McLELLAN’S FIRST STEPS
Oilers coach began in SJHL
Edmonton Oilers coach Todd McLellan remembers his first day on the job as head coach of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s North Battleford North Stars.
His to-do list wasn’t what most NHL head coaches would expect nor desire.
“The day I walked into the office, I think coaching was about the fifth thing on the list,” recalls McLellan, whose Edmonton Oilers play the Carolina Hurricanes in NHL pre-season action Wednesday night, 7 p.m., at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.
“I was selling program ads. I was managing the locker-room and the arena area. I was scouting. It was 24/7. It was relentless.
“The pay certainly wasn’t (abundant) — a guy certainly wasn’t going to get wealthy — but the opportunity to do everything provided a lot of wealth as far as learning opportunity.
“I think it was good for me.” McLellan has been good, now, for more than 25 years of coaching, his past 12 seasons in the NHL.
FORMER ISLANDER
As a player, he played four seasons for the Western Hockey League’s Saskatoon Blades and was taken by the NHL’s New York Islanders in the fifth round of the 1986 NHL Entry Draft. His pro career cut short by a shoulder injury, he returned to Saskatoon in 1990 to study at the University of Saskatchewan and rehab his shoulder.
He ended up playing half a season for the hockey Huskies before signing on with SIJ Utrecht in the Netherlands, spending three seasons there and eventually becoming a player-coach.
“That’s where it kind of all started,” says McLellan, who was born in Melville, but his family later moved to Saskatoon.
His team won the championship in Europe yet McLellan yearned for something else.
“It was a tremendous feeling, probably the most fun I’ve had playing the game,” he recalls. “I had a contract to go back, but I had to step back a little bit and take stock of where my career was, where I was playing, what opportunity existed for me from there and, for me, it was almost a dead-end street, so I had to make a decision.
“Lo and behold, I picked up The StarPhoenix one day. I looked and there was an ad in the newspaper for a junior coach in North Battleford. I answered the ad and I got the job. Here I am 25 or 26 years later.”
McLellan — who will turn 50 next week — was in his early 20s and newly married when he arrived in North Battleford during the late summer of 1992 to coach the North Stars. “There was a big maturity and growth phase that happened for me those first two years in North Battleford and (general manager) Bob Sheppard was a big part of that,” remembers McLellan.
“I tell people that they were doing things that I still wanted to do. I had to be the responsible one and I was 24 then.”
Over the years, McLellan has had many influences and mentors in hockey.
“Playing junior, Daryl Lubiniecki and Marcel Comeau were big influences there with the Blades,” recalls McLellan. “Then, as I begin my coaching career, I had Bob Sheppard in North Battleford who was a pretty good supporter of mine and gave me an opportunity to even be involved in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League at a really young age.
“My Swift Current days, Doug Mosher gave me a chance to coach in the Western Hockey League at 26 or 27 years old without a lot of experience. He took a chance on me. From there, Doug Risebrough and the Wild organization really gave me my entry into the pro game.”
McLellan spent six seasons as coach of the WHL’s Broncos before moving to the pro ranks, first with the Minnesota Wild organization. He later joined the Detroit Red Wings as an assistant coach and then became head coach of the San Jose Sharks for seven seasons before moving on to Oil Country.
McLellan still has a lot of memories of his early coaching days in the SJHL.
“The support of the community kept that organization alive, as was the case with every Saskatchewan junior team back then,” points out McLellan.
“Players, coaches, management — we were at bingos every second Friday night trying to raise enough money to pay for the next bus trip. As for the players, it was an opportunity for me to get acclimatized, but there were a number of changes we had to make to get enough players focused on hockey and not everything else and we did that in the summer. Our team, the second year, made huge strides and turned things around and after that the team went on to win a number of games.
“That type of community should have a high level of hockey available to the fans and the people of the community. I’m happy to see it’s still alive.”
I was selling program ads. I was managing the locker-room and the arena area. I was scouting. It was 24/7.