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2007 All-Star Coaches Announced

Published on January 3, 2007 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL on Wednesday announced that the coaches for the 2007 Rbk Hockey ECHL All-Star Game will be Glen Gulutzan of Las Vegas and Chris Cichocki of Stockton for the host National Conference and Malcolm Cameron of Texas and Gerry Fleming of Florida for the American Conference.

Sponsored by Rbk Hockey and hosted by the Idaho Steelheads at Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho, the 15th Annual ECHL All-Star Game will be at 7 p.m. MT on Jan. 17 and the 10th Annual ECHL All-Star Skills Competition will be at 7 p.m. MT on Jan. 16.

Gulutzan and Cameron were named as a result of having the best winning percentage in their conference through games of Jan. 2 while Cichocki and Fleming were selected using a combination of winning percentage and votes from coaches within their own conference. Texas leads the ECHL with a winning percentage of .741 (20-6-3) while Las Vegas is first in the National Conference and second in the league at .707 (17-5-7).

It is the second consecutive and second overall selection for Gulutzan, who was a coach for the National Conference when it won 7-6 at Fresno in 2006. It is the third selection for Cichocki, who was selected in his first ECHL season to coach the Southern Conference in 2001 and again in 2003, and the second selection for Fleming who was coach of the Southern Conference in 2003. Cichocki is one of six coaches since 1996 to be selected to coach in the All-Star Game in their first year.

Cameron has Texas, which returned after missing last season as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, off to its best start since relocating in 2003-04. The Wildcatters set team records with a six-game winning streak from Nov. 18-28 and a five-game road winning streak from Nov. 22-28. The Wildcatters, who won their season opener and home opener for the first time in three seasons, are two wins shy of their best record of 22-44-6 in 2003-04 and have already won 10 road games, surpassing their season total for each of their first two seasons.


Glen Gulutzan, Las Vegas Wranglers
National Conference

Glen Gulutzan is in his fourth season as general manager and head coach of Las Vegas. Gulutzan was named ECHL Coach of the Year in 2005-06 after the Wranglers finished second overall with 112 points and a 53-13-6 record, tying the league record for second-most wins and finishing with the third-highest point total in the 18-year history of the ECHL. The Wranglers tied the ECHL record for longest road winning streak with 10 consecutive wins from Nov. 22-Dec. 31 and tied the third-longest winning streak in league history with 12 wins in a row from Dec. 3-30. Las Vegas set team records with 53 wins, 28 home wins and 25 road wins. The Wranglers are 144-73-28 and have reached the Kelly Cup Playoffs twice in three seasons, losing to the eventual Kelly Cup champion each time. Before stepping behind the Las Vegas bench, the 34-year-old Gulutzan spent four seasons as player-assistant coach with Fresno of the West Coast Hockey League. He was named All-WCHL in 1999 and 2000 and helped the Falcons win the championship in 2002 and advance to Game 7 of the finals in 2003. Gulutzan began his professional career in 1996-97 with Fresno and had a team record 80 assists and 110 points in 60 games while also playing in the International Hockey League with Utah and Las Vegas. In addition to six seasons in Fresno, the native of The Pas, Manitoba also played in both Finland and Sweden.

Chris Cichocki, Stockton Thunder
National Conference

Chris Cichocki was named the first head coach in Stockton Thunder history on May 11, 2005, joining the Thunder after serving as an assistant coach with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League in 2004-05. Cichocki was head coach and general manager with Cincinnati of the ECHL in 2003-04 and was head coach and director of hockey operations with Arkansas of the ECHL from 2000-2003. He is 160-169-58 in the ECHL regular season and has led his teams to the Kelly Cup Playoffs two times, including 2002-03 when Arkansas was 37-24-11 and set team records for wins and points. Cichocki was associate head coach and director of player personnel for Cincinnati of the International Hockey League after spending two seasons as the team's assistant coach. Cichocki's professional playing career spanned 13 seasons including stints with the Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League, scoring 23 points (11g-12a) in 68 games. The majority of the right wing's career was in the IHL and the AHL and he scored 30 goals four times, including a career best 36 with Utica in 1987-88. He scored 574 points (280g-294a) in 800 career games. Cichocki played three years at Michigan Tech University, scoring 121 points (67g-54a) in 116 games, and was signed by the Detroit Red Wings as a free agent in June 1985.

