The Arizona Coyotes hired Dawn Braid as the team’s skating coach today, making her what the team believes to be the first full-time female coach in the NHL’s history.
“I’m very excited about this opportunity with the Coyotes,” Braid said. “I’m looking forward to working with Dave Tippett and his coaching staff and all the great players in the organization.
“It’s something that I’ve wanted to see happen. The fact that they respect what I do enough to name me as a full-time coach, or to name me as the first female coach in the NHL, I take a ton of pride in that. I’ve worked very hard for this opportunity. It’s been going on for years and I just look forward to going even further with it.”
Briad joined Arizona on a part-time basis in 2015, having previously worked as a skating consultant with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo sabres and Calgary Flames. She also spent seven years with the Athletes Training Center as its director of skating development where she instructed a variety of skaters including New York Islanders center John Tavares.
“Dawn has wanted to put me in to make myself a more powerful and efficient skater,” Tavares told NHL.com in 2012. “Dawn always says, ‘If you didn’t train properly and do the certain things you need to do, you’re not going to be strong enough to do the things I want you to do.'”
In addition to Braid, the team announced that Mike Van Ryn and Steve Potvin have been added to the coaching staff as Development Coach and Skills Coach respectively.
Van Ryn joins the Coyotes after serving as the Head Coach of the Kitchener Rangers (OHL) in 2015-16. He guided the Rangers to a 44-17-5-2 record and the fourth-most points in the OHL (95). Van Ryn was previously an associate coach with Kitchener from 2013-15. The former NHL defenseman collected 30-99-129 and 260 penalty minutes (PIM) in 353 career games with the St. Louis Blues, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs. Van Ryn will assist Coyotes Director of Player Development Steve Sullivan in amateur player development as well as in working with coaches and players in Tucson (AHL) during the season.
Potvin’s main focus will be player assessment and individual skill improvement. He joins the Coyotes after a professional career that included 478 professional American Hockey League (AHL) and top European league games. The former forward registered 31-44-75 in 158 career AHL contests. Potvin collected 133 goals and 184 assists in 350 games over 10 seasons in Europe.
