Former North Dakota standout Jason Ulmer is in his fifth season as a volunteer assistant coach in 2023-24 after serving a two-year stint as a student manager, having joined the staff in Aug. 2016 after retiring from a 15-year professional playing career.
He helps mentor North Dakota centers in owning the faceoff dot, something the program has done on a regular basis since he arrived on campus.
UND once again ranked among the top-3 for faceoff percentage in the NCHC in 2022-23, sitting at 52.1 percent and ranking 19th in the nation. Sophomore Jake Schmaltz boasted a 56.1 winning percentage and 397 total victories to sit among the top-20 in the nation for both categories.
Ulmer helped the Fighting Hawks rank third in the nation and tops in the NCHC with a .556 faceoff winning percentage in 2021-22. Led by Connor Ford, he led the league with 359 wins during league action and paced the nation with 587 overall victories and a 62.4 winning percentage, the best in program history at North Dakota.
The team posted a .541 faceoff win percentage, fifth-best in the country in 2019-20. He worked with freshman Shane Pinto, who would lead UND in faceoff percentage at .611, second-highest produced by a UND player in a single season. That clip included a .639 win percentage in the second half for the Ottawa Senators prospect. Sophomore Jasper Weatherby also benefited from Ulmer's tutelage, winning 58.9 percent of his draws last season, sixth-best in school history.
Ulmer was a four-year letterwinner at UND from 1996-97 to 1999-2000, winning NCAA championships during both his freshman and senior seasons. In 146 career games, Ulmer amassed 33 goals and 69 assists for 102 points at center and wing and earned All-Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) honors as a senior.
Following his graduation from UND, the Wilcox, Saskatchewan, native embarked on a lengthy pro career that included stints in both North America (AHL, IHL, UHL) and Europe (Finland, Germany, Austria). In all, Ulmer played in 892 career games as a pro and collected 220 goals and 487 assists for 707 points.
He and his wife, Erin, a former volleyball player at UND, have three children: Tyson, Caden and Kyla.
