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ECHL Has 18 Returning, Seven New Coaches

October 16, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - Eighteen of the 25 coaches in the ECHL return to their same team from 2006-07 while seven teams have new leaders, including three first-year head coaches.

Returning to the ECHL for a record 14th season is John Marks, who takes over behind the bench in Pensacola after leading Fayetteville to the Southern Professional Hockey League championship a year ago. Marks, who coached Charlotte from 1993-98 and Greenville from 1998-2006, has led his teams to the postseason an ECHL record 10 times and he was the first coach to lead two different teams to the ECHL title, coaching Charlotte to the Riley Cup in 1996 and Greenville to the Kelly Cup in 2002. He holds the league record for most regular season games coached (918) and is second with 466 regular season wins, needing 14 to tie the record held by John Brophy.

After three seasons as team captain and player/assistant coach during which he helped Alaska win the Kelly Cup championship in 2006, Keith McCambridge takes over as head coach of the Aces, replacing Davis Payne, who the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League named as an assistant coach for Peoria of the American Hockey League. Returning in Victoria is Mark Morrison, who after taking over at midseason led the Salmon Kings to their first-ever Kelly Cup Playoffs appearance.

Derek Wilkinson returns to Charlotte for his fifth season having led the Checkers to the Kelly Cup Playoffs each of the last three years which is the most postseason appearances and consecutive postseason appearances by a Charlotte coach since Marks. Chuck Weber enters his second season in Cincinnati after leading the Cyclones to their first postseason appearance since 2003.

Steve Martinson is the head coach for the expansion Elmira Jackals, returning to the ECHL after winning the last title in the United Hockey League, which ceased operations at the conclusion of the 2006-07 season. In his only season in the ECHL in 2003-04, he led San Diego to the Brabham Cup championship with a 49-13-10 record, setting the league record for most wins by a first-year team as the Gulls became only the second expansion team to win the regular-season points title. Martinson won five championships in the West Coast Hockey League, which ended operations following the 2002-03 season. After coaching the last eight regular season games and helping Phoenix make its first Kelly Cup Playoffs appearance, Brad Church enters his first full season with the RoadRunners.

Three National Conference coaches return for their third season led by Idaho's Derek Laxdal, who led the Steelheads to the Kelly Cup championship in 2006-07 while posting his second consecutive 40-win season. Fresno's Matt Thomas returns for his third season after leading the Falcons to the postseason each of the last two years. Jason Christie, who is 275-173-56 in seven ECHL seasons with five postseason appearances, returns to Utah for his third season.

In Malcolm Cameron's first season in Texas, the Wildcatters improved by 46 points and reached the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the first time in their three-year history. Stockton's Chris Cichocki enters his third season as head coach after leading the Thunder to a 36-point turnaround and their first postseason berth, losing to Kelly Cup champion Idaho.

Bill McDonald is in his first season as Dayton's head coach yet is a 15-year veteran having coached in the Central Hockey League, the Colonial Hockey League, the International Hockey League and the Western Professional Hockey League. He was named coach of the year in the Colonial Hockey League in 1992-93, in the Central Hockey League in 1996-97 and in the Western Professional Hockey League in 1997-98.

Glen Gulutzan is in his fifth season as head coach of Las Vegas which won the Brabham Cup championship in 2006-07. 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, and won their first five games in the Kelly Cup Playoffs to tie the professional hockey league record with 18 consecutive wins. Marty Raymond also enters his fifth season after leading Bakersfield to the Kelly Cup Playoffs and 40 wins for each of the last three years, including a team record 94 points in 2006-07.

Florida's Gerry Fleming enters his seventh season making him the longest-tenured coach in team history. He has led the Everblades to the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each of his first six seasons, including the conference finals three times in the last four years and back-to-back trips to the Kelly Cup Finals in 2004 and 2005. In his fifth season as head coach for Gwinnett, Jeff Pyle has led the Gladiators to 40 wins and a berth in the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each of their first four seasons, including the Kelly Cup Finals in 2006.

Ian Herbers is entering in his first season with the Johnstown Chiefs after coaching Saginaw in the Ontario Hockey League from 2005-07. Named head coach of Mississippi on July 27, 2005, Steffon Walby will finally step behind the bench as the Sea Wolves return to the ice after being forced to miss the last two seasons because of Hurricane Katrina. Walby is in his fifth season with the organization, having served one season as associate coach and three seasons as a player/assistant coach, and is the Mississippi career regular season leader in goals (117), points (270), power-play goals (43), shorthand goals (11) and plus-minus rating (+72) and the team career postseason leader in assists (17) and points (27).

Karl Taylor is in his third season as head coach of Reading having led the Royals to a 74-56-14 record. Bob Ferguson enters his third season with Augusta, having led the Lynx to their first back-to-back Kelly Cup Playoffs appearances since 2001 and 2000. Wheeling's Glenn Patrick is entering his third season with the Nailers with a 77-55-12 record.

Two coaches in the American Conference enter their sophomore seasons, Rick Kowalsky in Trenton and Troy Mann in Columbia. Trenton was 36-31-5 in Kowalsky's first season reaching the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the third straight season and the seventh time in eight years.

The new head coach of South Carolina, Jared Bednar has been a member of the Stingrays organization for the last 11 years beginning in 1995-96 as a player and continuing the last five seasons as assistant coach. He was a member of the Stingrays Kelly Cup championship teams in 1997 and 2001 when he was team captain.

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

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league that will have 25 teams playing in 17 states and British Columbia in 2007-08, including the Mississippi (Biloxi) Sea Wolves, who return after missing two seasons in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and the expansion Elmira (New York) Jackals.

The Stockton Thunder and the City of Stockton will host the 16th Annual ECHL All-Star Game at Stockton Arena on Jan. 23, 2008 and the 11th Annual ECHL All-Star Skills Competition on Jan. 22, 2008.

For the fourth straight year and the 10th time in the last 11 years, the ECHL had more than four million fans attend its games in 2006-07 and averaged 4,101 fans per game.

The total attendance for the regular season and the Kelly Cup Playoffs is twice as many fans as the total attendance for the WNBA, Arena Football League and Major League Soccer and four times greater than total attendance for both the National Lacrosse League and af2.

There have been more than 66 million fans who have attended over 15,000 games since the ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states.

There have been 333 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 188 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past six seasons and 69 former ECHL players were on the opening-day rosters of NHL teams.

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

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 and for the past 17 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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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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