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P-Bruins add Leach, Whitfield to coaching staff |
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Ty Anderson
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The makeover of the Providence Bruins appears complete.
In an offseason that began with a promotion up to the Boston Bruins as an assistant coach for longtime Providence head coach Butch Cassidy, the P-Bruins promoted assistant Kevin Dean to the head coach of the club, and have finally found the assistants for Dean in two former P-Bruins captains, Jay Leach and Trent Whitfield.
In what will be Dean’s first year behind the bench as Providence’s head coach (but his sixth season with the organization overall), the P-Bruins clearly focused on bringing some additional experience to the bench alongside him. Leach most recently served as an assistant coach under Mike Sullivan prior to Sullivan’s promotion up to the Pittsburgh bench boss, and posted a 3-0-0-1 record as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre interim head coach in between Sullivan’s promotion and the club’s hiring of Clark Donatelli. Once Donatelli was hired, the 36-year-old Leach’s title was changed to associate head coach.
Leach is familiar with both the area and organization, too, as he spent his collegiate career with the Providence Friars from 1997 to 2001, and skated with the Bruins organization from 2003 to 2007.
Like the Leach hiring, the addition of Whitfield to the staff comes with familiarity for the team and coach alike. The 39-year-old Whitfield is set to enter his third year of coaching, and with his third different team, as Whitfield’s coaching career began with a 2014-15 season spent as an assistant for the Portland Pirates and continued with a 2015-16 campaign in the same role for the Calgary Hitmen (WHL).
Whitfield spent four years in the Bruins organization from 2009 to 2012, and served as the captain of the P-Bruins for three of those seasons, with 107 points in 195 games with Providence.
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