Greg Ireland

Greg Ireland (born on October 5, 1965 in Orangeville) is a Canadian ice hockey coach. Ireland has coached minor and junior amateur teams and professional teams in North America and Europe. He is currently the head coach of HC Bolzano of the ICEHL and of the Italian National Team.

Team staff career
Ireland then spent five years (1998–2003) at the helm of the Dayton Bombers of the ECHL, serving as head coach and general manager of hockey operations. In his last season with the Bombers, he was also the GM of the team. He coached the team to an EHCL record of 175-134-47 and led the Bombers to an appearance in the 2002 Kelly Cup finals.

In the second half of the 2002–03 season, he had a short stint as assistant coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL.

Ireland joined the coaching staff of AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins, affiliate to the Detroit Red Wings, in 2003, serving two years as assistant, before being promoted to head coach in February 2005, replacing Danton Cole. The Griffins made the Calder Cup play-off semifinals in Ireland's first full season as Grand Rapids' head coach (2005–06). Ireland stayed on the job until 2007 and then was appointed as head coach of the San Antonio Rampage in August 2007. In November 2009, he was sacked by the AHL affiliate of the Phoenix Coyotes after a run of ten games without a win.

Ireland was hired by Swiss side HC Lugano in February 2011 only a couple of days before the start of the relegation round to join Mike McNamara on the post of the head coach. His task was to keep the club in the top flight NLA which he did.

He signed with the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL in August 2011 and stepped down from his head coaching position in July 2015 to accept an offer from Germany: He signed with the Adler Mannheim, defending champion of the DEL, for the 2015–16 campaign, in which he also coached the team at the 2015 Spengler Cup, but was sacked on February 11, 2016 after a five-game losing streak. The Adler Mannheim CEO said in a statement, the team had displayed a lack of consistency throughout the season.

On January 16, 2017, Ireland was named head coach of the HC Lugano of the NLA, replacing Doug Shedden. He led the team to the NLA semifinals and was handed a two-year contract extension in April 2017. In March 2019, he parted ways with the club after losing 0-4 in the playoff quarterfinals against the EV Zug.

On January 2, 2020, he was signed as the new head coach of HC Bolzano of the EBEL, replacing Clayton Beddoes, and on March 22, 2020 also accepted the job as the head coach of the Italian National Team.