(Release courtesy Nathan Reiter/Prince Albert Daily Herald)
For the third time in as many years, the Prince Albert Mintos will have a new bench boss.
The team announced on social media that Dion Antisin had been hired as head coach, taking over for Doan Smith who spent just a single season in the role.
In an interview with the Daily Herald, Antisin says he is looking forward to the opportunity.
“It means the world. I’m very excited to be part of such a strong history and such a good program that the PA Mintos have had. It’s been a while since the team has done something great like a national or provincial title. I’m really hoping that I can be a part of something that creates that.”
Antisin spent the last two seasons working in Sweden as the head coach of the Bodens HF J20 program. He also worked with the semi-professional IF Boden Hockey Club.
Before heading overseas, Antisin had spent time with the Notre Dame Hounds program serving as an assistant and head coach for CSSHL U15, U17 and U18 programs. He spent one season as an associate coach for the SJHL team in 2022-23.
Now that he is back in North America, Antisin is hoping to take what he learned in Sweden and apply it
“For me, I think it was a great experience just to understand the development side of the game. You look at Sweden at the world juniors and the hockey championships and all that, they’re doing such great things with such a small population. It was really good to just go over and see the development that they do, the systems, run the styles they play and how they do the day-to-day operation, I think it was a great experience for me to be able to bring that back to North America and the PA program.”
Despite being from Kelowna originally, Antisin is no stranger to the SMAAAHL. Antisin spent parts of two seasons with the Notre Dame Argos as a player. He tallied 13 goals and 20 assists along with 120 penalty minutes in the 2011-12 campaign.
Teams from the SMAAAHL have represented the West region at each of the last three Telus Cups. The Regina Pat Canadians will look to defend their national championship heading into next season.
Antisin says Saskatchewan does an excellent job at developing top talent, despite having a smaller population than many other provinces in the country.
“Saskatchewan always has a team that’s pushing to be a national champion. Whoever makes it out of this league really has a good shot. It’s such a strong development structure that might get overlooked by some other provinces, but having played in this league and been a part of a team that has done well in it, it’s unbelievable that such a small province in population size is able to develop these players. I think it’s because there’s so many ranks in Saskatchewan and everybody’s able to play all the time.”
Antisin will have a pair of familiar faces alongside him during his first season behind the Minto bench. The team announced that Brian Glynn will return from last season’s staff along with Minto alumni and former Melfort Mustang Chase Friedt-Mohr.
“I’m very excited to work with guys that have been around the program for a couple years and bring such vast knowledge of the game to me and to the club as well.” Antisin explained. “It’s great to have coaches that are really strong in the game and know the game well as you bounce ideas off of each other and learn the game that way as well. Coaching is very much give and take and then stealing ideas and using ideas that other guys have had so I think there’s going to be a great conversation of hockey knowledge being passed around from everybody and that can only help the players.”
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