Chicago Blackhawks’ assistant coach Mike Haviland interviewing for new Winnipeg team’s coaching position
The new National Hockey League’s (NHL) club in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is in the process of finalising the team so that they , the management and the players, so that it can prepare for the next season on time. A new general manager and assistant general manager
are in position and now all that is left is hiring a new coach, among the team’s management, a position that Chicago Blackhawks’ assistant coach, Mike Haviland is pursuing.
Relocating Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg has made the city very happy as the residents of Winnipeg had beckoned for a NHL team for the past 15 years.
Chicago Blackhawks’ assistant coach, Mike Haviland, is reported to have accepted to be interviewed for the head coach position of the new Winnipeg team and according to sources, it is very likely that Haviland may be seen as the team’s head coach.
Haviland was obviously the first choice for the new general manager, Kevin Cheveldayoff, who was formerly the assistant GM of Blackhawks. Since Cheveldayoff know Haviland since the past few years, he would like to have a man of Haviland’s caliber guiding
the team.
Nothing for now can still be said for sure though.
"We have a lot of things to sort out here with a lot of good hockey people that were part of the Atlanta Thrashers organization", Cheveldayoff said in a phone interview. "Those are decisions that are still in the future, but are things that can happen quickly,
which I can attest to. About a week ago, I didn't have an inkling of this and here I am now [in Winnipeg]".
Haviland has profound experience when it comes to leading teams to the Stanley Cup.
Currently in his third season with Chicago Blackhawks, Haviland joined the franchise in 2008 and was part of the team that won the Stanley Cup in 2010.
He remained as a head coach of minor league teams in the American Hockey League (AHL) and East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) for over seven years before entering the NHL and never missed the playoffs in that time span.
Former Atlanta Thrashers’ coach, Craig Ramsey, former Edmonton Oilers’ coach, Craig MacTavish, and the AHL’s Manitoba Moose’s coach, Claude Noel, are also supposedly part of a list along with Haviland for the coaching position.
Developments on the position being filled are expected in the upcoming weeks.
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