1. A long playing career:A grinding forward who mixed physicality with some scoring touch, he showed enough promise as a kid to play major junior hockey, spending four years with Swift Current of the WHL, and even represented Team Canada twice at the World Juniors. From 1993-97 with the Broncos, he improved each season, finishing his junior career his final season with a 36-46-82 line in 61 games while adding 61 penalty minutes. He then went on to a professional career that stretched from 1997 to 2010, playing 294 NHL games and finishing with 19 goals, 48 points and 134 penalty minutes with Colorado and Atlanta. While he played regular-season games with the 2001 team that won the Stanley Cup, his most postseason success came in 2002, when the Avs team he was on reached Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals vs. Detroit; Larsen played in all 21 of the Avs' postseason games that year with a goal and an assist.
2. Bio details:Born in Nakusp, British Columbia, and raised in Vernon in the province, Larsen has lived all across North America while pursuing his hockey career. He played with both Colorado and Atlanta in the NHL but also Hershey, Chicago and Portland in the AHL, then coached in Springfield, Mass., before coming to Columbus. Larsen, 43, and his wife, Hannah, are the parents of a son named Ty and a daughter named Faith.
3. AHL success:Larsen has spent two years as a head coach and to say they went well would be a bit of an understatement. He led the Jackets' top farm club in Springfield for two seasons, 2012-13 and 2013-14, and the squad went a combined 92-45-15 in his tenure, winning 45 games the first year and 47 a year later as the Falcons posted the first 100-point campaign in franchise history. Though postseason success proved a little more elusive, the Falcons were one of the AHL's top teams both of those seasons, winning the Northeast Division of the AHL each time. Among the notable names Larsen coached - Cam Atkinson, David Savard, Boone Jenner, Jonathan Marchessault, Ryan Johansen, Matt Calvert and Dalton Prout, all of whom went on to significant NHL careers. He also had Jared Bednar, now coach of the Colorado Avalanche, on staff as an assistant at the time.
4. The coaching dream:For any player, the goal is to maximize one's talent and get as far as they can go in the game. It's the same for a coach, and Larsen entered the profession at the end of his playing career with high hopes. He spent two seasons as an assistant coach in Springfield before becoming the head coach, and when he took over the Falcons for the first time, he told The Republican newspaper of Springfield that he wanted to lead an NHL team. "To be a head coach in the NHL? That's my goal, absolutely, but there's no rush,"
he said in 2012
. "Coaching is a process, there's so much that goes into it -- all the preparation, all the studying of your team and other teams, plus learning how to motivate your players. It takes time for all that. You need time to grow." Now, he has that opportunity.
5. Cancer survivor:On the personal front, Larsen has twice battled cancer and come out on the other side. In 2007 while playing with the Atlanta Thrashers, Larsen visited with a dermatologist who determined he had melanoma, necessitating a nearly immediate surgery. Then in 2010 when Larsen was finishing his career with Portland of the AHL, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer, leading to another surgery as well as radiation. If you see Larsen sporting facial hair during the month of November, it's because of the sport's annual Movember celebration that puts the focus on men's health.
