The Minnesota Wild have hired Stu Bickel has head coach of the Iowa Wild, the team’s primary development affiliate in the American Hockey League.
A Minnesota native, Bickel returns to Des Moines where he played for both the AHL’s Chops and Wild during his 10-year pro career.
Bickel, 39, has spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach with the Springfield Thunderbirds (2021-22) and Coachella Valley Firebirds (2022-26), including three consecutive trips to the Calder Cup Finals in 2022, 2023 and 2024. He began his coaching career as an assistant at the University of Minnesota (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.
After three junior seasons with Green Bay and Sioux Falls in the USHL and Southern Minnesota in the NAHL, Bickel spent the 2007-08 season at the U. of Minnesota before signing as a free agent with the Anaheim Ducks and beginning his pro career with the Iowa Chops. A defenseman, Bickel went on to play 310 games in the AHL with the Chops, San Antonio Rampage, Syracuse Crunch, Connecticut Whale/Hartford Wolf Pack, Iowa Wild and San Diego Gulls, recording 12 goals, 42 assists and 919 penalty minutes.
Bickel also skated in 76 regular-season games in the NHL with the New York Rangers and Minnesota Wild, and appeared in 18 Stanley Cup Playoff games with the Rangers in 2012.
