The Russians were coming at Iron Mike for about 30 days, and they were relentless in their pursuit.
After Paul Maurice walked away from Metallurg Magnitogorsk after coaching the professional hockey team for one season, the KHL club took aim at luring Stanley Cup champion Mike Keenan behind the bench for the first time in more than four years.
And after Keenan turned down at least one long-term deal with the lockout home of superstar Evgeni Malkin, the 63-year-old finally signed a two-year commitment to the team on Monday.
“The club was persistent and continued to pursue their interest in me for a approximately a month,” Keenan told sportsnet.ca. “The more I investigated the situation, the more interested I became. I visited the club in Russia and decided to accept the job.”‘
Keenan has led the New York Rangers to a Stanley Cup victory (in 1994) and claimed 672 NHL victories. As general manager of the Florida Panthers in 2006, he traded away Roberto Luongo and shortly resigned thereafter. He was behind the bench during the infamous St. Patrick’s Day Massacre in 1991 and captured the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s coach of the year in 1984-85.
Hockey in North America has given Keenan his fair share of adventures, and now he’s embarking on a fresh one.
“One of the biggest challenges,” Keenan said, “will be to adapt to a new culture as well as a completely different game.”
Considered the second-best pro circuit in the world, the KHL will swell to include 28 teams in 2013-14. Seven of those clubs are located outside of Russia; Croatia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Latvia, Belarus and Kazakhstan all dress teams.
“I have been given an unbelievable life experience and opportunity,” Keenan said. “I am looking forward to learning about an incredibly vast country in Russia. The travel will extend from the Baltic Sea to the Sea of Japan. Also, we will be exposed to a number of other cultures with many additional countries making up the KHL.”
Keenan last coached professionally for the Calgary Flames from 2007 to 2009, but he was fired with a year left on his contract after the Flames lost in the first round of playoffs for a second straight year.
He then found work analyzing the game for various television outlets, including Sportsnet’s Hockey Central. But even after 20 NHL seasons and runs with seven teams, Keenan’s desire to coach remained.
“The only individual that gave me serious consideration to coach in the NHL since Calgary was George McPhee of the Washington Capitals,” Keenan said of the GM who ended up hiring Hall of Fame player Adam Oates last June. “I really appreciated his sincere interest in my coaching ability.”
In Magnitogorsk, Keenan adopts a perennial contender for the KHL championship. Led by three-time KHL scoring leader Sergei Mozyakin, Metallurg was eliminated in the quarterfinals earlier this spring.
The club served as the lockout home for NHLers Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Ryan O’Reilly and Nikolai Kulemin. Metallurg’s Mats Zuccarello rejoined the New York Rangers after the KHL season.
The Gagarin Cup will become Iron Mike’s new Stanley Cup.
“The large ice surface will present a different approach in tactics and strategy,” Keenan said. “However, the love of the game very much exists in the Russian people.”
