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On the hunt for an assistant coach to join head coach Bruce Cassidy’s staff, the Bruins found their answer from within, as P-Bruins head coach Kevin Dean has been called up for the NHL gig next season.
“I’m excited for a number of reasons. One is probably the most important thing is I’m really excited where the Bruins are headed. I think the organization, and I said this last year and the six years I’ve been here,” Dean said on Tuesday. “Last year development camp and the development camp before, you can really see that there are some good, young kids coming in. They’ve obviously got a great core in Boston and I think those two things together make it a really exciting place to have the opportunity to come coach.”
Promoted after just one season as the head coach in Providence, where he led the Baby B’s to a 43-23-6 record and run to the Eastern Conference Finals, Dean’s immediate success in the AHL took even him by surprise, especially given some of the early season struggles he was forced to battle through.
“Coming out of training camp, I was concerned because we weren’t scoring a lot of goals – I’m talking about the Providence training camp. But, Ferg [John Ferguson] and Donny [Don Sweeney] did a really nice job of identifying some older veterans that really came in and plugged some holes for us,” Dean, who has never been part of an NHL staff, said. “The addition of [Chris] Porter, [Jordan] Szwarz, [Wayne] Simpson, and [Peter] Mueller were huge for us. Really good, older guys that have been around that plugged some holes for us in our lineup but more importantly were great examples for the young kids for the Kuraly’s, the [Danton] Heinen’s, the [Jake] Debrusk’s, the [Matt] Grzelcyk’s, [Rob] O’Gara’s, to watch, to see how to prepare every day, how to practice every day, how to compete every day. Those guys set the tone and pulled those other younger kids along. So, it was – I didn’t expect it, but when we got those older guys, things started to fall into place. We had a really good group; a special group in terms of how guys bought in and how they played for each other. Because of that, we had a good year.”
With this promotion, Dean will rejoin Cassidy as his right-hand man on staff, a role he occupied from 2011 to 2016 as Cassidy’s lone assistant coach with the P-Bruins.
“I know exactly – not exactly, but how he wants to play,” Dean said of his familiar with Cassidy, with whom the Bruins went 18-8-1 to finish the season. “Very comfortable with how Butch wants to play, and I believe in it. I think that’s one of the reasons that he’s comfortable having me is that I have fully bought into how he wants to play. I think he knows that, and I think that’s going to help him and it’ll help me in my transition because there’s not going to be a lot of surprises with how Butch wants to do things.
“I think it should be a little more seamless than it would be than if I was walking into a room or a coach’s room with a bunch of guys I didn’t know. I think it’s easier to address issues that you might be having; You just lay it out there with good conversations and good discussions every day and I think that helps get things in place more quickly which, at the end of the day, should help the team perform.”
“We are very pleased to add Kevin to our coaching staff. He’s an extremely knowledgeable hockey mind who is deeply committed to the Bruins organization and development of our players,” said Cassidy. “We’ve established a strong rapport having coached together for five years in Providence and I look forward to working closely with him again on a daily basis.”
With Jay Pandolfo and Joe Sacco already on staff as assistant coaches, it’s unknown as to whether or not Dean will be behind the bench or if he’ll be the ‘eye in the sky’ in the press box. For what it’s worth, Pandolfo was often the one coaching from the press box before the Claude Julien firing.
A veteran of 331 NHL games, and in the Bruins organization since 2011, Dean has been a constant in the coaching scene since 2006-07, when he first served as an assistant coach for the Lowell Devils (AHL).
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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