Parker Burgess hired as associate coach for Spokane Chiefs

Parker Burgess is headed to the Spokane Chiefs as associate coach on a multi-year contract, a move that extends a coaching resume built on a Clark Cup championship in Muskegon and a quick rise through junior hockey. The Chiefs said Burgess will join the staff for the 2026-27 season, giving head coach Brad Lauer another veteran voice as Spokane continues to build out a staff with major-junior and USHL pedigree.

Lauer made clear why Burgess fit the job, praising his experience and championship background as the Chiefs added a coach who has already won at multiple levels. Burgess, a Calgary native, said Spokane is “a first-class organization with a progressive vision,” a description that fits a club betting that proven junior-league winners can translate culture as well as tactics.

The hire also says something about the pathway the USHL now offers coaches. Burgess spent three seasons with the Muskegon Lumberjacks, including two and a half years as head coach after being promoted in December 2022 from associate head coach. In Muskegon, he helped deliver the 2025 Clark Cup and finished with a 92-62-7-5 regular-season record and a 14-6-2 postseason mark, numbers that made his tenure in Michigan one of the league’s clearest recent success stories.

That run in Muskegon followed a strong first stop in Janesville, where Burgess coached the Jets for two seasons, posted a 66-41-4-1 record and won Midwest Division Coach of the Year in his first season. He later spent five seasons as head coach at Nichols College and won a Commonwealth Coast Conference championship in 2017-18, adding another line to a coaching résumé that now stretches from college to the USHL and the WHL.

Burgess spent last season as head coach of the Vancouver Giants, a job he took in June 2025 when he was 40. His path from Muskegon to Vancouver and now Spokane underscores how a championship year in the USHL can elevate a coach beyond the league, while also reinforcing the USHL’s place as a proving ground not just for players chasing the next level, but for coaches climbing with them.

Spokane opens the 2026-27 Western Hockey League season Sept. 19, 2026, at Tri-City and plays its home opener Sept. 26 against Tri-City at Numerica Veterans Arena, giving Burgess the offseason to settle into a staff that now carries a proven winner into the new season.