Euro coaches on the periphery
NHL JOBS: With more players coming overseas, clubs could look for coaching help too
Rikard Gronborg, who was born in a town just south of Stockholm, went to Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University on a hockey scholarship.
He has coached minor-pro teams in Montana and Texas and spent a year as an assistant coach with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs. He even played a couple of years of professional roller hockey in Arizona.
In September, the 47-year-old head coach of Sweden at the world junior championship will take over the men’s team at the World Cup of Hockey.
After that, an NHL job could be on the horizon.
“I hope so,” said Gronborg, whose team lost 2-1 to Finland in the semifinals Monday and will play the U.S. for the bronze medal. “I think there are quite a few good coaches here — especially Finland’s Jukka Jalonen and Russia has a pretty good one in Valeri Bragin — who could coach in the NHL. But I think unfortunately a lot of European coaches are overlooked.
“I hope that someone in North America realizes that there are a lot of good coaches here.”
There were two European-born head coaches in the NHL in 2000-01. Finland’s Alpo Suhonen was coaching the Chicago Blackhawks and Ivan Hlinka was behind the bench for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They combined for just 168 games, with Suhonen forced out because of a heart problem and Hlinka fired one week into the 2001-02 season after losing the first four games.
Since then, the NHL has had European-born assistant coaches such as Ulf Samuelsson (New York Rangers) and Tommy Albelin (New Jersey Devils). But no general manager has been willing to hand over the team to someone born outside North America.
However, with Finnish-born Jarmo Kekalainen as the GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets, some believe it is only a matter of time before another European gets hired.
“I would say it’s coming,” said Finland head coach Jalonen, whose team will play Russia Tuesday for world junior gold. “In the next five years, yes. But you have to work at it and get your name out there. I don’t think they’re coming to me. You have to go there and sell yourself. It’s the only way.”
“Maybe it will happen one day,” said Denmark head coach Olaf Eller, whose son Lars is a forward with the Montreal Canadiens. “I think if given the chance, most European coaches would take that chance. I’m one of them.”
With so many Russians, Swedes and Finns playing in the NHL — of the 854 players who have appeared in a game this season, 235 were born in Europe — there are obvious benefits to having a European behind the bench. But there are also concerns. Chief among them is the European game, played on a larger ice surface, is so different than the type of hockey played in North America.
“It would take a lot to stick your neck out there as a GM,” said U.S. head coach Ron Wilson, who believes a European-born coach would have to first prove himself in the American Hockey League or as an assistant. “I don’t know personality-wise if a European could handle the stress of an NHL career. It’s really hard, when you think about it. These guys over here don’t coach as many games.
“They’re more like a football schedule and we’re more like on a marathon. I don’t think they could do that.”
Gronborg, who lived in the U.S. for 20 years and speaks without an accent, disagrees. He believes that coming from Europe actually gives him an advantage over more traditional coaches.
When he coached in the WHL and for teams in college and minor-pro leagues, he brought over ideas that other coaches had not thought of. He also took back ideas to Sweden that have made him a sort of “hybrid coach,” he said.
“What I think I took away from the North American style of coaching is just the meticulous preparations before the game, whether with video and everything else, as well as on-the-bench coaching,” said Gronborg. “But I also brought my Swedish influence to North America.
“In Europe, you have more discussions with players and have to explain what’s expected of them — instead of just telling them what to do — and I think that’s important and it’s something that NHL coaches are doing more of now.”
Gronborg, who said he is focused on coaching the men’s national team, said he has had discussions about coaching in the NHL as an assistant. So far, nothing has come of it. But it’s coming, he said.