Entering 2020-21 season
Canada West conference record: 51-49-12
Canada West playoff record: 7-10
Canada West Coach of the Year: 2017-18
Sven Butenschön is in his fifth season as the head coach of the UBC men’s hockey program.
The Thunderbirds have made the Canada West playoffs in every season Butenschön has guided the team.
A pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 season saw the Thunderbirds set to compete for the University Cup for the first time since 1977 after reaching the Canada West Final for the first time in 42 years. UBC earned two tough, three-game series victories over Mount Royal and Alberta in the Canada West playoffs before falling to Saskatchewan in the Canada West Final.
In 2018-2019 the Blue and Gold went 14-12-2 and saw the squad host a playoff series for the second year in a row. UBC fell in a hard-fought three-game series to Mt. Royal.
The 2017-18 season saw the Thunderbirds finish with their best regular season record in a 28-game schedule going 16-10-2 while Butenschön was named the Canada West Coach of the Year. UBC pushed Calgary to a third and deciding game in the conference quarter-finals, just the second playoff series hosted by the Thunderbirds in 47 years.
In his first season as head coach, Butenschön and the T-Birds went 12-13-3 in Canada West conference play, and advanced to the quarter-finals of the conference playoffs.
Prior to being named head coach in 2016, he served as the team’s full-time assistant coach for one season.
The 12th Thunderbirds head coach since the start of Canada West hockey in 1961, Butenschön brings to the UBC bench a wealth of experience from around the world.
Butenschön spent his major junior hockey career with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League, competing in two Memorial Cups.
The Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Butenschön in 1994, selecting him in the third round of the NHL Entry Draft with the 57th pick.
He began his professional career in 1996 with the Cleveland Lumberjacks of the International Hockey League. It was the beginning of a nine-season professional career in North America, which saw Butenschön play 140 games with four National Hockey League teams: Pittsburgh, Edmonton, the New York Islanders, and Vancouver, as well as teams in the International and American Hockey Leagues.
