Evan Trupp
Evan Trupp, a longtime staple in the city’s hockey community who played for Service High and the Alaska Aces, is the new bench boss for the Anchorage Wolverines.
Trupp today was named head coach of the junior hockey team, replacing Mike Aikens who left for the college ranks and took a job as an assistant coach at St. Lawrence University in New York.
Last season, Aikens led the first-year Wolverines to the North American Hockey League’s Robertson Cup Final, losing 3-0 to the New Jersey Titans in a winner-take-all title game.
Anchorage finished third in the Midwest Division at 33-19-8 and then went 8-2 in the playoffs – falling one game shy of becoming the first NAHL expansion team in 36 years to hoist the Robertson Cup.
Trupp was an assistant last season and moves up to the top spot for Year 2 for the Wolverines, who will look noticeably different than last season with four notable figures gone in Aikens, goaltender Raythan Robbins and forwards Talon Sigurdson and Matt Johnson.
Cam Morris
Robbins, of Anchorage, ranked sixth in the NAHL with a 2.27 goals-against average and was the catalyst in the team’s postseason push with a 1.89 GAA in 10 games, signed with the University of Nebraska Omaha.
Sigurdson, the leading scorer with 38-21–58 totals, signed with Arizona State and Johnson (20-23–43) signed with UAA.
But the cupboard isn’t empty for Trupp, who welcomes back the terrific trio of homegrown skaters Cameron Morris, Aiden Westin and Cooper Morris.
Cam Morris (11-44–55) is a forward who ranked sixth in the NAHL with 44 assists, including 12 on the power play. He furnished nine points in 10 playoff games.
Aiden Westin
Westin (21-30–51) was the team’s second-leading goal scorer and racked up six game winners.
Manning the blue line, defenseman Cooper Morris (1-36–37) was second on the team with assists, including 15 on special teams.
And then there’s Trupp, one of the state’s greatest college players from Alaska. He was a two-time WCHA champion at the University of North Dakota, where he amassed 108 points in 157 career games and was named 2010 Final Five MVP.
In 2013, Trupp helped the Alaska Aces win the ECHL Brabham Cup as regular-season champion.
The NAHL regular season gets started tomorrow.