Broncos Name DeSilva 11th Head Coach in Franchise History
July 2, 2025 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Swift Current Broncos News Release
Swift Current, Sask. - General Manager Chad Leslie is proud to announce that Dean DeSilva has been named the 11th Head Coach in modern franchise history.
Desilve, a native of Ayr, Ontario has spent the last four seasons as an Assistant Coach with the Everett Silvertips, working primarily with the 'Tips forward group and powerplay units.
In those four seasons, Everett set two new franchise records for goals scored as a team- 280 in '21-22 and 296 in '23-24. The team won two U.S. Division titles and the '24-25 Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy for the best regular season record in the WHL in that span.
"I'm excited for Dean to join our organization," said Leslie. "With the direction we are heading, I feel he is a perfect fit with regards to his philosophy, structure, focus on player development and how we want to play."
DeSilva began his coaching career in the GOJHL as the Head Coach of the Waterloo Siskins (2008-11) and the Elmira Sugar Kings (2011-13). Prior to joining the WHL coaching fraternity, 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.
DeSilva is no stranger to working with younger athletes, he was an Assistant Coach for Team Ontario at the 2019 Canada Winter Games and represented Team Canada as an Assistant Coach at the 2011 Three Nations Cup and the 2016 Youth Olympics.
"Development is going to be huge because the landscape is changing," DeSilva told Swift Current Online. "We're going to have very, very good D-corps. I think they're still young, but a year of experience is 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. 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 important to 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.".
For additional coverage of the introductory press conference held earlier today at Elmwood Golf and Country Club, including interviews with DeSilva and Leslie, visit Swift Current Online.
The Broncos will open the 2025-26 season on Friday, September 19th vs the Regina Pats. Season Tickets are now on sale at The Stable or online using our season ticket online account feature! Visit https://chl.ca/whl-broncos/seasontickets for more details.
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