Mike Johnston

Mike Johnston
Johnston (center) behind the Pittsburgh Penguins bench
Coaching stations
1982-1987	Camrose Lutheran College
1987-1989	University of Calgary (assistant coach)
1989-1994	University of New Brunswick
1994-1999	Canadian national team ( mainly as general manager)
1999-2006	Vancouver Canucks (Assistant Coach)
2006-2008	Los Angeles Kings (assistant coach)
2008-2014	Portland Winterhawks
2014-2015	Pittsburgh Penguins

Mike Johnston (born February 19, 1957 in Dartmouth , Nova Scotia ) is a Canadian ice hockey coach who was under contract from June 2014 to December 2015 as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League . Prior to that, he gained experience as an assistant coach for the Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings before joining the Portland Winterhawks in the Western Hockey League from 2008 to 2014 .

In addition, Johnston is active as the author of non-fiction books on the subject of training in ice hockey.

Career

Player-coach in Australia

After finishing school, Mike Johnston studied at Acadia University and Brandon University to become a PE teacher . At the same time, he actively played ice hockey at both universities and was included in the honor roll of the Acadia Axemen in 1978 . He finished his studies at the age of 22, but subsequently couldn't find a job, so he decided to start a career as an active ice hockey player abroad. During his time at Brandon University, he played with the team in Austria and Switzerland , so he contacted the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to get addresses from teams from both states. The aim is him first understand the mediating employees false and (Engl. It takes addresses from Austria Austria ) those from Australia (Engl. Australia ) have given.

As a result, Johnston also contacted the Australian teams, receiving a positive response from the Newcastle North Stars . The Canadian spent two seasons in Australia, one with the North Stars and one with the Sydney Bears , where organized ice hockey was only just being established and he was not only a player but also a coach . In retrospect, Johnston described this experience as very valuable for his later career, as nobody in Australia would have understood anything about ice hockey and he could experiment as a coach.

Return to Canada

The Canadian returned to his homeland in 1982 and subsequently worked for more than ten years at various universities and colleges in Canada: from 1982 to 1987 as head coach at Augustana University College (now part of the University of Alberta ), two years as assistant coach from the University of Calgary and from 1989 to 1994 as head coach at the University of New Brunswick . At the same time he studied again himself and obtained a master's in training theory from Acadia University, as a result of which he later worked as an author of non-fiction books.

In 1994 he left university sports and worked for the Canadian national team in various positions for five years . He was the responsible general manager at four world championships before he took over the position of head coach at the 1999 World Cup for the first time and achieved fourth place with the team. Johnston also led the Canadian national team to three gold medals at the Spengler Cup . He was also an assistant coach at the 1998 Winter Olympics and at three U20 World Championships.

With the beginning of the 1999/2000 season Johnston was first active in the National Hockey League when he was hired as an assistant coach at the Vancouver Canucks . There he worked under head coach Marc Crawford , with whom he had already worked at the 1998 Olympic Games and who started working with the Canucks at the same time. After six seasons, both were fired, so Johnston, again as assistant coach under Crawford, joined the Los Angeles Kings . In Los Angeles, Johnston stayed only two seasons and was again active for the national team, which he accompanied at two world championships as an assistant coach. In total, he was involved in two gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal at world championships. After the 2007/08 season he and Crawford were fired, after which Johnston took over the position of head coach for the Portland Winterhawks from the Western Hockey League (WHL).

Portland Winterhawks

At the Winterhawks, Johnston worked as a trainer and general manager at the same time and, at the same time, achieved fourth place with the U18 national team at the U18 World Cup in 2009 . In a total of six seasons in Portland, Johnston improved the team's offensive and played a key role in the fact that the team reached the final of the Ed Chynoweth Cup four times from 2011 to 2014 and won it in 2013.

In this sporting most successful season, Johnston was only partially active as the head coach of the Winter Hawks. The Canadian Hockey League had him suspended after 25 games in the 2012/13 season for the rest of the season; The reason was repeated violations of the league's regulations with regard to player contracts. Over a period of four years, the franchise is said to have repeatedly anchored non-permitted special rewards in contracts, for example paid flights for the families of the players or summer training camps. A fine of $ 200,000 was imposed in addition to Johnston's suspension; in addition, the Winterhawks lost the voting rights for various WHL bantam drafts . His duties as coach and general manager took over assistant coach Travis Green until the end of the season .

Pittsburgh Penguins

In June 2014, Jim Rutherford was hired as the new General Manager at the Pittsburgh Penguins , who dismissed the previous coach Dan Bylsma in the first official act and hired Johnston as his successor. Before that, Johnston was also the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks , where he had worked as an assistant coach for years. In December 2015, he and assistant coach Gary Agnew were dismissed; he was succeeded by Mike Sullivan .

Achievements and Awards

• 2013 Ed Chynoweth Cup with the Portland Winterhawks

NHL coaching statistics

team	season	regular season						Play-offs
		Games	S.	N	OTL	Pts	space	S.	N	result
Pittsburgh Penguins	2014/15	82	43	27	12	98	4. ( Metropolitan )	1	4th	Conference quarterfinals
Pittsburgh Penguins	2015/16	28	15th	10	3	33	dismiss	-	-	-
total		110	58	37	15th	131	0 division title	1	4th	0 Stanley Cups

S = victories; N = defeats; OTL = defeat in overtime or shootout ; Pts = points

Personal

Johnston is married with two children, a son and a daughter.

Publications

(each together with Ryan Walter )

• Simply the Best: Insights and Strategies from Great Hockey Coaches. Heritage House Publishing Company, 2007, ISBN 978-1-894974-37-0 .
• Simply the Best: Players on Performance. Heritage House Publishing Company, 2007, ISBN 978-1-894974-24-0 .
• Hockey Plays and Strategies . Human Kinetics, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7360-7634-0 .

Web links

• Mike Johnston at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Acadia Axemen Hockey Honor Roll. acadiaaxemenhockey.com, accessed April 9, 2015 . 
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Nicholas J. Cotsonika: Mike Johnston's coaching journey, from Australian outback to Stanley Cup challenge in Pittsburgh. sports.yahoo.com, September 5, 2014, accessed April 9, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Joe Bendel: Mike Johnston's Plan for Bringing the Cup Back to Pittsburgh. pittsburghmagazine.com, October 23, 2014, accessed April 9, 2015 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Pittsburgh Penguins Media Guide 2014–2015. Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey Club, 2014, p. 17.
5. ↑ Winterhawks punished for violations. foxsports.com, accessed April 9, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Portland coach Johnston talks to Canucks: report. nhl.com, June 14, 2014, accessed April 9, 2015 . 
7. ↑ Mike Johnston: Pittsburgh Penguins - Head Coach. nhl.com language = English, accessed on April 1, 2015 .