Mets, ’Nucks opt to stay the course
Todd Clayton back behind Fort Erie bench; year No. 3 for Frank Pietrangelo in Falls
The Fort Erie Meteors have elected to bring back head coach Todd Clayton for a second season.
Clayton is excited to get back behind the bench with the junior B hockey team, and the Welland native is looking forward to another season with an abundance of young talent at his disposal.
“The part I am most excited about is creating this roster and watching these young players develop, but similar to last season, we will have to be patient with them,” Clayton said. “It’s a common occurrence now in junior B to sign young players and develop them over a couple of years.”
“We hope they hit stride in January and then we can go from there.”
There were a handful of surprises who skated with the Meteors during the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League team’s recent rookie camp, something management is excited about.
“We are going to commit to a couple of kids within the next week and I believe we have started in the right direction,” Clayton said.
Pre-season games are already underway with the Meteors icing a “rookie team” to compete against the Pelham Panthers in an effort to allow prospects to showcase their talents. Despite losing the exhivition game 3-2, Clayton was pleased with how the hopefuls performed.
“We saw some of those younger players skating in June and we decided we needed to see them in that game situation,” Clayton said. “You can practise as much as you want, but we have to see players play in games.”
Last season the Meteors finished fifth in the nine-team Golden Horseshoe Conference with a 24-26 record under Clayton, who also coached junior B with Welland Junior Canadians and Pelham Panthers. They Meteors were eliminated by the Ancaster Avalanche four games to one in the opening round of the playoffs.
Also back behind the bench for anotherseason in the Golden Horse shoe Conference is Frank Pietrangelo, the owner of the Niagara Falls Canucks.
Being the owner as well as the head coach of a junior B team isn’t a job for everyone, but the former NHL goaltender who won a Stanley Cup in 1991 with the Pittsburgh Penguins makes it look fun and easy. Entering his third season, Pietrangelo has put together a first-class organization, all you have to do is ask the players whom graduated from the team this past season.
“The difficulty is it’s time-consuming doing everything, and it all falls on you,” the 52-year-old Niagara Falls native said. “There is a lot of responsibility on you to recruit and put a competitive team together.”
There is just as much, if not more, responsibility for Pietrangelo off the ice as there is on it.
“As an owner, you’re in charge of sponsorships, billeting, the education and just trying to build the best program possible,” he said. “Parents don’t pick a team just because of the product on the ice, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes not many people know about.”
However, for Pietrangelo, hockey is all the businesss graduate business has ever known.
“I love being an owner and head coach and will continue until I don’t love doing it anymore.”
Pietrangelo received the Tom Kelly Memorial Award as the Golden Horseshoe Conference coach of the year the Canucks finished third in league play with a 33-14-0-4 record. They swept Welland four games to none in the first round of the playoffs before falling in six games to the St. Catharines Falcons in the semifinals.
Niagara Falls went 26-20-2-2, fourth in the conference; in his first season behind the bench as head coach.