Happy Monday, Insiders!
A few odds and ends as come out of the holiday weekend.
Coaching Search Update
For the first time with the Ontario Reign as their AHL affiliate, the LA Kings are looking for a new bench boss for their top developmental prospects. Following the news last month that the contract of Mike Stothers would not be retained, the organization as a vacancy at the position for the first time since 2014, when Stothers was hired to coach the Manchester Monarchs.
Kings General Manager Rob Blake provided an update on the status of the search in a recent conference call with local media –
Glen Murray and Rich Seeley head up that search. What they have done is compiled a list of criteria first and foremost, before even getting a list of candidates. Here’s your criteria, here’s what you look for in a coach. Now, we take the list of candidates, the ones that approached us, the ones that we wanted to approach, you put them in and you start bringing that number down to a manageable number. Currently, they’re in a stage where they’re conducting very similar type interviews to what we’re doing now. It’s more of, I wouldn’t classify as a total interview, but it’s more of an introduction, but it’s done virtually. They’ll take that group and they’ll get it down to a workable number, where we’ll do a future interview, and it may have be virtually, where we get a lot more in depth. At some point, we hope to have [candidates] out for a face-to-face and understand a little bit about their values and character.
With there currently being no set date for the start of a 2020-21 AHL season, there isn’t, at this time, any rush to the process.
Happy Trails, Dave Andrews
AHL President & CEO Dave Andrews officially had his last day in the position last week, in a move that had been known and announced for months prior. Andrews hosted his final AHL All-Star Classic in Ontario in January, but was not able to hand out the Calder Cup one final time this summer, with the league’s campaign cut short.
Andrews leaves an enormous legacy on the American Hockey League, with the expansion of the league into California, and the creation of the Pacific Division, just one of his many accomplishments in charge of the NHL’s top developmental league.
Andrews has spoken now several times in Ontario over the Reign’s five seasons in the AHL, including his trip in September 2018 as the league announced the Reign as the hosts of the 2020 midseason event.
While no longer in his current role, Andrews will remain active with the league as an advisor, and as a part of the AHL’s Strategic Return to Play Task Force, which sounds like a top secret search and rescue mission, but is actually just a group of executives tasked with getting the AHL back on the ice.
Taking over at the helm, as of Wednesday, is Scott Howson. Howson has been involved in both the NHL and AHL as a player and a general manager, and was the first ever President & CEO to appear on the Reigny Day Podcast. Howson and Andrews crossed paths as members of the Edmonton organization earlier in their respective careers, and the 60-year-old will be tasked with shaping the formation of the 2020-21 AHL season, the first of its kind in the current climate.
Speaking of the Reigny Day Podcast….
We’re still rolling throughout the summer! Recently, Kings and Reign PA Announcer Dave Joseph joined us to share a few of his favorite stories from between the penalty boxes, both in LA and in Ontario. We’ve recently had Ontario Reign alum Derek Couture on the show, as well as AHL veteran Mike McKenna and former voice of the Manchester Monarchs Ken Cail.
Listen In Below, new episodes drop weekly –
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