Coaching Career
Following 1984, Harrington retired from playing and rejoined his college roots as an assistant coach under former Montreal Canadiens star Ralph Backstrom at the University of Denver. The highlight of Harrington's time at Denver was 1985-86 when Denver won a school record 34 games and advanced to the NCAA Frozen Four. In 1990 Harrington returned to Minnesota as an assistant coach for St. Cloud State University.
From 1993-2008, Harrington was the head hockey coach at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. Harrington turned around a listless program at Saint John's. By his fourth season he had guided SJU to a school-record 26-6-1 mark, the school's first conference championship since 1950, the school's first conference playoff championship, the school's first NCAA tournament berth and an NCAA third place victory. In 15 seasons at Saint John's he has a career record of 241-142-31 (.620). He has won five MIAC titles, four MIAC playoff championships and has advanced to the NCAA tournament five times. Harrington is the school leader in career wins. In addition to his coaching duties, Harrington was the assistant athletic director at Saint John's.
It was announced on March 31, 2008 that Harrington would step down as head coach at Saint John's to become head coach for HC Ambri-Piotta of the Swiss National League. On December 16, 2008 he was fired. On January 19, 2009 Harrington signed a contract as head coach for Slovenia men's national ice hockey team, then on May 11, 2009, Harrington signed a contract with HC Asiago. He was he was a head coach for the Slovenia men's national ice hockey team until December 12, 2010, when Matjaž Kopitar succeeded him in this post.
Read more about this topic: John Harrington (ice Hockey)
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