Ken Hitchcock, Canadian ice hockey player and coach

Kenneth S. Hitchcock is a Canadian former professional ice hockey coach. Hitchcock coached the Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, St. Louis Blues and Edmonton Oilers of the National Hockey League (NHL). He also served as an assistant coach for Canada national team in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Hitchcock became a major league coach in January of 1996 when the Dallas Stars named him coach with 43 games remaining in the season. The following season was the start of five elite years for the team, where they won five consecutive division championships to go along with reaching the Conference Finals in 1998, 1999, and 2000. The Stars advanced to the Stanley Cup in 1999, which they won in six games over the Buffalo Sabres. They reached the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals but lost to the New Jersey Devils in six games; Hitchcock was fired 50 games into the 2001-02 season. He was hired by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2002 and coached them to three playoff appearances, which included a Conference Finals appearance in 2004 but was fired eight games into the 2006 season. He was quickly hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets that year and coached four seasons, where he helped them reach their first Stanley Cup playoffs in 2009; he was fired the following season. He was hired to coach the St. Louis Blues in 2011, and in his first season he led them to their first division title in twelve years. They reached the Conference Finals once in 2016 but Hitchcock was fired in the middle of the 2016-17 season. Hitchcock initially retired after spending the 2017-18 season with the Stars as coach but returned to coach the last 62 games of the 2018-19 season for the Edmonton Oilers before he was let go. Hitchcock is the fourth-winningest coach in NHL history with a total of 849 victories. He was named a 2019 Order of Hockey in Canada recipient. Hitchcock was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2023.