Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire ” brought to you by Auto Logic, the Logical Choice.
When the Owen Sound Attack were looking for a coach this summer, I contacted another Ontario Hockey League coach who admitted that he hadn’t heard who the frontrunner for the position was.
I explained my belief was that the Attack were looking for a number of criteria in the new coach, and being a former NHL player likely was one of those criteria.
The conversation then deviated and the coach at the other end of the line ( who did not have NHL playing experience ) asked me, in the OHL what the comparative winning percentages were between OHL coaches who played in the NHL and those who hadn’t.
I didn’t have an answer, but it made me wonder and so for the upcoming season I decided to make it a contest.
Amazingly, the split amongst current OHL coaches is almost perfectly even.
Nine coaches, including some of the very best; George Burnett, Stan Butler, Marty Williamson never played in the NHL. A tenth coach, Rocky Thompson at Windsor, played 25 NHL games, so I’ll put him with the non-NHL’ers.
The other 10 coaches with NHL playing experience start with Owen Sound’s new boss, Ryan McGill who played 151 games and escalates to names like Dale Hunter, Dale Hawerchuk and Derian Hatcher who were long term stars on the big stage.
Sure, there’s all kinds of flaws connected to this experiment, but come March 20, 2016, we’ll see which group of 10 has the best coaching record.
I’m Fred Wallace
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Ontario Hockey League Coaches WITH NHL playing experience
London Dale Hunter 1,407
Barrie Dale Hawerchuk 1,188
Sarnia Derian Hatcher 1,045
Saginaw Greg Gilbert 837
Peterborough Jody Hull 831
Ottawa Jeff Brown 747
Kitchener Mike Van Ryn 353
Guelph Bill Stewart 260
Sault Ste Marie Drew Bannister 164
Owen Sound Ryan McGill 151
OHL Coaches WITHOUT ( much ) NHL playing experience
Windsor Rocky Thompson 25
Erie Kris Knoblauch 0
Flint Terry Christensen 0
Kingston Paul McFarland 0
Oshawa Bob Jones 0
Hamilton George Burnett 0
Sudbury David Matsos 0
North Bay Stan Butler 0
Niagara Marty Williamson 0
Mississauga James Boyd 0