Evason enjoying Preds’ run as his former players thrive

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/05/2017 (3204 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dean Evason has a unique insight into the Stanley Cup final.

The former Brandonite has served as head coach of the Nashville Predators’ top farm club, the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals, and in Game 6 of their series with the Anaheim Ducks, 13 of his former players were on the ice.

“It’s incredible, it really is,” he said. “It’s something that our whole organization feels so good. A guy in particular is Freddie Gaudreau. This kid came into our development camp, earned an American League contract, and we actually sent him to the ECHL three years ago and he just battled and continued to progress and now he’s at a point where he’s playing in the Stanley Cup final. It’s amazing.

“It’s such a wonderful process.”

He said the entire organization, which includes former Brandon Wheat King Wade Redden in his role as assistant director of player development, is enjoying the playoff run.

Evason was born in Flin Flon, lived in Thompson for eight years and Winnipeg for six before his family moved to the Wheat City.

After his talents bloomed in the Wheat City, he attended the national midget championship Air Canada Cup in 1980 with the Brandon Midget AAA Wheat Kings on a team that also featured Ron Hextall and Cam Plante.

“That’s where I really felt like you know what, maybe I can make a living out of this,” he said. “Obviously being from Manitoba I wanted to play in the NHL. We all played out on the backyard rinks in Thompson and were going to play in the NHL but at that point (in Brandon) I really thought there could be an opportunity for me in junior and then possibly play pro.

“Brandon is very dear to my heart with my hockey career. I really feel like that’s where it all started for what I’ve done.”

Evason’s parents Al and Sheila still reside in Brandon and the divorced father of three, and brother of the late Heavy Evason, still spends three weeks or a month in the city every summer.

After starting his Western Hockey League career with the Spokane Chiefs, Evason was dealt to the Kamloops Junior Oilers during the 1981-82 season. In 171 games there, he piled up 377 points, earning a spot in 2007 on a list of the team’s all-time top 25 players.

Evason, 52, played in 803 National Hockey League games over a 12-year career that stretched from 1984 to 1996, and eventually earned a spot in the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame.

After finishing up his playing career in Europe following the 1998-99 season, Evason began his coaching career with the Kamloops Blazers the next season. He compiled a 165-143-47 record over five years as head coach of the Blazers and Vancouver Giants, and serving as co-coach of the Calgary Hitmen for one season with Kelly Kisio in 2004-05.

He returned to the NHL for the 2005-06 season, spending the next seven seasons with the Washington Capitals as an assistant coach. He spent two-and-a-half seasons serving under fellow Brandonite Glen Hanlon.

After the 2011-12 NHL season, Evason left to join the Admirals, his first head coaching job in professional hockey.

Evason said he likes Nashville’s approach to developing players, although it makes his job tougher.

“We have a very young team a lot here in Milwaukee, which is wonderful, but it’s difficult to have success at this level,” Evason said. “We don’t go out and find the six veteran guys. Our owner doesn’t pay to bring players in. Not that he wouldn’t, but that’s just not what we believe in. We try to get the right people to help the kids along but for the most part we’re a very, very young club.”

Evason said the focus is on players having their growing pains at the AHL level before they advance to the NHL.

In a way, it makes coaching in the AHL more similar to doing the job in junior than in the NHL.

“We take the growing pains, the immaturity, the negative stuff from these young players so that (Nashville coach) Peter Laviolette and/or the coaching staff there doesn’t have to,” he said, noting that Milwaukee is out of the spotlight. “We can teach and the players can learn not just hockey skills but life skills here and they can make mistakes, and not get away with it, but they can make mistakes and they can learn from it a little more comfortably without being on that big stage in the National Hockey League.”

To further ease the transition for players going back and forth between the Predators and Admirals, both teams play a similar style.

Evason said the key to success for the Predators is in that approach.

“They play a pressure game,” he said. “There’s a lot made of the defence and how good the defence is. The defence is good because they are allowed to be aggressive, they’re allowed to pinch and get involved. They do have a system and a structure in the neutral zone that they play and they’re very good at it but once the puck is dumped in or turned over, everybody has to be ready to be creative.”

He said Nashville’s uptempo game is pressure-oriented and based on the forecheck.

During the NHL playoffs, Evason spent two-and-a-half weeks with the Predators working with the “Black Aces” — the players who aren’t in the lineup but are up with the NHL team — through the end of the Chicago Blackhawks series and the entire St. Louis Blues series.

Each member of the Milwaukee coaching staff is enjoying a similar opportunity, with the organization flying in all of the scouting and development staff for Games 3 and 4 of the final.

It’s a nice touch from an organization that has given Evason a chance to remain in hockey.

“If you can find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life and that’s exactly how I feel,” he said. “I have the most wonderful opportunity and have been given the most wonderful opportunity to play in this great game.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson