Dan Ratushny
Daniel Ratushny | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 29, 1970 Canada |
| Occupation(s) | Ice hockey coach, legal professional, sports arbitration expert, former professional ice hockey defenseman |
| Known for | Head coach of Lausanne HC, former NHL player, sports arbitration expert |
Daniel Paul Ratushny (born October 29, 1970) is a Canadian ice hockey coach, legal professional, and sports arbitration expert. Formerly a professional ice hockey defenseman, his most recent coaching role was as head coach of Lausanne HC competing in Switzerland’s premier National League A (NLA).
Playing career
After completing his freshman year at Cornell University, Ratushny was chosen 25th overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. He continued at Cornell for two additional seasons, where he achieved All-America status and was named to the ECAC first team in both 1990 and 1991. Additionally, he secured a gold medal representing Canada at the 1990 IIHF World U20 Championship.
Ratushny departed college following his junior year to join the Canada men's national ice hockey team at the 1992 Winter Olympics, earning a silver medal. He spent the latter part of the 1990–91 season and all of 1991–92 with the national squad before concluding that season with Swiss club EHC Olten.
In the 1992-93 season, he signed with the IHL's Fort Wayne Komets and was traded to the Vancouver Canucks near the NHL trade deadline, appearing in a single NHL game. From 1993 through 1999, he competed in both the AHL and IHL leagues prior to extending his playing career across international leagues in Japan, Finland, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.
Ratushny also briefly appeared on the Scottish comedy series Still Game.
Education and legal career
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Cornell University in 1997, followed by an M.B.A. from Strathclyde Business School in 2003, and later completed an LL.B. at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law in 2006.
Between 2006 and 2009, Ratushny practiced corporate law at the global firm Stikeman Elliott. In 2015, he acquired an Executive Master in International Sports Law from ISDE in Madrid and currently fulfills duties as a sports arbitrator.
Coaching career
Ratushny’s coaching journey began as an assistant coach at the University of Ottawa during the 2004-05 season. From 2009 until 2011, he served as head coach for EHC Olten in Switzerland’s National League B. In 2011, he assumed head coaching responsibilities for the Straubing Tigers competing in Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), guiding them to a semifinal playoff appearance in 2011-12 and earning DEL Coach of the Year accolades.
In 2014, he was appointed head coach of EC Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Hockey League (EBEL) and concurrently took charge of Austria’s national team. Under his leadership, Salzburg secured back-to-back EBEL championships during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.
April 2016 saw Ratushny named head coach of Lausanne HC in Switzerland’s National League A (NLA). He stepped down from his role with Austria’s national team in May 2016 to concentrate fully on Lausanne. That season, he led Lausanne to a fourth-place finish in the regular season and was honored as NLA Regular Season Coach of the Year. Nevertheless, on October 11, 2017, he was relieved of his duties after Lausanne accumulated only twelve points over their first ten games of the 2017-18 campaign.
Awards and honors
| Award | Year |
|---|---|
| All-ECAC Hockey Rookie Team | 1988–89 |
| All-ECAC Hockey First Team | 1989–90 |
| AHCA East Second-Team All-American | 1989–90 |
| ECAC Hockey All-Tournament Team | 1990 |
| All-ECAC Hockey First Team | 1990–91 |
| AHCA East First-Team All-American | 1990–91 |
| German DEL Coach of the Year | 2011–12 |
| Swiss NLA Coach of the Year | 2016–17 |
| Cornell University Athletics Hall of Fame | 2018 |
Regular season and playoffs
||| IK Pantern ||| SWE III |||29 |||6 |||18 |||24 |||36| Regular Season | Postseason | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
| 1987–88 | Nepean Raiders | CJHL | 54 | 8 | 20 | 28 | 116 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1988–89 | Cornell University | ECAC | 28 | 2 | 13 | 15 | 50 | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| Canada (Intl) | Intl | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1989–90 | Cornell University | ECAC | 26 | 5 | 14 | 19 | 54 | |||||||
| Cornell University | ECAC | 26 | 7 | 24 | 31 | 52 | ||||||||
| Canada (Intl) | Intl | 58 | 5 | 13 | 18 | 63 | ||||||||
| EHC Olten | NDA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||||||||
| Vancouver Canucks | NHL | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||
| Fort Wayne Komets | IHL | 63 | 6 | 19 | 25 | 48 | ||||||||
| Hamilton Canucks | AHL | 62 | 8 | 31 | 39 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |||
| Fort Wayne Komets | IHL | 72 | 3 | 25 | 28 | 46 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |||
| Peoria Rivermen | IHL | 45 | 7 | 15 | 22 | 45 | 12 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 10 | |||
| Carolina Monarchs | AHL | 23 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 28 | ||||||||
| Québec Rafales | IHL | 50 | 14 | 23 | 37 | 34 | ||||||||
| Albany River Rats | AHL | 39 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 8 | |||
| Québec Rafales | IHL | 20 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 22 | ||||||||
| Kansas City Blades | IHL | 70 | 9 | 32 | 41 | 38 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |||
| Seibu Tetsudo | JPN | 27 | 2 | 11 | 13 | |||||||||
| HPK | Liiga | 42 | 4 | 6 | 10 | |||||||||
| Scottish Eagles | GBR | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Dundee Stars | GBR II | 19 | 8 | 23 | 31 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | =2 | |||
| Aggregate League Totals | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IHL Career Totals !320 !42 !123 !165 !233 !19 !3 !5 !8 !22 | ||||||||||||
| AHL Career Totals !124 !21 !46 !67 !60 !13 !0 !3 !3 !12 | ||||||||||||
International
| Year | Team | Event | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Canada | WJC | 7 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | |
| 1992 | Canada | OG | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |