Name George Kingston | Role Ice hockey coach | |
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George Kingston (born August 20, 1939) is a Canadian ice hockey coach. He was the long-time coach of the University of Calgary hockey team, and coached the Canadian Men's Team to a gold medal at the 1988 Spengler Cup as well as coaching the Canadian men's national ice hockey team at the 1994 Ice Hockey World Championships and winning the first Gold Medal for Canada in 33 years.
Born in Biggar, Saskatchewan, Kingston started his coaching career at the University of Calgary in 1968. He coached at the school for 16 years, posting a 245–128 record and leading Calgary to five Western Canadian University championships Kingston was a volunteer with Hockey Canada programming for ten years, including roles with the 80, 84, 88 and 94 Olympic Teams.. His success at the University of Calgary led Kingston to offers as an assistant coach in the National Hockey League, where he served as an assistant for the Calgary Flames from 1980 to 1982 and the Minnesota North Stars during the 1988–89 NHL season. In 1989, Kingston was appointed the head coach of the Norwegian national team.
After two years in Norway, which included a best-ever finish for the Junior National Team and a significant improvement and solid preparation for the Norwegian Team which hosted the Lillehammer Olympics, Kingston was named as the Head Coach of the expansion San Jose Sharks. The Sharks were penalized significantly by the "special" NHL Draft Rules, which did not allow them to draft Eric Lindros, the top pick at the time and offered the Sharks a very restricted player list. The Sharks posted a 28–129–7 in two seasons under Kingston's watch, and he was released following the 1992–93 NHL season. Following this, Kingston was hired as Director of Hockey Operations with responsibilities to serve as GM and Mentor Coach for the Canadian Olympic team at the 1994Lillehammer Olympics, where Canada missed gold when Peter Forsberg scored his famous shoot-out goal for Sweden. Kingston then went on to be the Head Coach of Team Canada at the World Championships in Bolzano/Milano,winning the gold medal in the tournament. The success at the World Championship did not go unnoticed, as following the tournament, Kingston became coach of the German National team, which enjoyed a number of successes, including participating in the final round of the World Cup of Hockey in 1996.. In 1999, Kingston was hired by another NHL expansion team, this time becoming an assistant coach for the Atlanta Thrashers. After two years in Atlanta, he joined the Florida Panthers as an assistant in 2001,coaching there until 2007.
He next coached Norway's National Women's Team and laid the foundation with very young players who moved up the ladder in international hockey, and assisted the Men's National Team in qualifying for the Vancouver Olympics, as well as being a special consultant to the Norwegian Ice Hockey Federation and Olympiatoppen, the Norwegian Olympic Program. He was Assistant Coach of the Norwegian Men's Sledgehockey Team, which won a Bronze Medal at the Vancouver Paralympics in Vancouver.
Kingston has done extensive research into all aspects of the game of hockey, and is well-known through the combination of coaching, research, and presenting his work in IIHF, NHL and numerous world hockey forums. Currently he serves as a volunteer Managing Director of the NHL Coaches' Association.