Why Are Most NHL Head Coaches Canadian?

[Look Up]

Of the current 27 NHL head coaches ( 5 positions are vacant at the time of this post), 22 are Canadian and 5 are from the US.

(Doesn't look like this will change anytime soon - 4 of the five American coaches are retreads - Tortorella, Sullivan, Laviolette, Hynes - which means most first time coaches are from Canada).

Why is this?

More opportunities to coach at lower levels to gain experience? Good ole boy network? Better understanding of strategy to coach at a higher level? Something else?

Click to read more...

 

[AvroArrow]

North America, English speaking mostly

Canada has a much larger hockey market than America, although the US is catching up

Will be hard for a Swedish/Russian speaking coach for example to have the same level of success here. Not a language barrier but definitely an advantage.

 

[hotcabbagesoup]

Because Oh Canada!

We stand on the shoulder of God for thee

Oh Canada!!

 

[JMCx4]

Because the Canadian candidates desperately want to be paid in U.S. dollars.

 

[WADEugottaBELAKthat]

Hockey Canada, for all its flaws, has always had a very professional certification program. It really gives coaches a solid pedagogical foundation and it pushes variety, activation, and relevance. I don't know how the other countries square up... but always felt Hockey Canada was a step above there.

 

[johan f]

European coaches have a long tradition of a more pedagogic approach (exclude Tichonov and a few more). Now even NA-coaches have adopted that, with less yelling and management by fear. So to hire europeans would make sense from that perspective.

 

[SI90]

these Primadonnas couldn’t take red blooded American Coaching. Thats why.

 

[613Leafer]

Coaches are ~15-20+ years older than the average player, so it's also a reflection of which countries were pumping out hockey talent at that time. I think we'll see a shift to more USA coaches in the coming years.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Because most GMs likely also are, Canada is still the hockey super power, and nepotism rules.. so one out of three ain’t bad

 

[BB79]

Rev up your engines! I didn't know you were a hockey fan, Scotty! Preds fan?

 

[viceroy]

Well I believe most European players return to their home countries after they retire so...

 

[D Wakaluk]

Listen, you are either in the club or not ... Surely no one outside Canada can coach anything.

If I'm a GM, even a bad Canadian coach is better than an uncertain euro-wuss!

 

[Look Up]

Rev up your engines! I didn't know you were a hockey fan, Scotty! Preds fan?

Preds and Team Mopar, right there with Uncle Tony!

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Most hockey players are Canadian

 

[JPeeper]

Euro coaches also are coaching a euro/IIHF style game over in Europe so it'd be hard to break in unless they went the CHL-->AHL--> NHL route. Also like mentioned, language barrier is probably a huge hurtle.

 

[dalewood12]

Two Russians I could see as NHL head coaches are Sergei Federov and Sergei Gonchar.

 

[Look Up]

Most hockey players are Canadian

Agree, on the surface this is true.

According to this source, 42.5% of players are Canadian, or conversely, 57.5% are not Canadian. Yet 81.5% of head coaches are from Canada.

Active NHL Players Totals by Nationality - Career Stats

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Agree, on the surface this is true.

According to this source, 42.5% of players are Canadian, or conversely, 57.5% are not Canadian. Yet 81.5% of head coaches are from Canada.

Active NHL Players Totals by Nationality - Career Stats

Right but considering age of head coaches you need to be looking at the demographics from 20+ years ago

 

[njdevils1982]

these Primadonnas couldn’t take red blooded American Coaching. Thats why.

 

[tmg]

Right but considering age of head coaches you need to be looking at the demographics from 20+ years ago

Even still. In 2000, now 24 years ago, Canadian player share in the nhl was 55%. Sure it’s lower now, but not by enough to account for the 80+% Canadian coach share we still have.

 

[QuizGuy66]

Of the current 27 NHL head coaches ( 5 positions are vacant at the time of this post), 22 are Canadian and 5 are from the US.

(Doesn't look like this will change anytime soon - 4 of the five American coaches are retreads - Tortorella, Sullivan, Laviolette, Hynes - which means most first time coaches are from Canada).

Why is this?

More opportunities to coach at lower levels to gain experience? Good ole boy network? Better understanding of strategy to coach at a higher level? Something else?

With the exchange rate 22 Canadian works out to about 5 American

 

[njdevils1982]

With the exchange rate 22 Canadian works out to about 5 American

"5 american 6 canadian" song from legendary toronto band that also gave us the theme to the kids in the hall show... a rare time they had vocals in their music

 

[FoxYou727]

Cause boys club

 

[Deadpool8812]

European coaches probably don't want to move their families to North America only to be fired after 2 seasons

There's also a huge old man's club within the NHL

 

[WarriorofTime]

If you look at the generation of the coaches and when they would have been in their 20s, the disproportion of Canadians to Americans was much higher.

There’s a bit more coaching opportunities because Canada has a lot more junior/minor hockey than USA.

Canadians likely had more connections to the previous coaching generations to get them into coaching.

It’s possible that this will change in 20 years when current players are making up the bulk of coaching positions.