He was once a Dalhousie Tiger, now he’s a National Hockey League head coach. Paul Maclean, who played for the Dal Hockey Tigers in 1977-78 and helped win the school’s only championship, is the new head coach of the Ottawa Senators.
Mr. MacLean, served as the honourary chair of the Dal Golf Classic in 2008, the same year he hoisted the Stanley Cup as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings. At that time he told Dalhousie Magazine he had fond memories of his brief time on campus, “We accomplished something that day (winning the AUAA championship) that linked us all and we walk through time together.”
After leaving the Tigers, Mr. MacLean enjoyed a successful playing career. Suiting up for three NHL teams over 10 seasons, he scored 324 goals and 349 assists. Injuries forced an early retirement in 1991.
Mr. MacLean’s coaching career got a kick-start two years later as head coach of the minor league Peoria Rivermen. In 2001 he won the UHL championship while coaching the Quad City Mallards and eventually found himself back in the NHL as an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks, and eventually the Detroit Red Wings.
In Ottawa he will take over a team that has fallen on hard times since making the Stanley Cup final in 2007. Last year’s 74-point performance was the club’s worst since 1996.
At an introductory media conference Mr. MacLean touched on some key philosophies he will bring to the nation’s capital including implementing a physical style of play and having open lines of communication, “Communication with the players is important in empowering them and having them invest in what you're trying to do and what you're trying to accomplish.”
Being one of only 30 NHL head coaches, Mr. MacLean has reached the pinnacle of his hockey career. His approach to life’s challenges, conveyed in the 2008 interview, appears to still be paying off today, “I’ve never been afraid to try something new…experience only makes you better.”
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