Jason Smith - Men's Ice Hockey Coach - Brown University Athletics

Jason Smith

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
jason_smith1@brown.edu
Joined Brown:
September 2019
Alma Mater:
Salem State '98

Jason Smith enters his seventh season as an assistant coach with the Brown men's hockey program in 2025-26.

The 2024-25 season saw the Bears host a home playoff game for the first time since 2019, a 3-2 victory over Princeton, in the most successful season in two decades on College Hill. The Bears swept Clarkson and St. Lawrence on the road for the first time since 2004 and just the third time in program history. Brown took a home win over both teams to complete the season sweeps - the first time Brown has swept both the Golden Knights and Saints in the same season. It marked the first season sweep over Clarkson since 2009-10 and just the fourth in program history.

Brown also posted a five-game winning streak in January 2025, marking the first five-game streak since the 2009-10 season and just the fifth dating back to the start of the 1977-78 season. The Bears also swept the regular season series against Yale for the first time since 2004-05 and just the fifth time since the start of the 1979-80 campaign.

Three Bears picked up All-ECAC honors with Lawton Zacher earning Second Team recognition, Tyler Kopff earning Third Team honors, and Brian Nicholas earning All-Rookie recognition. Additionally, Alex Pineau was named a finalist for the ECAC Best Defensive Defenseman Award and Max Scott was named a finalist for the Best Defensive Forward Award. The Bears also picked up five All-Ivy honorees and matched Cornell with two First Team selections in Kopff and Zacher. Pineau and Ryan St. Louis picked up All-IVy recognition for the second consecutive year and Scott also earned an All-Ivy nod.

Two freshmen: Lawton Zacher and Max Scott, earned spots on the HCA Tim Taylor Rookie of the Year Award Watch List in 2023-24 in addition to transfer Ryan St. Louis earning Walter Brown Award semifinalist honors and a Hobey Baker Memorial Award nomination. Additionally, freshman Alex Pineau and St. Louis earned All-Ivy accolades after breakout seasons with the Bears.

The Bears produced offensively in 2022-23, finishing the season with 65 goals for, the most since the 2018-19 season. Brown also tallied 17 power play goals, the most since 2017-18, with James Crossman recording six power play goals.

Freshman Ryan Bottrill was the first rookie since 2015-16 to finish the season with 20 or more points. The Chandler, Arizona native finished the 2022-23 campaign with 21 points and a spot on the HCA Tim Taylor Rookie of the Year Award Watch List.

Smith comes to College Hill after spending six seasons at Northeastern, including the last five as assistant coach, where he oversaw the Huskies' defense and penalty-killing unit, and also worked with student-athletes as their academic liaison. Smith has helped lead the Huskies to a 90-50-16 (.628) record over the last four seasons, including tying the school record for victories in a season in 2018-19 with 27. In that time, Northeastern captured a pair of Hockey East tournament championships in 2016 and 2019, and earned NCAA berths in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Before Northeastern, Smith spent six years as an assistant coach at Holy Cross, where he served as the recruiting coordinator and worked with all positions with an emphasis on forwards. He came to Holy Cross from Babson College, where he spent four seasons as an assistant coach, helping the program to the ECAC East Championship and the NCAA Tournament. He previously served as an assistant coach for Salem State College for four years.

A native of West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Smith graduated from Salem State in 1998 where he was a three-year member of the hockey team and was a captain as a junior and senior. Smith led the team in scoring in the 1996-97 season. He previously played at Massachusetts during the 1993-94 season.