Carolina Hurricanes promote Tim Gleason to coaching staff

The Carolina Hurricanes have announced several changes to the hockey operations and coaching departments, highlighted by the promotion of Tim Gleason to assistant coach.

Gleason, 38, has served as a development coach for the last three years, focusing on the organization’s defensemen. He brings plenty of experience after an NHL career that spanned more than a decade and saw him suit up more than 750 times, including a good chunk with the Hurricanes. In fact, Gleason was a teammate of head coach Rod Brind’Amour for many years, though he arrived just after the team won the Stanley Cup in 2006. This will be his first opportunity behind an NHL bench and serves as a good stepping stone for his coaching career.

The team has also announced several other changes in the front office. Peter Harrold will take over Gleeson’s duties with defenseman development, Zach Abdou has been named hockey operations coordinator, Mark Craig has been named director of pro scouting, Trace Linton is now a pro scout, Rhys Jessop and Ian Meagher are amateur scouts and Cody Ward is going to join the Chicago Wolves as a video coach.

Eric Tulsky, the team’s assistant general manager, called out special attention to some of the appointments on Twitter, including Craig’s promotion to director of pro scouting. Craig goes way back with the Hurricanes extended management family, even serving as head coach of the Windsor Compuware Spitfires in 1984-85, when the franchise was owned by Peter Karmanos (former Hurricanes owner), managed by Jim Rutherford (former Hurricanes GM) and included a young defenseman named Paul Maurice (former Hurricanes head coach).