HC Lugano has found the successor to Luca Gianinazzi, dismissed on Monday. The Ticino club, currently 13th in the National League with 42 points in 36 outings, appointed Uwe Krupp (59) as head of its first team this Tuesday. The German, who has never coached in Switzerland, has signed a contract until the end of the season.
As a player, Uwe Krupp is a legend of German hockey. He played 810 NHL games in his career and won the Stanley Cup, with Colorado Avalanche in 1996 and with the Detroit Red Wings in 2002. As a defenseman, he participated twice in the All-Star Game in the best league in the world.
He then began a coaching career. First within the German Hockey Federation where he served as assistant to the U20 team then as coach of the national team between 2006 and 2011.
In 2011, Uwe Krupp began coaching clubs. In his country, he first managed Kölner Haie from 2011 to 2014, which he led to the play-off final in 2013 and 2014, then Eisbären Berlin from 2014 to 2018 (final in 2018). He returned to Cologne in 2020 to stay there until 2024.
In between, he had his only experience abroad, when he was the bench man for Sparta Prague (2018-2020).
Uwe Krupp and HC Lugano will determine who the assistants will be in the coming days. As a reminder, Krister Cantoni and Kalle Kaskinen were also kicked out during Monday’s big sweep.
