NAHL alum Williams named head coach for Canada at World Juniors
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Dennis Williams led the Amarillo Bulls to the Robertson Cup National Championship in 2013.
Former NAHL head coach and current Everett Silvertips general manager and head coach Dennis Williams has officially been named the head coach of Hockey Canada’s 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship team.
Williams is in his sixth season as head coach of the Everett Silvertips of the Western Hockey League (WHL), adding the general manager title to his responsibilities in July 2021. He has led the Silvertips to four U.S. Division titles, three Western Conference regular season titles and a Western Conference playoff championship. He has been named WHL Western Conference Coach of the Year twice (2017-18, 2019-20) and U.S. Division Coach of the Year once (2021-22).
In addition to his gold medal at the 2022 World Juniors, Williams won a silver medal as an assistant with Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team at the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He also served as head coach of Team Canada Black at the 2018 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Under the direction Williams the Amarillo Bulls won the Robertson Cup National Championship during the 2012-13 season, where he was also named the NAHL’s Coach of the Year.
During his time in the NAHL, Williams led Amarillo to three consecutive 40-win seasons from 2011-14, amassing a career record of 168-44-2-24 and a points percentage of .756 across four years in the NAHL. He delivered three straight South Division titles, back-to-back and league leading 46-win campaigns. The Bulls shattered a 35-year old record with 99 points in back to back seasons (2011-13). Williams’ teams in Amarillo led the league in goals from 2011-13, and finished second in the NAHL with 207 goals with a +87 goal differential in 2013-14.
Following his time in the NAHL with Amarillo, Williams went onto coach in the USHL for three seasons with the Bloomington Thunder. After guiding Bloomington to a 29-24-7 record and fifth place in the Eastern Conference in their expansion season of 2014-15, he led the Thunder in 2015-16 to a 36-18-6 record, an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final, and a victory shy of reaching the league’s Clark Cup Finals.