Heading into his second season of leading the Herd, Rud brings years of coaching experience to Sioux Falls, most recently at Division I Miami University, where he had spent three season as an associate head coach with the Redhawks of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). Prior to that, Rud spent five seasons as the head coach of the St. Cloud State’s women’s hockey program.
A former assistant coach with the St. Cloud State University men's hockey team from 2005 to 2010, Rud served as an assistant men's hockey coach at Colorado College from 2011 to 2014. During Rud’s stint as an assistant for SCSU’s men’s team, Rud recruited several Husky standouts including former Stampede forward Andreas Nodl as well as Hobey Baker winner Drew LeBlanc, Ryan Lasch (Hobey Baker Award top 10 finalist), Garrett Roe, Nick Jensen and Nic Dowd (Hobey Baker Award top 3 finalist). In Rud's time at St. Cloud State, the Huskies advanced to the NCAA tournament three times and also advanced to the championship game of the NCAA West Regional in 2010.
During the 2010-11 season, Rud served as head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. Under this guidance, the Gamblers posted 41 victories and advanced to the Clark Cup Final.
Prior to his coaching days, Rud played in the USHL with the Des Moines Buccaneers from 1991 to 1993 where he won a Clark Cup title and was named USHL Player of the Year in during the 1992-93 campaign. A graduate of Colorado College, Rud was a two-time team captain and two-time WCHA Defensive Player of the Year for the Tigers during his collegiate playing career. He went on to play professional hockey from 1997 to 2002, and served as a player assistant coach with the Florida Everblades in 1999-2000 and with the Idaho Steelheads from 2000 to 2002. He joined the coaching ranks as an assistant with the USHL's Cedar Rapids Roughriders from 2002 to 2004 and was an assistant coach at Colorado College in 2004-05.
He has worked extensively with the USA Hockey program throughout his career and served as the head coach of the 2008 USA U-17 boys team in the Slovakia Four Nations Cup and the 2009 USA U-18 boys team at the Czech Republic Ivan Hlinka Cup.
Eric and his wife, Amy, have three children, Sam, a member of the Stampede's scouting team, Gabbie, a junior forward for the Cornell Women's Hockey team, and Max, who played as a defenseman for the Stampede from 2020-2023 and is now with the University of Minnesota.
