Toronto Maple Leafs News

Ron Wilson’s Fascination With Technology Puts Him At Forefront Of The Coaching Profession

By Ross McKeon

Ron Wilson was 10 years old when his grandfather taught him to type. Those long summer days, spent in a Canadian Pacific Railway office where his grandfather repaired communications equipment, were a lot of fun once Wilson learned how to work that intriguing Teletype machine.

He’d remove the tape of what he typed, insert it into another machine, and just like magic, Wilson’s words would appear on a screen.

That got Wilson thinking.

“He instilled in me that love for technical stuff,” Wilson said of his mother’s father. “We’d take apart a TV for the heck of it. He’d show me how things work.”

A hockey career, first as a player and then a coach, has replaced his childhood interest, and advanced technology has rendered Teletypes obsolete, but Wilson’s enthusiasm to blend the two remains unparalleled.

Ronald Laurence Wilson is a man devoted to hockey. He’s married, has two grown-up daughters, loves to play golf, go to the movies and enjoys playing practical jokes.

And then there’s his endless fascination with technology. Armed with the database software he designed to compile statistics, Wilson feeds information of what happens on the ice into a computer, sees what is spit out and uses the results as a tool to coach more effectively.

“Ron has always been very computer-oriented. When I was with him, we were the first team to use the technology to our advantage,” says Tim Army, who spent nine years with Wilson as an assistant coach with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Washington Capitals. “Over the years, there have been a number of upgrades and the [computer] programs continue to get better. Ron’s always been on top of all the latest innovations.”

Wilson completed his 11th year of coaching in the NHL, a season that was as personally satisfying as any other. After replacing Darryl Sutter in San Jose halfway through the 2002-03 season, Wilson rallied the Sharks from a disappointing last-place finish to a franchise-record 104-point regular season, a second Pacific Division title and the team’s first visit to the Stanley Cup semifinals.

After ironically bowing out against a team — Calgary — that the man he replaced — Sutter — now coached, Wilson resumed his long-standing relationship with USA Hockey and led the Americans again in the World Cup of Hockey in late summer. Wilson returned to help defend the U.S. victory in ’96, the last time the World Cup took place. And just like his time with the Sharks, his handy laptop was present during the World Cup.

He doesn’t go anywhere without it.

“When I got involved in coaching, I didn’t know if I had a shot at being a head coach,” Wilson admitted, “but I wanted to have something that I could bring and would be invaluable to a coaching staff.”

It was following an NHL playing career in which he played parts of seven seasons with Toronto and Minnesota (26 goals, 93 points in 177 games), and after spending parts of six others in Europe, that the former defenseman started to dabble with computer programs in an effort to store and analyze information about players. It was in the late 1980s, while playing in Switzerland, when a friend taught Wilson simple programming language for computers.

That ingenuity impressed expansion Anaheim enough to make Wilson its first head coach in 1993. Something must be working, because in all three stops — with the Mighty Ducks, Washington and San Jose — Wilson has achieved the postseason.

“I knew nobody would be doing this kind of stuff and that would help me get a job,” said Wilson, who was raised in Riverside, R.I. “That would keep me in the game by keeping a step or two ahead of them with the technology.”

Isn’t it a coincidence Wilson wound up coaching a team in Silicon Valley, the home of Bill Gates, microchips and often the latest in computer technology?

“I’ll probably be in the junk heap with all the other broken-down computer executives when it’s all said and done,” Wilson said with a laugh.

The only heap on which he was tossed last season was for coach-of-the-year honors. In the end, Wilson finished runner-up as American-born John Tortorella of Tampa Bay won the Jack Adams Trophy.

One piece of technology the finalists besides Wilson didn’t have at their disposal, along with the other 27 teams in the league, was a portable tablet personal computer the Sharks employed on their bench toward the end of the season and throughout the playoffs.

The computer receives a television feed of the game, which coaches can stop, replay, slow down, etc., to enable them to make quick adjustments without having to wait for an intermission.

A product of Providence College, the 49-year-old Wilson, whose father, Larry, and uncle, Johnny, won Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings, knew he had to do things his way at the start of last season. Wilson let everyone know in training camp not only who was boss but how things would work.

General manager Doug Wilson (no relation) supported the effort by getting everyone signed and into camp on time.

And despite a slow start with one win in 10 games to open the season, momentum was building.

“The main thing is, everyone bought into the system,” Sharks captain Patrick Marleau said. “If a coach can do that, he’s going to have success.”

Rob Zettler, who became an assistant coach after spending a portion of his playing career as a Shark, said Wilson has made hockey a thinking-man’s game, making mental preparation just as important as being physically ready night after night.

“You think as a player you know the game coming in, then you realize after working with someone like Ron you have a long way to go,” Zettler said. “His overall knowledge of the game from A to Z is really impressive.”

Wilson didn’t need a computer to tell him how this team would have success. He instilled a puck-control system that utilizes speed and backside pressure from the defense. He demanded attention to detail with an emphasis on cutting down on goals against and getting downright stingy on the penalty kill.

“They think you make decisions based on a computer program. No. We don’t even show them what we’re doing,” said Wilson, who also digitally combines music and movie clips into hockey videos that he shows to players to provide motivation.

“I put this stuff together to support my own gut feeling about what’s going on. I always want to make sure what I’m seeing and what I’m feeling I can back up with some facts.”

Ross McKeon covers the San Jose Sharks for the San Francisco Chronicle.