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2008 ECHL All-Star Coaches Announced

January 2, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL announced that the coaches for the 2008 Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game presented by Jackson Rancheria and Bud Light will be Glen Gulutzan of Las Vegas and Mark Morrison of Victoria for the host National Conference and Malcolm Cameron of Texas and Chuck Weber of Cincinnati for the American Conference.

Hosted by the Stockton Thunder and the City of Stockton at Stockton Arena, the 2008 Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game presented by Jackson Rancheria and Bud Light will be played on Jan. 23 with the 11th edition of the Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game Skills Competition being held on Jan. 22.

For the second year in a row Gulutzan and Cameron have been selected as a result of having the best winning percentage in their conference while Morrison and Weber were chosen using a combination of winning percentage and votes from coaches within their own conference. Gulutzan's three selections tie him for the most All-Star appearances with Chris Cichocki of Stockton, Davis Payne, who is now an assistant coach for Peoria in the American Hockey League, and Jeff Pyle of Gwinnett.

Texas is 24-2-5 and leads the ECHL with a winning percentage of .855 and is tied with Cincinnati for the league lead with 24 wins while Las Vegas is first in the National Conference with a winning percentage of .774 and a record of 22-5-4. The Wildcatters and Wranglers are both off to a better start than a year ago when they were 20-6-3 (.741) and 17-5-7 (.707), respectively.

Texas has won its last eight road games setting a league season high and surpassing its team record road winning streak of seven games established earlier this season. The Wildcatters tied their team record for consecutive wins with an eight-game winning streak from Oct. 28-Nov. 16.

Las Vegas set an ECHL record with 17 consecutive regular season wins from Mar. 10-Oct. 26 and won the Brabham Cup as the regular season point champion in 2006-07 with 106 points (46-12-13) after finishing second in 2005-06 with 112 points (53-13-6) which is the third-highest point total in ECHL history.

Victoria leads the West Division with 42 points (20-8-2) and is off to their best start since arriving in British Columbia in 2004-05. The Salmon Kings are 11-1-2 at home, including a team record 10 consecutive home wins from Oct. 27-Dec. 1.

Cincinnati leads the North Division with 50 points (24-6-2) and has won its last eight games to break its team record set in 1995-96 and tied in 1996-97. The Cyclones current six-game road winning streak ties the club record for consecutive road wins set Dec. 15, 2002-Jan. 12, 2003.

American Conference
Malcolm Cameron, Texas Wildcatters

Malcolm Cameron was hired as head coach of the Texas Wildcatters on June 8, 2006. In his first season behind the bench in 2006-07, Texas made its first postseason appearance since relocating to Beaumont in 2003-04, advancing to the division finals in the Kelly Cup Playoffs after setting team records with 41 wins, 21 home wins and 20 road wins while improving 46 points from 2004-05 which is the fifth-largest single-season point improvement in the 19-year history of the ECHL. Cameron was selected to coach in the 2007 ECHL All-Star Game by virtue of Texas leading the league through games of Jan. 2 with a winning percentage of .741 (20-6-3) which at that time was the best start in team history, including victories in both the season opener and home opener for the first time ever. Cameron joined the Wildcatters after spending two seasons as head coach and director of hockey operations for Long Beach where his teams 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 sixth-largest single-season point improvement in ECHL history. Cameron returned to the league after spending 2003-04 in the United Hockey League and the Central Hockey League. The 37 year old began 2003-04 in the UHL as head coach of Columbus, which suspended operations in January 2004 despite being in first place, earning Cameron a selection as coach for the All-Star Game. He spent the final two months in the CHL as head coach of Corpus Christi. 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). The native of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia and his wife, Heather, have a son, Brett.

