Canucks name Dean, McLean, Young assistant coaches
The Vancouver Canucks announced the assistant coaches for head coach Adam Foote’s staff, on Thursday.
Among the hires are former Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach Kevin Dean, former AHL head coach Brett McLean, and former director of player personnel Scott Young.
Dean comes to Vancouver after three seasons as an assistant with the Blackhawks, and a stint with Team USA at the 2025 IIHF World Championships, where he won gold alongside Canucks players Conor Garland and Drew O’Connor.
Previously, he spent time in the New Jersey Devils organization as an assistant and head coach in the AHL and ECHL, before switching to the Boston Bruins organization, where he served as an assistant with the Providence Bruins until 2017, when he took on an assistant role with the NHL club from 2017-2022.
McLean, meanwhile, joins Vancouver after spending two years as the head coach of the AHL’s Iowa Wild, a role he took on following three years as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild.
Rounding out the new coaching hires is Young, who spent the last three seasons as Director of Player Personnel for the Canucks. Previously, he held a similar role with the Pittsburgh Penguins and was an assistant coach with Team USA at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics, which did not feature NHL players.
The appointments come after news broke on Wednesday that longtime assistant Yogi Svejkovsky would leave the team to join the Philadelphia Flyers and former Canucks head coach, Rick Tocchet.
Additionally, the team announced that defensive development coach Sergei Gonchar and video coach Dylan Crawford will not return to Vancouver.
“The group that we have brought together is a great mix of hockey people,” Foote said in a team release. “Kevin has an impressive resume, an intelligent hockey mind, and has helped develop a lot of good defenseman. Brett and I met years ago and have stayed in touch, and I respect his hockey IQ.”
“I have a long history with Scott, and we share a very strong bond. He has been in the organization for a few years and knows exactly how things work and what we need to do to be successful.”
While four new names take charge in the Canucks coaching plans for 2025-26, several remain in Marko Torenius as goaltending coach, Ian Beckenstein as assistant video coach, Jason Krog as skills and skating coach, and Daniel and Henrik Sedin as Player Development Coaches.
With the coaching picture all but settled, the Canucks still have ample work to do in the offseason, with their hopes of returning to the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2025-26, after finishing fifth in the Pacific Division in 2024-25.