Dan Ratushny

Did You Know?

• Ratushny earned a B.Sc. in Economics from Cornell in 1997.
• He worked as a lawyer at Stikeman Elliott from 2006 to 2009.
• He earned an Executive Master in International Sports Law from ISDE in Madrid, Spain in 2015.

Playing career

After his first year at Cornell University, Dan Ratushny was picked 25th overall by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1989 NHL draft. He stayed at Cornell for two more seasons, making the All-America and ECAC first-team all-star lists in both 1990 and 1991. He also helped Canada win gold at the 1990 World Junior Championship. Following his junior year, he left college to play for the Canadian National Team at the 1992 Olympics, since pros weren't allowed at the time. He came home with a silver medal from Albertville. He wrapped up the 1991–92 season with EHC Olten in Switzerland, then signed with the IHL's Fort Wayne Komets for the next season. The Vancouver Canucks traded for him at the 1993 deadline, but he only appeared in one game for them. From 1993 to 1999, Ratushny played in the AHL and IHL, then moved on to leagues in Japan, Finland, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

Coaching career

Dan Ratushny began his coaching career as an assistant with the University of Ottawa during the 2004-05 season. He later took over as head coach of EHC Olten in Switzerland’s National League B from 2009 to 2011. In 2011, he moved to the German DEL to lead the Straubing Tigers for three years, steering them to the playoff semifinals in his first season and earning DEL Coach of the Year honors. He joined EC Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian EBEL in 2014 and also became head coach of the Austrian national team. Under his guidance, Salzburg won back-to-back league titles in 2014-15 and 2015-16. In April 2016, he was appointed head coach of Lausanne HC in Switzerland’s top NLA, stepping down from the Austrian national team role the following month to concentrate on his club duties. He led Lausanne to a fourth-place regular-season finish in 2016-17 and was named NLA Regular Season Coach of the Year. He was dismissed on October 11, 2017, after the team collected twelve points from its first ten games of the 2017-18 campaign.