Carolina Hurricanes: Tim Gleason named assistant head coach

The Carolina Hurricanes announced the appointment of former defenseman Tim Gleason as a new assistant head coach. Gleason had been in the organization aiding player development prior to his new job on the bench next to his former captain Rod Brind’Amour. Gleason spent a long time as a player for the Carolina Hurricanes too, becoming an alternate captain.

Let’s start with Gleason’s on-ice performances for Carolina during his playing days. When he was a player for the Carolina Hurricanes organization, Gleason put up14 goals and 93 assists for 107 points in 546 games for the organization across 9 years and three separate stints with the organization.

Since his retirement in 2015, Gleason has spent time with the Carolina youth development staff. For the three previous years, Gleason was the director of defensive development among the Canes prospects. Meaning the kids in Charlotte were learning how to defend at the NHL level from the likes of Tim Gleason.

Gleason is replacing Dean Chynoweth on the Hurricanes bench, as he departed the organization to head to Toronto. Chynoweth had been with the team in the assistant coach capacity since the hire of Rod Brind’amour. Gleason will obviously have big shoes to fill, as in that time the Canes blueline became one of the best in the National Hockey League.

Gleason is coming into his first coaching job in the NHL, in terms of sitting behind the bench, but he was the defensive mind on the bench when the Charlotte Checkers captured their first Calder Cup Championship in 2019. He’s been helping the young blueliners come through to the parent club and he’s been doing a good job with it.

With Gleason now on board, there is another player behind the bench who embodied what being a Carolina Hurricane meant. It was only a few years ago that he was still wearing an “A” in Raleigh having meant so much to this team and organization. His time in the NHL with Carolina was appreciated by everyone, and he was rewarded with a spot in the all-time Carolina Hurricanes roster.

With this kind of player now teaching young defensemen coming into the team how to handle themselves on the ice, we can expect a higher standard of defense coming through the blueline. It’s not the same defense that has seen the Canes have had in the past, and it will need to be reworked. But the new arrivals and young guys will have someone that bleeds Canes colors to teach them.