The Success Starts Here series features profiles on SJHL Alumni who are currently, or have played hockey at a post-secondary institution. Check out the full interviews every Thursday on the SJHL Insider Podcast and check back at SJHL.ca for profile pieces Wednesdays.
FIND THE FULL EPISODE INSIDER FEATURING CARTER HANSEN’S FULL INTERVIEW HERE.
Carter Hansen could not have picked better guides to help him take his first steps as a hockey coach since the now 30-year-old first stepped on the bench as the assistant coach of the Humboldt Broncos during the 2021-22 season.
He first started with the Broncos under Scott Barney, now with the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League, and did a tremendous job with Humboldt after his long NHL and professional playing career.
He worked under Mike Reagan, the great Flin Flon Bombers bench boss, who won the CJHL Coach of the Year Award two seasons ago at the 2024 Junior A World Challenge.
He stuck around to join the 2023 CJHL and SJHL Coach of the Year – an award he’s won three times – and two-time SJHL champion Brayden Klimosko, as Brayden jumped on the bench of his hometown Broncos ahead of last season.
And now Hansen will get to work with Trevor Blevins, the reigning SJHL and CJHL Coach of the Year, who also coached him as a player to a championship with the Melfort Mustangs in 2016, with Team Canada West in 2025 as the video coach.
“I have worked four legends in this league for sure,” Hansen says.
“I have been very, very lucky that way and could not have asked for a better foursome to work for so far. Lots of the stuff seems to overlap with a lot of these guys and why they’re so successful in this league.”
Hansen hails from Craven, SK, just outside of Regina, and as a 6-foot-2, mobile, right-shot defender was picked in the first round of the 2010 Western Hockey League draft by the Moose Jaw Warriors.
He went on to play for Team Saskatchewan at the 2011 Canada Winter Games, 271 WHL games between Moose Jaw and Regina, alongside future NHLers like Brayden Point, Chandler Stevenson, and Morgan Reilly, represented Canada at the World Under 17 Hockey Challenge 2012, and ultimately split the 2015-16 season between the Melville Millionaires and Mustangs in the SJHL.
That last part almost never happened.
“I was actually supposed to coach at 20,” he says.
“I was supposed to be an assistant coach with the Regina Pats at 20, I wasn’t even going to play hockey that year. I remember Jamie Fiesel (then the coach of the Millionaires) ended up calling me, offering me an opportunity to play there in Melville. I actually had Fiesel as my U17 Canada coach as well, so I had a little bit of experience with him in Team Canada beforehand.
“I didn’t have a great start there in Melville,” he continues.
“But I got lucky enough to be traded up to Melfort. I got to have Trevor Blevins as my head coach, and I guess the rest is, as you would call it, history. So, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise that I didn’t become a coach at 20. Got to play one more year, got a championship out of it.”
Hansen played a couple of years after his junior career with the University of Regina in USports, and while he never put up huge point totals, it was all the other things that make a team win that made and still makes him special.
Take it from someone who knows.
“He is a big reason why we won when he was a player,” says Blevins, Team Canada West 2025’s head coach.
“He was detailed, he was a hard worker, and he would put his face in front of a puck if he had to, if it meant we win. He was such a glue guy in the dressing room, and he’s nothing short of that as a coach. I am very happy and proud of him for what he’s done in the game so far and what he is going to do.”
The 2025-26 campaign for the Humboldt Broncos has had its share of ups and downs.
But in Klimosko and Hansen, they are in as good hands as any team in the league, as far as the coaches are concerned.
“You like to try to take a lot of credit as a coach, but at the end of the day, those are the guys on the ice making the plays and putting the puck in the net,” the always-humble Hansen says.
“I think we just have an excellent group this year that just wants to learn, wants to get better every day. They’re taking everything we’ve given them and just running with it. But the joy of junior hockey is that it’s never going to be perfect. (All we are looking for is that) These guys are executing at a higher percentage than we were last year, and it’s been working great for us so far.”
Carter’s wife is Bobbi-Jo, and his young daughter is named Ellie.
If Hansen’s path shows anything, it’s that in the SJHL, greatness begins on both sides of the bench.