Malcolm Cameron, Texas Wildcatters
American Conference

Malcolm Cameron was hired as head coach of the Texas Wildcatters on June 8, 2006. Cameron spent the past two seasons as head coach and director of hockey operations for the Long Beach Ice Dogs, who were 79-47-18 and advanced to the Kelly Cup Playoffs both seasons. In his inaugural season in 2004-05, Long Beach was 43-20-9 and had 95 points which was a 44-point improvement from their expansion season in 2003-04. The 44-point improvement is the fifth-largest single-season point improvement in the 18-year history of the ECHL. Cameron, who finished third in balloting for ECHL Coach of the Year, returned to the league after spending 2003-04 in the United Hockey League and the Central Hockey League. The 36-year-old began 2003-04 as head coach of Columbus of the UHL which suspended operations in January 2004. Prior to suspending operations, Columbus was in first place and Cameron was selected as a coach for the UHL All-Star Game. Cameron spent the final two months as head coach of Corpus Christi in the CHL. In his first head coaching job in 2002-03, Cameron helped Cincinnati finish 36-29-7 and advance to the conference finals where it lost by a goal in Game 7 to Kelly Cup champion Atlantic City. Cincinnati finished third in the division with 79 points and upset Peoria (103 points) and Toledo (104 points) to reach the conference finals. Cameron spent the 2001-02 season as an assistant coach with the Columbia Inferno. He has also worked as an assistant coach with Lubbock of the Western Professional Hockey League and with Acadia University. In his playing days, Cameron's career spanned five seasons, two of which were spent in the ECHL with Huntington (1993-94) and Johnstown (1995-96). He also played in the former Colonial Hockey League with Saginaw (1994-95), in the CHL with San Antonio (1994-95), Fort Worth (1995-97), and Nashville (1996-97), and in the WPHL with Amarillo (1997-98) and El Paso (1997-98).

Gerry Fleming, Florida Everblades
American Conference

In his sixth season as head coach and director of player development, Gerry Fleming is the second coach in team history and the longest-tenured coach, having been named to the position on June 1, 2001. Fleming has led the Everblades to the Kelly Cup Finals twice in the last three seasons and to the Kelly Cup Playoffs in all five of his seasons. In six seasons with Florida, he is 219-125-46 in the regular season and 29-22 in the postseason. When Florida advanced to the Kelly Cup Finals in 2004 it marked the first time that the team had won a postseason series since its inaugural season in 1998-99. Fleming, who was co-coach of the Southern Conference in the 2003 ECHL All-Star Game, played seven seasons professionally in the Montreal organization primarily with the Canadiens' American Hockey League affiliate in Fredericton, New Brunswick. He scored 112 points (44g-68a) and had 1,142 penalty minutes in 298 games with Fredericton and in 1998 became only the second player in team history to have his jersey retired. Fleming had two stints in the National Hockey League with Montreal appearing in five games in 1993-94 and six games in 1994-95. He became an assistant coach with Fredericton in 1998-99 and remained with the team when it relocated to Quebec for 1999-2000. He became head coach of Tallahassee in the ECHL in 2000-01 and led the Tiger Sharks to a 38-27-7 record, the third-best record in team history.



Premier 'AA' Hockey League Fast Facts
* Affiliations with 25 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League marking 10th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.
* 311 former ECHL players have played in NHL.
* 166 have made NHL debut in the last five seasons, including goaltenders Barry Brust, Martin Houle, Joey MacDonald, Mike Smith and Mike Wall, centers Drew Larman and Kris Newbury, and right wing Jesse Schultz this season, and a record 47 in 2005-06.
* ECHL has been represented on last six Stanley Cup champions.
* Two NHL head coaches (Peter Laviolette & Jim Playfair) and 9 assistant coaches have ECHL experience.
* Affiliations with 24 of the 27 teams in the American Hockey League.
* ECHL has been represented on last 17 Calder Cup champions.
* For each of the past four seasons, ECHL has had more players called up to AHL than all other professional leagues combined. From 2002-06 the ECHL had 1,646 call ups, involving almost 1,000 players, including 416 call ups involving 263 players last season.
* Idaho Steelheads and City of Boise will host the 15th Annual ECHL All-Star Game presented by Rbk Hockey on Jan. 17 and the 10th Annual ECHL All-Star Skills Competition presented by Rbk Hockey on Jan. 16 at Qwest Arena.
* ECHL and its member teams contributed more than $2.3 million for charity and relief funds in 2005-06.

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