Although he finds himself without a current coaching job in the NHL, Bob Hartley will still be behind the bench for a while to come. He has agreed to stay on as the bench boss for the Latvian Hockey Federation for the next five years, notes Martin Merk on the IIHF’s official website.
Hartley was brought in shortly after Latvia failed to qualify for the upcoming Winter Olympics and was behind the bench at the World Championships back in May. At that time, Hartley didn’t want to commit to a longer-term deal in case another opportunity presented itself there but now he will be able to give their developing program some stability in the years to come.
The 56-year-old has over 1,000 games of NHL experience (between the regular season and playoffs) with a points percentage of .554 during the regular season. Hartley also won a Stanley Cup with Colorado back in 2001 and the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year with Calgary.
This isn’t the first time that the Latvian Federation has had someone with NHL experience behind the bench for their national team. Ted Nolan, who had a pair of stints as head coach with Buffalo plus one with the Islanders, coached Latvia’s entries in the 2012 and 2013 Worlds as well as the qualification tournament for the 2014 Olympics.