Simpson began his coaching career in 1992 as an assistant coach to Björn Kindling and later
Jim Koleff at
EV Zug in the Swiss elite league
National League A. Prior to the 1997-98 season, Simpson was promoted to the head coaching position and guided Zug to the NLA championship in his first year at the helm. Zug had also finished the regular season on top of the NLA table. Simpson served another year as Zug head coach and then joined the
München Barons of the German top-flight
Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) for the 1999-2000 season and won the DEL title his first year. The following season, he coached the Barons to another finals appearance, where they lost 3 games to 1 to Mannheim. In 2001-02, Simpson led the Barons to the semifinals, where they lost to
Kölner Haie. The franchise was relocated to Hamburg in 2002 and renamed the
Hamburg Freezers. Simpson coached the Hamburg team in its inaugural season (2002–03) and led the Freezers to a playoff berth. He left Hamburg after the season to return to
EV Zug. In 2003-04, he guided EVZ to the NLA playoffs, where they fell short in the quarterfinals (4-1 against Bern), despite having former NHL star
Claude Lemieux on the team, who had signed with Zug in February 2004 for the remainder of the season. In 2004-05, Simpson guided Zug to the NLA semifinals but did not manage to get past the
ZSC Lions. The following season, Simpson's team was held off by
Rapperswil-Jona in the quarterfinals and reached the semis one year later. In his final year at the Zug helm (2007–08), Simpson coached EVZ to another playoff appearance but did not get past the quarterfinals. Simpson inked a deal with reigning Swiss champs
ZSC Lions in 2008. In his two years at ZSC, Simpson guided the Lions to the
Champions Hockey League title and the
Victoria Cup title in 2009 beating the
Chicago Blackhawks of
National Hockey League (NHL). In the NLA, the Lions dropped out in the playoff quarterfinals both years. During his tenures at EV Zug and ZSC, Simpson was named to the coaching staff of Team Canada for the
Spengler-Cup five times (three times as assistant coach, twice as head coach) and guided the team to the title in 2007. Simpson was named head coach of the Swiss national team prior to the 2010 World Championships and remained in that job until 2014. At the 2010 World Championships, Simpson's team defeated Canada in the preliminary round and made it to the quarterfinals, before falling short to host Germany. In 2011 and 2012, the Swiss team failed to qualify for the quarterfinals at the World Championships. In 2013, Simpson led the Swiss national team to its greatest ever success, a silver medal at the
World Championships in Sweden. At the
2014 Olympic Games, Simpson's squad missed the quarterfinals and finished in ninth place. In April 2014, he became the head coach of
KHL team
Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, but was sacked after nine games. In December 2014 he became the head coach of the
Kloten Flyers in the Swiss
National League A. In May 2016, after the club had been sold to Hans-Ueli Lehmann and after budget cuts had been announced, Simpson's contract with Kloten was terminated by mutual consent. He was named head coach of
Adler Mannheim of the
Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) on May 11, 2016. In the 2016-17 season, he led the team to a second-place finish in the regular season, before falling short to
Eisbären Berlin in the playoff quarterfinals. On December 4, 2017, Simpson was relieved of his duties as Mannheim head coach due to the team's poor results. The Adler team was in seventh place, when Simpson was sacked. In October 2019, Sean Simpson returned to the NLA and became a coaching advisor to the coaching staff for
HC Fribourg-Gottéron during the 2019-2020 season. Sean Simpson was named the Head Coach of the
Hungary men's national ice hockey team in September 2020 for the next two seasons. ==References==