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Assistant Coach
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Bill Butters enters his second year as part of UW's coaching staff and continues on with his history of developing collegiate defensemen from 10 years as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota. He serves in a similar capacity at Wisconsin.
Butters spent those 10 years - 1985 through 1995 - as an assistant coach for his alma mater, serving as recruiting coordinator, while also handling team travel, alumni relations and the team's defense. He helped the Gophers reach six NCAA Frozen Fours, and Minnesota finished in the top three of the WCHA during every season of his tenure.
Among the players who played for him at Minnesota were NHL defensemen Doug Zmolek, Chris McAlpine, Lance Pitlick, Mike Crowley, Tom Pederson, Dan Trebil and Todd Richards. Richards is now the head coach of the Minnesota Wild.
Following his time with Minnesota, Butters assumed the role of co-head coach at Bethel College through 1998, before taking over as head coach of his former team at White Bear Lake High School until 2002.
As a player, Butters played three years at Minnesota, where he served as co-captain during the 1972-73 campaign. During his career, he was teammates with current Nebraska-Omaha head coach Dean Blais and played for legendary head coaches Glen Sonmor and Herb Brooks.
His professional hockey career began in the CHL with the Oklahoma City Blazers for two seasons. From there, he moved on to the WHA for nearly five seasons. He skated for Minnesota, Houston, Edmonton and New England in the WHA. He reached the pinnacle in 1977-78, playing 23 games with the NHL's Minnesota North Stars. Butters returned the following season to Minnesota, before finishing his career with the Oklahoma City Stars of the CHL. He spent his final professional season as a player and coach for Oklahoma City, where he was teammates with Mike Eaves.
Recently, Butters has worked with Hockey Ministries International, where he has staffed and coached hockey camps.
