Coaching carousel
Dave Bell, Murray Nystrom leave coaching positions on same day
A coach who received a threeyear contract extension after leading a young, overachieving Niagara IceDogs team into the playoffs in his first year behind the bench is staying in Ontario, though not the one in Canada.
Dave Bell has accepted a position as an assistant coach with the Ontario Reign, the Los Angeles Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate in southern California.
Bell’s departure after four seasons in St. Catharines was announced on the IceDogs website Tuesday.
On the same day Brock University announced that Murray Nystrom won’t be returning for a 19th season as head coach of the Badgers men’s hockey team.
There is no word yet on who will fill either coaching vacancy in Niagara. IceDogs owner Bill Burke said the team hasn’t had any discussions with Nystrom.
While Bell’s acceptance of the Reign’s offer “blindsided” the IceDogs due to its timing, coming so late in the off-season, Burke had nothing but praise for the departing coach.
“Dave’s a great gentleman,” he said. “The Niagara IceDogs would like to thank Dave for his commitment to the team over the past four seasons, and wish him all the best with the Reign.”
“This is blip we will have to deal with to get the train moving forward.”
Burke said the IceDogs would never stand in the way of someone’s development, whether that would be player or a coach.
“Everyone in hockey would like to move up to the NHL one day,” he said. “Dave has worked over hard over the years.”
“He deserves the opportunity to go after his goals.”
Burke quipped some owners in junior hockey would like to move up, too.
“But I can’t afford to do that, so I’m staying here,” the IceDogs owner said with a chuckle.
Before taking over as the IceDogs bench boss, Bell served three seasons as assistant coach under former general manager and head coach Marty Williamson.
Brock athletic director Neil Lumsden said on the university’s athletic department is “exploring options for who might take the role on an interim basis.”
The department said on its website that under Nystrom’s leadership dozens of talented players opted to continue their hockey careers at Brock.
“We want to thank Murray for his commitment to Brock Sports for many years, and we wish him all the best,” Lumsden said. “He’s had a very positive influence on many young men’s lives during his time as head coach.”
In Ontario, Calif., a city of 175,000 east of Los Angeles, Bell will be reunited with Reign head coach Mike Stothers and Michael Futa, the team’s assistant general manager.
Bell assisted Stothers behind the bench from 2004-07 when Stothers was head coach of the Ontario Hockey League’s Owen Sound Attack.
Futa was the Attack’s general manager from 2002 until 2007.
Bell was offered the job after Chris Hajt, a Reign assistant for the past two seasons, joined the Buffalo Sabres last week as assistant coach.
“They just called and we kind of had a conversation, and it just snowballed from there to a job offer,” Bell said Wednesday. “I had a long discussion with my wife (Brooke) and took the job.”
He said contract extensions in sports are for a particular level, but they are not roadblocks to moving upwards in the ranks.
“It’s not like a three-year contract to be an accountant at a business firm, it’s a sport where people get promoted and move up the ranks.”
Bell said while the IceDogs contract was “great” in offering his family a sense of stability, “I think every single coach in this league aspires to get to the national league or get closer to it.”
“I don’t think there’s an owner in the league who wouldn’t be excited to see someone get closer to their goal.”
He becomes the ninth OHL head coach, and the second on Tuesday, to leave the position since the playoffs wrapped up with the host Windsor Spitfires defeating the Erie Otters for the Memorial Cup.
“I didn’t go out of the box and do something drastic that’s never been done before,” Bell said. “It’s just part of the business.”
Rocky Thompson, Windsor; Kris Knoblauch, Erie; Paul MacFarland, Kingston Frontenacs; Ryan McGill, Owen Sound; and Spencer Carbery, Saginaw Spirit; have also accepted assistant coaching positions in the pros, either in the AHL or NHL.
Bell is looking forward to becoming part of an organization that has won two Stanley Cups as well as a Calder Cup title in the AHL.
“The guy I’m coaching with was coach of the year two years ago and has been in the all-star game back to back as a coach,” he said. “It’s a situation where you get to be around high, high quality hockey people.”
“I know I have a lot to learn and to be around guys like that will help me.”
This won’t be Bell’s first time coaching in the pro ranks. The 39-year-old Wiarton, Ont., native was an assistant coach with the AHL’s Springfield, Mass., Falcons from 2007-09 and guided the Quad City Mallards to a 37-27-0- 2 record in his lone season as a head coach in the Central Hockey League.
Bell is also no a stranger when it comes to living in California. In 2002-03, he played 70 games in the now-defunct West Coast Hockey League with the Bakersfield Condors.
Last season, in the first year of a rebuild, Bell guided an IceDogs team with as many as 14 rookies in the lineup to a 23-35-0-10 record in league play. They clinched the Eastern Conference’s final playoff berth on the last weekend of the regular season before being swept by Peterborough four games to none in the first round.