{"id":610744,"date":"2026-06-30T04:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/610744\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T04:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:00:16","slug":"former-iowa-wild-player-takes-over-as-teams-new-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/610744\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Iowa Wild player takes over as team&#8217;s new head coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSPORTS POWERED BY CARL\u2019S AUTO GROUP. THIS IS STU BICKEL BACK IN THE DAY. HE\u2019S IN THE DARK JERSEY THROWING HAYMAKERS FOR THE IOWA WILD MAN. BICKEL DID NOT BACK DOWN FROM ANYONE. HE ALSO PLAYED FOR THE IOWA CHOPS. WELL, IT TURNS OUT STU IS IN THROUGH WITH DES MOINES HIGH. ON MONDAY, THE MINNESOTA WILD NAMED BICKEL AS THE NEXT HEAD COACH OF THEIR AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE AFFILIATE, THE IOWA WILD. BICKEL PLAYED A TOTAL OF 76 CAREER NHL GAMES FOR THE MINNESOTA WILD AND NEW YORK RANGERS. HE SPENT THE PAST FIVE SEASONS AS AN ASSISTANT COACH IN THE AHL, AND NOW HE\u2019S BRINGING HIS FAMILY BACK. A LOT OF REALLY GOOD MEMORIES FROM IOWA. FORTUNATE AS WELL THAT MY WIFE LOVES THE MIDWEST. YOU KNOW, SHE\u2019S A SHE\u2019S A CALIFORNIA GIRL, BUT SHE SHE\u2019S DUG RIGHT INTO THE CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING AND, AND EVERYTHING THAT THAT COMES WITH THE MIDWEST. SO FROM A FAMILY\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Former Iowa Wild player takes over as team&#8217;s new head coach<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota announced Stu Bickel is headed back to Des Moines<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768578693_964_kcci.png\" class=\"lazyload lazyload-in-view branding\" alt=\"KCCI logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tUpdated: 10:11 PM CDT Jun 29, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcci.com\/article\/hearst-television-news-policy-statements\/14471973\" class=\"editorial-standards border-left\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Editorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tStu isn&#8217;t through with Des Moines after all.On Monday, Minnesota introduced former player Stu Bickel as the next head coach for the team&#8217;s American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild. Bickel, 39, started his professional playing career with the Iowa Chops in the AHL in 2008-09 and also played for the Iowa Wild in 2014-15.  He played 10 seasons (2008-18) of professional hockey. Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by Anaheim, Bickel played in 76 NHL games with the New York Rangers (2011-13) and Minnesota Wild (2014-15). He joins the Wild organization after five seasons as an assistant coach in the AHL, including four with the Coachella Valley Firebirds (2022-26) and one with the Springfield Thunderbirds (2021-22). During his five seasons as an AHL assistant coach, the Chanhassen, Minn., native helped guide his team to the Calder Cup Playoffs each year, including three straight appearances in the Calder Cup Finals (2022-24). Bickel began his coaching career as an assistant coach with his alma mater, the University of Minnesota, for two seasons (2018-20), before spending one season (2020-21) as head coach and assistant general manager of the Minnesota Magicians of the North American Hockey League.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tDES MOINES, Iowa \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Stu isn&#8217;t through with Des Moines after all.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Minnesota introduced former player Stu Bickel as the next head coach for the team&#8217;s American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild. <\/p>\n<p>Bickel, 39, started his professional playing career with the Iowa Chops in the AHL in 2008-09 and also played for the Iowa Wild in 2014-15.  He played 10 seasons (2008-18) of professional hockey. Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by Anaheim, Bickel played in 76 NHL games with the New York Rangers (2011-13) and Minnesota Wild (2014-15). <\/p>\n<p>He joins the Wild organization after five seasons as an assistant coach in the AHL, including four with the Coachella Valley Firebirds (2022-26) and one with the Springfield Thunderbirds (2021-22). During his five seasons as an AHL assistant coach, the Chanhassen, Minn., native helped guide his team to the Calder Cup Playoffs each year, including three straight appearances in the Calder Cup Finals (2022-24). Bickel began his coaching career as an assistant coach with his alma mater, the University of Minnesota, for two seasons (2018-20), before spending one season (2020-21) as head coach and assistant general manager of the Minnesota Magicians of the North American Hockey League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPORTS POWERED BY CARL\u2019S AUTO GROUP. THIS IS STU BICKEL BACK IN THE DAY. HE\u2019S IN THE DARK&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[401,67546,2377,67545,771,67547,67544,67548,5,7876,31265,161,38,5280,26851,6533,4,1936,9323,130,2229,162],"class_list":["post-610744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-wild","tag-ahl","tag-american-hockey-league-affiliate","tag-assistant-coach","tag-bickel","tag-calder-cup-playoffs","tag-chanhassen","tag-former-iowa-wild-player","tag-former-player-stu-bickel","tag-hockey","tag-iowa-wild","tag-minn","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-minnesotawild","tag-native","tag-new-head-coach","tag-nhl","tag-season","tag-stu-bickel","tag-team","tag-university","tag-wild"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116837064828320562","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}