After retiring he turned to coaching, and remained in this role from 1988 to 2016 in various minor leagues. Sims also served as the head coach of the San Jose Sharks in the NHL during the 1996-97 season.
Playing career
In 1972, Sims was the second-round (and first-ever) draft pick of the New York Raiders of the World Hockey Association, but chose to sign with the Boston Bruins who had drafted him in the third round. At Cornwall, Ontario, in Junior Hockey he had played with Bob Murray, a rushing defenceman. When he played for Boston he was paired for two years with the greatest rushing defenceman of all time, Bobby Orr. He played for Boston and its American Hockey League affiliate for six seasons, and then for the Hartford Whalers for the next two.
Sims then became head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals of the IHL for three years, from 1998 to 2000, moved on to the Central Hockey League for four years and to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as an assistant coach for a year. In 2007–2008, Sims coached the Fort Wayne Komets of the new IHL to his second Turner Cup championship, beating the Port Huron Icehawks 4 games to 3 after a triple-OT seventh and deciding game. After that, he led them to another Turner Cup in the 2008–09 season. In the following year (2009–10), Sims led the Komets to their third straight (and his personal fourth straight, counting the 1992–93 season) Turner Cup. With the team returning to the CHL after the IHL dissolved, it was eliminated in the second round of the 2010-11 postseason before winning the league in 2011–12. However, the Komets failed to make the postseason in 2012–13, with the team in the ECHL, his final season as their head coach. Sims' final minor league head coaching job came with the Evansville IceMen of the ECHL; he took over during the 2014–15 season and coached them in 2015–16, failing to make the postseason either year. The team was declared dormant in 2016–17 in preparation for moving elsewhere, which turned out to be Jacksonville, Florida in 2017–18, and a new head coach took over.
Sims' son Tyler was the starting goaltender of the Providence College Friars in Hockey East (2004 to 2008), and a reserve goalie for several minor league teams (2007 to 2011).