sweep of North Dakota for the first time in program history.
In addition to sophomores Kaidan Mbereko and Noah Laba earning first- and second-team All-America honors, respectively, Mayotte was named the NCHC Coach of the Year and a finalist for the Spencer Penrose National Coach of the Year award.
The Tigers entered the national Top 20 polls in December for the first time in 11 years and remained ranked for the rest of the season. CC posted a season-high ranking of No. 10 in February, finished the season ranked No. 15 and led the nation in faceoff winning percentage at 55.7 percent.
Mayotte has solidified his reputation as a top recruiter with several outstanding classes recently. The last three incoming groups have had 15 NHL draft picks, including freshmen Zach Olsen and Michal Pradel this year. The 2026-27 roster holds 11 draft selections, the most on one roster in program history, including 2025-26 top scorers Klavs Veinbergs (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Owen Beckner (Ottawa Senators), who each collected 23 points las season.
Colorado College posted a 13-17-6 record in 2025-26 and finished fifth in the nation with a 53.8 faceoff winning percentage. Veinbergs is the nation’s top returning faceoff man, with a 61.1 percent winning percentage at the dot last season.
Mayotte guided CC to an 18-18-1 record in '24-25 and had the Tigers in the national polls for most of the season, including a season-high ranking of No. 7. Colorado College finished sixth in the NCHC, sophomore defenseman Max Burkholder was a second-team all-NCHC selection and the team finished third in the nation in faceoff percentage at 54.5%.
The momentum for the impressive ’23-24 campaign started at the end of the previous season when Mayotte led the Tigers to their first-ever appearance in the NCHC Championship Game after defeating 3rd-ranked Denver, 1-0, in the semifinal. The weekend prior, CC posted its first postseason road sweep in program history, defeating 7th-ranked Western Michigan, 3-1 and 3-2(ot), in the first round of the NCHC playoffs.
In his first season in Colorado Springs, Mayotte led the Tigers to several convincing victories, including a 5-3 road win over 10th-ranked Boston College and CC’s first four-game season sweep of an opponent (Miami) since the 2007-08 campaign.
In addition, Colorado College improved its team offense from 1.57 goals per game in 2020-21 to 2.19 in 2021-22, and the power play from 5.6 percent to 16.8 percent in Mayotte’s inaugural season.
Mayotte brought a wealth of success as one of the top assistant coaches and recruiters in the nation to Colorado Springs. Throughout his 10 years as a Division I assistant and associate head coach, he helped his teams to an NCAA National Championship in 2015, two Frozen Fours and seven NCAA Tournament appearances. In addition, Mayotte won a pair of gold medals and a bronze in three stints as an assistant coach with Team USA at the World Junior Championships.
Prior to taking over the CC program, Mayotte spent two seasons at the University of Michigan with head coach Mel Pearson after five years under Nate Leaman at Providence College. During that time, he recruited six players that became All-Americans and prepared several from both schools for the National Hockey League.
Mayotte served as an assistant coach under Leaman on the gold-medal winning U.S. National Junior Team at the 2021 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Canada. Mayotte, who also helped the U.S. win gold in 2017 and bronze in 2018, was also on Team USA’s bench for the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championships this past August.
As a collegian, Mayotte was Union College's starting goaltender from 2002-06. His final three seasons coincided with the first three seasons of Leaman's tenure as Union's head coach. Mayotte finished his college career with 116 games played and a 2.69 goals-against average while earning ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team (2003) and ECAC Second All-Star Team (2006) honors.
Mayotte and his wife, Juli, are natives of Pittsburgh, Pa., and the proud parents of a son, Locke, who was born in April of 2022, and a daughter, Madden, who was born in October of 2024.
