After guiding the Saskatoon Blades to their best record since 2013, head coach Dean Brockman has been rewarded with a multi-year contract extension that extends him through the 2019-20 season.
“In my mind I thought it was important. I think as a coach, if you have one year left you’re gonna coach a little bit differently,” said Brockman, who was set to enter the final year of his original contract.
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The St. Benedict, Sask., native was hired last June after spending two years as an assistant under former bench boss Bob Woods, who left the Blades to take an assistant coaching job in the National Hockey League.
Assistant coaches Ryan Keller and Bryce Thoma, also hired in 2016, have also signed extensions matching that of Brockman.
Blades general manager Colin Priestner says making the deals was a “no-brainer.”
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“It’s just something that was logical for me and our management. It was just a trying season in all regards and they just showed throughout the year that they got better and better.”
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Saskatoon’s improvement under Brockman came despite a long list of injuries to key players, including several of the long-term variety. On more than one occasion the team couldn’t even ice a full lineup of 20 players.
Yet the Blades still managed a nine-point improvement over 2015-16 and stayed in the playoff race until the final weekend of the regular season.
“It was a challenge coming to the rink trying to put on that smile every day knowing that you didn’t really know who was gonna be in your lineup or if you were gonna have enough,” Brockman said.
“If you let that creep and let that trouble you or go forward and let the room absorb that, you’re gonna be in trouble and I thought as a staff we did a great job.”
Extending Brockman and his staff provides some much-needed continuity in the Blades locker room as the team enters a critical phase of its rebuild.
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After replenishing their stockpile of prospects and draft picks over the course of four playoff-less seasons, Saskatoon is now poised to become a playoff club once more. They still have to make it happen on the ice, but keeping Brockman and company in the fold is a big piece of the puzzle.
“You know our players really like our coaches and that’s important. Our players felt they communicated well with them and they taught them and that was really important as well,” Priestner said.
The Blades open training camp on Aug. 26.
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