Bob Hartley: Ilya Kovalchuk’s hockey father
KHL.ru continues on telling the histories of those who became league’s legends. Today, the talk is about the Canadian coach Bob Hartley, who won the Gagarin Cup with Avangard in 2021 and became the second coach in history to triumph in both the NHL and the KHL.
Probably even Bob Hartley himself knows little about it, but the opportunity to come and work in Russia might have arisen not in 2018, but as early as 2007. Here’s the story.
The Atlanta Thrashers started their 2007-2008 NHL campaign with six consecutive losses. The head coach, Hartley, was dismissed. Two months later, Valery Bragin was fired from Spartak. The Muscovites, considered several options for their new bench boss, including Hartley. Whether he would have agreed to lead Spartak if an offer had been made remains a matter of speculation. However, the boards decided to eventually not engage in dealings with Hartley, preferring hiring the late Milos Riha. They saw this choice as the most suitable since the Czech specialist was fluent in the language and had previous experience of working in Russia with Khimik.
Hartley’s break lasted a long time. After continuously working in the NHL from 1998 to 2007, he returned to coaching only in 2011, when he took over Zurich in the Swiss top-flight league. Despite not having coaching experience for almost four years, Hartley led his new team to the Swiss title in his first season. In the final series against SC Bern, Zurich came back from a 1-3 deficit. Afterward, Hartley returned to the NHL to lead the Calgary Flames.
Stanley Cup triumph
In 1997, Hartley won the Calder Cup as the AHL champions with the Hershey Bears, the Colorado Avalanche’s affiliated. A year later, he got promoted and took over the Avalanche, who just suffered from a first-round exit by the Edmonton Oilers.
Hartley quickly produced results in his first NHL season. In his debut season as a coach, the Colorado Avalanche won their division and reached the playoffs’ semifinals, where they lost 3-4 to the eventual Stanley Cup winner, the Dallas Stars. In the 1999-2000 season, the Colorado Avalanche achieved similar results, losing again to the Stars in the semis.
Hartley’s Stanley Cup triumph finally arrived in his third season with the Avalanche. The team once again finished first in their division and managed to overcome the jinxed stage of the semis, defeating the St. Louis Blues 4-1. In the finals, the Avalanche faced the reigning champion, the New Jersey Devils, and were considered underdogs. After five games, they were trailing and were also missing Peter Forsberg, out with an injury. However, the Colorado Avalanche won the two crucial games with an overall score of 7:1. Hartley’s team became the fourth in NHL history to win a series after being down 2:3 in the seventh game.
In the following season, the Colorado Avalanche once again won their division and reached the semifinals. And once again, they lost 3-4 to the eventual playoff winner, the Detroit Red Wings, with a 0-7 loss in game seven. An astonishing consistency. However, in the new season, the Colorado Avalanche performed poorly, and Hartley was dismissed in December.
28.05.2018 Signs a two-year deal with Avangard.
02.09.2018 First KHL game in Yaroslavl.
08.04.2019 Wins the Eastern Conference with Avangard, advances to the Gagarin Cup finals, where the team will lose to CSKA.
Kovalchuk’s coach
Hartley’s Colorado won the division in all four seasons and reached at least the semifinals in the elimination stage. Naturally, a coach who showed such results couldn’t remain without a job for long. In the same season, the Canadian took over the Atlanta Thrashers which debuted in the NHL only in 1999 and lacked star power, failing to make it to the playoffs. However, the team’s poor performance allowed them to receive first-round draft picks. In 2000, the club selected Dany Heatley. The following year, they picked Ilya Kovalchuk.
Building a competitive team practically from scratch, even with a few young stars, takes time. Perhaps Hartley would have turned Atlanta into a regular playoff contender fairly quickly, but in the fall of 2003, the team suffered a serious blow. Heatley and Dan Snyder were involved in a car accident. The former sustained severe injuries, while the latter tragically passed away. Heatley missed a significant portion of the season. The next championship was canceled due to a lockout, and after its conclusion, Heatley was moved to Ottawa. Kovalchuk had to carry Atlanta practically on his own. Hartley eventually led the Thrashers to the playoffs once – the team played in the elimination stage for the first and last time in its history in 2007 but lost 0-4 in the first round to the New York Rangers. Hartley never got another chance to compete for the Stanley Cup with Atlanta as he was fired at the beginning of the following season.
