Cowan: Panthers assistant Jamie Kompon has Montreal roots, link to Scotty Bowman
Montreal Canadiens
By
Here's a good hockey trivia question for you: Who are the only two coaches to win the Stanley Cup with three teams?
This first one is pretty easy: the legendary Scotty Bowman won a record nine Stanley Cups as a head coach — five with the Canadiens, one with the Pittsburgh Penguins and three with the Detroit Red Wings.
The second one is a lot tougher, but he also has a Montreal connection.
Jamie Kompon has won the Stanley Cup three times as an assistant coach — in 2012 with the Los Angeles Kings, in 2013 with the Chicago Blackhawks and last year with the Florida Panthers. Kompon is looking for a fourth Stanley Cup with the Panthers, who were leading the Hurricanes 3-1 in the Eastern Conference final heading into Game 5 Wednesday in Carolina (8 p.m., CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
Kompon was born in Nipigon, Ont., but he spent four seasons playing hockey at McGill University. A defenceman, he was named McGill's rookie of the year as a freshman in 1985 and was team captain during his senior season.
During his final year at McGill, Kompon spent a three-month stage as a student teacher at Selwyn House School in Westmount, where Steve Mitchell — the father of former Canadiens player Torrey Mitchell — was the director of athletics.
After graduating from McGill, Kompon spent two seasons playing in the ECHL with the Hampton Roads Admirals, Cincinnati Cyclones and Winston-Salem Thunderbirds before hanging up his skates and returning to Montreal, where he landed a job at Loyola High School. From 1991-96, Kompon taught phys-ed and math at Loyola and coached the juvenile boys' hockey team, including games against Mitchell's Selwyn House teams.
Kompon also returned to his alma mater during that time as an assistant coach and later co-coach at McGill with Martin Raymond. During the 1995-96 season, the Loyola juvenile team won the Ed Meagher Sports Tournament for the first time with Kompon as head coach.
'He's turned out to be a very successful coach, but he's a really humble guy,' Mitchell said Wednesday when I asked him about Kompon. 'A real caring individual and he has always stayed in touch with me.'
Kompon made the jump to the NHL with the St. Louis Blues, where from 1997-98 to 2005-06 he held a variety of jobs, including video coach, strength and conditioning coach, assistant coach and scouting coordinator. He then spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Kings, followed by two seasons as an assistant coach with the Blackhawks.
After that, Kompon spent the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons as general manager and head coach of the junior Portland Winterhawks in the WHL before returning to the NHL as an assistant coach under Paul Maurice for six seasons with the Winnipeg Jets.
When Maurice was hired by the Panthers before the 2022-23 season, he brought Kompon with him and they advanced to the Stanley Cup final during their first season together in Florida before winning the championship last year.
The retired Mitchell had a chance to catch up with Kompon while in Florida last November. Kompon took Mitchell on a tour of the Panthers' spectacular new practice facility in Fort Lauderdale and he also had a chance to meet Maurice and Florida GM Bill Zito.
When Maurice asked Mitchell what his connection was with Kompon, he said: 'We knew each other from high-school coaching when he was at Loyola, but they never beat us.'
Maurice responded: 'Oh, boy, here we go!'
Mitchell then had to admit: 'No, we never beat them.'
Kompon told Mitchell that the Panthers are an extremely talented team, adding that the players are also 'very, very coachable and now they have experience.'
Mitchell wishes he had been able to hire Kompon at Selwyn House back in the day.
'At Selwyn House, we were really impressed with his teaching, his dedication and I knew that he was extremely good with kids and we wanted to hire him, but we had no spots,' Mitchell said. 'We lost him to Loyola. I knew they were going to get a good one.'
There was a feature story on Kompon in the summer/fall edition of Loyola Today magazine last year after he won his third Stanley Cup and he spoke about the demands of being an assistant coach today in the NHL.
'You're home by 11 p.m. after a game, rewatch it, and then your work starts again at 5 a.m. at the rink,' he said. 'When you're passionate about what you do, it never feels like work.'
Last summer, Kompon had a chance to bring the Stanley Cup back to Thunder Bay, Ont., where he grew up. He was asked by the Thunder Bay News about matching Bowman's record of winning the Stanley Cup with three teams.
'Scotty is a legend, a founding father if you would,' Kompon said. 'He should be on a Mount Rushmore-type of thing. I'm just a piece. It is surreal. It's unbelievable when you say it like that. Sometimes it doesn't sink in and I never take it for granted.'
Kompon has also never forgotten his Montreal roots.
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