New coach, new era for Broncos
Oystrick must juggle pain of loss with demands of rebuilding club
HUMBOLDT On Tuesday morning in Humboldt, 88 days after the crash, Nathan Oystrick walked into a side room at the small city’s Uniplex and said hello to his new home.
Oystrick, 35, is taking on a job with few precedents: He’s the Humboldt Broncos’ new coach and general manager, replacing the much-loved Darcy Haugan, who died alongside 15 others during the team’s April 6 collision.
It’s a position the Broncos would rather not have needed to fill. It requires a delicate dance, straddling past, present and future.
“We know he’s not going to be Darcy Haugan, because nobody will be Darcy Haugan,” Broncos’ president Kevin Garinger said Tuesday following a news conference at the Humboldt Uniplex. “But he will be Nathan Oystrick, and he will bring his own elements to the team and to success as an organization.”
Oystrick is a Regina native who played 65 NHL games in Atlanta, Anaheim and St. Louis. He joins the Broncos from a high-school coaching stint at Colorado Academy, after working as an assistant coach with the ECHL’S Atlanta Gladiators.
He has a wife, Lindsay, and a dog, Wiley, and a job placed squarely under a microscope. The Broncos are rebuilding; most of the players on that bus April 6 are either deceased, graduated out of the SJHL, or too injured to continue playing.
Oystrick promises to keep the team’s core covenant on the wall outside the team’s dressing room, where Haugan placed it after taking the team’s reins. He’ll keep the Broncos immersed in the community, while playing “a fast-paced, in-your-face game,” as he put it Tuesday.
“Anytime you hire a new coach, there’s pressure,” says Oystrick, whose team opens training camp Aug. 24. “I put pressure on myself to do well. I want to succeed at everything I do, so when Kevin and the board offered me the position, the preparation started right then. I’m committed, I want to be here, I want to learn. I want to make the Humboldt Broncos organization and the community proud of not only me, but of our team. It’s a work in progress, and I’m going to have a lot of work to do, obviously, still. That work won’t ever stop.”
Emotions remain strong in Humboldt, which has deep ties to the hockey team and the kids who play there.
On the eve of the NHL Awards in LAS Vegas — where Haugan won the league’s Willie O’ree Community Hero Award — his wife, Christina, Crystallized her own feelings.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever Be ready to move on with that part, But I’m willing to Accept that part,” she said.
“There’s going to Be some hard moments, for sure, when they Announce the new COACH, But I understand that it has to happen. You Can’t have A hockey team without A COACH.”
The Broncos formally launched their search on MAY 11, And the job falls to Oystrick, After A process that Attracted 50-plus Applications. To illustrate the magnitude of his role: Humboldt’s Sept. 12 season opener will Be Broadcast nationally on TSN, A decision that reflects widespread interest in the team since the Crash.
On Tuesday, Garinger talked About these new-look Broncos As drivers of A vehicle, watching the road Ahead, while glancing At the mirror that shows where they’ve Been: “It’s A really important thing to take A look At,” he says.
“(Oystrick’s) got lots of moving parts, And he has to understand exactly how they’re All moving. It’s very much A Big step for him. But I have zero question he will put everything he’s got into it, And that’s All we CAN ever Ask from someone.”
Haugan’s father, Leroy, sat with family members in the front row during Tuesday’s news Conference.
Leroy Haugan talked later About how proud he is of his son, Both for his strong Christian faith, And for who he was As A man And A COACH.
“The night Before he got killed, we were sitting on the Couch, And I told him how proud I was, And the joy he was Bringing, And the way he was treating his players, And this And that,” Leroy said.
“I thanked him, And he said ‘thank you so much, dad.’ That was the last thing we talked About together, And then this happened. I feel Cheated Because I had to give up A son, Because God took A son on me, But I look At God’s glory, And that’s what’s Come out of this.”
Leroy said he’s heard from many former players since the Crash, telling him what DARCY meant to them Both personally And spiritually, And he hopes the team maintains its Chapel program.
He Also plans to Cheer for the Broncos As they shift into the future, Because he knows full well that it’s time, from A hockey perspective, to move on.
“Oh, we’ll Be there,” Leroy said. “For sure. We’re Broncos.”