Blackhawks assistant coach Kevin Dean was hours away from coaching the game against the Maple Leafs on Dec. 2 in Toronto when he received the type of call that has changed millions of lives.
“The doctor is like, ‘It looks like you have low-grade cancer,’ ” Dean recalled Thursday.
In this case, it was a call Dean had long expected to eventually come, and it was not life-changing news. He had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which is relatively straightforward to address if caught early enough. After undergoing surgery to remove his prostate in early February, he’s now recovering well without any future concerns.
The cancer could have been life-changing, however, if the 55-year-old former NHL defenseman hadn’t been getting screened for it every year since he turned 40.
Dean is sharing his experience now in hopes that it will motivate other men to get screened. Cancer of the prostate, a gland located below the bladder, is the second-most common type of cancer for men — affecting 13 out of every 100 in the U.S., according to the CDC.
“I just think men should be aware of this, because it’s a super preventable cancer if you’re doing the right things when you get into your 40s and 50s,” Dean said.
“When you do your annual physicals — which I think most men are pretty good at — pay the $5 or $10 extra to get your PSA checked, because it’s a huge difference. If I don’t do this . . . 15 years from now, who knows where I’d be? It’s such an easy cancer to find with simple screening, and it’s one of the very few cancers that has that [screening], so why not take advantage of that?”
Dean has been the Hawks’ de facto defensive coordinator since 2022 — when ex-coach Luke Richardson
brought him in — and he has remained in that role under interim coach Anders Sorensen. In early January, Dean talked to the Sun-Times about adjusting to Sorensen’s more aggressive philosophies that emphasize getting defensemen more involved offensively.
At the same time, Dean was quietly preparing for this surgery, which he expected for years largely because prostate cancer runs in his family — his brother, father and uncle all had it. After his annual screening during the Hawks’ preseason physicals suggested he might have it, too, a series of further tests, scans and biopsies over several months confirmed that.
“It wasn’t like, ‘Oh my God, I got it,’ ” Dean said. “I kind of was expecting it.”
Sorensen, who didn’t have the same prior knowledge, said he was shocked when Dean told him the news. But Dean also told Sorensen he was “pretty confident he’d be able to handle it,” and it turns out he was correct.
Dean said the recovery process has been smooth and without much pain, aside from a few side effects. He’ll keep getting tested for the next few years, but he said doctors don’t believe the cancer spread to any nodes or tissue outside his prostate.
He won’t be able to skate for another two weeks, but he watched the Hawks’ first post-break practice Tuesday from a second-floor seat at Fifth Third Arena. When he discovered the team couldn’t hear him yelling corrections and observations from that height, he moved down to the bench for practice Wednesday.
“He has a loud personality, [and the] guys love him in the room,” Sorensen said. “We’re just really happy that he’s healthy enough to be around.”
Dean, who said he has been overwhelmed by calls and texts from former teammates and coworkers the last couple days, plans to be back behind the bench — as usual — Saturday at Columbus.