Head Coach Carla MacLeod in the dressing room of the Czech women’s national team that historically won bronze at the 2022 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship.
photo: Andrea Cardin / HHOF-IIHF Images
The recent announcement that “Iron Mike” Keenan, whose singular reputation precedes him, will be coaching the men’s Italian team, adds another name to a list of coaches from “Big Six” teams who have taken on the challenge of guiding teams outside – and sometimes WAY outside – that group of top nations.
One need look no further than the history of Italian coaches, from Canadians Billy Harris in the 1970s to Bryan Lefley, Rick Cornacchia, and Clayton Beddoes. Cornacchia, though, is a particularly timely reference. The 71-year-old was born in Italy but moved to Canada when he was a child and played hockey at the University of Toronto. A playing career never panned out, but by the early 1980s he started coaching in the OHL, and in 1992 he was behind the bench for Canada at the World Junior Championship. Canada finished a disappointing 6th with a roster that included Scott Niedermayer, Eric Lindros, and Paul Kariya. Cornacchia later coached Italy at the men’s Worlds in 2011 and 2012, and in 2022 he was the head coach of... Mexico. The team finished 5th in Division II-B, so who knows where Cornacchia’s next move might be.
You might say as Canada is to Italy so Sweden is to Denmark. The smaller hockey nation made it back to the top in 2003 after an absence of 54 years and for most of the last two decades has favoured a Swede behind the bench, notably Mikael Lundstrom (2003-06), Per Backman (2009-13), and Jan Karlsson (2014-18).
Just as some countries favour a nationality for a coach, some coaches favour international hockey to domestic. Think about Glen Hanlon, for instance. The goalie had a fine NHL 14-year career but never played for Canada at an IIHF event. Nevertheless, he has coached in Europe extensively over the last two decades, from Belarus (four years), Slovakia (two years), and Switzerland (one year) at the World Championship, to domestic stints in Hungary, Czechia, and Italy.
Christian Yngve has a similar resume, dotted with passport-stamped experience around the globe. He made his reputation with Sweden’s women, coaching between 1990 and 2002 and culminating with a stunning bronze at the Salt Lake Olympics. After that, however, he has coached around the world, from Austria to Spain and, most recently, Hong Kong at the 2018 and 2019 Women’s Worlds Division II-B Qualification.
Jakob Kolliker is a Swiss name well-known in international hockey circles. He is a member of the IIHF’s Hall of Fame (2007) and played for the Swiss at the 1976 and 1988 Olympics. He coached the Swiss U20 team every year but one from 2000-10 and then took on the German national team for the 2012 World Championship, finishing 12th. But in 2019 he took two jobs in China, coaching their U20 team on the men’s side (Division III) and the women’s team in Division IB as well.
Ted Nolan and Pat Cortina are two other Canadian men who have made careers coaching a variety of teams in Europe, Cortina most recently with Hungary’s women at the just-completed Women’s Worlds in Herning years after having coach their men’s team. A colleague and adversary in Herning was none other than Carla MacLeod. She won gold with Canada at the 2006 and 2010 Olympics as a player and took on a Czechia team that had established itself in Group B of the Women’s Worlds but hadn’t been able to take that next step. Until this year. Under MacLeod’s inspired leadership, Czechia won its first ever medal at the WW, beating Switzerland 4-2 in the bronze-medal game.
Lisa Haley and Sarah Murray are two other Canadian women who were hired by smaller European nations. Haley took on the challenge in Hungary in 2021, before Cortina, and Murray more famously in Korea for the 2018 Olympics when she led a blended team of players from the North and South.
Jean Perron is a name North Americans know as the man who coached Montreal to a Stanley Cup in 1986. But many years later, he wound up behind the bench of the national team of Israel for eight years, taking them as high as Division II-A in 2014. He also coached the U18 team there for three years (2005-07).
Indeed, hockey is a worldly sport but it’s a sport of connections and contacts, successes and timing, which is how and why coaches move around. They met a person who met a person...
How else can you explain how Arto Sieppi, a long-time coach and general manager of men’s teams in Finland, becomes the coach of a women’s U18 team in Japan? How does a Czech-born Pavel Arnost wind up coaching the Kuwait national team in 2018 and 2019? American Keith McAdams lands in Türkiye, and German Bernd Haake has a decade-long run in Lithuania first with the men, then with the women’s national team? And Petr Fical, who represented Germany at the 2004 World Cup, 2006 Olympics, and three World Championships, has been behind the bench of tiny Luxembourg for the past five World Championships, moving as high as Division II-B.
