WHL Red Deer Rebels

Rebels Announce New Head Coach

Published on July 12, 2023 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Red Deer Rebels News Release


RED DEER - Red Deer Rebels Owner, President and General Manager Brent Sutter announced on Wednesday the hiring of Derrick Walser as the eighth head coach in franchise history.

The 45-year-old joins the Rebels from the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League where's he's been an assistant coach since 2017. He helped guide the Petes to a league championship and Memorial Cup appearance in 2022-23.

"We're excited to have Derrick as our new head coach," says Sutter. "It was a very thorough process of going through who we felt would be the right person to be our head coach, and through the process Derrick checked a lot of boxes that made sense for us.

We are excited to welcome Derrick, his wife Sara, and sons Camden and Hudson to Red Deer."

"I'm excited for everything," says Walser. "We're going to be aggressive. We're going to play as a team. Doesn't matter if you have 50 goals or 10 goals. Everyone's role is going to be important, no matter what role you are playing."

Wasler added, "I want to continue to grow and keep developing kids and hopefully they'll get to their dream and get to play in the National Hockey League."

A native of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Walser played nineteen seasons of professional hockey between the NHL (Columbus), AHL (Syracuse, Saint John, Albany, Toronto), ECHL (Johnstown), KHL (Chekhov), Swiss-A (Rapperswil-Jona), DEL (Berlin), and was a Player/Head Coach for two seasons with the Belfast Giants of the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL).

He was named QMJHL and CHL Defenceman of the Year in 1997-98 and won numerous awards and championships in his playing career, including winning the Spengler Cup (2012-13), AHL Calder Cup (2000-01), European Trophy (2010-11), and the German DEL Championship (2004-05, 2005-06, and 2010-11). He was named an All-Star in the QMJHL (1997, 1998), CHL (1998), ECHL (2000), AHL (2002, 2008), and EIHL (2016, 2017). He retired following the 2016-17 season.

Walser spent five seasons as a defenseman in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with the Beauport Harfangs and Rimouski Oceanic, recording 82 goals, 173 assists, 255 points and 293 penalty minutes in 255 career games.

The Rebels will begin the process of filling their vacant assistant coach position, with an announcement to come later this summer.

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