Hitchcock shared coaching wisdom on path to Hockey Hall of Fame

Coaching legend Ken Hitchcock has made it his career's mission to give to others. On Wednesday, he was nearly overwhelmed to be on the receiving end, elected as a Builder among the Hockey Hall of Fame's seven-member Class of 2023.

"It's such a great honor," Hitchcock said from Kelowna, British Columbia, the news coming to him in a Toronto call from Lanny McDonald and Mike Gartner, respectively the Hall of Fame's chairman and 18-member Selection Committee chairman.

"My career started in minor hockey, coaching kids. To reach this stage is almost overwhelming to me. When the call came from Lanny today, I was in complete shock, not really ready for it. … This is an unbelievable honor for a guy who started his hockey just coaching kids."

From Midget AAA and coaching hockey fundamentals to girls in his native Edmonton, Hitchcock graduated to guide the Western Hockey League's major-junior Kamloops Blazers to great success during the late 1980s.

He would further that experience in the minor pros toward 22 seasons for five NHL teams from 1995-2019. The 71-year-old won 849 games for the Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers. He is ranked fourth in NHL coaching wins during a 1,598-game career that included the 1998-99 Stanley Cup championship with the Stars and being voted winner of the 2011-12 Jack Adams Award with the Blues as the best coach in the League.

In 14 of his 22 seasons, he took his teams to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Hitchcock has also served as either head or associate coach internationally for Canada at the IIHF World Championship, World Juniors, World Cup of Hockey and three Olympic Games. In 2019, he was presented the Order of Hockey in Canada, awarded by Hockey Canada to individuals for their outstanding contributions or service to the growth and development of the sport.

Every step of the way, Hitchcock was a sponge for every drop of hockey information that came his way. And with each step, he took great pride in sharing his coaching wisdom with others, remembering the generosity of Canadian university coaches.

"They gave up every summer so we could learn," Hitchcock said, a list of legendary collegiate coaching names coming off the top of his head. "It was a combination of Tom Watt, Clare Drake, George Kingston, Dave King, Dr. (Robert) Hindmarch … they put clinics on every summer so they could teach us how to properly run practices, build teams, everything …

"I was left with a profound knowledge. When they finished the meetings, they said, 'Now go out and share.' The NHL isn't a league about sharing (coaching) information, but I felt like I owed it to the people who allowed me to get the information. It was kind of my life's work.

"I donated time every summer to give back. I learned from those guys that there's real value in giving back and sharing information. I know it really helped me when [coaches] were dealing with each other in the Olympics. Being able to share information was really valuable, and I had learned how to do that years earlier from the university coaches."

Indeed, in April 2020, a year after having been dismissed by the Oilers -- his final NHL coaching job -- and with the League paused during the pandemic, Hitchcock eagerly moved online to be a presenter with the NHL Coaches' Association mentorship program, outlining a 10-point plan geared at effective communication and leadership in building a team.

Clearly, he was delighted to be back in school.

"I want a chance to learn every day," he said. "That's what a coach loves. It's great when you feel that you're learning something."

With so many ports of call during his NHL career, Hitchcock is immensely proud that he burned no bridges, maintaining friendships where dismissals might lead to a lingering bitterness. It's for that reason that he is one of the most popular men in hockey, held universally in high regard.

"What I'm proudest of is that I survived," Hitchcock said. "In this business, if you get fired and you do a good job and you have good relationships with people, there's a really good chance you get hired again. I felt really proud of the fact that I didn't leave places with bad blood, because we're in that business of getting hired and fired.

"The other thing I feel really proud of is the relationships that I've been able to maintain since I stopped coaching. I've had strong friendships with people that I've worked with; they continue to this day. At the end of the day, that's what matters to me -- all the friends that I've made in the game of hockey."

Hitchcock truly was in his teaching element during his NHL Coaches' Association presentation three years ago, using multimedia to share his plan.

"I'm really proud the fact that while I coached, I stayed current," Hitchcock said, embracing technology that didn't exist when he stood behind his first bench. "I worked really hard in the offseason to stay current, even as I got older. I really understand how valuable that was, looking back on it now.

"Over time, I've come to realize that I'm never not going to love coaching. I'm never going to think of myself as not a coach."

And there won't be a day when Hitchcock, now a Hall of Famer, won't be watching and listening, absorbing as a student and sharing as a teacher.