Kurt Kleinendorst

Kurt Kleinendorst (born December 31, 1960) is an American professional ice hockey coach. Since January 2022, he is head coach of the Iserlohn Roosters from the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL). Kleinendorst played four seasons at Providence College and was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.

Kurt Kleinendorst
Kleinendorst in 2014
Born (1960-12-31) December 31, 1960
Grand Rapids, Minnesota, U.S.
Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight 190 lb (86 kg; 13 st 8 lb)
Position Forward
Played for Tulsa Oilers
Salt Lake Golden Eagles
Toledo Goaldiggers
New Haven Nighthawks
Indianapolis Checkers
ECD Iserlohn
Utica Devils
Rotterdam Panda's
NHL Draft 77th overall, 1980
New York Rangers
Playing career 1983–1990
Coaching career
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1991–1994Raleigh IceCaps
1994–1995San Diego Gulls (assistant)
1995–1997Raleigh IceCaps
1997–2000Manchester Storm
2000–2002New Jersey Devils (assistant)
2002–2006New Jersey Devils (scout)
2006–2009Lowell Devils
2009–2010US NTDP
2010US Under-18 Team
2010–2012Binghamton Senators
2012–2013Alabama-Huntsville
2013–2014Iowa Wild
2015–2016ERC Ingolstadt
2016–2017Binghamton Senators
2017–2018Belleville Senators
2019–2020Nürnberg Ice Tigers
2022–Iserlohn Roosters
Head coaching record
Overall3–21–1 (.140) [college]

Playing career

Kleinendorst played for Providence College for four years, from 1979–80 to 1982–83, for Lou Lamoriello.[1] He was selected in the fourth round (77th overall) of the 1980 NHL Entry Draft by the New York Rangers, but never played in the NHL. He was a member of the Tulsa Oilers (CHL) team that suspended operations on February 16, 1984,[2] playing only road games for final six weeks of 1983–84 season. Despite this adversity, the team went on to win the Adams Cup.[3] In 1986–87 he played with Iserlohn (Germany) and Peliitat Heinola (Finland) teams, and then with the Rotterdam Pandas in the Netherlands during the 1987–88 season,[4] Ingolstadt (Germany) 1988–89,[5] and continued to play minor league hockey through 1990.[1]

Coaching career

After his playing career, Kleinendorst was director of hockey operations and head coach for the Raleigh IceCaps of the East Coast Hockey League from 1991 to 1994, and again from 1995 to 1997. During the 1994–95 season he was the assistant coach and assistant general manager of the International Hockey League's San Diego Gulls. He was both general manager and head coach of the Manchester Storm of the UK Ice Hockey Superleague from 1997–98 to 1999–2000, where he was named Coach of the Year following the 1998–99 season.[4]

Kleinendorst joined the New Jersey Devils organization in 2000–01 as an assistant coach under Larry Robinson.[4] He was a scout for five years prior to assuming the head coaching position at organization's Lowell Devils AHL affiliate from 2006–07 to 2008–09.[4] On July 13, 2009, it was announced that former Devils star John MacLean would replace Kleinendorst as the head coach of Lowell.[6]

Kleinendorst was named head coach of USA Hockey National Team Development Program's Under-18 team for the 2010 season, leading the team to a Gold Medal at the 2010 IIHF World U18 Championships.[4] When interviewed about taking the position with USA Hockey, Kleinendorst stated "I could’ve stayed with New Jersey as a scout, but I had already done that. And when Jim Johannson called and asked me to think about this job, it was good timing [...] These are high-school age players and I remember what my high school coaches [at Grand Rapids] meant to me. I know that the Development Program is one of the best programs anywhere and I’m intrigued by working with this age group."[1] Kleinendorst had previously served as Team USA's assistant coach during the 2008 IIHF World Championship.[4]

On August 6, 2010, the Ottawa Senators signed Kleinendorst to a two-year contract as head coach for their American Hockey League affiliate Binghamton Senators.[4] Kleinendorst replaced Don Nachbaur, who resigned as head coach following the 2009–10 season.[7] He led the team to the Calder Cup in 2011. He left the Senators' organization at the end of the contract in 2012.

On September 25, 2012, Kleinendorst was named head coach at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.[8] On May 29, 2013, Kleinendorst resigned as coach and was succeeded by Mike Corbett.

