The Hockey Coaches Conference Offers Practical Insights From The Game's Top Names

Hockey coaches who are looking to get a leg up in their profession are putting their summer holidays on hold this week, gathering in Toronto to learn from some of the brightest minds in the game.

A roster of speakers and human performance experts headlined by names like San Jose Sharks coach Peter DeBoer and former Vancouver Canucks general manager Mike Gillis will be sharing their experiences and best practices with a group of coaches across all levels of hockey at the eighth annual TeamSnap Hockey Coaches Conference, presented by The Coaches Site.

“It's not uncommon for us to look out at the audience and see, say, a hockey dad in his 30s who's just starting to volunteer with his eight-year-old's team, sitting beside a Jamie Kompon of the Winnipeg Jets who's been in the NHL for 20 years,” said Aaron Wilbur, the founder of The Coaches Site, about the conference's attendees.

“It's really a cross-section, although I would say the majority of the coaches are junior, college and pro. Of the minor hockey coaches, most would be from the pee-wee rep level and above, say 13-year-olds and up.”

Conference participants attend three days of keynote lectures along with on-ice and breakout sessions that offer practical advice on how coaches can hone their skillsets. Feedback from past years helps drive the agenda. 

“We do a survey, post-event, every year,” said Wilbur. “We also reach out to our audience, usually around January, and ask them what they'd like to see.

“One thing that kept coming up is our audience has said 'The content's great but we'd love to learn how these guys teach whatever they're talking about — how they teach it to their players and what that looks like.’

“That was sort of our theme this year. We really challenged our speakers, saying 'The video that you show is great but if you can really hit home on how you transfer this to your players,’ that seemed to be really topical.”

With a coaching background himself, Vancouver-based Wilbur and three partners developed the conference to help facilitate knowledge-sharing within the coaching fraternity. “When we first did it, the idea was strictly just a chance to get some friends together that coached at higher levels, a chance to connect in the summer,” he said. “Year 1, we had 86 coaches, mainly from the Vancouver area, attend. In Year 2, we had about 190. That's kind of when the light bulb went off that hey, this is really helpful for coaches.”

Coaches from 14 different countries attended the conference in 2018. Highlights over the years have included past and present NHL coaches like Ken Hitchcock, Mike Johnston, Bob Boughner and Jim Montgomery and even one of the biggest names in hockey media, Bob McKenzie of TSN and NBC Sports.

“We’ve had people say no due to family commitments or prior engagements, but we've never had anybody just say flat-out no to us,” said Wilbur. “I think there's really a cool culture where all the people that we approach — at some point in their careers, they were at this stage where they were trying to climb the ladder and somebody helped them out or they found a resource. I think they really appreciate that we've given them a platform to give back to the community and give back to young coaches.

“I think that these coaches recognize that impact, because a lot of the coaches, they weren't NHL players. (Current New York Islanders coach and 2019 Jack Adams Award winner) Barry Trotz, you know, he's got a great story. He was invited to the Washington Capitals camp and the GM pulled him aside and said 'Just so we're clear, you have no chance of making this team. The only reason we invited you here is because we think that you might be a good minor-league leader and we think we might be able to turn you into a coach one day. You're not close to good enough.'”

Wilbur believes the unique nature of the job is part of what makes coaches so willing to give back. “A lot of these guys, for years and years, to climb the ladder and get to where they are, they've made no money, they've been fired, their wives and kids and have been dragged across the country,” he said. “I think coaching is a fraternity because everybody realizes how hard it is. I think all these guys recognize that when they went chasing for it, it's a risk.

“Being a sports coach is one of the most unique professions,” he continued. “If anybody went to their parents when they were graduating from university and said ‘Hey, I want to jump into a career where there's very little pay, there's zero job security, I'm probably going to have to move every couple of years’ — nobody would do that. But coaches do it, so it's really cool to see how they all connect when they're in the same room.”

On Thursday, San Jose Sharks coach Peter DeBoer will wrap up Day 1 by taking attendees through the power-play strategy he used when his team erased its 3-0 Game 7 deficit against the Vegas Golden Knights last April, and ultimately advanced to the Western Conference Final.

Day 2 is headlined by former Vancouver Canucks general manager Mike Gillis, who will share what he has learned after two years of travelling the world, soaking up knowledge from the top sports organization around the globe. The final day of the conference wraps up with a talk by Rikard Gronborg, the super-successful former coach of the Swedish national team who played college hockey and started his coaching career in the U.S. In addition to talking about his experiences with Team Sweden, he'll also explain how he considers himself a ‘hybrid’ European/North American coach.

The reach of the conference now extends well beyond Toronto, with videos of the talks and other resources available to coaches around the world through the subscription component of The Coaches Site.

“We've got about a third of NCAA Division 1 programs on the platform, the entire British Ice Hockey Assocation is on the platform, the South Africa Ice Hockey Association uses it,” said Wilbur. “It's really become kind of a global resource.

“Certainly the conference — it's great to be here in person, especially from a networking perspective. But in terms of the coaching and education, the website has become something that we're really proud of. It's interesting, because we'll have a lot of coaches now — they just show the presentations right to the kids or right to their players; they'll stream it right off the site.

“We feel like we're onto something, but we also think that there's a lot of room to grow with what we can do digitally and how we can engage, not just with coaches. We're finding parents are starting to sign up too, so that they become more educated. That's cool to see.”

Even after eight years, Wilbur's excitement over the unique learning experience that the conference delivers hasn't faded. “Anybody that's a fan of our sport, when you see it through the lens of some of these guys, it's pretty incredible how in-depth and passionate they are and how much they care about the game,” he said. “It's great to see.”

The Hockey Coaches Conference runs from July 18-20 at Ryerson University, with on-ice sessions at Mattamy Centre (formerly Maple Leafs Gardens).