NEWS

North York Rangers Junior ‘A’ head coach John Dean (photo credit - Shawn Muir/OJHL Images) has accepted the position of assistant coach with the North Bay Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League, the club announced Monday.

Dean, 33, spent five years with the Rangers, with his greatest success coming in the 2012-13 season when he guided the club to the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Southwest Conference Final.

According to the Don Mills native, the move is equal parts exciting and difficult.

“Obviously I’m excited,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to this opportunity, but it’s obviously bittersweet to leave the boys and the club behind. This club is something I’ve been working on for five years, with so many great guys to work with, and I feel like together we’ve made a pretty nice program here at North York. It’s tough to leave the guys, but at the same time it’s exciting to start something new.”

Dean’s hiring makes sense for the Battalion, who moved to North Bay from Brampton last year, as he played parts of four seasons with the old North Bay Centennials of the OHL from 1997 to 2001 (the club would move on to Saginaw, Mich. in 2002).

“Yeah I love the city, North Bay is unbelievable,” Dean said.

“It’s a lot of fun, the people are great and I have really gotten used to small-town living since I was 16 playing there and then professionally in Amarillo, Texas. I love the people, the hospitality and the city itself and I am excited to go see the rejuvenated hockey town for sure.”

Assistant coach Mark Joslin will step in immediately as head coach for the upcoming 2014-15 season.

Far and away, the largest emotion among the players appears to be a sense of happiness for Dean’s success, and a comfort with Joslin taking the reigns.

“To a man the boys are happy for Deaner moving up,” said Matthew Whittaker, a veteran forward entering his third year with the club.

“You see a lot of players move on from North York so it’s great to see a coach move on to the OHL. It’s a great opportunity for him, North Bay has a great program and we wish him nothing but the best.

“In terms of Joslin, we’re all really used to him. He’s a really good guy and he knows a lot about hockey and all the boys respect him. All in all it won’t really be that huge of an adjustment, Joslin and Dean saw to eye to eye on a lot of things. We know he expects and demands the best out of us and he really does get the best out of everybody. I’m sure the new guys will really enjoy playing under Mark as well.”

The Battalion were the Eastern Conference champions in the OHL last year, falling to the eventual Memorial Cup runners-up Guelph Storm in the finals. Their head coach, Stan Butler, is one of the most respected, long-standing bench bosses in the Canadian Hockey League.

“I’m just excited to work with fantastic hockey players and coaches that know a lot and learn from them and offer my two cents,” Dean said.

“I will definitely learn my roles and responsibilities as I go, but I am assuming I’ll be ding a lot of game tape, game prep, probably touch on some special teams and just help the guys after practice. Most importantly, I’ll be there to help deliver the message from Stan Butler on down.”

Below is the official press release from the North Bay Battalion website (www.battalionhockey.com):

John Dean has joined the North Bay Battalion as an assistant coach, the Ontario Hockey League club announced Monday.

Dean, a Toronto native who turns 34 on Sept. 27, will work on a staff led by Stan Butler, director of hockey operations and head coach, and featuring fellow assistants Ryan Oulahen and Steve Chabbert and goaltending coach Rob Beatty.

A former member of the OHL’s North Bay Centennials, Dean replaces John Goodwin, who left the Battalion after one season to become an assistant with the Kingston Frontenacs.

Dean has spent six seasons as a coach in the North York Rangers organization, including the last three as head coach of the club’s junior A team. He said his relationship with Chabbert, a longtime teammate with the Centennials, led to him pursuing an opportunity with the Battalion.

“I have some good roots in North Bay,” Dean said recently via telephone. “Steve suggested I put my name in, and I jumped at the opportunity. Jobs in the OHL are few and far between. Steve was in my corner and, after playing in the OHL and in North Bay and spending a number of years with North York, I thought this might be the perfect storm. So I took my shot at it.”

Left winger Dean played three-plus seasons with the Centennials starting in 1997-98. He scored 20 goals and added 29 assists for 49 points in 179 games before completing his OHL career in 2000-01 with the Mississauga IceDogs, registering three points, including one goal, in seven games. Dean moved on to the Thornhill Rattlers that season, helping them win a Provincial League title and a berth in the Royal Bank Cup tournament at Flin Flon, Man.

Dean, who began a professional playing career in 2001-02, skated three seasons in the Central Hockey League with the Amarillo Rattlers, later the Gorillas, producing 44 goals and 49 assists for 93 points in 191 games.

After retiring from pro hockey in 2004, he earned a degree in marketing from Toronto’s York University.

“I decided to come home and get an education because that was important to me and my family. I got introduced to coaching at York and fell in love with it. I remembered all the coaches who had helped me out, so I wanted to give back. I got involved with one of the Double-A teams from the Willowdale Blackhawks, and next thing I knew I was an assistant coach and then a head coach.

“I thought that coaching was something I might want to do with my life and got an assistant coaching job with the North York Rangers minor midgets and took over as head coach of the midget team from there, and eventually I moved on to the junior A team. We had some success there too. It was exciting to help rebuild that program.”

Dean said he looks forward to working with the Battalion.

“Stan’s reputation speaks for itself, and I’ve got to know Ryan a little bit and I’ve heard nothing but good things about him. I want to help to continue to deliver the message that Stan and Ryan are bringing. I hope to add some flair to the special teams. I love breaking down video and dissecting the game. Coaching and developing players is always evolving, and if you don’t keep up you’ll get lost. I’m confident in my abilities as a coach and my ability to handle players who play at a high level.

“Those of us in junior A looked at the OHL as a mini National Hockey League. I’m excited to work with talented players, and they make it fun because you can talk about little nuances in a game that these guys might pick up faster. The talent level across the league is exceptional.”

Dean joins a Battalion club that captured the Eastern Conference title in its first season in the Gateway City.

“It’s so cool to see hockey back in North Bay. When I got to North Bay there was a lot of talk about how great the city was. This was the Bert Templeton era, and you could see the support was there and it was a lot of fun. But there were some losing seasons, and you could see that support tail off. But I know how much they adore hockey in North Bay, and to see it doing so well was exciting."