Pearn feels appreciated coaching women’s team

Perry Pearn wanted to take his 21 years of coaching in the NHL to a hockey team that valued his experience.

He found that in the women’s game.

Pearn will coach the Canadian women’s team at the 4 Nations Cup starting Tuesday in Saskatoon.

The hosts open the four-country tournament against Sweden at the SaskTel Centre.

Finland and reigning Olympic and world champion United States round out the field.

Pearn was an assistant coach in the NHL long enough to be on the original Winnipeg Jets coaching staff, as well as that of Jets 2.0.

The 67-year-old from Stettler also was an assistant coach of the Ottawa Senators, the Montreal Canadiens, the New York Rangers and most recently the Vancouver Canucks until 2016-17.

“I was at the stage in my career in the men’s game where there didn’t seem to be much value in the experience I had,” Pearn said.

“Consequently, I felt that experi-

ence was way more valued on the women’s side.”

His last head-coaching gig was with the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers in 1994-95.

“The way my career spun in the NHL, I wound up being an assistant coach,” he said. “It didn’t seem like if I wanted to stay in that league there was ever going to be the opportunity to be a head coach.

“Certainly that’s part of it, too, is having the opportunity to be a head coach again and in some ways prove to myself that the things I did when I was a head coach weren’t a fluke. They were built on some pretty sound principles.”

Pearn hadn’t worked with a women’s team prior to doing some scouting for the 2018 Canadian Olympic team.

He was added to the coaching staff as an assistant days before the Winter Games to be the team’s “eye in the sky” in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

While Pearn brings a loaded coaching resume from the men’s side, Hockey Canada’s new director of women’s national program said winning was top of mind with her first head-coaching hire.

Gina Kingsbury believes Pearn can return the country to the top of international women’s hockey and can help the players and coaches he works with improve.

“Winning is important. It really is,” Kingsbury said. “When it comes down to the first 4 Nations of a new quad, to me it’s about getting back to a winning culture.

“The sooner we get back there, I think the better we will be.”