Love Hockey? The Colorado Eagles Have a New Head Coach and Some Great New Players

The Colorado Eagles, based out of Loveland, have been in existence since 2003, when they began in the Central Hockey League. Since 2003, they've had seven official Head Coaches; for the 2026-2027 season, the AHL team hired Jussi Ahokas as Head Coach.

Who is the Colorado Eagles' New Head Coach, Jussi Ahokas?

Jussi Ahokas is from Finland, where his head-coaching career (after a brief stint as a player) began in 2004. Most recently, before joining the Colorado Eagles, he was the Head Coach of the Kitchener Rangers for three years (2023-2026); the Rangers won the 2026 CHL Memorial Cup (Ahokas was the first European Head Coach to win the Memorial Cup).

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Ahokas has won 12 medals for his Head-Coaching abilities, including European Coach of the Year, the Ontario Hockey League Coach of the Year, the Liiga (Finnish Hockey League) Coach of the Year, and an Olympic Bronze Medal (Video Coach, Team Finland Women).

Colorado Eagles Celebrate Six New Players to the 2026-2027 Team

In an email from the Colorado Eagles to Corporate Partners (such as Townsquare Media), the team highlighted six new additions to the team:

• Ilya Nabokov #30: The 38^th overall pick of the Avs in the 2024 NHL draft, this young Russian goaltender is one of the top prospects in the organization and posted a shutout in his first AHL game on October 3, 2026.
• Vinnie Hinostroza #18: A new veteran forward who has played nearly 500 NHL games in his career.
• Adam Beckman #34: One of the league's top offensive weapons who netted 30 goals in the 2025-2026 season with the Bridgeport Islanders.
• Domenick Fensore #3: An offensive defenseman who has put up 19 goals from the blue line between 2024 and 2026 and registered three assists in the Eagles' win over Tucson on October 4, 2026.
• Yanik Turcotte #20: One of the toughest enforcers in the AHL, he led the Chicago Wolves with 130 penalty minutes last season and dropped the gloves for his first fight as an Eagle on October 4, 2026, against the Roadrunners.
• Christian Wolanin #86: A premier AHL defenseman who won a Calder Cup with Abbotsford in 2025 and captured the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL's Best Defenseman in 2022-23.

The new additions join existing Eagles standout veterans such as Jayson Megna, Wyatt Aamodt, Keaton Middleton, Tristen Nielsen and Trent Miner.