Friesen Ready for New Western Challenge
Published on August 25, 2025 under Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)
Moncton Wildcats News Release
It's been a hot, dry summer in Moncton this year - but it's Friesen in Calgary.
Dustin Friesen, who served as the Moncton Wildcats' associate coach last season as the right-hand man to head coach Gardiner MacDougall, was named the new head coach of the Western Hockey League's Calgary Hitmen in late July.
"I had full intention of coming back to Moncton," said the 42-year-old native of Waldheim, Saskatchewan. "I had a great experience there and it was great working with Gardiner and his staff. The whole Moncton organization is first class. But when the opportunity came to be a head coach of a good organization, it was a hard one to pass up."
Friesen replaces Paul McFarland, who left to join the National Hockey League's Edmonton Oilers as an assistant coach.
"From Day 1, we identified Dustin as a real quality candidate," Hitmen general manager Garry Davidson told the Calgary Herald when Friesen was announced.
He and MacDougall go back a long way. MacDougall recruited Friesen to the University of New Brunswick in 2004. Friesen was his team captain for the last three years of his five years on campus. They won a pair of Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championships together while Friesen earned degrees in kinesiology and education.
He had originally committed to going to the University of Saskatchewan to play. But he said "going to New Brunswick was one of the best things that ever happened to me."
He recalled meeting MacDougall at a truck stop along Highway 1 in Western Canada as he and his wife Katherine, newlyweds at the time, made their way to Fredericton.
"My history with him goes a long way," Friesen said. "I'm pretty fortunate that we crossed paths with him. To have the opportunity to play for him as a player and then to coach with him...his energy, his passion and how he cares for people, that's always been a strength of his. What I learned from him...there was just so much. But I keep going back to his passion and how much he cares. He's great at investing in people. He's great at empowering his players and his staff. He just brings it every day. He has a high standard and expectation for the way things need to be done and I think a big part of a winning team and a winning program is just that consistent, every day approach."
Friesen can't, and won't promise to imitate MacDougall.
"There's only one Gardiner MacDougall," he said. "When it comes to coaching, everyone has to have their own style. They need to be who they are. There are things that Gardiner has done that I would want to follow suit. But just from playing and coaching, you develop from good experiences and bad experiences."
Friesen's first experience as a coach, after a playing career that took him to pro hockey in the ECHL, AHL and to Germany, was at the Prairie Hockey Academy in his native Saskatchewan where he "had a lot of impact in building the program."
It was shortly after MacDougall accepted the job in Moncton that he reached out to Friesen about a reunion.
"I knew he would give me the opportunity and he would trust me to do a good job for him," said Friesen.
And of course, the evidence is in: the Wildcats had the most successful season in their history, winning the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League championship and advancing to the Memorial Cup tournament. MacDougall earned Canadian Hockey League coach of the year honours and said in his acceptance speech that it was very much a staff award.
The Friesen family - his wife of 21-years Katherine and daughters Taryn, 16, Nova, 11 and Evelyn, seven, will remain in Saskatchewan again this season, but the mileage will be a little more manageable.
Friesen has spent the last month between Calgary and Saskatchewan getting ready for the opening of the Hitmen training camp. The Hitmen had a good season last year in their own right - not Wildcats good, but at 45-17-3-3, a solid season.
"We've got a lot of work to do, but I like our starting point," said Friesen. Might a Moncton versus Calgary Memorial Cup final be in the offing some day?
"That would be great one day," Friesen chuckled. "But we'll just take care of training camp first, and we'll go from there."
Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League Stories from August 25, 2025
- Friesen Ready for New Western Challenge - Moncton Wildcats
- Gabe Smith: Size & Grit - Moncton Wildcats
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
