There's a new Dean in Swift Current.
The Broncos introduced former Everett Silvertips assistant coach Dean DeSilva as their bench boss during a media conference at Elmwood Golf Course today.
This is DeSilva first head coaching job in the Western Hockey League.
"I'm very excited," DeSilva said. "Obviously it's a fantastic opportunity to be a head coach in the WHL. To have that opportunity in Swift Current I'm very excited."
He spent the last four seasons with Everett where they twice won the U.S. Division and were the 2024-25 Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy winners with the best regular season record in the WHL.
"There's a lot that I like about Dean," said Broncos GM Chad Leslie. "It was competitive process. We had a lot of really great applicants and a lot of really good presentations. He's a worker for sure. He's a guy that is organized, very much about structure. Comfortable at this age in his life that he's comfortable in his own skin. I just I think he's the guy that's going to be focused on player relationships, development, and structure. That's important for the direction our team is going here."
DeSilva feels very ready to make the jump to a head coaching position.
"I know the players very, very well," DeSilva said. "Just how the players are these days. I'm a players coach, have been a head coach at the junior level before. Being around the team in Everett for the last four years and just my role expanding there and the relationships I've built there. I'm ready for that. The players have all pushed me in this direction as well. When I left Everett at the end of the year with the exit interviews and the exit meetings that we they have basically said to me, we don't expect you back. We want you back, but there's been enough teams that called to ask about your availability it's time for you to move on. It's time to kind of jump in with both feet and see what we can do."
DeSilva has watched video on all the players and talked to some of them but noted he would start with a blank slate for all of them.
Swift Current will name the remainder of their hockey operations staff within the next few weeks.
"The development piece is key for sure," Leslie said. "When we announce our staff in a couple of weeks, it'll be evident there too. We're going to be focusing on development for our players. Putting our money where our mouth is. I think too, the reference calls on Dean were outstanding (with) other head coaches alongside with him when he was an associate and assistant. A guy that's going to take control and he's got a small market feel to him. It just felt like a really good fit all around."
According to a Silvertips release, DeSilva worked with forwards and power play units. He focused on skill development, face offs, video breakdown, and pre-scouting opponents.
Over that time, Everett set two new franchise records for goals scored with 280 in 2021-22 and 296 in 2023-24.
DeSilva was also an assistant coach for the Vancouver Giants in 2019-20.
The Ayr, Ontario native coached in the GOJHL for eight seasons, five of them as a head coach, and was that league's 2009-2010 Coach of the Year.
DeSilva also served as head coach of Kitchener Jr. Rangers U16 AAA team for 7 seasons.
His teams qualified for the OHL Cup five times and had 28 players selected in the OHL Priority Draft.
DeSilva was also Director of Development with the Kitchener Minor Hockey Association, was named 2016 Coach of the Year, and won the 2016 Alliance Hockey Award of Merit for Outstanding Contribution.
He was an Assistant Coach for Team Ontario at the 2019 Canada Winter Games, for Team Canada at the 2016 Youth Olympics, and for Canada at the 2011 Three Nations Cup.
He also served twice as head coach of Team Alliance at the OHL Gold Cup.
That experience positions him to be a coach tackling development for what will be a young Broncos roster next season.
"Development is going to be huge because the landscape is changing," DeSilva said. "We're going to have a very, very good D-corps. I think they're still young, but after their year experience that's going to make a big difference. With losing so many top end players off the top couple of lines, it's going to be a rebuild. So players are going to all want to come in and step into different roles, but it's going to be the development piece. It's going to be very, very important, allow them to make mistakes. Work ethic is going to be key. If they don't work, they don't play, but we'll live with the mistakes and then correct them. We want to put them into a situation in an environment that they want to be part of and they want to stay and they want to grow together."
Swift Current traded or graduated their top seven scorers from last season.
They do return a significant portion of their blue line.
DeSilva replaces Taras McEwen, who was let go on May 15th.
The 57-year-old will be the third Broncos head coach in the last three seasons.
Leslie indicated they had a very competitive process with eight different candidates getting to the presentation stage. That is where DeSilva stood out.
"The presentation was excellent," Leslie said. "The detail in his presentation. The way Everett plays, they're competitive, they're structured, they're predictable for each other. They played with pace, they compete. There was a lot of those variables that factored in for sure. The detail, his work ethic, his reputation, and his references. It's a great opportunity for him and this is a really good fit."
DeSilva is also the third Swift Current Broncos head coach with the first name Dean, following in the footsteps of Dean Chynoweth and Dean Brockman.
His first regular season game as Broncos coach will be Friday, September 19th against the Regina Pats.