American Conference
Chuck Weber, Cincinnati Cyclones

Chuck Weber is in his second season has head coach and director of hockey operations for the Cincinnati Cyclones, having been named to the position on May 25, 2006. In his first season as a head coach in 2006-07 the 33 year old led the Cyclones to the Kelly Cup Playoffs where they lost to American Conference champion Dayton. Before coming to Cincinnati Weber was assistant coach and director of hockey operations for Utah of the ECHL in 2005-06 after working as an assistant coach in Augusta from 2003-05 and in Trenton in 2001-02. He was a member of the coaching staff when Orlando won the International Hockey League championship in 2001 and was an assistant coach for Milwaukee in the American Hockey League in 2001-02. Weber played hockey and soccer at the University at Albany (N.Y.) and was team captain of the hockey team as a junior and as a senior. In his final season, he was voted to the All-Star Team and also selected "Sportsman of the Year". He was awarded his bachelor's degree in communications with minors in athletic training and business.

National Conference
Glen Gulutzan, Las Vegas Wranglers

Glen Gulutzan is in his fifth season as general manager and head coach of Las Vegas. He led Las Vegas to the Brabham Cup championship in 2006-07 as the Wranglers won their last 13 regular season games to finish with a 46-12-14 record and 106 points, becoming only the second team in ECHL history to score 100 points in back-to-back seasons. Las Vegas won the first five games in the Kelly Cup Playoffs to tie the professional hockey league record for consecutive wins. 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 are 173-80-35 and have reached the Kelly Cup Playoffs each of the last two years and three times since joining as an expansion team in 2003-04, 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. Glen and his wife, Nicole, live in Las Vegas with their son, Landon, and their daughters, Emma, Brielle and Gracie.

National Conference
Mark Morrison, Victoria Salmon Kings

Mark Morrison is in his first full season as Victoria head coach. Morrison was promoted from assistant coach to head coach on Dec. 28, 2006 and signed a two-year contract extension on Apr. 26, 2007. He led the Salmon Kings to a 27-15-3 finish in 2006-07, finishing the regular season with a nine-game winning streak, as the club secured its first berth in the Kelly Cup Playoffs and improved 15 points from the previous year. He joined the team as an assistant coach in 2005-06 after returning to Victoria following 12 years as head coach and general manager of Fife in the British National League, one of the top professional leagues in Europe. In addition to daily coaching duties, Morrison was responsible for player signings, contract negotiations and scouting. Three times he was selected to receive the Player of the Year award and the Coach of the Year award. He began his playing career in the Western Hockey League with Victoria and scored 394 points (159g-235a) in 249 regular season games, a club record that continues to stand, and 54 points (19g-35a) in 47 playoff games. Selected in the third round (51st overall) by the New York Rangers in the 1981 National Hockey League Entry Draft, he was 19 years old when he scored his first NHL goal at Madison Square Garden against Chicago. He helped Canada win the gold medal at the Junior World Championships in 1982 and the following year captained the team to a bronze medal, and played for the Canadian Olympic Team in 1983-84 and 1988-89. He began playing in Europe in 1985-86 and captured the scoring title in Italy with 147 points (59g-88a) in 36 games and in 1993-94 with Fife had career highs with 96 goals, 93 assists and 189 points in 57 games. In 15 seasons overseas he had 1,167 points (527g-640a) in 541 regular season games and 14 points (7g-7a) in 19 playoff games.

ECHL
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08, the ECHL is the Premier 'AA' Hockey League and the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league with 25 teams playing 900 games in 17 states and British Columbia in 2007-08.

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2007-08, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

There have been 340 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including a record 47 in 2005-06 and 26 in 2006-07. There have been 195 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past five seasons.

There are 15 coaches in the NHL who have ECHL experience including former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette, who is head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, and former Mississippi coach Bruce Boudreau, who is head coach of the Washington Capitals.

The ECHL is represented for the seventh consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2007 with Anaheim assistant coach Dave Farrish, players Francois Beauchemin and George Parros and broadcasters John Ahlers and Steve Carroll.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League in 2007-08 and for the past 18 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.

In each of the last two seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL and there were over 800 call-ups involving more than 500 players.

In the last five seasons the ECHL has had more call-ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,000 call-ups involving more than 1,000 players since 2002-03.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

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