Under Hartley’s coaching, Kovalchuk won one of the most prestigious NHL awards, the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy. In 2004, he scored 41 goals and became the top scorer of the regular season along with Jarome Iginla and Rick Nash.
Hartley and Kovalchuk had a close connection. The Russian forward spent around 25 minutes on the ice per game, often playing entire powerplay shifts. In an interview with Sport-Express, the Canadian coach talked about how he built a relationship with the star forward.
“Kovy, I came here because of you. We need to find solutions, and it’s not about conflicts. Sometimes, there may be disagreements because you believe in your path, and I don’t always think it’s the best. So, we have to negotiate and find compromises in certain areas,” the coach told Kovalchuk.
“Kovalchuk is my hockey son,” Hartley stated at a press conference dedicated to his departure from Avangard.
Triumph with Avangard
Hartley decided to accept Avangard’s offer partly thanks to Kovalchuk.
“I will never forget his phone call when he convinced me to sign with them,” the coach recalled.
Hartley took over the Hawks in 2018 and could have won the Gagarin Cup in his debut season. Avangard only lost three games on their way to the final. However, in the finals, the Hawks couldn’t win a single match against CSKA, even though all the games except the first one were closely contested.
01.09.2019 Avangard defeats CSKA to win the Opening Cup.
21.12.2019 Renew his deal with Avangard for two further seasons.
28.04.2021 Gagarin Cup triumph.
The following season proved to be tougher for the Hawks. The team lost in the playoffs’ first round to Salavat Yulaev (2-4). There were talks of possible dismissal for Hartley, but the management showed patience. The coach continued his work and achieved the expected result, just like with Colorado, in his third year.
Avangard meticulously built a championship roster. The final missing piece appeared in December 2020 when the club signed a contract with Hartley’s old acquaintance, Ilya Kovalchuk.
“We had two captains, but after Emelin’s departure, Kovalchuk came to the rescue. It was his locker room, and I often told him, ‘I’ll take care of everything outside, and you take care of everything inside.’ I knew what he was capable of; I worked with him for five years in Atlanta when he was still very young. For me, it’s a special moment because essentially, I coached such a young kid who took his first steps in the NHL, and now I won the championship with Kovy,” said Hartley in an interview after the triumph.
The final series between CSKA and the Hawks was the highlight of the championship. The fourth match deserves special mention, in which Omsk led 3-2, but the Muscovites tied the score one second before the end of the closing frame. It seemed like the momentum was on the visitors’ side, and their chances of netting the OT winner were higher. However, it turned out the opposite – Avangard snatched the victory, and this moment arguably became the key in the series. The Hawks won game five and six, 2:0 and 1:0, respectively. Thus, Hartley became the second coach after Mike Keenan to win both the Gagarin Cup and the Stanley Cup.
The fact that Avangard continues to maintain communication with its former bench boss speaks volumes about his contribution to the victory, his professionalism, and his relationship with the club and fans. For instance, the Canadian now serves as a consultant for the club’s academy. Moreover, in October of last year, he was invited to the opening of the new G-Drive Arena in Omsk. On that day, Hartley beat the drum and called on the fans to chant.
“For Avangard, this is a historic day,” Hartley said. “Four years ago, you lost your arena and team, but you continued to support us. The day we brought the Gagarin Cup to Omsk will forever remain in my memory.”
08.06.2021 Honored as Coach of the year in the KHL.
30.03.2022 Last game at the helm of Avangard.
Stanley Cup champion 2001
NHL Coach of the year 2015
Calder Cup champion 1997
KHL All-Star Game participation 2019, 2020
Dossier
Bob Hartley
Born Sep 07, 1960, in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada.
Coaching career: Hawkesbury, Canada – 1987-1991; Laval, Canada – 1991-1993; Cornwall, Canada – 1994-1996; Hershey, USA – 1996-1998; Colorado – 1998-2002; Atlanta – 2002-2007, Zurich – 2011-2012; Calgary – 2012-2016; Team Latvia – 2016-2018; Avangard – 2018-2022.
Honors: Calder Cup (1997), Stanley Cup (2001), Gagarin Cup (2021), Swiss champion (2012) and Russian champion (2021).
