Grizzlies hire Becanic as head coach

West Valley City, Utah – John Becanic has been named as the new head coach of the Utah Grizzlies. Becanic is the ninth head coach in team history.

Becanic led the 2003 Pittsburgh Force to a USA Hockey Junior A National Championship.

Becanic spent four years as the associate head coach with the Everett Silvertips of the Western Hockey League, serving under former National Hockey Leagye head coach, Kevin Constantine. In their first year as an expansion franchise, the Silvertips became the first and only Canadian Hockey League team to make it to the league finals in their first season. Promoted to head coach of the Silvertips in 2006, he won 66 games in two seasons.

Becanic had additional stops in the WHL as an associate head coach in Seattle and Vancouver serving under former NHL and Grizzlies coach Don Hay.

After stepping away from a 30-year coaching career, Becanic founded Pyramid Hockey 2016. With a passion for helping players and mentoring coaches, Pyramid’s primary focus was player/coach development through Hockey IQ.

In 2019, he founded and served as the CEO of The Prospect Exchange, a video and analytics platform. After acquiring ICEBERG Sports Analytics and growing TPE, Becanic sold and stepped away from the company so that he could get back to working with players on the IQ side. In 2023 he partnered with Minnesota Advancement Program, and designed and implemented an online virtual IQ program for youth hockey in Minnesota.

In January 2024, Becanic returned to the bench to serve as head coach for the National Collegiate Development Conference's Idaho Falls Spud Kings, who won the 2024-25 Dineen Cup Championship in their second year of existence.