Norfolk names Haviland head coach

The Norfolk Admirals have announced that Mike Haviland has been named the second head coach in franchise history.

Haviland comes to Norfolk from the ECHL’s Trenton Titans. He guided Trenton to its first Kelly Cup championship in 2005 in his first season as the team’s head coach. Haviland became the second coach in league history to lead two different teams to an ECHL title, having won with Atlantic City in 2003.

The Middletown, N.J., native posted a 172-81-35 record in four seasons behind the bench, and leaves the ECHL with the second-highest regular-season winning percentage among league coaches at .658. He also had the highest winning percentage among active ECHL coaches in the postseason at .654 after going 36-19 in 55 career Kelly Cup Playoff games. Haviland never had fewer than 40 wins in a season as head coach, and his teams finished first or second in their division each of the past three years.

Haviland returned to Trenton after three years as head coach and director of hockey operations for Atlantic City. He previously served as the Titans’ assistant coach from 1999-2001 and recruited players for Trenton as a scout prior to its inception in the ECHL. After his first season with Atlantic City, he was named ECHL Coach of the Year by The Hockey News.

As an assistant coach with Elmira College (NCAA), he helped lead the team to a 51-12-2 record and two ECAC championships from 1996-98.

Originally selected by the New Jersey Devils in the 1990 NHL Supplemental Draft, Haviland played briefly in the AHL with Binghamton at the end of the 1989-90 season.