Attack lose coach to AHL; Stothers hired as head coach of Detroit Red Wings farm team
DENIS LANGLOIS
For:
www.owensoundsuntimes.com- Thursday, July 19, 2007 @ 08:00
The man who coached the Owen Sound Attack to its best season in franchise history and five straight playoff runs has announced he will not be returning.
Mike stothers has accepted the position of head coach for the Detroit Red Wings' American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins.
stothers said he's thrilled and excited to be moving up to coaching a higher level of hockey, but will miss being a part of the city's Ontario Hockey League team.
"Being part of the Detroit organization is something that you really can't pass up," stothers, 45, said in an interview Wednesday afternoon.
"I wasn't actively pursuing anything. I was very happy coaching in Owen Sound . . . But when I got the call from Detroit and the history and the tradition that they have and the stability, it's something that I had to explore."
So he did.
stothers went to an interview in Michigan and was offered the position right after. He said the decision was easy because the team is affiliated with the Red Wings, one of the Original Six National Hockey League teams.
"The only hard part is the fact that I'll be leaving Owen Sound, which I think is the greatest place to play in junior hockey," he said.
stothers coached the Attack to its best record, 40-18-7-3, in the 2004-05 season, as well as to a thrilling first-round defeat of the Kitchener Rangers in the playoffs the following year. The squad lost 4-2 that year to the top regular season team, the London Knights, in the conference semifinals.
The squad posted a 31-30-3-4 record for fourth in the Midwest Division last season and were swept in the first-round by the Knights.
Attack co-owner/governor Brain Johnson said stothers' departure is not a surprise.
"We recognize that we are a development league and when we hired Mike, we knew that Mike's ultimate goal was to get back to the professional rank and he's done that," he said.
stothers was selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round in the 1980 entry draft.
During his professional career, which included several AHL teams, stothers also played 30 NHL games and recorded two assists. He also served as assistant coach for the AHL's Hershey Bears and Philadelphia Phantoms and later served as assistant to Bill Barber with the Flyers in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons.
stothers will be the seventh coach for the Griffins, who finished fourth last season in their division with a 37-32-6-5 record. They also won three playoff games and lost four.
"We're very proud of him. He's done a fantastic job for us," Johnson said.
Johnson called stothers "the ultimate professional" whose mentoring had a lot to do with the success of such former Attack players as Bobby Ryan, Brad Richardson, Mark Giordano and Bob Sanguinetti.
stothers said he will miss the Attack players "first and foremost" and living full-time in Owen Sound, although he plans to still spend summers in the city. He said he's been lucky to have worked with six owners who "are very supportive" and with former general manager Mike Futa, who will also not return to the Attack next season after signing on as co-director of amateur scouting with the NHL's Los Angeles Kings.
Johnson said there is still plenty of time to get a new head coach in place for the 2007-08 season. The replacement will be chosen by new GM Dale DeGray. No timeline has been set for the replacement.
