Coaching Career
McCrimmon moved behind the bench shortly after his retirement, joining the New York Islanders as an assistant coach to Mike Milbury on August 19, 1997. He left the team after two years to become head coach of the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League in 1999. In two seasons with the team, he coached 144 games, winning 50 and tying 15. McCrimmon coached the Blades to a second place finish in the East Division in 1999–2000 and a seven-game opening round playoff victory over the Regina Pats before the team was eliminated by the Calgary Hitmen.
Returning to the NHL in 2000, McCrimmon joined the Calgary Flames as an assistant to Don Hay. He remained with the team for two and a half seasons, serving under both Hay and successor Greg Gilbert until the team replaced its coaching staff on December 3, 2002. He returned to the NHL in 2004 as an assistant for the Atlanta Thrashers. He was promoted to associate coach in his fourth season when team general manager Don Waddell fired head coach Bob Hartley during the 2007–08 season. McCrimmon had been offered the Thrashers head coaching position after Waddell's dismissal, but turned it down after the team failed to guarantee he would retain the position beyond the end of the season. Leaving the Thrashers, McCrimmon signed a three-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008 to serve as an assistant coach.
Looking to further his career, he left Detroit on May 19, 2011, and was introduced as head coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) on May 29. He hoped that coaching the Russian club would help him land an NHL head coaching position in the future. He never coached a game for Lokomotiv, as on September 7, 2011, the team's plane crashed on take off en route to their first game of the season. McCrimmon died along with nearly his entire team.
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