Coaching is coaching. Some teams look to try to improve their results, some to help develop the game or train coaches from within. But a coach’s life isn’t just about the NHL or the Olympics or the top tiers. There are 84 Member National Associations in the IIHF, and when they play in a tournament, they all need one thing above all else – a coach. And the phone is always ringing.
One need look no further than the history of Italian coaches, from Canadians Billy Harris in the 1970s to Bryan Lefley, Rick Cornacchia, and Clayton Beddoes. Cornacchia, though, is a particularly timely reference. The 71-year-old was born in Italy but moved to Canada when he was a child and played hockey at the University of Toronto. A playing career never panned out, but by the early 1980s he started coaching in the OHL, and in 1992 he was behind the bench for Canada at the World Junior Championship. Canada finished a disappointing 6th with a roster that included Scott Niedermayer, Eric Lindros, and Paul Kariya. Cornacchia later coached Italy at the men’s Worlds in 2011 and 2012, and in 2022 he was the head coach of... Mexico. The team finished 5th in Division II-B, so who knows where Cornacchia’s next move might be.
You might say as Canada is to Italy so Sweden is to Denmark. The smaller hockey nation made it back to the top in 2003 after an absence of 54 years and for most of the last two decades has favoured a Swede behind the bench, notably Mikael Lundstrom (2003-06), Per Backman (2009-13), and Jan Karlsson (2014-18).
Just as some countries favour a nationality for a coach, some coaches favour international hockey to domestic. Think about Glen Hanlon, for instance. The goalie had a fine NHL 14-year career but never played for Canada at an IIHF event. Nevertheless, he has coached in Europe extensively over the last two decades, from Belarus (four years), Slovakia (two years), and Switzerland (one year) at the World Championship, to domestic stints in Hungary, Czechia, and Italy.
Christian Yngve has a similar resume, dotted with passport-stamped experience around the globe. He made his reputation with Sweden’s women, coaching between 1990 and 2002 and culminating with a stunning bronze at the Salt Lake Olympics. After that, however, he has coached around the world, from Austria to Spain and, most recently, Hong Kong at the 2018 and 2019 Women’s Worlds Division II-B Qualification.
Jakob Kolliker is a Swiss name well-known in international hockey circles. He is a member of the IIHF’s Hall of Fame (2007) and played for the Swiss at the 1976 and 1988 Olympics. He coached the Swiss U20 team every year but one from 2000-10 and then took on the German national team for the 2012 World Championship, finishing 12th. But in 2019 he took two jobs in China, coaching their U20 team on the men’s side (Division III) and the women’s team in Division IB as well.
Ted Nolan and Pat Cortina are two other Canadian men who have made careers coaching a variety of teams in Europe, Cortina most recently with Hungary’s women at the just-completed Women’s Worlds in Herning years after having coach their men’s team. A colleague and adversary in Herning was none other than Carla MacLeod. She won gold with Canada at the 2006 and 2010 Olympics as a player and took on a Czechia team that had established itself in Group B of the Women’s Worlds but hadn’t been able to take that next step. Until this year. Under MacLeod’s inspired leadership, Czechia won its first ever medal at the WW, beating Switzerland 4-2 in the bronze-medal game.
Lisa Haley and Sarah Murray are two other Canadian women who were hired by smaller European nations. Haley took on the challenge in Hungary in 2021, before Cortina, and Murray more famously in Korea for the 2018 Olympics when she led a blended team of players from the North and South.
Jean Perron is a name North Americans know as the man who coached Montreal to a Stanley Cup in 1986. But many years later, he wound up behind the bench of the national team of Israel for eight years, taking them as high as Division II-A in 2014. He also coached the U18 team there for three years (2005-07).
Indeed, hockey is a worldly sport but it’s a sport of connections and contacts, successes and timing, which is how and why coaches move around. They met a person who met a person...
How else can you explain how Arto Sieppi, a long-time coach and general manager of men’s teams in Finland, becomes the coach of a women’s U18 team in Japan? How does a Czech-born Pavel Arnost wind up coaching the Kuwait national team in 2018 and 2019? American Keith McAdams lands in Türkiye, and German Bernd Haake has a decade-long run in Lithuania first with the men, then with the women’s national team? And Petr Fical, who represented Germany at the 2004 World Cup, 2006 Olympics, and three World Championships, has been behind the bench of tiny Luxembourg for the past five World Championships, moving as high as Division II-B.
Coaching is coaching. Some teams look to try to improve their results, some to help develop the game or train coaches from within. But a coach’s life isn’t just about the NHL or the Olympics or the top tiers. There are 84 Member National Associations in the IIHF, and when they play in a tournament, they all need one thing above all else – a coach. And the phone is always ringing.