Bruce Cassidy
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Bruce Cassidy (born May 20, 1965 in Ottawa, Ontario) is an ice hockey coach who is currently the head coach of the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League.
Cassidy was a defenceman who played in the Ontario Hockey League with the Ottawa 67's from 1982-1985, and he was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft, selected in the 1st round, 18th overall. Cassidy's best OHL season was in 1982-83, when he registered 25 goals and 86 assists for 111 points. He won the Memorial Cup under coach Brian Kilrea in 1984 scoring 12 points. After missing training camp in 1984 with a knee injury, he made his NHL debut with the Blackhawks retruning in December 1984.
Between 1985-1990, Cassidy would spend most of his time in the Hawks minor league system, playing with the Nova Scotia Oilers of the American Hockey League, the Saginaw Generals of the International Hockey League, the Saginaw Hawks of the IHL and the Indianapolis Ice, also in the IHL. Cassidy would also play 36 games with Chicago during those years, scoring 4 goals and adding 13 assists for 17 points, along with 10 PIM.
After winning the Turner Cup in the IHL, Cassidy then signed with Alleghe HC in Italy, and played 2 years with the club (1990-91 and 1992-93) in the Italian Ice Hockey League, appearing in 51 games, while getting 117 points (35G-82A).
After his stint in Italy, Cassidy then spent the 1993-94 season with Kaufbeuren of the German Hockey League, getting 17 points (8G-9A) in 35 games.
Cassidy then returned to the Blackhawks organization with the Indianapolis Ice from 1994-97 before retiring as a player 10 games into the 96-97 season to take a head coaching job with the Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the ECHL way into midseason. Cassidy took over the team which started the year 6-12-2, and led them to a 15-25-10 record.
The Lizard Kings greatly improved in Cassidy's 2nd year with the team, as they finished with a record of 35-29-6, with 76 points, however the club missed the playoffs again.
In 1998-99, Cassidy was promoted to head coach of the Indianapolis Ice of the IHL, where he spent a lot of years as a player, and the club finished the year at 33-37-12, 78 points and qualified for the playoffs. In the first round, they played the heavily favoured Cincinnati Cyclones in a best of 3 series, and the Cyclones won the opening game 4-2. The Ice came back and won the 2nd game 4-3 in OT, and then took the series by winning 1-0 in game 3 in Cincinnati. In the 2nd round, the Ice fell 3 games to 1 to the Detroit Vipers and were eliminated from the playoffs.
As the Ice folded after the 98-99 season, Cassidy took the head coaching job with the Trenton Titans of the ECHL, and he led them to a respectable 37-29-4 record, good for 4th place in the Northeast Division. He was the first coach of this organization. After earning a bye for the opening round of the playoffs, the Titans made short work of the Richmond Renegades in the 2nd round, sweeping them 3 games to 0. In the 3rd round, they faced off against the Hampton Roads Admirals, and beat them 3 games to 2. The Titans would then fall 4 games to 2 to the Peoria Rivermen in the semi-finals.
Cassidy then moved to the Ottawa Senators organization, and became head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins of the IHL. The club finished with the best record in the league (53-22-7, 113 points), and they defeated the Milwaukee Admirals in 5 games before falling to the Orlando Solar Bears in 5 games in the 2nd round of the playoffs.
Cassidy returned to Grand Rapids for the 2001-02 season, leading them to a division title with a 42-27-11, 95 pts record, but the team lost in the first round to the Chicago Wolves in 5 games.
The Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League took notice of what Cassidy's success in the minors and hired him to become the head coach of the club in 2002-03. The Capitals finished 2nd place in the Southeast with a 39-29-8-6 record, 92 pts, and took on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round of the playoffs. The Capitals won the first 2 games in Tampa Bay, however, the Lightning rebounded and won 4 in a row to eliminate the Capitals from the Stanley Cup playoffs, thanks to a triple-overtime goal by Martin St. Louis, which allowed the Lightning to win a playoff series for the first time in their history. The Tampa Bay Lightning then won the Stanley Cup in 2004.
Cassidy returned in 2003-04 and he was 25 games into the season with an 8-16-1 record he was let go from the Washington Capitals and replaced by assistant coach Glen Hanlon.
Cassidy signed on as an assistant coach with the Blackhawks in June of 2004, but his contract was not renewed for the 2006-07 season given his better fit as a head coach. He was hired by the Kingston Frontenacs on July 12th, 2006. On September 10th, 2006, in a pre-season exhibition game between Kingston and Ottawa, Cassidy got the chance to coach against his former coach and mentor Kilrea; the Frontenacs lost 4-3, thanks to Ottawa's 3-point men Matt Lahey and Thomas Kiriakou, who each had two goals and an assist. During the regular season, Cassidy quickly rebounded in the home opener and beat his former proud mentor by 9-5.
During his first season as head coach, Bruce Cassidy led the Frontenacs to the Eastern Conference playoffs in 5th place with a first round against the Oshawa Generals.
| Preceded by Ron Wilson |
Head Coaches of the Washington Capitals 2002–2003 |
Succeeded by Glen Hanlon |
| Preceded by Jim Hulton |
Head Coaches of the Kingston Frontenacs 2006–2007 |
Succeeded by successor |
