Hans Kossmann (born March 14, 1962) is a Canadian-Swiss professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

coach.

Career

Born in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Kossmann moved to Switzerland when he was 22 years of age. During his playing career, he spent time with several Swiss clubs, playing in the second-tier

National League B The Swiss League, also known as the Sky Swiss League for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the main professional ice hockey league in Switzerland, behind the National League (ice hockey), National League. The winners of the league each ...

(NLB) for Genève-Servette HC, EHC Bülach,

SC Rapperswil-Jona The SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers are a professional ice hockey club from Rapperswil, Switzerland, and are members of the National League. History The Lakers were founded in 1945 and were known as SC Rapperswil-Jona until 2005, when the club change ...

and

Lausanne HC Lausanne Hockey Club is an ice hockey team based in the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, which competes in the National League (NL). During the 2004–05 NHL lockout, the HC Lausanne signed National Hockey League players Martin St. Louis and Andy Ro ...

. However, Kossmann never played in the Swiss top-flight

National League A The National League (NL) is a professional ice hockey league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss league system. Prior to the 2017–18 season, the league was known as National League A. During the 2018–19 season, the league h ...

(NLA). After putting an end to his playing days, he accepted the head coaching job at

HC Ajoie HC Ajoie is a Swiss professional ice hockey team that competes in the National League (NL), the highest league in Switzerland. The team was founded in 1973 and plays in the Raiffeisen Arena in Porrentruy, Switzerland. HC Ajoie has won three Swis ...

in 1995, where he had spent his final season as a player. Kossmann parted ways with Ajoie in November 1996 and was hired by fellow NLB team SC Luzern in March 1997. He then joined the coaching staff of

EHC Biel EHC Biel-Bienne is a professional ice hockey club based in the bilingual city of Biel/Bienne, Switzerland and plays in the National League (NL). Since the city of Biel is completely bilingual, alongside the German name EHC Biel (Abbr: EHCB) the te ...

, serving as assistant coach from 1997 to 1999. In 1999-2000, he had a short assistant coach stint at

HC Fribourg-Gottéron HC Fribourg-Gottéron is a professional ice hockey team based in Fribourg, Switzerland, which competes in the National League (ice hockey), National League (NL). The team was the sixth most attended team in Switzerland for the 2015–16 season wit ...

and then served as head coach of

HC Sierre HC Sierre is a professional ice hockey team, in Switzerland currently playing in the Swiss League (SL). Sierre has played in each of the top Swiss hockey leagues the National League (NL) and Swiss League (SL). It has also played several years in t ...

for some months. From 2001 to 2008, Kossmann worked as assistant coach to

Chris McSorley Chris McSorley (born March 22, 1962) is a Canadian ice hockey coach and executive. He is the brother of former NHL player Marty McSorley. Career Born in Hamilton, Ontario, McSorley played professionally in minor leagues in North America, spendi ...

at Genève-Servette HC, helping lift the team from NLB to NLA in 2002. In 2008, McSorley and Kossmann guided Servette to the NLA finals. In 2008-09, Kossmann worked as an assistant coach for the championship-winning

in the NLB, followed by two years in the same position at NLA's

SC Bern Schlittschuh Club Bern ('' Ice-skating Club Bern'' in English) is a professional ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rin ...

, where he contributed to winning the Swiss national championship in 2010. In 2011, he was named head coach and general manager of

of the

, guiding the team to the playoff-semifinals his first year and to the NLA finals the following season. In 2013–14, Kossmann coached Fribourg-Gottéron to another semifinal-appearance. He was relieved of his duties in October 2014 having collected just eight points from the eleven opening fixtures of the 2014–15 campaign. Kossmann was named head coach of NLA side

HC Ambrì-Piotta Hockey Club Ambrì-Piotta is a Swiss professional ice hockey club and a member of the National League (NL). The club was founded September 19, 1937, and is also known as "Bianco-Blu" (English: white and blues). Though they have never won the leagu ...

in October 2015. He was sacked on January 30, 2017 after six straight losses and dropping to the bottom of the NLA table. On December 29, 2017, he took over the head coaching job at

ZSC Lions The Zürcher Schlittschuh Club Lions are a professional ice hockey team located in Zürich, Switzerland, playing in the National League (NL). Their home arena is the 12,000-seat Swiss Life Arena. The team was founded in 1930 and played at the ...

, serving as a caretaker coach for the remainder of the 2017–18 season after the club had parted ways with Hans Wallson. Under Kossmann's guidance, the Lions won the 2018 Swiss championship, defeating Lugano 4-3 in the finals. On October 23, 2018, he took over the head coaching job at

Grizzlys Wolfsburg The Grizzlys Wolfsburg are a professional ice hockey club of the German professional ice hockey league Deutsche Eishockey Liga. They play their games at Eis Arena Wolfsburg. History Wolfsburg earned their first promotion to the DEL in 2004. Howe ...

in the German

DEL Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...

. He parted ways with the team at the end of the 2018–19 season. In late January 2020, Kossmann signed a contract as head coach of

for the remainder of the 2019–20 season.

Personal life

Born in

, Kossmann grew up in

Smithers Smithers is a surname of English origin. It derives from the Middle English term "smyther", referring to a metalsmith, and is thus related to the common occupational surname Smith. The name Smither is related. People * Alan Smithers (born 1938) ...

. His father had left his home in

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; ; ; ; ), historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a list of towns in Switzerland, town with historic roots, a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of Schaffh ...

, Switzerland to move to Canada as a 23-year-old.

External links

Profile on eliteprospects.com

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kossmann, Hans 1962 births Living people Canadian emigrants to Switzerland Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Germany Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Switzerland Canadian ice hockey coaches Canadian ice hockey defencemen Canadian people of Swiss-German descent EHC Bülach players Expatriate sports coaches Genève-Servette HC players Ice hockey people from Vancouver Lausanne HC players National League (ice hockey) coaches SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers players Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Germany Swiss ice hockey coaches Swiss ice hockey defencemen Swiss League coaches