On July 22, 2013, Kleinendorst was hired as head coach by the Iowa Wild, the AHL affiliate of the NHL's Minnesota Wild.[9] He was sacked in November 2014 following a 2–10–0–0 start in the 2014–15 campaign.[10]

Kleinendorst was announced as the new head coach of German DEL team ERC Ingolstadt on November 26, 2015[11] and had his contract renewed in March 2016.[12] However, he returned to the Binghamton Senators on June 8, 2016, as head coach instead of staying with ERC Ingolstadt.[13] The franchise became the Belleville Senators after his first season back and he was retained as head coach for 2017–18. After a 57–86–4–5 record over both seasons and failing to make the playoffs, his contract was not renewed.[14]

On April 25, 2019, Kleinendorst returned abroad to Germany after he was announced as head coach of the Nürnberg Ice Tigers of the DEL.[15] On June 21, 2020, he resigned from the Ice Tigers' head coaching position citing the desire to spend more time with his family.[16]

On January 11, 2022 Kleinendorst returned to the DEL. He took over the struggling Iserlohn Roosters from Brad Tapper. This marked Kleinendorst's return to Iserlohn, where he had been a player during the 1986-87 season.[17]

Personal

Kleinendorst and his wife, Deon (Barbara), have four children: Ryan, Kollin, Kaitlyn, and Jake.[4] Their daughter Katie played lacrosse for North Andover High School and ice hockey for North American Hockey Academy in Stowe, Vermont. As of 2013 she was playing hockey at the University of New Hampshire for the New Hampshire Wildcats under a scholarship.[1][18] He is the younger brother of former NHL player Scot Kleinendorst, and the 5th of a family of 6.

Head coaching record
Statistics overview
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Alabama-Huntsville Chargers (Independent) (2012–2013)
2012–13 Alabama-Huntsville 3–21–1
Alabama-Huntsville: 3–21–1
Total:3–21–1

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

[19]

Awards and honors
Award Year
All-ECAC Hockey Second Team 1981–82 [20]
All-ECAC Hockey First Team 1982–83 [20]
AHCA East All-American 1982–83 [21]

References
  1. pates (August 20, 2009). "Guy Gosselin, Kurt Kleinendorst". Duluth News Tribune: Blogs (MN). Retrieved May 22, 2011.
  2. "1983–84 Tulsa Oilers [CHL] roster and player statistics at hockeydb.com". Retrieved May 22, 2011.
  3. Erdman, Corey (March 20, 2008). "The Tulsa Oilers were true road warriors". The Hockey News. Archived from the original on 2012-02-28. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
  4. Rieber Jr., Donald (August 6, 2010). "Kurt Kleinendorst is named as Binghamton's sixth head coach". Binghamton Examiner (NY). Binghamton Senators Examiner. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
  5. "Ingolstadt: Hier kommt Kurt". donaukurier.de (in German). 24 November 2015. Archived from the original on 26 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  6. Rizzo, Joe (August 14, 2009). "AHL Lowell Devils and Hartford Wolf Pack (Rangers) to play twice at PruCenter". Newark Examiner (NJ). New Jersey Devils Examiner. Archived from the original on November 10, 2013. Retrieved May 22, 2011.
  7. "Bulletin: Senators announce the resignation of Nachbaur as head coach of Binghamton". senators.nhl.com. June 22, 2010. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  8. McCarter, Mark (2012-09-25). "Ex-NHL coach Kurt Kleinendorst named new hockey coach at UAH". The Huntsville Times. Retrieved 2012-09-25.
  9. "Iowa Wild Names Kleinendorst First Head Coach". Iowa Wild. 2013-07-22. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  10. "Iowa Wild fire Kleinendorst". Minnesota Hockey Mag. 2014-11-10. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  11. "Kurt Kleinendorst neuer Cheftrainer des ERC Ingolstadt". Deutsche Eishockey Liga. 2015-11-26. Archived from the original on 2016-01-26. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  12. "ERC Ingolstadt: Kleinendorst weiter Cheftrainer". erc-ingolstadt.de. Retrieved 2016-03-20.
  13. "Kleinendorst returning to Binghamton". AHL. June 8, 2016.
  14. "REPORT: Coach K out as Belleville Senators bench boss". Belleville Intelligencer. May 1, 2018.
  15. "Kurt Kleinendorst takes over head coach post". Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers (in German). April 25, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
  16. "Kleinendorst kommt nicht zurück". Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers (in German). June 21, 2020. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  17. "Kurt Kleinendorst becomes the new head coach of the Roosters". Iserlohn Roosters (in German). January 11, 2022. Retrieved February 28, 2022.
  18. "28 – Katie Kleinendorst". UNHWildcats.com. University of New Hampshire. Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
  19. "Alabama-Huntsville Chargers Hockey Year-by-Year". Alabama-Huntsville Chargers. Archived from the original on 2013-12-05. Retrieved 2014-08-06.
  20. "ECAC All-Teams". College Hockey Historical Archives. Retrieved May 19, 2013.
  21. "Men's Ice Hockey Award Winners" (PDF). NCAA.org. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
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