HAMILTON –
South Porcupine’s Kris Young already has a gold medal to his name. Now he’s ready for a new challenge, taking on double duty in his new role as video coach and director of marketing for the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.
Young, who was video coach for the gold medal-winning Canadian women’s hockey team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, had previously worked with the Bulldogs in the mid-to-late 2000s when the team was in the American Hockey League.
“It’s two jobs that I’ve previously held with the Bulldogs, but not concurrently,” explained Young with a laugh. “So this will be interesting, travelling on the road with the team on all the away games as well and trying to manage the marketing of the team at the same time.
“I’ve had the chance to still do some stuff with Hockey Canada, but the opportunity with the Hamilton Bulldogs came up at the start of July. It was something I couldn’t pass up.”
Young spoke to The Daily Press on Monday in a phone interview from Lake George, New York, where he was getting set to attend the Stanley Cup celebration of Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach and longtime NHLer Kevin Dineen.
Of course, Young got to know Dineen quite well when the two were on the coaching staff for Team Canada’s women’s team in Sochi.
Throughout the years, Young, a graduate of Roland Michener Secondary School, has continued to build solid connections and put his coaching talent on display throughout the hockey ranks.
It was current Bulldogs’ assistant coach Ron Wilson (no relation to the former NHL coach of the same name) who first approached Young this past July with the idea of jumping on board with Hamilton ahead of their first OHL season.
“He was asking me if I was interested in helping out on the video side with the team,” said Young. “I had other things happening at the same time and other opportunities to get back into hockey. Just being on the video coaching side isn’t something that’s a full-time position in the OHL, but that just kind of developed into some talks with the owner of the Bulldogs and he said there might be some opportunities on the business side as well.
“I said I’d be happy to come in and meet with Steve Staios, the new president of the Bulldogs, and George Burnett, the general manager, and things progressed pretty quickly after that. It was a good interview with them and I got an offer soon after that to be director of marketing and video coach with the team.”
Young, 39, who already lives in Hamilton with his wife and two kids, was officially assigned to his new post on July 13.
With the Bulldogs franchise making an unusual but highly anticipated shift to the major junior Ontario Hockey League, there’s been a noted change in the air in the Steel City.
For nearly a decade, the Bulldogs were the minor league affiliate to the NHL’s Montréal Canadiens. Though it gave the fans in Hamilton a chance to cheer on some high-level professional talent, Young said the AHL squad never really felt like “their” team.
This year, he said, will be different.
“There are going to be 68-plus games on the video coaching side, and on the marketing side it’s a great opportunity now that the team is truly Hamilton’s team,” explained Young. “Before, with the AHL affiliation (to the Canadiens), people in the Hamilton area supported the team, but a lot of them who were maybe Leafs fans or didn’t feel that association with Montréal didn’t like the team as much. Now, with it just being Hamilton and the area’s team, we draw great fans from Burlington and Brantford, so we just want to focus on our own fans now.
“Even though that Montréal affiliation was great at the time, I think now, it’ll just open up some more opportunities for fans to jump on board.”
And though he’ll be busy in his new role(s) with the Bulldogs, the close relationship between Young and Hockey Canada continues. He recently returned from Calgary where he was helping manage video coaches for the U18, U22 and senior women’s national teams.
“Hockey Canada has been so good to me, helping me get to the Olympics, so the least I can do is kind of help them even though I’ve started this other position with Hamilton,” he said.
When Young visited his old high school in South Porcupine last December to speak to students there, he admitted he’d been bitten by the Olympic bug and said he’d love to earn the chance to return in the future.
But for the next 12 months, at least, he’ll have plenty on his plate.
“With the Hamilton position and the Hockey Canada position, it’s great to be able to keep my options open,” said Young. “There’s the possibility of the Olympics in the future and the NHL is definitely something I would like to explore as well.
“Right now, I’m just focusing on this season with Hamilton and we’ll see what happens after that.”