Ron Wilson (ice hockey b. 1955)


 * There are two people associated with ice hockey named Ron Wilson. For the other see Ron Wilson b. 1956.

Ronald "Ron" Lawrence Wilson (born May 28, 1955) is an American former professional player and current head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the United States Olympic hockey team. He is also former head coach of the San Jose Sharks, Washington Capitals, and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim of the NHL. Wilson holds dual citizenship of the United States and Canada.

Early Years
Wilson was born in Windsor, Ontario and raised in Fort Erie, Ontario. He moved from Fort Erie, [[Ontario to Riverside, Rhode Island when he was 12 years old. As a result, Wilson holds dual citizenship of Canada and the United States.

Both his father, Larry Wilson, and his uncle, Johnny Wilson coached the Detroit Red Wings.

He began his career playing hockey at Providence College, where he set several NCAA defenceman scoring records and was named the ECAC Player of the Year in 1975.

Playing career
After his successful college career, he was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League in the 1975 NHL Entry Draft in the eighth round. He played only parts of 3 seasons with the Maple Leafs before spending six years in Switzerland, playing for EHC Kloten and HC Davos of Nationalliga A. He returned to the NHL in 1985 and played three seasons with the Minnesota North Stars before retiring as a player in 1988.

Wilson also played on the U.S. national hockey team on a number of occasions throughout his career.

Vancouver Canucks
Wilson's coaching career began in 1990, where he became an assistant coach for the Vancouver Canucks.

Anaheim Mighty Ducks
In 1993, Wilson was named as the first coach of the expansion Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, where he coached the team for 4 years.

Washington Capitals
After the Ducks released him following the 1996–97 NHL season, Wilson was hired to coach the Washington Capitals. In his first year in Washington, he led the team to the Stanley Cup Finals, where the Capitals were defeated by the Detroit Red Wings in four games. He also coached the U.S. national team again, this time at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

The appearance in the Finals would prove to be the highlight of Wilson's tenure in Washington. In the season immediately following Washington's run to the Finals, the Caps backslid significantly and missed the playoffs. In the 1999–00 and 2000–01 seasons, Wilson led the team to back-to-back Southeast Division titles, though the team failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs both times. Hopes were high entering the 2001–02 season as the Capitals acquired Jaromir Jagr from the Pittsburgh Penguins, but the talented yet enigmatic winger never meshed with his more blue collar teammates as the team failed to make the playoffs. Wilson, after getting an initial vote of confidence from General Manager George McPhee, was tagged to take the fall and was released by the Capitals at the end of the NHL season.

San Jose Sharks
He was not unemployed for long when the San Jose Sharks hired Wilson after a mid-season firing of their previous coach, Darryl Sutter. In his four seasons coaching at San Jose, he led the Sharks to the Western Conference finals in 2004 and became the 13th coach to coach 1,000 NHL games on March 18, 2007. With the elimination of the Sharks in the 2007 Playoffs by the Detroit Red Wings, Wilson became the first coach in NHL postseason history to lose to the same team with three different franchises.

Wilson was given the role of assistant coach for the NHL All-Star Game for the Western Conference team after guiding the Sharks to a record of 22-13-5 in the opening half of the 2007–08 NHL season. The Sharks improved that record to 27-15-7 at the time of the All-Star Game. This was Wilson’s coaching debut in an All-Star Game in the fourteen years that he has coached in the NHL. Wilson coached the Western Conference squad alongside Mike Babcock, head coach for the Detroit Red Wings. Wilson is 11th on the all-time list of the number of games coached, and is ranked third amongst the active coaching list.

Wilson earned his 500th win of his coaching career when the Sharks beat the Nashville Predators 4-3 on February 9, 2008 at HP Pavilion at San Jose. He is the 11th coach in the history of the NHL to reach 500 victories.

On March 1, 2008, Wilson became the coach with most wins in Sharks franchise history with 193 wins, and passed Darryl Sutter, who held the earlier record of 192 wins. The Sharks beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-0, which gave Wilson the win. As of March 1, 2008, he is currently in 9th place on the NHL’s list of coaches’ victories of all time with 505 victories.

On May 12, 2008, Wilson was fired by Doug Wilson, after three straight second round exits in the playoffs.

Toronto Maple Leafs
On June 10, 2008 it was announced that Ron Wilson had signed on as the new coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. The deal will see Wilson as the team's bench boss, on a 4-year contract worth 5.6 million dollars plus incentives.

International career
Wilson was named the coach of the U.S. national team at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, where he led the Americans to the tournament championship.

In April 2009 he was named the head coach for the U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Coaching Style
As a coach, Wilson is well-known for integrating technology into his coaching plans. During his stint with the Washington Capitals, he and assistant coach Tim Hunter introduced personal computers into the team's strategy planning and burned DVDs of Capitals games for the team to review. In his stint with the San Jose Sharks, Wilson introduced a tablet PC to be used in the team bench by himself or his assistants to instantly plan out strategies and review plays.