IceHog now an IceDog coach

BERND FRANKE

POSTMEDIA NEWS

A man who as a minor league coach is credited with playing a “major role” in the development of players who went on to become Stanley Cup champions is coming home to Canada.

Ted Dent, for the past six seasons head coach of the American Hockey League’s Rockford, Ill., IceHogs, the top farm team in the Chicago Blackhawks organization, has joined the Niagara IceDogs coaching staff.

As “associate coach,” Dent, 47, will be newly hired head coach of Billy Burke’s No. 1 assistant on the Ontario Hockey League team’s bench. Dent will be running the defence and the penalty kill as well as being a “great mentor,” IceDogs team owner Bill Burke said.

“He’s a winner and we are very lucky to have him.”

Dent had two years remaining on his contract when he was fired by Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman as part of an overhaul of an organization that has failed to make it past the first round of the NHL playoffs the past two seasons after winning Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

Prior to being named head coach with the IceHogs, Dent, a Toronto native, spent four years in Rockford as an assistant coach. He joined the Chicago organization in 2006-07 as an assistant coach with the Norfolk, Va., Admirals, then competing in the AHL.