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Photo by Sam Harrel

Dallas Ferguson said he thought the time was right to apply to be next head hockey coach of his alma mater.

The 35-year-old native of Wainwright, Alberta, has already taken the progression trip for the Alaska Nanooks.

He was a 104-point defenseman with the Central Collegiate Hockey Association program from 1992-96. After four years of professional hockey, he returned to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to graduate with a business administration degree in 2000.

After two seasons as an assistant coach for the Fairbanks Ice Dogs of the junior A-level North American Hockey League, he joined the Nanooks coaching staff in 2004-05. On April 10, he was named the Alaska interim head coach following Doc DelCastillo’s resignation after just one season at the helm.

Ferguson wants to be the eighth head coach in Alaska’s 28-year history at the NCAA level.

“This isn’t a position that I’m taking on as my first head coaching job to get to me my next head coaching job,” Ferguson said. “This is the career track I set for myself six years ago. This is where I want to be for a long time and I feel this is my time.”

Ferguson and his wife, Tara, have a 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Peyton, and Tara is pregnant with their second daughter, who’s due in June.

DelCastillo’s predecessor with the Nanooks, Tavis MacMillan, now a U.S. amateur scout for the National Hockey League’s Atlanta Thrashers, described Ferguson as a dream assistant coach.

“What’s great about Dallas is he’s incredibly organized,” MacMillan said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “Whatever I delegated to him, I had complete confidence that it would not only be done right, but it would be done on time.”

Ferguson has taken pride in whatever roles he has had with the Nanooks coaching staff — whether it be working with defensemen in a practice at the Patty Center, arranging for team meals on a road trip or recruiting.

“There’s so many things that go into making a program successful,” he said, “and a lot of it has nothing to do with when you’re at the hockey rink.”

Kyle Jones, who’s entering his senior season as an Alaska right wing, hopes Ferguson gets to take on the role of Nanooks head coach.

“He’s been a big influence throughout my hockey career for Alaska,” said Jones, among 75 people at a public forum at the Carlson Center. “I’ve really looked up to him, and he’s got a lot of insight and knowledge of the game. I think he’s got a good shot at this and he’s qualified for the spot.”

Ferguson knows that for Alaska to be successful, he has help it improve offensively. The 9-21-5 Nanooks averaged 2.29 goals per game in 2007-08, ranking 11th in the 12-team CCHA.

“My approach offensively is I think we have guys who can create offense, but they have to create offense in their own way,” he said. “Dion Knelsen and Dustin Sather are able to create offense by creativity, by their skill set and things like that; but I think we also have players on the team that that’s not their strength. But I do believe they can create offense in other ways.

“A third-line guy can go out and forecheck and gain territory and eventually earn his offense in a different manner.”

Knelson, a junior center and a member of the search committee for the head hockey coach, led Alaska this past season with 33 points and Sather, a freshman wing, ranked fourth with 23.

Ferguson researched the top-10 scorers for the Nanooks over the past five seasons. He compared the No. 10 scorer this past season and in 2003-04, Guy Gadowsky’s final season as Alaska head coach before he moved into the same role at Princeton.

Senior wing Cory Rask’s 15 points were 10th best for the Nanooks in 2003-04 and wing Ryan Muspratt’s seven points in his senior season ranked likewise for the 2007-08 team.

The Nanooks, in the past few seasons, have relied on a few players to carry the offensive load. Ferguson wants to rely on depth.

“We’re not a program that can rely on three or four guys like I think we have been,” he said. “We have to start creating and developing depth in our offensive attack.”

Ferguson hasn’t decided yet who will help him develop the Nanooks if he’s named head coach.

This was John Rose’s first season as a Nanooks assistant coach after he spent the previous three with Mercyhurst (Pa.) College, and Lance West was a volunteer assistant coach and the video coordinator in 2007-08 following a long career as an Alabama-Huntsville assistant.

“For me, stepping into the head coaching position, I think it’s important to start immediately with my staff on what my expectations are, what I feel their responsibilities are,” he said. “This isn’t something you figure out as you go along. To me, it’s something I need to have a direct plan of what I want and I need to have the right guys in there.

“I’m not saying they’re (Rose and West) not the right guys, but what I’m saying is I need to know in my mind ... and I have an idea of what I’m looking for and what I want, and there will be discussions between us.”

Ferguson hasn’t determined his plans if he’s not named the head coach.

DelCastillo offered Ferguson an assistant coach position last year after the former Nebraska-Omaha assistant became the Alaska head coach. It’s not known if the other head coaching finalist, Kevin Patrick, who has his public forum from 5:30-6:30 p.m. today at the Carlson Center, would do likewise if he’s hired to guide the Nanooks.

“I think that’s something that will be addressed then. I’m not thinking like that,” he said. “I feel 100 percent in my heart that I’m the right guy for this job.”