Gregory Holst (born February 21, 1954 in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

coach and a former professional

player who played eleven games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. He is currently serving as head coach of Austrian

EK Zell am See EK or Ek may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Ek Commando Knife Co., US knife manufacturer * Eastern Kentucky Railway (with reporting mark EK), now-defunct railway * Eastman Kodak (formerly with NYSE ticker symbol EK), US-based photogra ...

in the

Alps Hockey League The Alps Hockey League (AlpsHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in Central Europe. The league is made up of teams from Austria, Italy and Slovenia. The league was established as a result of a merger between Serie A and the Inter-Natio ...

Playing career

Holst played at the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Americ ...

until 1973. He is a member of UNB's 1970's "All-Decade" team. He then enjoyed a highly productive 1973-74 season with the

Kingston Canadians The Kingston Canadians were a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League from 1973 to 1988. The team played home games at the Kingston Memorial Centre in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. History The Kingston Canadians arrival in the Ontario ...

of the

Ontario Junior Hockey League The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) is a Junior A ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada. It is under the supervision of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). The league was listed as the 7th best ...

, tallying 33 goals and 47 assists in 62 contests. Holst then continued his scoring pace the following season with 33 goals and 37 assists in 62 games for the Winston-Salem Polar Twins of the Southern Hockey League. He made his NHL debut with the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

during the 1975-76 season and mostly spent time with their affiliate in the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

(AHL), the

Providence Reds The Providence Reds were a ice hockey, hockey team that played in the Canadian-American Hockey League (CAHL) between 1926 and 1936 and the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1936 to 1977, the last season of which they played as the Rhode Island Re ...

, tallying 37 goals and 44 assists in 69 games that season en route to AHL Rookie of the Year honors. He played nine more NHL contests for the Rangers over the following two years, splitting time between the Rangers and AHL's

New Haven Nighthawks The New Haven Nighthawks were a professional ice hockey team that played in the American Hockey League from 1972 to 1992. They had affiliations with the Minnesota North Stars (1972–1977), New York Islanders (1972–1973), New York Rangers (19 ...

. In 1978 Holst joined

Innsbrucker EV Innsbrucker EV or EV Innsbruck was an ice hockey team based in Innsbruck, Austria. They competed in the Austrian Hockey League until 1993 and won the Austrian Championship seven times. Their home arena was Olympiahalle Innsbruck. The organi ...

of Austria's top division, the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. He became one of the most famous Canadian players in Austria and dominated the league while playing for Innsbruck, Wiener EV, Salzburger EC, Villacher SV and EC Graz over the years. Holst received Austrian citizenship and made the Austrian national team, representing the country at four World Championships (Group B). He finished his active career in 1993. Holst played 540 games in the Austrian league, scoring 522 goals. He had his jersey number 14 retired by

Coaching career

After the end of his playing days, Holst returned to his native Canada, where he started a hockey school, and then returned to Austria to pursue his coaching career. He coached second-division side EHC Wattens in 1996-97, before joining the coaching staff of the Austrian ice hockey federation in 1997. Until 2002, he served in various positions, including head coach of the U18 and U20 national teams and assistant coach of the men’s national team. Holst was named head coach of

EC VSV EC Grand Immo VSV are an ice hockey team in the ICE Hockey League. They play their home games at Stadthalle (capacity approximately 4500 spectators) in Villach, Austria. The team colors are blue and white. Their mascot is an eagle - Villach's co ...

of the Austrian top-tier in 2002. During his six-year tenure, he led the club to the 2006 Austrian championship and to the finals in 2003, 2004, 2007. He took over the head coaching job at

HC TWK Innsbruck HC Tiroler Wasserkraft Innsbruck is an Austrian professional ice hockey team in the Erste Bank Eishockey Liga (EBEL). They play their home games at OlympiaWorld Innsbruck complex in Innsbruck. History The club was founded in 1994 as HC Innsbruck ...

in December 2008 and remained in that position until the remainder of the season. Holst served as head coach of

Ritten Sport Rittner Buam (local dialect for boys) is a professional Italian ice hockey team from Ritten, Italy, playing in the Alps Hockey League and formerly the Serie A. History The club was founded in 1984 under the name SV Renon (Ritten Sportverein). I ...

of the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

in 2011-12 and returned to

in June 2015 to become director of the club's youth program. In November 2015, he took over the head coaching job. In November 2018, Holst becomes head coach of

of the

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holst, Greg 1954 births Canadian ice hockey centres Ice hockey people from Quebec Kingston Canadians players Living people New York Rangers draft picks New York Rangers players San Diego Mariners draft picks Sportspeople from Montreal Winston-Salem Polar Twins (SHL) players