DEVILS ANNOUNCE COACHING STAFF FOR UTICA COMETS
Jun 25, 2025Devils Announce Coaching Staff for Utica Comets
Ryan Parent Returns as Head Coach, Mark Voakes Promoted to Assistant and Matt Carkner Added as Assistant
Newark, NJ & Utica, NY, June 25, 2025 – The New Jersey Devils today announced the complete Utica Comets coaching staff for the 2025-26 season. Ryan Parent, who took over as Interim Head Coach last season, has been officially named Head Coach. Mark Voakes, who spent the past three seasons as a Player Development Coach within the organization, has been promoted to Assistant Coach and Matt Carkner has joined the organization as Assistant Coach. The staff is rounded out by returning Goaltending Coach Brian Eklund and Video Coach Brian Suslow. The announcement was made by Devils’ President/General Manager Tom Fitzgerald and Devils’ Assistant General Manager/Utica Comets General Manager Dan MacKinnon.
Parent, 38, was named Interim Head Coach for Utica on November 6, 2024, replacing Kevin Dineen. After Utica started the 2024-25 season 0-8-1, Parent took over responsibilities and coached the Comets to a 31-33-6-2 record. Parent enters his eighth season with the organization after being hired as an Assistant Coach for the Binghamton Devils (AHL) under Mark Dennehy on August 23, 2018. The assistant role under Dennehy was Parent’s first coaching job after retiring as an active player.
Voakes, 41, previously served as Player Development Coach, where he worked with New Jersey’s Director, Player Development, Meghan Duggan. He was actively engaged with Utica’s coaching staff and players, as well as the organization’s prospects at all levels, including extensively working on-ice with the AHL club this past season. A native of St. Thomas, Ontario, Voakes played 14 seasons at the professional level. The former centerman played three seasons split between the ECHL (Cincinnati, Bakersfield, and Greenville) and AHL (Portland, Rochester) from 2009-10 to 2011-12. He scored 45 points (14g-31a) in 93 career AHL games and 75 points (28g-47a) in 93 career ECHL games. Voakes played in Germany’s top professional league (DEL) in Krefeld, Wolfsburg and Munich from 2012-13 to 2020-21. Voakes played 382 career regular-season games (106g-225a=331pts) in the DEL and owned the league’s best plus/minus rating (17) during the 2015-16 campaign. Before joining New Jersey, he spent one season as a scout in the DEL with EHC München.
Carkner, 44, spent the past three seasons from 2022-23 to 2024-25 as Head Coach of Orlando in the ECHL. He compiled a 105-82-29 record during his tenure in Orlando, leading the team to two postseason berths in each of the last two seasons. Carkner began his coaching career as an assistant in the AHL with Bridgeport in 2016-17 and held the role until the end of the 2020-21 season. The Winchester, Ontario native was drafted by Montreal in the second round, 58th overall, in the 1999 NHL Draft. He played professionally at the NHL and AHL level for 15 seasons from 2001-02 to 2015-16. Overall, Carkner played in 237 career regular-season games in the NHL and tallied 27 career points (4g-23a) with 556 penalty minutes. He logged his NHL debut with San Jose in 2005-06, played for Ottawa from 2008-09 to 2011-12, and the New York Islanders from 2012-13 to 2013-14.
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