Grand Haven’s Dan Bylsma named head coach for Sochi

By Michael Caples –

During a press conference to announce their Olympic team head coach, USA Hockey president Ron DeGregorio said that the governing body for hockey in our country expects nothing but the best in Sochi.

“Hockey in our country has come to the point where winning the gold medal is not a miracle, it’s an expectation.”

The man in charge of guiding the team towards that potential gold medal is Grand Haven native Dan Bylsma.

The head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins was officially announced as head coach of the 2014 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team today in a press conference held in New York.

“I’m excited beyond what words can properly describe,” Bylsma said in a release. “It is an unbelievable honor to be selected to represent our country as the coach of the Olympic men’s hockey team. Together with our coaching staff and management group, I will do everything I can to prepare our team to be in a position to win gold in Sochi.”

Bylsma, the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, grew up in Michigan before a hockey career – both playing and coaching – took him across North America. The Grand Haven native played four seasons for legendary college hockey coach Jerry York at Bowling Green from 1988-92 before moving on to the professional ranks.

“In Dan, we’ve chosen someone that has had terrific success and relates well to players,” said USA Hockey Olympic team GM and Nashville Predators GM David Poile. “We’re extremely pleased and I know that our entire management group looks forward to working with him and his staff.”

In a professional career that spanned over a decade, Bylsma first cracked a NHL line-up in the 1995-96 season, playing four games with the Los Angeles Kings. He would spend parts of five seasons with the Kings before heading to Anaheim organization, where he played until retiring in 2004.

Bylsma moved immediately behind the bench, serving as an assistant coach for the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks in 2004-05, the last team he was a player for. The next season, he served as an assistant coach for the New York Islanders, then spent two seasons as an assistant coach for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Bylsma was promoted to head coach of the AHL program in 2008, and didn’t last a year before the parent club called him up to take over as the Penguins’ bench boss. In the same season, Bylsma lead the Penguins to a Stanley Cup championship.

The Grand Haven native was named the 2010-11 recipient of the Jack Adams Award for the NHL’s best coach. He reached 200 career NHL wins faster than any other coach in league history.

Bylsma led the Penguins to a 36-12-0 record in the shortened 2013 season.