Bill Gilligan enters his fourth season as Associate Head Coach in 2017-18.

With Gilligan on staff, Merrimack has reached the quarterfinal round of the Hockey East Tournament in two of the last three years since joining the program. He also helped the team finish seventh in the league standings in back-to-back seasons while earning home-ice advantage in the first round of the Hockey East Tournament in consecutive seasons.  

Gilligan plays a major role in the guidance of the power play unit, which saw a major improvement in the second half of last season. From January onward, the Warriors ranked 13th nationally with the man advantage, converting 22.4 percent of its opportunities. Merrimack had at least one power-play goal in 11 of the final 18 games of the season. He also helped produce the team's first 30-point scorer in four years as Merrimack averaged just under 2-1/2 goals per game.

Gilligan's guidance during his first two seasons behind the bench had a positive impact on a number of the team's accomplishments, as the Warriors posted an eight-win improvement from the prior season when he first joined the staff in 2014-15 before jumping four spots in the league standings to earn home ice in any round of the Hockey East Tournament for just the third time in school history in 2015-16.

Gilligan made his return to the Hockey East coaching ranks after a previous stint alongside head coach Mark Dennehy at UMass; in his four seasons in Amherst, he helped recruit the squad that advanced to the 2004 Hockey East Championship game. 

Since leaving UMass in 2004, Gilligan has spent time as a head coach internationally in Switzerland and Austria, including one stint as the head coach of the Austrian National Team where he also headed up the entire Austrian hockey operation in addition to his coaching duties.

Gilligan also has extensive experience as a talent evaluator, serving as general manager overseas and also as a scout for the Los Angeles Kings.

Gilligan had an All-America playing career at Brown University, becoming the school's all-time leading scorer and assists leader, both distinctions of which he still holds today. After graduating from Brown in 1977, Gilligan played for Cincinnati of the WHA for two years before the league merged with the NHL in 1979. Following his time in the WHA, Gilligan relocated overseas to Europe and played professionally in Austria and Switzerland for five years. He also played for the U.S. National Team in both 1978 and 1983.

Following his playing career, Gilligan started his coaching career as head coach of the Klagenfurt (Austria) Hockey Club and led the team to four Austrian championships. He also served as an assistant coach on the Austrian National Team.

For the next four years, Gilligan moved on to Switzerland, coaching the Bern Hockey Club to three Swiss championships and one second-place finish. Between 1992 and 1994, he served as the head coach of the Swiss National Team and guided his squad to a fourth-place finish in the 1992 World Championships.

Following his coaching stint with the national team, Gilligan became the general manager of the Bern Hockey Club and was responsible for running all aspects of the team's operation, including scouting, negotiating contracts and hiring coaches. He also served as the head coach of the Swiss Junior National Team and led it to a third-place finish in the 1998 World Junior Championship.

A Beverly, Massachusetts, native, Gilligan resides in Beverly with his wife, Jennifer, their son, Patrick, and their daughter, Mackenzie.